Local author Judy Lund published her book—Burials and Burial Places in the Town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts—in 1997, but that hasn't stopped her work. On June 5, she spoke to a schoolhouse packed with Dartmouth Historical & Arts Society members about her research on cemeteries.

Lund said when she first started scoping out local cemeteries, she would ask everyone if they knew of any hidden gravesites. "The kids knew where the cemeteries were." She'd take their clues and head into the brush with her dog. "Curiosity is why I do the things I do," she said.

Here are the top five things you missed from her lecture:

1. The earliest dated headstone in Dartmouth dates to 1718. It's located on private property off of Russells Mills Road and marks the burial site of Ralph Earl.

2. There are at least 66 family burial grounds in Dartmouth. Family burials include the Hathaway, Mosher, Cuffe, and Rogers families. Many of these hidden, overgrown family cemeteries can probably be considered abandoned properties, said Lund. "These are not income generating properties, so the town has no particular interest in obtaining them," she added as a reason for the lack of maintenance.

3. Lund recently received a day book belonging to full-time farmer and part-time grave digger Howard Potter. The book—listing Potter's daily affairs since 1827—shows that Potter charged $1 for an adult-sized grave and 66 cents for a child's plot. Lund also discovered, with the day book as a guide, that there are 137 burials in the Apponegansett Meeting House burial ground. She didn't know about 117 of them.

4. You can be buried in your own backyard. According to Lund, you must contact the town's Board of Health beforehand. They want to make sure you're not buried next to your own water supply, or that you're not putting the disease you died from into the water supply, said Lund.

5. You can help record burial sites by filling out Form E with the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

The next DHAS lecture will cover the Helfand family. Head to 1205 Russells Mills Road on Sunday, July 24 to join; $5 suggested donation.