BROOKS COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) — What started as one woman’s search for her family’s past uncovered a much larger concern, raising questions about responsibility, preservation and respect for the dead in South Georgia.

A descendant walking through an overgrown cemetery said what she found went far beyond what she expected: unmarked graves, sunken burial sites and families who had spent decades searching for loved ones they could not find.

Tucked away along an unpaved road sat the John C. Spell Family Cemetery, a nearly three-acre burial ground that many descendants said had become nearly impossible to access.

Tara Nolan, a descendant connected to the cemetery, said her first visit was overwhelming.

“When we first came through, we couldn’t get down the driveway. We had to come on the neighbors’ property and drive up the fence line and walk through here,” Nolan said. “Everything was covered in brush. You could not see the tops of these graves—covered in grass, leaves, brush. We saw the ladder over there by the tree, and that’s when we realized there were tombstones over here. It was really bad.”

Once inside the fenced area, Nolan said the condition appeared even worse.

“We came in over here, and I noticed those two people right here first. And then once we came through the fence, I saw concrete, but we could not see their whole entire slabs,” she said.

What began as an effort to clear brush and document graves soon turned into something deeply personal. Nolan said a Facebook post helped reunite a family with the resting place of a brother they had searched for for decades.

“The family had been looking for him and had not been able to locate him,” Nolan said. “I posted on Facebook and found them, and they found their brother. He was 19 years old when he passed away. And they had been looking for him since ’99—a year after he passed and was laid to rest.”

Families then began asking difficult questions about who was legally responsible for maintaining the cemetery. Nolan said records indicated the land was donated by John Spell to Brooks County, raising concerns that required maintenance may not have been carried out.

“Does this belong to the county, or did it revert back to my family?” Nolan asked. “I need to know these things because I need to know what I need to do moving forward. If it is supposed to be county-maintained, then I need them to come out here and help us with this. If not, we will do it ourselves—but we would like this property to be given to the family so we can maintain it ourselves.”

WALB contacted the Brooks County Tax Assessor’s Office and county commissioners for clarification on ownership and maintenance responsibilities but had not heard back at the time of publication. With the holiday period, officials said responses could be delayed.

Families said they were simply asking for help, hoping those buried there many of whom had been nearly forgotten beneath years of overgrowth could finally be shown the respect they deserved.

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