Efforts to better protect Loudoun’s historic burial grounds continue to advance with the Loudoun Cemetery Conservancy bringing additional resources to trustees and caretakers.

The nonprofit’s annual meeting on Nov. 7 at Oatlands was attended by 50 people who learned about the importance of these cemeteries and more about how to care for them.

Historian Lori Kimball, who recently joined the conservancy board, reflected on the importance of historic cemeteries to the culture and heritage of the county.

“Cemeteries provide us with a sense of place, and they connect us to our past. Cemeteries represent how an area was settled and how that area changed over time,” Kimball said.

The earliest cemeteries were on private properties from when families buried their dead on the family farm, some in formally designated spots enclosed with a fence or a wall. Enslaved people were buried somewhere on the enslaver’s property, usually with just field stones to mark their graves, she said.

Later, as communities grew, cemeteries were created near churches or villages.

In Loudoun, many of the Black communities established their own cemeteries.

“Most of these communities were established after the Civil War by newly freed people who had been enslaved in the area. And as they looked to the future with hope and with promise, often the first thing they did after purchasing land for their homes was t0 establish a church, a school and a cemetery,” Kimball said. “After 200 plus years of not having a say in where they buried their loved ones, they bought land for a burial ground. That’s how important cemeteries were to them.”

Kimball said caring for these burial grounds is a significant challenge.

“There are hundreds of cemeteries in Loudoun, some still on privately owned land, and many located within a community, or planned community, and it’s owned by the homeowners association,” she said. “Most don’t have an organized group that maintains them and a lot of the work is done by volunteers, if the work is done at all. While people have good intentions, when they clean up a cemetery, it is often done incorrectly. And when that happens, it can destroy forever how that burial ground was intentionally laid out, or destroy a clue that might indicate a burial site, and that’s why I think it’s so important the work that the Loudoun Cemetery Conservancy is doing, and why, as a community, we must support the conservancy’s mission of educating volunteers with proper maintenance and documentation of cemeteries.”

Conservancy founder and Executive Director Al Van Huyck said the organization has learned a lot during its first year of operation and is looking to expand its reach. The organization held two workshops promoting better cemetery maintenance.

“What we realized is that just doing stuff in a cemetery is not enough. That what really cemeteries need are strategic plans,” Van Hucyk said. “Our program coming up in 2026 is going to invite cemeteries that are ready to work with us on creating a strategic plan for their cemeteries, which will guide their work for four or five or longer years out. It is the right way to go.”

The conservancy secured grants to support clearing underbrush and using ground-penetrating radar to locate grave sites in Willisville. During the annual meeting, the attendees also heard presentations on work by Jim Hanna and Sarah Huntington to develop a volunteer procedure for photographically recording of each gravestone in a cemetery to create an archive and document the physical condition for review by a trained grave restoration specialist. Also Tyler Richards, of Sky Hounds, highlighted the capabilities of drones in documenting, mapping, and providing detailed information on the conditions of historic cemeteries.

Two awards were given during the program.

The Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Bob DeLuca, who, after enrolling in the first training course, has continued to provide volunteer support and then joined the conservancy board.

The Cemetery of the Year award was presented to the Willisville Preservation Foundation for its work, led by the late Carole Lee, to preserve and restore the village burial grounds and giving permission to allow the conservancy to field test the future programs at the site.

Van Huyck said three training courses are planned next year: a Jan. 24 genealogy training course in partnership with the Thomas Balch Library, a Feb. 14 program on how to become a cemetery trustee; and a May 9 program on how to prepare a Historic Cemetery Strategic Plan. The organization also plans to select up to eight historic cemeteries to assist in preparing a strategic plan and, supported by a recently acquired grant, to provide drone flights, photographic record keeping, ground radar, and undergrowth removal in selected situations.