Robin Moore was searching for months to find any information about her great-great grandfather, who was an African American settler to Canada in the 19th century, for a family tree she’s building.
After several calls and lots of research, Moore, who lives in Chicago, found a potential connection in the southwestern Ontario town of Ingersoll, east of London, where her ancestor James Hisson may have been laid to rest.
“I was trying to find him in any record that I could, trying to figure out when he died, where he died — any information. I just so happened upon a grave site that could’ve been him,” Moore told CBC’s London Morning.
In June, Moore took a trip from Chicago to the Ingersoll Rural Cemetery and found that Hisson was buried at an unmarked grave site at the back of the cemetery.
He’s one of an estimated 400 people buried in the large grassy area, known as a potter’s field. It’s a resting place for people from marginalized communities, including Black Canadians who escaped slavery in the United States and couldn’t afford burials or a headstone.
CBC previously reported about a project led by Western University researchers looking to uncover stories of community members buried in the potter’s field between 1864 and 1976. Among those buried are also early Chinese immigrants and the British Home Children.
“It was amazing for me to be able to find one of my ancestors and see where he ended up and where he’s laid to rest. You don’t always find that information on people who lived so long ago, so it was a sense of closure,” said Moore.
“To find his information and be able to share that with my family, it was really an indescribable feeling.”
Who was James Hisson?
When Moore visited Ingersoll, she connected with Western University Indigenous studies professor, Cody Groat, who grew up in the town and is overseeing the research project.
Groat and his students’ research found that Hisson came to Ontario through the Underground Railroad and his family is listed on the province’s 1851 census record, which shows they settled in the York region town of East Gwilimbury.
“One thing that’s very interesting about James Hisson is that we really don’t have much [information] at all, and that’s a really common pattern for people buried in the potter’s field,” said Groat. “These were community members who were economic or socially marginalized so it’s a needle in a haystack to find anything about them.”
The only information available about Hisson is his burial registry and a brief reference in the Ingersoll Chronicle newspaper from Nov. 19, 1874 that mentions his death, said Groat, adding that it’s also possible he was also known as John Hisson.
Western University researchers are trying to learn more about the hundreds of people buried in an unmarked grave site at the Ingersoll Rural Cemetery
During their tour of the cemetery, Moore discovered another relative buried in the potter’s field. It was an infant named Arvella Henderson who died in 1909. Henderson’s head stone was one of 14 that were discovered during a ground penetrating radar analysis for the project.
“I think both of us were really shocked,” said Moore. “This isn’t he only headstone they found in their detection, but it was the only one they pulled up, so that was a very interesting connection.”
Ingersoll had a large Black population at the time, and many members of the Henderson family are buried in the field, Groat explained.
Moore said she plans to continue researching her family tree and hopes this project can connect others to their roots.
“You do these things to further learn and understand our history, maybe think about the things our ancestors went through and what their priorities were when they were living,” she said.
“It helps to understand the huge puzzle that we’re all a piece of.”