The Overlooked Project is a cemetery storytelling project by Becky Davis, blending genealogical research, memorial art, and narrative remembrance to return overlooked lives to public memory.
Each story begins with a grave that asks for attention. Through records, newspapers, family history, and memorial art, the project seeks to restore personhood to people whose lives might otherwise remain only a name in stone.
How This Began
Before The Overlooked Project had a name, there was Eliza Couldock.
I found her through the same kind of cemetery curiosity that now guides this project: a grave, a name, a feeling, a question — and the pull to know more. I researched her story, painted a memorial rock, and left it at her grave on Memorial Day. And now she feels like a friend.
Eliza helped me understand that the experience I had with her was not just something I did once. Remembering is my way of honoring. Following the thread from a name on a grave to the life that came before it is a way to say, "I see you. I know you. I will remember you."
And if I do it for others... Maybe someday someone will do it for me.