Another wonderful account of civic philanthropy. Three cheers for amateur historians like KellyAnn Grimaldi.
In 2007, Grimaldi decided to take on the unique task of identifying every Civil War soldier buried in the 114-acre St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands. Using a list of 248 names culled from a survey of vets in the area, the historian set out to restore and replace the cemetery’s decrepit tombstones.
Grimaldi has already identified 508 soldiers, and is certain there are more.
“The veterans are going to be forgotten and that’s just not acceptable,” Grimaldi said. “I want people to come to me if they know they have an ancestor that was a veteran that may not be marked at all. We want to be able to identify the location of the soldier’s grave and make sure it’s properly memorialized.”