RICHMOND, Va. -- Pictures are all that Tamme Haskins has of her mom who passed away nearly 40 years ago when Tamme was eight years old.
Older relatives use to take Tamme to Evergreen Cemetery to see her mom's grave.
In later years, Tamme was heartbroken were she was unable to locate her beloved mother’s gravesite.
“I had this one aunt who knew everything. She passed away maybe five years ago that knew of the location like myself. We haven’t been able to locate anything in that area,” said Tamme. It’s exhausting. I mean it breaks my heart.”
Tamme says there is no record of where her mother is buried. Numerous trips to the historic African-American cemetery to find her mom ended with no luck.
“I want to be able to put a headstone there. I want to have some place to go to on Mother's Day. I want to have a place where I can go and talk to my mom,” Tamme explained.
Caretaker Ted Maris-Wolf says they hear stories like Tamme's frequently.
He says there's now a renewed push to clean up and restore Evergreen Cemetery and says families in Tamme's situation can start online on the Enrichmond website.
“There we have resources for family members who are looking for loved ones,” said Maris-Wolf.
He recommended findagrave.com is also a great starting place.
“You can enter a loved one’s name and if a volunteer has cataloged/photographed this resting place, it will be on there,” he added.
Maris-Wolf says they have volunteers who search ledger books and archives and clean up the cemetery. He says record markers are found frequently and all of that information is put into a master database.
Maris-Wolf says they've noted the graves are arranged by year and he showed Tamme a spot where he believes her family should focus their search.
He says he plans to reach out to her personally to help in any way he can.
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