Historic Burial Site Moved | News

More than 100 African-American Central Georgians now have a new final resting place.

They were buried in an unmarked African-American cemetery that was discovered in 2007 because of a state highway project. Slaves and freed people were buried there during the mid and late 19th century.

The slaves and former freed people worked at McArthur plantation or neighboring plantations or were part of the freed African American tenant community.

The Georgia Department of Transportation moved the graves to make way for the new Sardis Road extension. The graves now have a marked burial site at the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Byron.

Through DNA testing and historical research, the state transportation department and local archaeologists were able to identify some of the descendants.

Five of their descendants came Tuesday to visit the site and some of them said that it's hard to describe how it feels to have this connection to their ancestors.

"Words cannot express, but it was just, it just meant so much, it was just, I was just a lost of words to say," said Tamblyn Womack of Macon.

The state transportation department hosted a presentation about the historical site and what they found there.