Vassalboro student is undertaking town cemetery inventory

PHOTO: Nichols Cemetery is one of seven cemeteries in Vassalboro that student Savannah Clark is inventorying. (Maureen Milliken photo)

VASSALBORO — Savannah Clark, a master’s student in history at the University of Maine, is working for the town of Vassalboro this summer as one of 35 college interns participating in the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center Maine Government Internship Program.
Clark, who is from Vassalboro, is splitting her time between the field and the office, conducting a physical census of Vassalboro’s municipal burial grounds and using the data gathered to build an accurate, accessible digital record.
In addition to improving town records and record-keeping procedures, Clark’s efforts to create a searchable online database will allow the public to identify relatives buried in Vassalboro’s historic cemeteries, locate family graves and conduct genealogical research. Vassalboro Town Manager Mary Sabins is overseeing the cemetery project.
The interns, who are from Maine but attend different colleges and universities, are employed by state agencies, municipal or county governments for 12 weeks of paid work. Depending on their assignments, the students may work remotely or in person, or maintain a hybrid schedule.