Dear List, Does anyone have a copy of Paul Sluby's book The Old Methodist Burying Ground, Georgetown, Washington, DC. I went to my local library to see about an inter-library loan and was told they don't do inter-library loans on genealogy books! Can't imagine what they have against us! I'm looking for my 3rd g-grandfather, John Hilton, who was originally buried at Holmead's Burial Ground in 1856. He is not in Sluby's book on Holmead. I thought he might have been moved to The Old Methodist Burying Ground as he lived in Georgetown and two of his granddaughters were married in Dumbarton Avenue United Methodist which established the church. Any ideas? I have checked Glenwood and Oak Hill and he doesn't appear in their records. Thanks Ruth Fleak Researching: Hilton, Rowzee, Braddock, Morsell, Smith, Cady, Turner, Rowe, Thompson, Cox in DC,MD,VA

Hi, Ruth. I'm afraid you've entered a very difficult and frustrating area for researchers in the Old Methodist Burying Ground in Georgetown. I will copy this response to everyone on the list in case there are others who are interested in this topic. The Old Methodist Burying Ground was established in 1808 by the Montgomery Street Methodist Church (the predecessor of what is now known as Dumbarton United Methodist Church). At that time, about 2/3rds of the graves were set aside for white parishioners and their families; the other third for African-Americans. In 1813, the African-American members of the congregation separated from Montgomery Street and formed their own congregation, now known as Mount Zion United Methodist Church. In the 1840s, the Female Union Band Society purchased property adjacent to the Methodist cemetery. FUBS was composed mostly of members of Mount Zion. In 1849, Oak Hill Cemetery opened adjacent to the Methodist & FUBS cemeteries. White interments continued in the Methodist cemetery until after the Civil War, but more and more parishioners went into Oak Hill, and a number of white graves were disinterred and the remains moved, mostly to Oak Hill. In 1879, Dumbarton leased the Methodist burial ground to Mt. Zion for $1 per year plus upkeep of the property. From that time until interments ceased in 1950, the Methodist and FUBS properties were "merged" in the public mind, and the two graveyards jointly became known as the Mt. Zion Cemetery and all interments were of African-Americans. Between 1950 and the late 1970s, the property was pretty well abandoned. The two churches collaborated on a major cleanup and restoration effort in about 1976, and the property looks pretty good these days. Unfortunately, there are no records of the burials in the Methodist cemetery (I can't speak for the FUBS burials). I have done extensive research on this property and have documented as many burials as I can, but a complete recovery of the names is out of my reach, at least for the present. During the cleanups of the late 1970s, Paul Sluby set out to document what he saw on tombstones at that time. Unfortunately, many tombstones had already either been stolen or weathered beyond recognition before Paul got involved. There are also a number of errors in his transcriptions due to the poor condition of the tombstones by that time. I do have a copy of his book and I will do the lookup for you and respond to you, Ruth, privately about that. However, just because an ancestor does not appear in Paul's book does not mean they are not buried there. I wish I could offer a more positive outlook for recovering information about burials in that cemetery, but after a decade of research, I am not optimistic. For anyone who would like more information about the cemetery, I recommend two publications. I devoted a chapter in my book, Many Witnesses: A History of Dumbarton United Methodist Church 1772-1990, to the cemetery. I reported everything I was able to discover about the history of the cemetery in that chapter. If you'd like a copy, I can sell you one for $25 (including postage). Please email me privately. The other source on the cemetery is Pauline Gaskins Mitchell's article in a back issue of Records of the Columbia Historical Society. Anyone who wishes to check that article, please email me privately and I'll give you the full citation. I hope this is helpful. Jane Donovan