New documentary-style series explores the lives behind Laurel’s historic headstones, piecing together forgotten stories, one historical record at a time. Photo: Richard Friend There’s something intriguing about an old headstone whose inscription has nearly disappeared beneath decades of dirt and botanical growth. You can usually make out a name, perhaps a year, but little else. Who was this person? What did they do? Where did they live? Who did they love? And what circumstanc

The Laurel History Boys have launched a new video series that brings Laurel's forgotten residents back into the story of the community they helped shape. Over the past several months, Richard Friend has been researching the lives behind the headstones in Laurel's historic cemeteries. What often begins with the gentle cleaning of a weathered gravestone quickly becomes a journey through old newspapers, century-old deeds and mortgages, census records, death certificates, court d