VOLUNTEER Peggy Bertram has seen potential hauntings and had unwitting encounters with descendents after close to 18 years of piecing together the stories behind the graves at Maryborough Cemetery.

Mrs Bertram will lead the first night tour of the cemetery for 2013 next Friday as cemetery co-ordinator for the Maryborough Family History Society.

This time, the tour will include the tale of a flood victim from the 1875 floods and of a mother who poisoned her children rather than see them starve to death - before poisoning herself.

Mrs Bertram said that on one occasion a descendent of the surviving child had been on the tour as she told the story of the mother.

She said the descendant had told her he had never known the tragic story behind his family until then.

Mrs Bertram uses obituaries published in the Chronicle more than a century ago as well as court records and letters to piece together the stories of families buried in the cemetery.

She said the stories of the town's new arrivals in the 1800s were often very sad, and highlighted the case of one man who arrived in Australia in 1883.

"By May the next year, he had buried his wife and four children," she said.

The first person to be buried at the cemetery was a seven-year-old girl, who died just one day shy of her birthday.

The tours are held on the third Friday of each month from 6.30-7.45pm and tickets can be purchased from Town Hall for $10.

Closed in shoes must be worn and participants should bring a torch. Bookings are essential.