Lost to time: How New Jersey cemeteries can become forgotten
From a Camden park to a family burial ground surrounded by houses, the histories of three New Jersey cemeteries reveal how easily these places can overlooked.
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In Camden, a piece of land at 38th and Federal streets appears on the city's official list of public parks.
Its name hints at what came before, since Johnson Cemetery Park used to be a cemetery.
Established in 1854 by three Black men to provide burial space for African Americans excluded from white cemeteries, Johnson Cemetery became a final resting place for generations of Black residents.
At least 264 people were buried there, including 107 Black military veterans, according to historical research preserved in National Register of Historic Places documentation.
The cemetery deteriorated over the years, and in the early 1980s, Camden decided the burials and headstones would be moved in an effort to convert the property into a park.
But a historical study included in National Register of Historic Places documentation found no firm evidence that the remains were removed and reinterred elsewhere. The researcher concluded that they presumably remain beneath the park.
How cemeteries become forgotten
Across New Jersey, many old burial grounds have become neglected, overgrown or difficult to recognize.
Some began as family plots on farmland later developed into neighborhoods. Others served religious congregations that no longer operated.
Preservation New Jersey, a nonprofit historic preservation organization, says no one knows precisely how many burial grounds exist statewide. In a longstanding assessment, the organization says hundreds have been neglected or forgotten.
Now state lawmakers are considering proposals intended to help prevent such places from being lost.
A bill introduced in September by Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis would add abandoned cemeteries to municipal land-use planning requirements and establish procedures for their identification and preservation.
Another proposal, the Family and Private Burial Grounds Preservation Act, would create a statewide record and map of certain family and private burial grounds. It would also establish protections involving property records and development.
On Thursday, Preservation New Jersey announced a statewide campaign supporting both proposals. The organization plans educational programs and outreach to municipalities, historical societies and residents to help identify and protect overlooked burial grounds.
Neither proposal would automatically apply to every historic cemetery.
A family cemetery surrounded by suburbia
In Hazlet, Monmouth County, a small family burial ground survived the transformation of the surrounding farmland into a suburban subdivision.
The Aumack Family Burying Ground occupies a parcel measuring approximately 90 by 100 feet, surrounded by homes along Virginia and Oregon avenues.
When Raritan Ridge Estates was developed in the 1950s, the cemetery remained.
The graves had not moved, but the world around them had.
An 1852 deed reserved the property for the Aumack family's use as a burial ground forever. The cemetery also appeared in neighboring property records, according to research documented by Hazlet Township and the Monmouth County Clerk's Office.
Despite those records, family members said they eventually lost access to the overgrown burial ground, according to the township.
An Eagle Scout searching for veterans' graves helped bring renewed attention to the cemetery. Family records indicated approximately two dozen people were buried there.
In October 2020, family members and local and county officials were able to visit the partially cleared cemetery. Restoration efforts involving the family, officials and volunteers followed.
But the cemetery remained relevant to development decades after the surrounding subdivision was built.
In February 2025, the Hazlet Land Use Board considered a proposal to subdivide an adjoining residential property. Residents and preservation advocates raised concerns about potentially disturbing burial sites.
The board denied the application.
At Aumack, old deeds and subdivision records helped preserve knowledge of a cemetery that had become difficult to reach.
A cemetery faced with development
Gethsemane Cemetery in Little Ferry offers a different outcome.
Established in 1860, the one-acre cemetery served Hackensack's Black population at a time when racial discrimination restricted access to other burial grounds.
More than 500 people were buried there, including formerly enslaved people and Civil War veterans.
As burials declined during the 20th century, the cemetery fell into disrepair. Headstones were damaged or stolen, and the grounds became a dumping area for garbage and discarded vehicle parts.
Proposed development plans later targeted the property.
Members of the African American community fought to preserve it until Bergen County acquired the cemetery in 1985, preventing the proposal.
Current day, Gethsemane is a county-owned historic site listed on the state and national historic registers.
Bergen County documents approximately 515 people are buried there, but fewer than 50 gravestones remain.
