I remember reading that in the old days some would bury a loved one and then plant a tree over their grave to pay tribute to them or something such as that.
Maybe this was a tree that grew from such a grave.
Anyone else ever hear of this?
PING?
Yes but that is not the case in this particular situation. The entire article was posted until the Mod randomly chose to narrow it down to one line! According to the original article:
The very old bones likely are centuries old dating back to when the Green was used as a cemetery during colonial times until the Grove Street cemetery was chartered in 1797. There remain an estimated 5,000 people buried under the Green.
Essentially, in this instance, the bones are older than the 100 year old tree.
Yes, I thought the same thing, people use to plant a seed on the grave. New life springing from death, that kind of thing.
Yup and a lot of times they would plant a little tree in the shoe of the dead person and the tree would actually have the DNA of the long lost person for the hundred+ years of its life.
I would imagine that the uprooted tree would also have the DNA of whoever it was that was buried under the tree.
I don't doubt the possible reported age of the remains.
More information - It was the site of a cemetery. The town green was built there but the bodies weren’t moved. However, the tombstones were removed... sigh, how caring and respectful - NOT! - of the town council and wonder if the tombstones were at least given back to the families (if they could be located) or dumped. The tree was planted in 1906 in honor of Lincoln. The woman was probably a victim of yellow fever. One idiot said, “this is really cool, the day before Halloween” which is probably not the feelings of the woman’s loved ones when she was burried. All in the name of progress, don’cha know.