A Visit to Granary Burying Ground and Paul Revere’s Headstone
Ahead of celebrating Independence Day in 2023 our family decided to visit Massachusetts so we could do some exploring and learning around Boston. We loved our Boston experience, but wanted a deeper connection to the people we call our founding fathers. The people we grew up reading about in history books and the people our children were learning about while they were learning about the creation of our nation.
Having learned all about Paul Revere’s Ride we thought it would be fun to stop by his home and the Granary Burying Ground where he is buried along with Samual Adams, James Otis, and Robert Treat Paine, and just across from the Park Street Church.
Of course, finding our connection to Paul Revere was going to help us feel even more connected to these place. We knew that and were excited to make these connections while visiting the burial ground.
As we entered the Granary Burying Ground a kind man shared a map with us to help us find the specific headstones we were seeking. We quickly found the headstone of Paul Revere and immediately pulled out our phones so our kids could enter the information and find our personal connection to this famed historical figure.
As the children entered the data into our phones we began discussing with them what this personal connection would mean. Each of the kids made guesses on how we would be related. And, much to our surprise, we garnered a bit of a crowd (sometimes we can be a bit noisy). People we’d never met had overheard our conversation with our children and were curious to know what we’d found.
As the connection was made we were met with total strangers asking us “how do you know you’re related to him?” and “can you show me how to find out if I’m related to him?” and many more similar questions.
The stage was set, at this moment we quickly learned that we are certainly not the only people who are interested in learning about our connection to the past. We showed a few people the cumbersome methods we used to find our family line to Paul Revere. Upon looking around the burial grounds we saw hundreds of people wandering through the headstones taking in the history. How many were walking right by their own family without knowing it?