Boston's black history being unburied at cemetery

This fall, retired Harvard librarian Sylvia McDowell and the nonprofit wing of the cemetery are combing through historic funeral documents, gathering oral histories, and searching old maps to locate the Wilsons and other African Americans of Boston's past. McDowell and the Forest Hills Educational Trust say these people reflect New England's often overlooked ties to black history.

This is no small task: researchers are looking through records of more than 100,000 people buried throughout the 280-acre cemetery.

Once the graves of significant black figures are located, they will be included in guidebooks and tours so future generations can learn about them, McDowell said.