Church serves as historical link between Americans, Chinese

Soldiers in George Washington's Continental Army and Chinese immigrant railroad workers share a resting place on the grounds of an old church in New Jersey.

The former Dutch Reformed Church in Belleville, New Jersey, about 15 kilometers west of Manhattan, is believed to be the burial site of approximately 70 Continental Army soldiers. The church's steeple once served as a lookout for approaching British soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

On Nov 13, graduate students and professors in geophysics at Rutgers University-Newark began a search for the remains of Chinese immigrants who worked on the Central Pacific Railroad, a section of the Transcontinental Railroad on which many Chinese toiled in the 1860s.