Descendant Andrea Miles plays the guitar and sings during the memorial service for the people whose remains were removed from Old City for a construction project. Miles said her 7th great-grandfather, Col. Samuel Miles, had been buried in the First Baptist Church cemetery in 1805. Miles also spoke at the service at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon, on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
![People read the monument as they pay their respects at...]()
People read the monument as they pay their respects at the end of the memorial service, to mark the reburial of some 500 people whose remains were removed from the old First Baptist Church Cemetery, at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. The descendants of people, some of whom were buried almost 300 years ago, since the 1700s, gather at Mount Moriah Cemetery for a service to honor their memories. The remains were unearthed during construction of a luxury apartment building at 218 Arch St. in the fall of 2016. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
![A person holds a flower that they later placed at...]()
A person holds a flower that they later placed at the memorial after a service at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 to mark the reburial of the remains of people originally buried hundreds of years ago at the old First Baptist Church Cemetery at 218 Arch St. in Philadelphia. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
![The granite memorial at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon honors...]()
The granite memorial at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon honors the people who were once buried more than 200 years ago at the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia cemetery in Old City. On Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, descendants of those Colonial-era Philadelphia residents attended a memorial service for their ancestors at Mount Moriah. After their graves had been unearthed during construction of a luxury apartment building at 218 Arch St. in 2017, the remains were studied for science for several years and were finally were reburied at Mount Moriah in July 2024. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
![Descendants Andrea Miles, left, Kathryn Hartmann, and George R. Cornelius...]()
Descendants Andrea Miles, left, Kathryn Hartmann, and George R. Cornelius speak during a memorial service to honor the reburial of nearly 500 people whose remains were removed from the old First Baptist Church Cemetery during a construction of an apartment building in Philadelphia in 2017. A memorial service was held at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
Descendant Andrea Miles plays the guitar and sings during the memorial service for the people whose remains were removed from Old City for a construction project. Miles said her 7th great-grandfather, Col. Samuel Miles, had been buried in the First Baptist Church cemetery in 1805. Miles also spoke at the service at Mount Moriah Cemetery in Yeadon, on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS)
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Kathryn Hartmann‘s voice was clear and strong as she told the story of Benjamin Britton, her sixth-great-grandfather who died in Philadelphia in 1782 at age 78. The first time Britton was buried, it was 242 years ago in the First Baptist cemetery at Second and Arch Streets.
