WRENS, Ga. --- One of the surprising discoveries during the cleanup of the recent series of tornadoes blowing through east Georgia was the unearthing of a grave believed to belong to a Revolutionary War soldier.

It was revealed at the bottom of a 16-foot hole created by the root ball of a giant red oak that fell during the storm.

As its caretaker at the Young-Pool Cemetery, Bill Perry knew he would have some cleanup after the tornado. However, he didn't expect to find a grave uncovered.

"I've never seen nothing like it," he said.

Mr. Perry said he discovered a huge, old, red oak had fallen at the back edge of the cemetery. While it does not appear that the twin trunks landed on any of the headstones, some of which date back into the 1700s, the fall did unearth one of the private cemetery's inhabitants.

"It's something else," Mr. Perry said. "You can see how the vault was hand-built with bricks."

The roots from the tree had grown over and into the vault. When the storm's winds toppled the tree, the roots peeled back the top of the structure, uncovering the grave itself.

Jefferson County Coroner Edward James and his son collected the remains.

"We found most of the skeleton, some clothes, pieces of the casket," Mr. James said. "... The bones were definitely old. You had to handle them just so or they would go all to pieces."

Mr. James wants the bones tested for age before they are reburied once the tree is removed and the hole refilled.

"I wanted to show respect for this person, whoever they were," he said. "I couldn't let the bones just lie there in the weather."

With no marker on the grave it is unclear who it belonged to or how old it is. However a marker was placed nearby in 1999 for Revolutionary War soldier Aaron Pool, who died in 1803.