'Healing, reconciliation, honor, and identity': Group researching unmarked graves at Maryland church

    BOWIE, Maryland (WBAL) -- Kevin Porter felt a mix of emotions as he stared at a headstone for someone he never got to know.

His ancestors once lived and worked on land that is now Sacred Heart Church in Bowie. Some of his ancestors were enslaved, while others were enslavers.

"It's a painful history to reckon with, but we can't reckon with the history if we don't know the history," said Porter, founder and President of the White Marsh Historical Society.

Knowing the history and honoring the lost are what sparked the creation of the White Marsh Sacred Heart Cemetery Restoration Project.

Sacred Heart Church was once White Marsh Plantation, one of five large Jesuit-owned plantations in Maryland.

In 2022, the church started finding unmarked burials. Many are believed to be those of enslaved people.

11 News visited the church in 2023 as members cleared the land and researchers used ground-penetrating radar in search of more burials. At the time, researchers believed there were about 500 potential burials on the land. Now, they believe there are likely many more.

"We are operating somewhere around 1,000 burials probably," said Father Michael Russo, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church. "It has doubled a few times on us since we first started this, so it's a lot bigger than we thought it would be. And we have to keep going, keep looking."

Russo, a group of parishioners, volunteers and descendants of enslaved people, are coming together to research and learn more about the stories behind the unmarked burials.

Peter Fitzmaurice is a volunteer with the history committee, a group using death records and certificates, newspaper articles, burial records and other documents to build a database of names and details for people buried on Sacred Heart's property.

"The information on the more modern burials, I'll say, it was obviously very well-known, but what we've really done is expanded that probably 200% in terms of the number of specific names of who we know that's buried here, dates, things of that sort," Fitzmaurice said.

Members of the group take the list of names and details to surrounding churches to connect the names on the pages with their descendants, some of whom are members of nearby parishes. So far, they've gone to about a dozen local churches.

They plan to visit more.

"People are just amazed to find out about an aspect of their family history and the history of the Catholic Church that they didn't know that they were a part of, and so it does help to build that community," said Lynn Locklear Nehemiah, co-chair of the White Marsh Sacred Heart Cemetery Restoration Committee and a descendant.

A growing number of descendants of enslaved people are getting involved with the project, learning about their ancestors' stories and brainstorming ideas for a memorial at their gravesite.

"I'm the one that's overseeing and making sure that my family members are well preserved and that their stories are being told, especially being here today and being able to acknowledge them and say their name that they do matter, that they do count," said Lisa Palmer-Stafford, a descendant who is also a member of the White Marsh Sacred Heart Cemetery Restoration Committee.

"My hope is that it really does bring about healing, reconciliation, honor, and identity," Nehemiah said.

The hope is that a sense of identity will help shape the next generation.

"Our vision is for future generations to stand on this site and know that they have family here," Porter said.

Leaders at Sacred Heart Church think it will take at least a few more years to finish the project.

They are still researching, determining how to protect the burials and deciding what kind of memorial they want to create at the site.