By Page Gifford
Correspondent
Film producer Horace Scruggs will discuss his new documentary, Engraved: Finding Family at Oak Hill Cemetery, during a Friends of the Library program on Feb. 4 at 10 a.m.
The talk will explore ongoing efforts to identify formerly enslaved and free Black people buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, as well as the development of Scruggs’ film. The documentary will be shown in its entirety following the discussion.
Oak Hill Cemetery, located in Bremo Bluff, has long been the subject of historical interest.
The mystery surrounding names engraved on a stone monument sparked a project combining genealogy and archaeology that began in 2022. The Fluvanna County Historical Society and members of the West Bottom community, many of whom are affiliated with West Bottom Baptist Church, collaborated to learn more about those buried in the cemetery.
While researchers uncovered the names of more than 100 individuals through death certificates and funeral home records, the specific locations of their graves remain unknown. Archaeologists hired to map the site identified more than 215 burials.
The documentary follows the efforts of lifelong community members to identify people buried in unmarked graves in the Reconstruction-era African American cemetery. Today, Oak Hill Cemetery is owned and maintained by West Bottom Baptist Church in a historically African American neighborhood in southern Fluvanna County.
“The cemetery had its beginnings as a community cemetery for enslaved and recently emancipated people who worked on plantations near the James River,” Scruggs said. “Engraved reveals a story of perseverance driven by love of family and community, and a desire to preserve the untold stories of African Americans living in the rural South.”
One of the project’s researchers, Nadine Armstrong, has been tracing her family history — the Farmer/Parmer families — since 1967. Several of her relatives are buried on the older side of Oak Hill Cemetery.
“My involvement with the Oak Hill Cemetery documentation film has been a rewarding privilege,” Armstrong said. “I was able to contribute years of previously gathered research, along with the work of the committee, to help get us where we are today.”
Armstrong credited former Fluvanna County Historical Society director Trish Johnson, as well as committee members Mahalia Woodie, Melissa Hill, William Woodson and Scruggs.
“While unveiling the Oak Hill memorial stone, I felt like I was setting our ancestors free from bondage,” Armstrong said. “Their souls are finally free — but I’m not finished yet. There are still names to find and more research to be done.”
