In the summer of 1985, I went on a photo expedition to discover some of my ancestral roots. One of the highlights of that journey was discovering the burial grands of my great great grandparents, Robert and Sophia Connell behind the old stone church in Yonge Mills just outside of Brockville, Ontario.
The cemetery is divided in half by the main CN line between Montreal and Toronto. Long before the original Grand Trunk Railroad was first put through this area, a section of land was divided off from one of the early farmsteads to serve as a burial ground. Robert 1830 (directly underneath the train headlights) and Sophia 1846 (above) are among some of the earliest stones that can be found there.
How many travelers have passed through this cemetery over the years? What would they think?
See a photo I took recently upon the return to this same spot.
