It is the symbol of respect in a cemetery: headstones marking the areas where loved ones have been buried.

But it's a different story in the African American sections of the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. It's a part of the cemetary that has been neglected over the years, many of the headstones are old and rotting or have been stolen.

Ernest Dollar, Chapel Hill Preservation Society Executive DIrector, said it's long overdue to find those lost graves.  

"The earliest African American burial we have is 1853, compared to our earliest white burial at 1790 so there's a huge discrepency," said Dollar.

But with the help of archaeologists and technicians, they're hoping to do just that by using equipment that measures electrical currents in the soil and probing to see if there are disturbances that could be graves. 

"Anywhere from three feet long from where a small child has been buried to 6 or 7 feet long and a couple feet wide or so that would fit a coffin in there," said Scott Seibel, principal investigator.

Seibel said it's hard to say for sure if an area is actually a grave, but combining the different types of technologies makes it pretty certain. He said he expects to find upwards of 100 graves there.

"You have a segment of the community that feels like they've been marginalized and trying to bring the history back and show the rest of the town the history is a really good thing," said Seibel.

After the graves are identified, the next step will be to figure out how the community wants the graves marked. The project is made possible through grants for the Preservation Society.