Those Places Thursday: Cemetery At Mt Olive AME Zion Church

On Sunday January 15, 2012,  I made a visit to an old African American cemetery located behind Mt Olive AME Zion Church to pay my respects to some of my ancestors. Last year a researcher friend from the New Bern area made the trek to this cemetery and sent pictures to me for which I am forever grateful for. Since I was in North Carolina for my Aunt Rosa's funeral, I made sure I took some time out to visit this special place. This land where this cemetery is located was I believe mentioned in my 3rd great grandfather Mortimer Mitchells deed for his land.

In his deed it describes his land as "a certain parcel of  land situate in the and bounded and described as follows lying on the North West side of the meeting house branch beginning where the main road (crosses) said branch thence down the branch to the great branch and with the great branch to the said Vine A Tolsons Corner to a marked bay. Thence the said Tolsons live to the main road thence with said to the beginning. In the above tract of land those six acres to be excepted for the use of the church and school house the remainder the said part of the second parties."

So on this day I was walking on the land and breathing the air of my ancestors and it was wonderful.

Shot from the rear of the cemetery facing towards 
the church and church parking lot. Shows how far back from road their graves are.


My ancestors graves all lined up together.
From left to right
1st stone --Effie and Annie Sampson. 2nd stone --Alfred Sampson.
3rd stone --Mary Sampson. 4th stone --David Sampson
5th stone --Eva Sampson. 6th stone --Annie Mitchell

Effie and Annie Sampson
1st cousins 3x removed

Alfred Sampson
1st cousin 3x removed

Mary J Mitchell Sampson
2nd great grand aunt

David Sampson 
2nd great grand uncle

Eva May Sampson
1st cousin 3x removed

Annie Taylor Mitchell
3rd great grandmother

No stones could be found for my 3rd great grandfather Mortimer Mitchell and his son Alfred Mitchell, but I would bet they are buried near or possibly in the same row as the rest of the family. There is space on the other side of Annie Taylor Mitchell's grave that I suspect that may be where they are buried.

I know this blog post is very similar to one I wrote in June of 2011 but I couldn't resist posting pictures of these graves again. These pictures this time are ones I took myself which makes them extra special to me. Here's a link to that post from June 2011 which shows a picture of Mt Olive AME Zion Church in Riverdale, Craven, NC. Mt Olive AME Zion Church




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