MILFORD – A wealth of history about the people who once lived in southern New Hampshire exists both above the ground and below it in the old cemeteries that dot the state.

Cemetery mapper David Palance is working to ensure that history survives long after the headstones have crumbled back into the earth.

As the owner of Automech Cemetery Mapping in Milford, Palance, 49, uses a combination of new technology and good old-fashioned detective work to piece together the layouts of some of the oldest cemeteries in the state. Global positioning systems, ground penetrating radar and satellite images are used to survey, and sometimes find, burial places. But Palance also relies on other clues to determine where bodies are buried, including ridges and valleys in the earth, the position of neighboring headstones, even the direction of the sun to piece together what lies beneath.

"The ground tells the tale," said Palance.

Palance, an engineer and amateur historian, first became intrigued with cemeteries when he was researching the history of his antique Milford home.

Located at the west end of town, Palance's house once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad and was home to a woman named Harriet Wilson, the first black woman in America to publish a novel.

"I wanted to put my hands on the stones of all the people who had lived in my house," said Palance.

Armed with maps from Town Hall, he began searching the old graveyards around Milford, looking for his predecessors.

But despite Milford's attempt to keep the old cemeteries in good condition, the ravages of time, vandals and the elements had taken a toll on the physical indications of many of the graves.

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Broken stones, or writing worn away by 200 years of rain left many mysteries to be solved, so instead of walking away empty-handed, Palance decided to dig a bit deeper.

The result was a set of maps developed over time that were able to identify not just the obvious graves, but the ones that had either lost their markers or had never been marked to begin with.

"Slave cemeteries were unmarked for the most part," said Palance. But by using a combination of historical records and ground penetrating radar, which detects changes in the soil indicative of burial sites, Palance has been able to locate hallowed, but forgotten, ground.

The mystery of who lies beneath the ground at old cemeteries is being solved by David Palance, who looks to headstones, landscapes, even the direction of the sun for clues. (NANCY BEAN FOSTER)

Palance has also become something of an expert on cemetery customs, and he can trace the "fashion" that appears in graveyards simply by reading into the clues left behind.

While many people assume that the bodies in graveyards are buried beneath the writing on the headstone, in actuality, the bodies are found on the blank side of the stone. And especially in older cemeteries, the bodies are buried facing the east, so that they are facing the morning sun and can rise when Jesus returns.

Crosses, especially in early Colonial graveyards are few and far between, said Palance, because they were generally considered a Catholic icon and were eschewed by Protestants. Skulls and crossbones, popular with the Puritans, gradually gave way to softer faces with angel's wings, and around the time when serious excavations of ancient burial sites were occurring in Egypt, it became fashionable to opt for marble headstones engraved with iconography associated with the Pharoahs instead of the standard slate stones that had been the fashion for so long.

And in the northwest corner of cemeteries all over New England lie those shamed by old custom and circumstance of birth: the suicides, servants and slaves.

Since conducting his first surveys in Milford, Palance has been hired by towns across southern New Hampshire to investigate and map cemeteries. He has currently mapped more than 100 cemeteries for towns including Milford, Hancock and Newmarket.

"The intent is to create records that will be preserved long after the stones have disappeared," said Palance.

But the mission is also personal for Palance.

"I'm trying to get to know the people under there," he said. "I want to be able to put those names together with faces."

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For more information, call 321-6068.