SOAL’s Action 4 Heritage 2025 In the face of changing tides and an increasingly fraught political landscape, there are moments that demand clarity, unity, and decisive action. Today, we find ourselves in one of those moments. To this end, we are organizing SOAL’s Action 4 Heritage 2025, an event dedicated to mobilizing … Continue reading →
Death, Tech, & Afrofuturism: Juneteenth Harrisburg Join us for a compelling journey through time as Rachael Keri Williams, founder and Executive Director of SOAL: Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy, delivers an inspiring talk titled “Death, Tech, & Afrofuturism” in this video from the YPOC 2024 Juneteenth Harrisburg Summit, held on June 18th at … Continue reading →
MapGed.com: AI Innovation Meets Hands-On Historic Preservation Explore the groundbreaking intersection of technology and tradition with Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy (SOAL) as we harness community-powered public history research and engage in hands-on historic preservation at the Historic Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg. SOAL founder and Executive Director, Rachael Keri Williams presented SOAL’s work … Continue reading →
Expert Claw Maneuvers Rescue Historic Headstones in Black Cemetery In a striking display of nature’s force versus human heritage, daring, and ingenuity at Lincoln Cemetery, just beyond the city limits of Harrisburg, an urgent Black Cemetery headstone rescue operation unfolds. The scene is a delicate balance of tension and intent: four historic … Continue reading →
Devastating Loss and Potential Threat Harrisburg, PA – In a distressing development at Harrisburg’s Historic Lincoln Cemetery, Dauphin County’s oldest surviving Black Cemetery, SavingOurAncestorsLegacy (SOAL) is sounding the alarm over the potential threat following recent damages that resulted in a devastating loss. This week, the cemetery lost at least two trees on … Continue reading →
Legacy Reborn: Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery at 146 Years Today marks the 146th anniversary of Harrisburg Lincoln Cemetery, a site of profound historical and cultural significance for our community (regardless of how far we are from the grounds today). Consecrated on November 18, 1877, this sacred ground has been a resting place for … Continue reading →
Transcribing Lincoln Cemetery: Kindred Spirits & SOAL Collaboration We’re transcribing Lincoln Cemetery! In a collaborative effort to preserve African American history in south central Pennsylvania, SOAL: SavingOurAncestorsLegacy has partnered with Kindred Spirits Genealogy Workshop Group (GWG) to transcribe the burial record cards of Lincoln Cemetery. This collaboration aims to digitize and make … Continue reading →
WGAL News 8 Live at Harrisburg’s Oldest Black Cemetery At Harrisburg’s oldest Black Cemetery WGAL News 8 Live: Volunteers working with SOAL at Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery will collect geospatial data, photographs and information related to each stone in the cemetery with a mobile app (ArcGIS Field Maps), which will be used to … Continue reading →
Removing Paint from Marble Headstones Safely and Effectively When it comes to removing paint from marble headstones, it’s important to take great care to avoid causing damage to the stone’s surface. Here’s a step-by-step guide & a how-to video to help you safely and effectively removing paint from a historic marble headstone. … Continue reading →
Black History is not Lost it’s just Buried | SOAL Hoodie Support the Black Cemetery movement! Support saving your ancestors’ legacy. Support Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy…And, get your own “Black History is not Lost it’s just Buried” Premium Eco SOAL Hoodie! Manny after the arrival of his hoodie! Showing support for the … Continue reading →
Never know what you’re gonna find in a graveyard till you dig it up!!! #radicalhistoryreclamation Never know what you’re gonna find in a graveyard till you dig it up!!! I don’t always find headstones…But, finding sunken headstones is one of my favorite parts of #radicalhistoryreclamation! If I’ve learned anything in this process, … Continue reading →
Rachael & Bhakti visiting their ancestors’ home, and Underground Railroad site, on Yellow Hill in Adams County, before their visit to Lincoln Cemetery in Harrisburg. (Edward Mathews and Francis Gantt purchased 17 acres for their family, a church, and a cemetery in the early 1840s…Only the house, barn, & pond remain visible).
Continue reading →instead of finding hope they found human remains & Dug-Up Graves June 24, 20211: Rachael Keri Williams and Bhakti Williams-Brown traveled to South-Central Pennsylvania in search of their roots and to reclaim their heritage. Instead of find their ancestors, instead of finding hope they found human remains in Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery. Lincoln … Continue reading →
Radical History Reclamation Demo: Black Family History Needs Light Everyday I learn a little more about all of the things we can’t see without light… This is especially true when it comes to history. Everything that has been shut away in forgotten drawers, missed in dismal attic corners, and especially those things … Continue reading →
Gaming Engine Preserves Black Cemetery How To: Preserve a Black Cemetery with a Gaming Engine In Fall 2022, SOAL will be partnering with Messiah University and Harrisburg University to use photogrammetry to create a 3D storymap of Harrisburg’s Oldest Extant Historically Black Cemetery: Lincoln Cemetery! By combining the use of drones to … Continue reading →
Family Historian Flays Sisters as Journalist Watches deeply disturbing article published by The Guardian, on Sunday, September 4th… Their names were Annie, Agnes and Margaret McWatters. And On a rainy day in May, they drew Ryan Nott’s attention.
Continue reading →This is my Endgame. It’s time to gather ancestors… At SOAL we are saving our ancestors legacy. We will do it bone by bone if we have to. We’re gonna need them where we trying to go: We can’t have a future without a past. I’m not trying to leave anyone behind, … Continue reading →
after the apocalypse is a visual poem, inspired by SOAL’s restoration work at Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery. Taking a creative and radical approach to Black History Reclamation–video and poetry by Rachael Keri Williams. after the apocalypse… i’m gonna start a rainbow cult I’m going to start a rainbow worship cultAnd all The ancestors … Continue reading →
SOAL’s Lincoln Cemetery Restoration Year 1 Video Montage Since finding human remains on the ground in June 2021 at Harrisburg’s oldest historically Black burial ground, Lincoln Cemetery, a small but growing cadre of volunteers have been dedicated to Saving Our Ancestors Legacy using best-practice least-harm historic preservation methods. We have recovered headstones … Continue reading →
In Spring 2022 Rachael Keri Williams, founder of Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy, was featured on Comcast Keystone Newsmakers about SOAL’s work restoring Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery.
Continue reading →Anna Eliza Williams was born on December 25, 1824, in France. She married Aquilla Amos, and they had six sons and two daughters together between 1844 and 1859. Serving different roles in various social organizations, Anna was committed to interconnected causes of temperance, women’s suffrage, and the betterment of the African American … Continue reading →
The state of neglect and decay found when visiting Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery was a shocking discovery for 2 visitors from Buffalo, NY. They found dug up human remains in one of Pennsylvania’s oldest Black Cemeteries. New York local stumbles upon a shocking discovery in a Dauphin County cemetery Learn More about what … Continue reading →
