Year 3 of the VBG Restoration Project

Can you believe we are starting the third year of this amazing project? So much work has been done and yet, there is still a lot to go. I'd like to do a quick little recap of what's been happening.

It's so crazy to see just how dirty and illegible those stones used to be!

We started off 2023 with a small but hardworking team. We had a few cleaning days and got quite a lot done before the weather started getting colder and we had to stop for the winter. We also started working on some blog posts called "Voices from the VBG" to remember those that are buried here.

2024 ended up being super productive as well. We had a great work day with VOCA and started working on stone repairs in addition to cleaning. We've also uncovered several buried stones, it's amazing how they sink so deeply into the ground. We were ecstatic when Susan Ferland realized one of the random stones piled onto the big square in the middle of the cemetery belonged about 6 rows over, next to the rest of her family. This was a great find!

We also had a very special event happen last year. The headstone for Sanford Ayers was literally in pieces. He's a Civil War veteran so I learned how to request a new headstone from the VA. With a lot of help from Brian Frazier (Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War), we created a very special program to unveil the new stone. We also worked with the Seth Warner-Rhoda Farrand Chapter of the DAR to honor Major Jesse Lyman, who was in both the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War. Both organizations secured new flag markers for the respective veterans. Unfortunately, our presentation was shortened due to a massive thunderstorm but it was an amazing event.

Dianne Leary of VOCA and I have also started mapping the cemetery, which is painstakingly slow work. I was also able to have a friend take drone photos for us for a view from above. We are quite sure there are a lot of people who are buried in the cemetery who do not have gravestones. I received a set of dowsing rods for Christmas and with a quick test, discovered that they seem to be very helpful for finding possible burial sites! This is definitely a huge project but we are looking forward to being able to make an official map.

Last year we asked the DPW for Vergennes to skip trimming around the stones to help protect them. While it is definitely keeping them from damage, it's challenging to keep it looking neat and tidy. I'd like to thank Donna Oliver for her dedication to attempting to keep it looking presentable! With all the rain this year, it has been especially tough so we need to figure out a better solution.

For our first official work day of 2025, we expect that we will be able to finish up the first round of stone cleaning, which is amazing. We have a lot of stones that are leaning and need to be righted, a lot to dig out, and most definitely a lot that need to be repaired. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I'm delighted at the progress we've made. I cannot thank our volunteers enough for all they have done. This is absolutely a team effort and we have an amazing team. I appreciate you all and can't wait to see what we do this year!

=Heather

Voices from the VBG: Susan Amblo

This is a very special post. While trying to determine the correct last name for a 12 year old's stone, I checked Find A Grave to see if it might help and reached out to the person who took one of the photos, Wendy Amblo. I was very happy when she responded quickly to help explain the relationship and surprised to discover that Susan Amblo, her great-great-great-grandmother, was buried next to the the grave I was researching! Wendy now lives in Connecticut but has been up twice to help with the restoration project, with her sister, Yvette. I'm delighted to share her blog post.

-Heather

Located near the back of the Old Vergennes Cemetery, near the French Canadian graves, this stone is one of three graves seemingly grouped together. It's placed next to a smaller one that is sinking into the ground and another lying flat on its back, already sunken in the ground and broken into pieces.

Susan is one of my great-great-great-grandmothers and has been a “brick wall” in my research into my Amblo family ancestors. I have been able to find out a great deal about John Amblo, her husband. As is unfortunately so common in genealogy, there is much more written documentation for the men than for the women.

Her husband “John Amblo” was born Jean Baptiste Imbleau, in 1812, at the Forges-du-Saint-Maurice. This was an ironworks and industrial community just north of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. He was in the fourth generation of his family to live and work at “the forges.” By the early 1800’s the company was in decline and the sons of the French iron working families left for other foundries in Canada or the US. Around 1834, Jean Baptiste and two of his brothers moved to Vergennes to work in the Vergennes Iron Company, formerly the Monkton Iron Works.

In 1836 Jean Baptiste married Susan. The only record I have for this marriage was found in the Vergennes Town Records, Vol B image 298, courtesy of FamilySearch.org. It is also the first record that I find the name “Imbleau” changed to “Amblo.” Here Susan’s name is listed as “Oak.” Jean Baptiste, now John Amblo, was 23, Susan was about 15. They were married by H.F. Leavitt, a Congregational minister. There was no Catholic Church in Vergennes, although it seems that a missionary was sent to the area from time to time to perform sacraments. I noticed Reverend Leavitt is also buried in the Old Vergennes Cemetery.

Susan Amblo Wedding

HF Leavitt Stone

John and Susan had three children over the following five years: Mary in 1838, Frances in 1839 and John (Jr.) in August 1841. Eight months later on April 12, 1842 Susan died at age 21.

Her husband never remarried. His sister Dorothy moved in with him and helped raise the children. The daughters married men from French families in the neighborhood and eventually both moved to the Troy, New York area. Son John (my great-great-grandfather) stayed on in the family home at 50 Water Street and raised his family there with his father and aunt.

Jean Baptiste lived to be 88 years old. He worked in the ironworks as did his son. He was apparently involved in the local French Canadian community. He hosted the Bishop of Boston’s religious service on his land in 1843, was grand marshal of the St. John the Baptist Day parade in 1872, and one of the stained glass windows in St. Peter’s church was dedicated to him when the church was built in the 1870s. According to his obituary in 1901, he “possessed the affection and esteem of a large circle of friends” and that his death “removes another old and well known citizen of Vergennes.” His stone is in Saint Peter’s Cemetery, interestingly with the name spelled “Imbleau."

I have been able to learn a good deal about Jean Baptiste, but very little about Susan. There is no obituary, no news articles, no stained glass window with her name on it. She isn’t even listed in a census. I don’t find a record of her baptism or birth in the Quebec or Vermont records.

In the marriage records of her children, Susan is called Suzanne Duchesne, the literal French translation of “Oak.” I haven’t been able to find her family. Was she “Duchesne” and Reverend Leavitt translated her last name to “Oak,” or is it the other way around? I suspect it was the former.

There are no “Duchesne” families in the vicinity of Vergennes during this time period. There was a John Oak who was in Vergennes in 1800 and then was warned out of various Addison County towns before his death around 1813. He couldn’t have been Susan’s father, but an Anthony Oak, possibly his son, is listed in the 1820 census for Vergennes, in the same part of the list as several families with anglicized French names. Could this have been her father? If so, he is not listed in any Vermont census in 1830. If he was her father, did he leave her in Vergennes with extended family and/or in service to another family?

Which leads me back to the cemetery. The death date and age on her stone is my only source for these vital statistics. It’s one of the few things I know about her. I first visited the cemetery several years ago with my sister and one of my brothers. I wanted to see if I could better investigate the stones next to hers for clues.

The proximity of her stone in the cemetery to the two others I have mentioned had given me a theory to investigate. The one in the ground is that of Lewis Bora. “Lewis Bora born 10 Sep 1840” was all that I can read on this stone.

Lewis, Julia, and Mary were all children of Louis and Polly Bora. With the stones so close to Susan’s, I thought perhaps they might have been part of a family plot. Of note, when Susan’s grandson Charles (my great-grandfather) was baptized, his godfather was “Louis Barre.” I haven’t found any family relationship yet but I wonder if there was one.

The stone to the right of Susan’s is a smaller one and is partially buried. “Find a Grave” had the names listed as Julia and Mary Amblo and I knew that couldn’t be right.

The bottom few lines of writing on these stones were underground, so I (carefully) dug in front of it and was able to uncover the very important lines: “Children of Lewis and Polly Borra.” After replacing the soil, we put a few small flowers in front of their stone and of course in front of Susan’s too.

The cemetery was a mess: overgrown, stones on the ground, some broken and many illegible. We remarked that it was too bad, it’s such a nice old cemetery. I went home to Connecticut, corrected the entries on “Find A Grave” for the Bora girls, and continued my research.

Sometime later, I received a message from Heather. She was asking about my correction. As we corresponded, I learned that she was working with a team of volunteers to restore the graveyard. I was eager to help but being in Connecticut made it hard. Luckily, I have been able to travel back to Vergennes a couple of times for the work sessions with VOCA. My sister Yvette has also been able to help. We have seen remarkable improvement in the cemetery. We have had fun learning how to clean some of the stones and trying to help in restoring others. The group has done so much good work. We are grateful to be able to help, if even just a little bit.

I realize this is a lot of speculation and is still research in progress. Without the cemetery findings I wouldn’t even have these clues to work on. As is obvious, I don’t know anything about Susan/Suzanne’s background or much about her short life. Still, I find I have a place in my heart for my 21-year-old great-great-great-grandmother. What must it have been like to be married at 15 with no apparent family support? To be a mother at 17, again at 18, and at 20? I wonder if she spoke English and if not, how hard it must have been for her. Was she alone or a servant, in some situation that made marriage at such a young age a good choice? Did she have a choice? I wonder how she died and will continue to research to try to find answers about her life.

Each time we visit the cemetery, we stop by Susan’s grave to say “bonjour” and “merci”, and to “remember” our arriere-grand-mere.

Written by Wendy Amblo

It's Almost VOCA Work Day!

We are so excited, it's less than a week before our big work day with the Vermont Old Cemetery Association! We've got some great volunteers coming and can always use more. I walked through the Burying Ground yesterday and marked about 20 stones for repair. We also have quite a few that still need cleaning and there are some that need to be dug out. There's something for everyone!

Here's what you need to know:

Date: May 18, 2024

Time: 8am - 12pm

Parking: This might be a little tricky, I'm going to see if we can use the parking spaces at the dentist and doctor's offices up the hill. We might also use the elementary school. Please carpool if you can! I'll post an update through the RSVP list later in the week so please be sure to sign up if you haven't done so yet. There is also space to add any guests. Family and friends are DEFINITELY welcome and encouraged. This is a great family bonding experience for kids as well.

What to bring: Wear clothes that you can get dirty in. If you have cleaning supplies or repair supplies, please bring those as well. And don't forget to bring a water bottle so you can stay hydrated.

What to expect:

VOCA will bring a team to help teach us how to repair broken headstones and reset leaning ones. We will be teaching people how to clean stones as well. You will find this is hard work but incredibly rewarding. And you might get hooked! The weather is looking good so far (cross your fingers) - good temperature, a bit cloudy, and hopefully no rain.

Most importantly: lunch will be served after the event! If you are interested in bringing a dessert or side (like chips, veggies, or drinks) to share, please let me know.

Here are some of the broken stones we're hoping to repair. Unfortunately, a lot of the larger flattened stones have been backed by a layer of cement so at this point, they need to stay in the ground. We will be exploring options in the future to see if we can separate the stones from the cement...without damaging the stones.

And there is a very special thing that we will be doing as well. Sanford Ayres is a Civil War soldier buried in our cemetery. Below are 3 photos. The first: the condition of his stone in 2009 from Alan Lathrop's Find a Grave photo. Middle: the current state of his stone. As you can see, it's deteriorated quite a lot. And the left? A brand new marker from the VA that we will be installing on Saturday!

This is going to be a terrific day in the Burying Ground. This special place has been neglected almost since it was established. The restoration work in 2014 (thank you, Susan Ferland!) was huge and gave us a bit of a head start but it still needs a lot of love. Along with a bit of heavy lifting, epoxy, and D/2. With your help, we'll be able to start giving it the respect it deserves.

As always, thank you for being an important part of this amazing project and please reach out to me if you have any questions. Thank you and hope to see you Saturday!