However, many of the names were popular in that area, and it’s important not to confuse two people with the same name. Without matching death records — which I generally could not find for those people — it’s difficult to be sure that the person is the same.

When I was using historical records, I was also unable to find the original cemetery records. So, the vast majority of bodies in the graves — that is, the unmarked graves — have remained a mystery to me and others, and contributed to the oddities at Gilson Road.

I’m relieved to hear that you were able to find them. It seemed so very odd that they were missing. Can you tell me where you found the cemetery records, as well as the death records? Are they all in Dunstable, or did you have to go to NEGHS for them?

If Gilson Road Cemetery is drawing you back, I’m sure there will be more for you to share with us. Keep us up to date on your discoveries!

Thanks!

Gilson Road cemetery is a fun place for research, and kind of a ‘cozy’ haunted place… most of the time.

We’ve had some genuinely startling encounters there, and — in nearly ten years of investigations there — we still enjoy our time there.

I love reading what others experience there. Thanks for commenting!

And, having studied photography with Minor White, I think that I have some understanding of the subject.

We don’t claim that orbs are spirits. The fact is, no one has solid evidence to explain all orbs.

That said, ghosts or spirits seem to be the most agreed-upon explanation among ghost hunters, so we use the term to distinguish unexplained orbs from those of clear, natural origin.

I recommend visiting our Ghost Photography 101 section, in which we’ve experimented with dust, moisture, pollen, and other natural causes of orbs. Unless you study orbs (and possible normal causes) in detail, it’s a bit facile to label all orbs as ghosts… or as dust, pollen, and so on. Both generalities are equally flawed.

What we focus on (no pun intended) are the orbs that we can’t explain. So far, we don’t know why we find so many orbs in photos at ‘haunted’ sites, in contrast with other, similar, not-haunted sites.

Given two nearly identical sites, each with a potential for dust, sand, pollen and moisture, we’ll see as many as 4x as many orbs in photos at the haunted one. That’s as close as we can get to a controlled study.

We’re interested in the anomalies, and — no matter what they are — the abundance of orbs at ‘haunted’ sites are anomalies.

We do remove orb photos — or annotate them — when we find an explanation for them.

However, it would be a huge disservice to our readers to trivialize orbs as ‘laughable’ when their numbers are so much greater at haunted sites.

People often see ghostly (and sometimes real-looking) figures around the cemetery, even during the day. It can take a few minutes to realize that they’ve vanished into thin air.

I’ve never heard that story about Lucy Gilson. I wouldn’t take it seriously. Ghosts can be pranksters, but they’re rarely malicious or hurtful.

There are many sounds in the woods. Some of them are natural, some are odd, and some are paranormal. That’s one of many reasons why we like Gilson so much: There are so many opportunities to encounter ghostly phenomena!

But have you found Lucy Gilson’s gravestone, and are the rumors true, that if you swear near her grave you will break a limb? And that you can hear kids singing in the woods?