The New Jersey Turnpike Authority is seeking the descendants of
those buried in a potters' field cemetery in Hudson County. 
The turnpike needs the land to build an interchange that will serve
the Secaucus Transfer train station near Laurel Hill. The cemetery
on those grounds was used by Hudson County's former poorhouse,
mental hospital, and penitentiary. More than 3,500 bodies may be
in the ground, located behind a prison annex and under an elevated
section of highway.

The authority will spend $3.89 million to locate and remove the
remains, transport them to a new location, and reinter them. 
A memorial will also be placed at the new site. State Superior Court Judge Thomas Oliveri in Hudson County is overseeing the move.

Several weeks ago, Oliveri ordered the turnpike to run legal ads
searching for relatives of the deceased. Oliveri said in September
that he wants to hear from relatives of the deceased. So far, only
six have come forward, and only one has been confirmed as having a relative in the cemetery.

               A complete list of those buried 
                 is available on the turnpike's Web site at        
         http://www.state.nj.us/turnpike/burial%20list.pdf. 

If you have ancestry in or around Hudson County, you should check this list for any possible relatives.

You will need Adobe's free Acrobat viewer installed in order to
read this list. If you do not have the viewer installed, first go
to http://www.adobe.com and download the free viewer there.

My thanks to Homer Thiel for notifying me of this story.