The "Adopt A Dead Person" project is designed
as a way for students to connect 19th Century history with their
own lives. The town of Deerfield, New Hampshire contains more
than 100 small cemeteries. In the Fall, 8th Grade Social Studies
students are taken on a field trip to four of these cemeteries,
where they take digital photographs of interesting-looking graves
and map them. Each class then picks a grave that they have made
a rubbing of to "Adopt". Over several months, they do historical
research on "their" dead person and try to write a comprehensive
biography of him or her. Primary records, such as Deerfield
town records, probate documents and old newspaper stories are
consulted, as well as secondary documents and even fiction.
By trying to fit together the pieces of a real person's life,
they gain some understanding of what real life was like for
people very much like themselves. At the same time, they are
making a real contribution to local history, guaranteeing that
the memories of a few of Deerfield's past citizens don't fade
away completely.
