The Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia, Canada

Cemetery Tours Coming Up - Vancouver BC

2011-06-08T10:24:00.001-07:00

At Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, there will be two sets of tours this month. See you there!

First, one on Sunday, June 19th, then another on Sunday, June 26th. Details below.

Join John Atkin (Civic Historian) and Lorraine Irving (BC Genealogical Society) once again on their very popular walking tours. Mill Managers, Union Organisers and Archivists & Piano Salesmen will be discussed, along with lots of other interesting tidbits about the cemetery!

Sunday, June 19th

10am to Noon
$10.00 per person (cash only please)
Rain or shine
No reservations necessary

Meet at 5445 Fraser St at 39th Ave.

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/walk%20poster3.pdf

And next,

Crinolines, Crimes and Courage:
Women of Mountain View Cemetery Historical Walking Tour
Sunday, June 26, 2011

1:00pm-3:00pm

A fundraiser for the Friends of the Vancouver City Archives

Minimum donation $10 (cash only). Maximum 25 people * drop-in only

Meet at the southwest corner of 33rd & Fraser St.

What do a Titanic survivor, a murdered nurse and an adventurous Gastown school teacher all have in common? You will discover the answer and more on this 2 hour tour led by three Vancouver women historians. Visit the grave sites and hear stories about the famous and forgotten remarkable women who helped shape our city. Step back in time to unearth fascinating true tales of struggles, conquests and mystery surrounding the lives of this amazing collection of historically important women. The tour also includes how to decipher grave marker symbolisms.

Tour by 3 women historians from the BC Genealogical Society, Women's History Network of BC & the Herstory Cafe.

Lorraine Irving has been giving tours of Mountain View Cemetery for over 10 years. She is the President, B.C. Genealogical Society, B.C. Historical Federation Director, Vancouver Historical Society member, New Westminster Historical Society member and a guide at Irving House, New Westminster Museum.

M. Diane Rogers is the Editor & Past President, British Columbia Genealogical Society and Secretary, Women's History Network of British Columbia. Teacher, speaker, researcher & writer, British Columbian family history and women's history.

Jolene Cumming is a local historical interpreter whose specializes in early Vancouver women’s history and Stanley Park historical walking tours. She is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the Herstory Cafe and a board member of the Friends of the Vancouver Archives. Jolene is a fourth generation Vancouverite.

Cemetery Events Coming Up - Vancouver & Burnaby

2010-10-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Special cemetery events for Women's History Month, All Souls, and Remembrance Day.

24 October, Sunday, 1-2:30 pm: Women's History Tour with 'yours truly', M. Diane Rogers, Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby. Sponsored by the Burnaby Village Museum. $15. Registration required; please register early - in person, by phone or on-line.

30 October - 2nd November, 6th Annual Night for All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. See the Mountain View website for activities that day. Free events. Sunday, October 31st, hear the Threshold Choir from 7-8pm; Monday, November 1st see a special showing of "A Family Undertaking - Home Funerals in America" beginning at 7 pm.

7 November, Sunday, 10-1130 am: War Time Graves tour with Maurice Guibord at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby. Sponsored by the Burnaby Village Museum. $15. Registration required: please register early - in person, by phone or on-line.

Graveyard Rabbit Carnival - Occupations and Hobbies

2010-09-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

An Occupation Or Hobby Memorialized in Stone - this is the theme of October's Graveyard Rabbit Carnival.

Here's a favourite of mine from Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster, BC, Canada - a loving remembrance.

Kathleen Booth marker, Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada.
Photograph taken by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010. [Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Marker for Booth, Kathleen, Section: IOOF 6-7, Row: 5, Stone: 5.]

Take a look at what's on the one side of the marker though. Whether Kathleen Booth sewed for love or from necessity, we know she was likely never idle.

The British Columbia Genealogical Society (BCGS) published a CD about Fraser Cemetery in 2010 with photographs, gravestone inscriptions and descriptions. Contact the BCGS for more information: www.bcgs.ca

Graveyard Rabbits - Scavenger Hunt - Fraser Cemetery - New Westminster BC Canada

2010-06-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

View of Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Fraser River beyond. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers, June 2009.

The topic for the July 2010 edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival is:
Scavenger Hunt!

For this Carnival, I chose to visit one of the graveyards nearest my home, Fraser Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. This cemetery, operated by the city since the 1930s, was in use from about 1869 and, if you're someone who lives in the Lower Mainland here, you will recognize many of the historic family names represented in its burials. Originally there were separate areas, for instance, the Masonic, Oddfellows, Church of England and Veterans' sections. (The separate St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cemetery is right next door.)

I took off for a few hours there and just had a wander by myself - choosing some examples that appealed to me that day, taking photographs and making notes as I went. Although it wasn't the nicest day weatherwise, this cemetery has an amazing view, and it's nice just to enjoy that and the 'atmosphere'. An angry crow did try to keep me away from its territory, 'dive bombing' me until I moved on, but, as you will see, another cemetery habitué was much more friendly. This is a cemetery where people visit graves regularly, and locals walk their dogs, and even their kids, and where the cemetery is small enough that one can see a lot in any visit.

The following photographs illustrate my finds from the Scavenging List we were given: Cross, Heart, Fraternal symbol, Monument, Flower. Hand, Angel, Bird, Tree, Star, Obelisk, Four-legged animal, Photo, Military gravestone, Mausoleum. As you will see, I have taken some liberties with my identifications.

Crosses - CROWCHER graves, (Reverend Charles, 1917, and Gertrude A., 1933), Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Heart - probably for Clara FINDLAY (1919), but this heart marker is very worn. There is at least one similar heart marker from the 1920s, as well as several quite recent ones. The other marker shown here for Richard WOOD (1992). Others buried here are Scott MEREDITH (2000) and Dorothy WOOD (2006). Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Fraternal - Knights of Pythias - symbol 'FCB' for Friendship, Charity and Benevolence - SANDERS marker (1961), Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, Canada. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Monument - This is a very large stone - as tall as I am. Beth Wood was the first woman elected to New Westminster City Council (1949) and the city's first woman Mayor. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Flower - Malvina NORMAN's grave (1931), Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Hands - Elsabe RISKE marker (1902, with husband L.W. on other side). Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Angel - a beautiful marble monument for Ella Jane KIRKLAND LYSTER (1875). Married in 1874, she had lived with her husband in Oregon, but suffered from consumption and returned to New Westminster to die. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Bird - A guardian crow, Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Tree - I love this twig lettering on the zinc ARMSTRONG monument (1882, 1884), Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photographs, M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Star - BURR family marker, including Raymond William Stacey Burr (1999), star of Perry Mason and Ironside. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Obelisk - Memorial to Ebenezer BROWN (died 1883, New Westminster), by his daughter. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Four legged animal - a black cat - very friendly - and obviously very comfortable visiting in the neighbourhood. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Photo 1 - DE LOS REYES grave, (2007). A free standing easel has a photograph on the front, with a photo and commemorative text on the back. Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Photo 2 - John T. STEIGERVALD grave (1997), Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

Military - HOSKIN marker, Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010. There are a number of other HOSKIN military markers. Some may be related.

Lastly - Fraser Cemetery has no mausoleums, but does have this very modern new ossuarium (an in ground common 'vault' or receptacle for cremains), along with a new columbarium and wall space for memorial plaques. New Westminster, BC, Canada. Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, June 2010.

This post was written for the Graveyard Rabbits' Scavenger Hunt Blog Carnival.
Thanks to Julie Cahill Tarr, of Chicagoland Cemeteries, who came up with the idea for this Carnival for the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

The Final Disposition - Mountain View Cemetery Event - April 24, 2010 Vancouver BC

2010-03-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Gravestone of Nellie LAY, died 5 February, 1920. Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada (JONES section /*/24/014/0005). Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, Fall 2009.

THE FINAL DISPOSITION - All Day Event

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC.

April 24, 2010

De-Mystifying Death, Funerals, Cemeteries & Ceremonies

A forum designed to address practical and philosophical matters on dying and death. Discussion begins with hospice care and continues with the role of funeral homes and cemeteries. Alternative options such as green burial and the importance of ritual and ceremony will end the day.

Details at the Mountain View Cemetery website.
Free, but you must pre-register.

This full day event begins with a screening of “A Family Undertaking: Home Funerals in America”, and a session with Romayne Gallagher, Providence Health Care’s Division Head of Palliative Care and the Physician Program Director for Providence's Palliative Care Program.

Then in the afternoon there is a session with Barry Jeske, an independent funeral director and co-owner of Wiebe & Jeske Burial & Cremation Care Providers in Abbotsford, on the 'Funeral Home, the Funeral Director. What do they do?...Can someone “do it themselves” in British Columbia?'.

Then a session with Glen Hodges, Manager of Vancouver's Mountain View Cemetery, on the many roles of a cemetery.

Later, a session with Stephen Olson, Executive Director of Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria on 'Green Burials and the story behind Canada’s first urban natural burial site in Victoria’s Royal Oak Burial Park.'

Finally Paula Jardine, Mountain View's own Artist in Residence, and Marina Szijarto, a contemporary rites of passage celebrant, artist & designer, discuss various cultural practices honouring the dead and the modern need to understand - and reclaim - the role of the artist in the sacred life of the community.

Free, but space is limited; pre-register.
Details & Registration Information at Mountain View's website.
Saturday, April 24, 2010, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Mountain View Cemetery, in the Celebration Hall & Courtyard, 5445 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC. (The Cemetery entrance is at 39th and Fraser.) Easily accessible by public transit.

This event includes tea and cookies, but please bring your own lunch and snacks.

Interesting note: Mountain View Cemetery is currently the only Canadian cemetery recognized by the Green Burial Council which has set the first standards for green burial services and providers and has four levels of certification.

Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver BC is recognized in the 4th level as a 'Hybrid Burial Ground'. "Hybrid Burial Grounds are conventional cemeteries offering the option for burial without the need for a vault (partial, inverted or otherwise), a vault lid, concrete box, slab or partitioned liner. Hybrid Burial Grounds shall not require the embalming of decedents and must allow for any kind of eco-friendly burial containers including shrouds."

For more about green burial in British Columbia, see my previous post on a Mountain View event last fall: Artists and the Green Funeral Movement - Dec 9 2009 .

Gravestone of Mike JURKOVIC, aged 20 (indexed at Mountain View as JURKOVITCH; death certificate indexed as JURHOVITCH), born in Jugoslavija, died 6 February 1935, at Tranquille, BC. Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada (Section JONES/*/13/002/0011). Also in plot - Phyllis Irene YURKOVICH, buried in 1994 and Robert YURKOVICH, buried in 1992.

Photograph by M. Diane Rogers, Fall 2009. (If anyone is willing and able to translate the inscriptions on this stone for me, please contact me at canadagenealogy@shaw.ca .)

Doin' Things Right - Carnival of Genealogical Societies - First Edition

2010-03-07T22:19:00.001-08:00

Entrance and office, Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers, 2008.

Kathryn Doyle who writes over at the California Genealogical Society blog has created the Carnival of Genealogical Societies. The first edition is: Doin' Things Right! We were to “shine a spotlight on a specific program, project, or publication at a genealogical society and tell us why it worked.”

One place I feel most genealogical societies 'do right' is in organizing and enhancing the activities and energy of its members and volunteers to benefit the wider genealogical and historical communities. The work of the BC Genealogical Society (BCGS) cemetery committee is a good example of this.

The Society started in 1971 and, as with most groups, members came from a variety of backgrounds and had a number of different interests, but many of their long term goals were the same. One of the Society's initial objectives was to preserve British Columbia’s genealogical records, including cemetery records and gravestone inscriptions. This was particularly important here as some older BC cemeteries are subject to extreme weathering or are in remote areas and not easily accessible. Information from these cemeteries needed to be preserved and made easily available to researchers. Preserving cemetery information is still one of the BCGS's objectives today - and many cemeteries here are active ones; surname and inscription listings need to be updated regularly.

Several members had done some cemetery recording before the Society started. Others who lived close to a smaller cemetery or who often travelled around British Columbia for business or pleasure began to do the same, but they recorded inscriptions on each gravestone in the cemeteries they came across. And very soon, society members ensured that these recordings would be available to others by organizing volunteers to type up inscriptions in a format that would make them easy to publish in the Society’s journal or to index and publish for committee or library use.

Some cemeteries are too large for one or two volunteers though and again the committee found volunteers to work on the larger projects together. The recording of Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, for example, took four years and the work of many volunteers to finish. Some who worked on the Mountain View project still remember their working field trips which were followed usually by lunch and good conversation at a Chinese restaurant. After this followed the typing of the inscriptions from the volunteers’ scribblers, the indexing and the typing up of cards for these - some 50,000 cards - then the proofreading, and the outline, layout and publishing of the index.

In the 1980s, the Committee began publishing new cemetery inscriptions for sale which meant these were available at a reasonable price to libraries, other societies and to individuals. In turn, this meant BC cemetery information was much more widely available.

This was all before computers, but Cemetery Committee members have always been quick to adopt new methods and assistance has usually been at hand from other members interested in new technology and tools. A member’s son developed the Cemetery Data Handler (CDH) computer programme which was used by the BCGS until fairly recently when a newer programme was needed for publishing. Nowadays we use digital cameras instead of scribblers for recording, and publish more on CD than on paper, but we can still have fun while working on our cemetery recordings.

Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, 2008. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers

In recent years, the Committee has updated most of its older cemetery recordings for active cemeteries. Again, this was often done by individual members for smaller cemeteries, or sometimes by volunteer groups in co-operation with the BCGS. But Committee members just finished two large projects, the re-recording and photographing of all the inscriptions of gravestones in St Peter’s and Fraser cemeteries in New Westminster, BC. Research was also done in other sources for this project, including in burial records and newspapers.

A genealogical society like the BCGS can co-ordinate these larger projects more easily than an ad hoc group, and has experienced members and volunteers to draw on, who are willing to teach the 'newbies'. And, because the BCGS Cemetery Committee has considerable experience editing and publishing cemetery recordings, the project results will be made available to others quickly and at a reasonable cost. And, the BCGS has BC Research services and a Library of its own where the information is used in assisting others to find their BC roots.

Columbarium added 2008, Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, BC, 2008. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers.

References:

British Columbia Genealogical Society Cemetery Committee webpage: http://www.blogger.com/www.bcgs.ca/BCGS%20Cemetery%20Committee.htm

British Columbia Genealogical Society: http://www.blogger.com/www.bcgs.ca

British Columbia Genealogical Society, 1971-1996: The First Quarter Century edited by Barbara Rogers and compiled by Maureen Hyde (Richmond, BC: British Columbia Genealogical Society, 1998).

Cemetery Recording Booklet edited by Valerie Hooper (Richmond, BC: British Columbia Genealogical Society, revised, 2006).

Graveyard Critters - The Graveyard Rabbit Carnival

2010-01-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

The topic for the February 2010 edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival is -

Graveyard Critters!

This theme was suggested by Diane Wright, who authors three cemetery blogs: The Kansas Rabbit, The Wright Graveyard Stew, and The Grave Yard Rabbit Travels Wright
We were invited to post our photographs of cemetery critters.

Now I have a number of photographs showing 'critters' carved or otherwise illustrating cemetery stones - from doves to lambs and deer. I even have several showing horses. But all too few of my photographs show live critters of any kind in a cemetery.

The most memorable critter I've seen in a cemetery was a hedgehog in the Bassingbourn Cemetery in Cambridgeshire, England, and, no, this wasn't Spike the Road Safety Hedgehog. This was a real live little hedgehog. Again, no photo - I was too busy staring and thinking "Hey, it's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle!"

Back at home, I'm a city girl, and a Pacific Northwest city girl at that, so I think the live critters I've seen the most in cemeteries would be seagulls or those very cheeky crows. But they seldom sit still close enough for me to try taking their photographs. Many people here like to walk their dogs in local cemeteries. This is often a controversial topic, and some cemeteries have restrictions, but it's certainly not uncommon to see dogs (on leashes).

Whenever I can I visit cemeteries in the rest of British Columbia, though, and we are always warned to watch for bears and sometimes snakes. On a summer trip to the Whonnock Cemetery in the Fraser Valley last year, we saw evidence of a bear - if you know what I mean - but, thank goodness, no bear.

Last year, at the Anglican Church's Nicola Cemetery (established in 1905, St. Michael's Anglican Church) which has lots of high grass and holes in the ground, I was so busy watching out in case of snakes that I almost stepped into a whole mess of ants just outside a grave enclosure. This time I did take a picture, but if you can see an ant in there I'll be surprised. I can't, but I swear! there were hundreds - all were busy trotting back and forth in that one area.

CLAPPERTON Monument, Nicola Cemetery, (Anglican), British Columbia, Canada. John T.W. Clapperton, died 1913 and Rose Clapperton, died 1918. 2009 photograph, M. Diane Rogers.

Nicola Cemetery. 2009 photograph, M. Diane Rogers

Many cemeteries have attractive landscape features which may include 'critters' too. Here is a photograph of the beautiful heron fountain just inside the entrance to Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, BC, near where I live. (Herons are my favourite birds.)

Ocean View Burial Park, Burnaby, BC. 2009 photograph of entrance and fountain, M. Diane Rogers.

And just below, is a photograph of the most recent deer I've seen in a local cemetery. This photograph was also taken by me at Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby in 2009.

I just couldn't resist!

The Graveyard Critters edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival will be posted soon by the Association of Graveyard Rabbits on the Association's blog. Be sure to read the full carnival.

THE FINAL RESTING PLACE - GRAVEYARD RABBITS CARNIVAL

2009-12-26T00:07:00.000-08:00

For my post, THE FINAL RESTING PLACE - GRAVEYARD RABBITS CARNIVAL , please click to visit my other blog, CanadaGenealogy, or, Jane's Your Aunt.

Cemetery Pt., Shoal Lake, Manitoba - A Festival of Postcards

2009-12-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Cemetery Pt. Shoal Lake - postcard front

The theme for the upcoming Edition of A Festival of Postcards is: WHITE.

Evelyn Yvonne Theriault, the Festival's Editor, who blogs at A Canadian Family suggested that I submit a cemetery card here at the Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia, Canada. She's accepting anything related to white on postcards, including cards like this that are black and white.

The message on this postcard reads: Dear Joe I am sending you a picture of Shoal Lake which you have probably seen before. It is very pretty there is it not. I spent a day there this summer and enjoyed myself very much. Am writing to you. M.?. D. [bit hard to read the middle initial - could be S or G]

The card is addressed on the back to: Miss Josephine Lauder, c/o Mrs Laidlaw, 274 Furby St. Winnipeg.

Private Post Card; the postcard is a bit obscured but is marked - Birtle, OC, 04.

This card qualifies for the Festival as it's black and white, but also qualifies as its back is mostly white; it's an undivided back card. Postcard backs were originally officially for the address only - that's why the message is on the front - and possibly why the photograph is smaller than we often see, so as to leave room for a handwritten note.

Canada allowed divided back cards from 1903 on. See Postcards from Hamilton's Past for examples from the history of various Canadian commercial cards. I did notice that another Festival of Postcards contributor, Alan Burnett, at News From Nowhere, chose a similar card.

Cemetery Pt. Shoal Lake - postcard back

I had another card in mind originally, but I just found this one at the Vancouver Postcard Club meeting and I wanted to post it to see if anyone has any more information about this cemetery site in Manitoba. I believe it's from the Shoal Lake my mother, born in Manitoba, used to visit. That Shoal Lake is in Shoal Lake Rural Municipality (RM) in southwest Manitoba.

There are 3 Shoal Lakes in Manitoba though, one on the eastern border, shared with Ontario, and one (now three smaller lakes) in the southern Interlake region between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba. The Canada GenWeb Cemetery Project lists 2 cemeteries for the Shoal Lake First Nations in eastern Manitoba, and 11 cemeteries in the Shoal Lake Rural Municipality.

None is identified as at 'Cemetery Point, Shoal Lake', nor does Cemetery Point seem to be an official place name anywhere in Manitoba. However, Shoal Lake Point Burial Site in Shoal Lake RM is listed. I wonder if this is the area shown in this photograph?

If so, the cemetery has been transcribed by George E. Fedyck, but his website is no longer available. If anyone has any information about Cemetery Point at Shoal Lake or about Shoal Lake Point Burial Site, or has contact information for George E. Fedyck, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

This card was sent to Josephine Lauder, who, I think, lived in Winnipeg with her cousins, the Laidlaws, at the time this card was mailed in 1904, and perhaps to at least 1906 when she and a sister, Jessie, are listed in the Canadian census¹ at this same address, living with their cousins, the Laidlaw family, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. There was a LAUDER family living in Marquette District, in Manitoba, which would be near the southwestern Shoal Lake, but I haven't confirmed where Josephine and Jessie had lived earlier.

According to Geographical Names of Canada, from Natural Resources Canada, by the way, there are 15 official places in Canada using the name 'cemetery' -

Cemetery Hill in Alberta (Location 23-2-W5)
Cemetery Creek in British Columbia ( Yale Division, Yale Land District) Cemetery Hill in BC (once called a mountain - New Westminster Land District)
Cemetery Creek in BC (Kootenay Land District)
Cemetery Lake in Manitoba (Location 55-26-W)
Cemetery Hill in Newfoundland/Labrador (Ferryland)
Cemetery Lake in Nova Scotia (Richmond)
Cemetery Point in Nova Scotia (Cape Pictou)
Cemetery Pool in Nova Scotia (Feature - Annapolis)
Cemetery Pool in Nova Scotia (Feature - Inverness)
Cemetery Creek in Ontario (Huron)
Cemetery Creek in Ontario (Rainy River)
Cemetery Lake in Ontario (Lake Sudbury)
Cemetery Lake in Ontario (Lake Kenora)
Cemetery Point in Ontario (Cape Cochrane)

NOTE

¹Josephine LAUDER, aged 27, Jessie LAUDER, aged 25, both born Manitoba. Ancestry.com. 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906. Ottawa, Canada: Library and Archives Canada. RG31, T-18353 to T-18363. LAIDLAW/LAUDER - Manitoba. Winnipeg, Sub-District Ward Three, Sub-District 3D, page 15, family #103, lines 5-10.

My Story's Buried at the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival.

2009-11-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

The theme for this month's Graveyard Rabbit Carnival is "In the News". Write a blog post about something you read or heard in the news (recent or past) that pertains to a cemetery.

This month in the Vancouver area where I live there was a sad cemetery story - but not about a 'human' cemetery - it's about a pet cemetery in Surrey, B.C., the only one in the area here. Before the 1990s, some 600 pets were buried in this privately owned cemetery at an estimated cost of about $600 each for graves and headstones.

The cemetery land was later sold and the cemetery has since been neglected. Soon the land may be available for housing development.

There is still a restrictive covenant, but that expires in January of 2010. It's said that the developer offered to sell the land so that the cemetery could remain, but the price was too high.

This story has attracted a lot of comment locally and now it appears that there are at least 2 human gravestones here too - there might even be human remains. One stone, for example, identifies Murial L. Clerke as a corporal in the W.A.A.F. (British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) who died in 1981, on the 16 August, aged 57.

Kevin Woronchak, owner of North Vancouver’s Until We Meet Again Pet Cremation Inc., is campaigning to save the cemetery. One solution would be to persuade the City of Surrey to make the area a public park. Kevin Woronchak can be reached at 604 - 924-1160.

"Push on to turn pet cemetery into park" CBC News, Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
Surrey pet cemetery nears end by Dan Ferguson, Surrey North Delta Leader, article with video, November 19, 2009.
"So long, Snowball: Surrey pet cemetery to be redeveloped" by Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, November 19, 2009.
"Veteran's memorial stone found in abandoned Surrey pet cemetery.
Save Our Pet Cemetery campaign launched" by Stuart Hunter, The Province, November 18, 2009.

Mountain View Cemetery Tour - November 22 - Vancouver BC

2009-11-19T06:33:00.001-08:00

Ellen Jewel TWISS, Section Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force, Women's Division. Born 1914, died in 1947 at age 32. Commonwealth War Graves Commission stone, Mountain View Cemetery, Masonic section, Plot 105, Lot 1, family plot. Parents: William James Twiss and Sadie Jewel Twiss. Photographed October 2009, M. Diane Rogers.

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC.

In Honour of Remembrance Day Tour - with Lorraine Irving.

In this cemetery, you will find three areas dedicated to veterans.

On this tour, we will feature Commonwealth War Grave monuments starting at the Celebration Hall and ending at the Cross of Sacrifice. Along the way, you will hear stories of veterans, including a nursing sister.

Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 10 a.m. - Meet at the Mountain View Cemetery Celebration Hall & Courtyard (enter cemetery from 39th Avenue at Fraser Street). $10 each person. (Cash only please.)

No reservations needed.

Hot chocolate will be served after the tour - between 11:30 am & Noon.

Mountain View Cemetery, 5455 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3
Phone: 604 - 325 - 2646

More information, including details on tours in 2010, is at the Mountain View Cemetery website.

Related Links:

Canadian Forces after 1918 (including Second World War), Canadian Genealogy Centre, Library and Archives Canada - research sources for Canadian military, including information on obtaining files for those serving in the forces during World War II and database for files of Canadian military killed in WW II, including Ellen Jewel TWISS.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Maple Leaf Legacy Project

Artists and the Green Funeral Movement - Dec 9 2009

2009-11-18T17:26:00.000-08:00

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC - Special Event

Artists and the Green Funeral Movement
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 from 7 - 9 pm
Mountain View's Celebration Hall and Courtyard.

Presented by Mountain View Cemetery and the Britannia Art Gallery.

Two artists, Paula Jardine, Mountain View Cemetery's Artist in Residence, and Joseph Montague, ceramicist and printmaker, will join Glen Hodges, Mountain View Cemetery's Manager, in a panel discussion.

This should be a very interesting evening.

Mountain View Cemetery
5445 Fraser St., Vancouver.
Telephone 604 - 325 - 2646
Mountain View Cemetery website.

In British Columbia since the 1950s, there has been a strong interest in alternative funeral and burial practices, for example, in cremation. It's estimated that 80% of British Columbia's dead are now cremated. While cremation is still often seen as a modern alternative, many now question its effect on our environment and are looking at 'green' burials. A recent article by Darcy Wintonyk for CTV British Columbia, "The Green Hereafter: Eco-burials gain popularity" summarizes some of the debate around this issue. (Published Monday, 7 September 2009 at ctvbc.ca. article link )

The Memorial Society of British Columbia, incorporated in 1956, is BC's only volunteer based memorial society - members have often been in the forefront of change in the province. One of the goals of the Memorial Society of BC now is "to promote environmentally sound arrangements for disposal of remains" and the Society was honoured with the Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition 2008 Award for its work towards the development of the first green burial site in British Columbia - at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria on Vancouver Island. There is more information about green burials on the Society's website.

Royal Oak Burial Park, open since 1923, since 2008 has offered "natural or green burials" in its 1/3 acre Woodland where there are only communal memorial stones. Ashes (cremains/cremated remains) may be scattered in the Woodlands area or Royal Oak offers "'hybrid’ natural burials" in regular burial lots where individualized markers may be placed. For more information about this, see the Royal Oak Burial Park website.

Only one other cemetery in Canada currently offers green burials, and a number of cemeteries in British Columbia require concrete vaults so that even 'hybrid' natural burials wouldn't be possible. Mountain View in Vancouver, however, does allow burials without concrete liners or vaults and as well allows for "multigenerational" use of a family grave or plots.

In addition, the new Celebration Hall and the newer outdoor features lend themselves to more personal commemorations at death as well as to the annual public memorial events created by Paula Jardine, Mountain View's Artist in Residence.

The cemetery's new buildings' display spaces are available to feature artists' funerary works. Joseph Montague has been involved in creating a number of funerary pieces, one of which was chosen for the 'Ashes to Art' exhibition in 2008.

See a catalogue of Joseph Montague's work on his website and see the Public Dreamer website for a look at some of Paula Jardine's work.

My Epitaph - Graveyard Rabbits Carnival - November 2009

2009-10-25T18:57:00.000-07:00

In former times, it was the custom to write for fanciful conceits on the tombs of the dead. Acrostics, anagrams, rebuses and puzzles were frequently met with, and no doubt the mourning relative thought that they thus paid a high mark of respect to the memory of the deceased; but to what good end? Surely here in God's Acre, if anywhere on earth, true reverence and simplicity should be found. No skilful conceit of man can ever take the place of the Word of God, even though it be as pointed and direct as that quaint epitaph written in the form of an acknowledgement from the Great Mother

who will one day clasp us all to her bosom:

"Received of Philip Harding his borrowed earth, July 4, 1673.

from "English Epitaphs", by W. Everard Edmonds.¹ Victoria Daily Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Sunday, 2 June 1907, page 24. (Read the full article at the British Colonist website.)

The challenge for the November 2009 Edition of the Graveyard Rabbits' Carnival was to write my own epitaph.

'Plan Your Epitaph Day', an international observance for November 2nd each year, coincides with All Saint’s Day, often known as the Day of the Dead, and was created by Lance Hardie, "committed epitaph crusader and consultant".

This challenge wasn't hard as when I first published this blog, I included as a side piece a depiction of the epitaph that I hope is appropriate for myself - Most Days She Did Her Best.

Now it's true that, on the back, I'd like to see my dates and place of birth written and, if I could, a family tree showing at least my parents, grands and greats too.

But I'm set now on being buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, where my parents, my uncle, and my paternal grandparents and my paternal grandmother's parents are buried, as well as a good assortment of other family. I doubt there will be room for a big stone just for me!

1. The Harding epitaph, I believe, was from Crudwell, Wiltshire, England. See Antiente epitaphes (from A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1800) collected [and] sett forth in chronologicall order by Thomas FitzArthur Ravenshaw (London: Joseph Masters & Co.. 1878), page 127. Read this at the Internet Archive.

Reverend W. Everard Edmonds, born in Ontario, Canada, wrote several books and articles about Canadian history. After World War I, Edmonds, a high school teacher and an Anglican minister, was Editor of the Alberta Historical Review, the journal of the Historical Society of Alberta. "The Historical Society - early years 1907-1952" by Hugh A. Dempsey (Alberta History, Autumn 2007 - read on-line.)

Night for All Souls - Mountain View Cemetery - Vancouver BC Oct 30-Nov 2 2009

2009-10-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

A Night for All Souls was created by Paula Jardine, Mountain View's Artist in Residence, in 2005. Here is an article from the Vancouver Sun, 27 October 2008, about last year's event.

In 2009, there will be new participants and new activities at the Night for All Souls event, from October 30 to November 2, 2009.

It begins on Friday, October 30th with prayers at sundown. As in previous years, there will be materials on hand to create your own personal memorials or you can join one of the workshops this week. World Tea Party artist Bryan Mulvihill and Ian Willie/Raven Thunderbird will hold a tea ceremony to honour First Nations people buried at Mountain View and, for the first time, local poets, led by Vancouver's Poet Laureate, Brad Cran, will be present reading at various locations in the cemetery. The evening closes at 10 pm.

On Saturday, October 31st, from 8 to 11 pm,Vancouver’s Helping Mex y Can Society will be co-hosting an evening of Mexican traditions to honour the dead with mariachi music, ancient dances of the Aztecs, and traditional Mexican refreshments. There's a Facebook page for this event here.

On Sunday, November 1st, in the afternoon, from 2 to 4 pm, Poet Laureate Brad Cran and poet Stephen Hollis will host a tribute to the late poets Robin Blaser, Kuldip Gill, David Dawson and Billy Little.

Monday, November 2nd, from 5-6 pm, there is a last opportunity for memorials.

And on Tuesday, November 3rd, the closing ceremony will be held at noon.

For more information, see Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver - on Facebook - on Twitter

Roadside and other Public but Personal Memorials - Future Genealogy Source

2009-10-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Further to my last post, Looking for Death Information - Thinking about Genealogy Sources , I'm currently reading Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in British Columbia by John Belshaw and Diane Purvey. (Vancouver, BC: Anvil Press, 2009). I picked up a copy of this new book at Word on the Street in Vancouver last month.

Many of these memorials are, by their nature and construction, ephemeral, but these may also be sources of death information. These often very personal memorials which may be constructed and contributed to almost anonymously are not necessarily all roadside memorials, although those may seem to have the most attention. Memorials in parks or at residences are perhaps less likely to stay up for long.

And, in some jurisdictions in Canada, governments, with the assistance of MADD Canada, are placing permanent memorial markers at traffic accident sites.

Some, including the media in crime cases, are photographing these kinds of memorials, as these authors have done, so collections of today's personal memorial images and records may be available to future researchers.

Here are just a few links to collections and articles on-line

Roadside Memorials, Don Baccus.

RoadsideMemorials.ca

"Crosses, Flowers, and Asphalt: Roadside Memorials in the U.S. South" by
Tom Zarrilli. Southern Spaces, published 19 August, 2009.

A Photo Journey of Mexican Roadside Memorials from the Surf-Mexico Guide to Surfing and Adventure Travel in Mexico website.

Folklore of Roadside Memorials, by psolis, Pablo Solis, at Squidoo.

Looking for Death Information - Thinking about Genealogy Sources

2009-10-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

David Rogers' grave, 1927, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The other day, for fun(!) and for a genealogy class I'm teaching at the Burnaby Community Centred College for the Retired, I sat down with a cup of tea, paper and pen, and made a list of all the sources for death information I could think of at the time. Some will have dates of death, others will have cemetery information or the cause of death, but all are potential sources for genealogical death information. Now I've put an asterisk beside those I've used or found family information in during my own research.

I know there must be more sources, perhaps some very obvious ones - please do comment!

DEATH –POSSIBLE SOURCES OF INFORMATION

*Insurance records
*Land records (deeds, assessments, petitions, etc.)
*Cemetery records (including burial records, photographs)
*Funeral home records or crematorium records
Coffin plates
Memorial jewellery or other momentos
Post-mortem photographs
*Newspaper obituary or article or notice
*Government or other records (other than strictly death related) e.g. disaster reports, commissions, year-end reports of epidemics or mortality, or attorney-general or police or court records (including coroner’s reports), etc. Lists, notices, correspondence regarding government aid to orphans, widows, or burial assistance. Also voters lists and the like.
*Tombstone inscription
*Funeral programme
*Government notices of deaths (e.g. in a newspaper for particular months)
*Death certificate/death registration of individual (or a family member)
*Family letters
*Marriage applications, registrations, invitations, etc. of related person
Pension applications
*City/community directories
*Proved will of individual; wills of family members or others
*Church records, burials, burial charges/services (e.g. burial in wool – England 1666-(1770) 1814), memorial gifts or bequests, sessional records, etc.
*Organization or association records or publications, e.g. Royal Canadian Legion – ‘Last Post’; lists or notices of graves visited on 'Decoration Days'. [Also burial assistance records or cemetery records, if the organization has a cemetery or owns cemetery plots for members' use.]
*Community history book
Ship’s passenger lists
*Family photograph of grave/funeral/monumental inscription
Monument makers record
*Genealogical publications or databases, e.g. D.A.R. applications, also family genealogies
*Guardianship applications
*Medical records –physicians or hospital, also autopsy reports
*Memorial or funeral cards
*Probate or estate files, wills, applications, inventories, etc. of individual or another person
*Census – mortality schedules
*Genealogical/historical society recordings of monumental inscriptions
School records and publications
*Military file of individual or related person
*Urn or container of cremains with official or other label
*Legal ads – newspapers, government gazettes. Also auction or other sale notices
Pension records for individual or related person (company, private, government)
*Family bible or other record, family journals, diaries [My grandmother's address book was very helpful - she even added dates.]
*‘In Memory’ website or Facebook page.
Employment records or publications
*In Memoriam notices – newspapers, other publications. Also Cards of Thanks. [Found a newspaper notice from my great uncle remembering his step-sister - 10 years after her death. That's how I found her date of death.]
*Oral or other family tradition, e.g. ‘died at sea’. [My grandmother remembered lilies of the valley on her brother's grave.]
*Funeral, monument or other cemetery related receipts
*Memorial monuments or rolls (other than cemetery related), e.g. cenotaphs, community memorial plaques
*Union records and publications
Certificate of burial/cremation or transfer/transport of body/ashes

(I'm not thinking about indexes here as those should lead us to the actual documents and artifacts. )

And I could have added:

*Obituary collections - printed, on-line, or in card files, etc. from individuals or genealogical/historical societies/museums, etc. [Hope I am not taking these for granted!]

*Birth records of related individuals may have information on deceased parents, etc.

Receipt for purchase of one share BC Electric Power and Gas Company Ltd., from estate of David J. Rogers, 1927. To be paid to G.W. Hamilton, Esq., Undertaker, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Sombre or Somber Sunday - 6 September 1919 - Vancouver BC Canada

2009-09-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Daily Sun, 6 September 1919 had these notes on deaths:

Deaths and Funerals, page 10

DARWELL—September 4, 1919, at the Vancouver General Hospital, Edythe Leslie Darwell, in her 23rd year, late of 1746 William Street. Funeral service from Center & Hanna’s chapel this afternoon at 1 o’clock. Interment in Mountain View Cemetery.

PHELPS—September 4, 1919, at the family residence, 2034 Thirty-sixth avenue west, Robert Louis Phelps, in his 43rd year. Funeral service from Center & Hanna’s chapel this afternoon at 2:30. Rev. Mr. Wilson officiating. Interment in Ocean View Burial Park.
[The BC Archives Vital Events Index shows his name as Lewis, not Louis, and the place of death as Point Grey which was not part of Vancouver at this time.]

BAILEY—Inquest, page 7

An inquest will be held on the body of J. W. Bailey, a returned soldier, who fell dead in the Maryland cafe. The inquest will probably be held on Monday, according to Dr. T.W. Jeffs, coroner. No relatives of the deceased have been located yet.
[Identified as John Wright BAILEY, aged 52, in the BC Vital Events Index. Death date: 5 September, 1919.]

And from France, page 2

From Paris – a brief report on a two train collision near Toulouse. 13 killed, 40 injured that morning.

*********************
About Sombre Sunday

I post deaths from British Columbia, Canada from
the date of the first Sunday of each month as published in a selected newspaper or other source.

Somber Sunday, or, as we spell it here in Canada, Sombre Sunday, is a day to post obituaries or sad stories - the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts .

Useful links:

BC Archives Vital Events Index & Information

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver

Ocean View Burial Park is in Burnaby, a neighbour city to Vancouver. The BC Genealogical Society has information on burials there and a CD for sale.

Tombstone Tuesday, James Chapman, Whonnock BC Canada

2009-08-25T08:06:00.001-07:00

James Chapman, died in British Columbia, Canada.

According to his WW I Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force attestation papers, he was born in Parry Sound, Ontario 18 January, 1872. He was living in Whonnock, BC in 1911 with his mother, Ann, his brothers, George and Abel, and his sister, Fannie. He died 27 February, 1940. (Library & Archives Canada CEF file: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1627 - 6. Ancestry.com: 1911 Canadian Census database on-line, Whonnock, Dewdney Riding, Maple Ridge Municipality, New Westminster, British Columbia, Enumeration District #40, Page 4, Family No 30. Ancestry.com. 1911 Census of Canada. BC Archives Death Registration: 1940-09-568688. )

Fred Braches has researched and transcribed the Whonnock Cemetery, Whonnock, British Columbia and information on the burials there is on-line - Whonnock Notes #2 Spring 1997 (see link there to a .pdf file).

Cemetery Tours - Vancouver and Burnaby - August-September 2009

2009-08-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

Woodward Mausoleum, Masonic Cemetery, Burnaby, British Columbia. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers.

Front column detail, Woodward Mausoleum, Masonic Cemetery, Burnaby, British Columbia. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers.

Cemetery tours are coming up soon in the Lower Mainland - at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver this Sunday, August 23rd, and on September 13th at the Masonic and Beth Israel cemeteries in Burnaby.

The Vancouver tours will be led by Lorraine Irving of the BC Genealogical Society and John Atkin. John is a local historian and Lorraine has been researching in Mountain View Cemetery for many years and is a very active member of the BCGS. Their tours are on Sunday, August 23rd at 10 am. Meet at 33rd and Fraser Streets on the south west corner - look for the red flag. $10. each. Pre-registration is not necessary.

These are the first in a new series of regular walking tours of Mountain View Cemetery.

The Burnaby cemetery tours are led by Maurice Guibord of the Burnaby Village Museum. Tours start at 10 am. $10.50 each. Please pre-register. You'll be given details then. Register on-line through the website or by phone. Burnaby Village Museum: 604-293-6500.

Maurice is a local historian, the Programme Co-ordinator at the Burnaby Village Museum, and also a BC Genealogical Society member. The Masonic and Beth Israel cemeteries are side-by-side in the Brentwood area. At the Masonic Cemetery, for instance, you'll learn about the architecture and the history of the Woodward Mausoleum shown in these photographs, while at the Beth Israel Cemetery, Jewish burial traditions and graves will be shown and discussed.

Watch for more information about future cemetery tours in the Lower Mainland.

Maurice Guibord discussing the Woodward Mausoleum in the Masonic Cemetery in Burnaby. Photograph, M. Diane Rogers

What would be an appropriate epitaph for Julia Child?

2009-08-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, about the year the author, Julie Powell, cooked every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogged about it all. I did find the book funny, although even Julia Child in person couldn't get me cooking some of these things (and perhaps Julia Child wasn't impressed with Julie's project anyway).

After Child's death, Julie Powell at first envisioned Julia with her husband Paul again toasting "whatever comes next" but at the end of Julie and Julia, she
says she thinks Julia's in a grave with a "cool headstone" and she gives her readers a guess what the epitaph is. Well, I immediately thought 'The End' since Julia Child was an author. No, that's not right.

According to Find A Grave, Julia Child's body wasn't buried. Her ashes were scattered instead, perhaps in Santa Barbara and Maine, USA. I see there are over 700 messages there on the Find A Grave memorial pages for Julia Child. That's quite a memorial in itself.

Now what would be a good epitaph though?
Maybe this - often attributed to Julia Child - "Life itself is the proper binge."

Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell (New York: Back Bay Books, 2005).

Somber Sunday - 2 August 1888 - British Columbia Canada

2009-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Somber Sunday - 2 August 1888

For Sombre Sunday, I post deaths from British Columbia, Canada from the date of the first Sunday of each month as published in a selected newspaper or other source.

Today these are from the Victoria Daily Colonist, published in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Thursday, 2 August, 1888. See below for the link to the British Colonist Online website to read the entire articles.

Deaths Mentioned from British Columbia –

A report from the Donald Truth newspaper about the inquest into the death of William ARCHER, shot near Golden, B.C., and the arrest of Michael KENNEDY for the murder. Both were married men and ranch owners. Kennedy had apparently been a witness in a case against Archer which had involved a Mrs. WILLIAMS. Page 1

~~~
Johnny KLA-QUOT-SI “discharged from custody” in the DRING and MILLER case. [James MILLER and W.H. DRING were murdered near Chemainus in February, 1886.] The judge ruled the witness was not credible and also ruled Kla-quot-si’s confession inadmissable. QUAMLET, "the principal murderer,...[had] died in prison.” Page 1

~~~
Mr. T. ARGYLE returned from searching the Race Rocks area for the bodies of his son Tom and others recently drowned. Page 4

[Thomas Argyle, H.E. Leavitt SMITH, Arthur WILLIAMS and Abraham VANDERSLUSE were reported drowned while rowing to the lighthouse at Race Rocks where Thomas’s father was lighthouse keeper. See Victoria Daily Colonist, 31 July, 1888, page 4, for the initial report.]

~~~
“The funeral of the unfortunate Cyprian took place yesterday afternoon and was attended by a long line of carriages containing the ‘demi monde’ element, and some of their male friends.” Page 4

[This, I believe, was the funeral of Mabel Vaughan, who died 30 July, 1888. The newspaper reported her death on 31 July 1888, p. 4, saying she “for some years has been an inmate of a house of ill-fame on Broad Street...]

~~~
Impressive Funeral Ceremonies – a very full description of the funeral of the Very Rev. John J. JONCKAU, 1 August, 1888 at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, including pall bearers’ names, etc. The funeral procession included the St. Joseph’s Society, Young Men’s Institute, Acolytes, Cross Bearer, The Clergy, Bishop-Elect LEMMENS, Rt. Reverend Bishop LOUTTENS, Pall Bearers, The Sisters of St Ann and The Orphans, then the General Public (shown in a diagram in this order). At the end of the service the casket was laid in the vault beneath the church – alongside the casket of the late Bishop Demers.

“Up to the time that the casket was closed, the features retained the calm, placid appearance of one in a gentle sleep, and showed not the slightest sign of decay....Mr. Chas. HAYWOOD had charge of the funeral arrangements throughout.” Page 4

~~~
Also rumour of a murder at Hequiot. Page 4

Deaths from Elsewhere –

Clarke River. Ontario – A report from Kingston that two men, Joseph and Louis ROSEL, had killed another man. “Drink was the cause.” Page 1

China – A report from Montreal – Dr William YOUNG of Montreal died in China. Dr YOUNG had left Montreal to practice in Hong Kong in 1878. He later accepted a position as “chair of chemistry” in Montreal for “one season”, but returned to Hong Kong. Page 1

“Frank HALL, the celebrated painter, is dead.” Page 1

Dublin, Ireland – "Aug 1 - Patrick BERRY, only recently returned from America, and now residing near Listowel, has been arrested on suspicion of murdering Farmer FORARN on Saturday." Page 1

Kentucky, USA – Dr. Robert MORRIS, the “poet-laureate of Masonry and the most distinguished Mason in the world”, died “on Tuesday morning.....Dr. MORRIS will be well remembered for his visit to Victoria about a year ago...” Page 2

Brooklyn, New York, USA – Dr Winslow I PRICE, “died on Sunday, aged 60 years.” Page 4

Bloomington, New York, USA - Bartley CAMPBELL, “the well known playwright, died at the Bloomington N.Y., assylum [sic] for the Insane.....” Page 4

Estate Notices

Re estate of W.E. BLACKETT, Nanaimo, Contractor – J.C. BLACKETT, Administrator. Page 3

Re estate of William Francis MORRISON, New Westminster, Hotel Keeper – W.H. FALDING, Administrator. Page 3

Related Advertiesements

Chas. HAYWARD – Funeral Director and Embalmer – Langley Street Victoria. Page 3

Ladies who wear Black by choice will always find the most varied selection at the City House. Page 4

This issue of the newspaper can be read at The British Colonist Online 1858-1910: http://www.britishcolonist.ca/

Somber Sunday, or, as we spell it here in Canada, Sombre Sunday, is a day to post obituaries or sad stories - the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts .

Mountain View Cemetery Open House - July 2009 - Vancouver BC Canada

2009-07-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

Harpist in Mountain View Cemetery's Celebration Hall courtyard, 11 July, 2009, Vancouver BC

Today, along with other volunteers from the British Columbia Genealogical Society, I attended Mountain View Cemetery's Open House. Mountain View Cemetery is owned and operated by the City of Vancouver and opened in 1887, but many areas in the cemetery have recently been renovated or rebuilt. There is new landscaping, new columbaria and new offices and a Celebration Hall. This event offered Vancouverites and others an opportunity to see those improvements.

The weather was glorious and everyone I talked to was enjoying the music, the tours, the new cemetery facilities and the chance to meet others interested in the cemetery and its history.

Some visitors were from old Vancouver families with many relatives resting at Mountain View. Others were new to the city and wanting to get to know it better. Quite a few were Mountain View neighbours and are accustomed to walking through the cemetery regularly - as one fellow said: 'this is our marble park'. And a few were genuine taphophiles - people with a passion for enjoying and learning about cemeteries.

British Columbia Genealogical Society and Veterans Affairs Canada tables, in the Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC. 11 July, 2009

Inscription sandblasting exhibit, Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC, 11 July 2009

BCGS volunteers, Brenda Smith and Cynthia Hamilton, Celebration Hall, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC. 11 July 2009

Today the BC Genealogical Society had a table, as did Veterans Affairs Canada which has participated in several of the renewal projects for veterans' memorials at Mountain View.

We brought books and articles about BC cemeteries, including our own index of Mountain View gravestones, and we answered lots of questions about these and about family history research in general.

Our main aim today though was to interest Mountain View Cemetery visitors in joining a new 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group. Many signed our contact list. We hope to encourage and support cultural programmes at the cemetery, including regular tours and the annual Night for All Souls event, for example, as well as heritage preservation and education at and about Mountain View.

I noticed that many were also interested in Veterans Affairs projects, especially the 'Valentines for Vets' project. What a great idea!

Mountain View Cemetery had a display showing how inscriptions are sandblasted and cemetery staff were on hand all day looking up burial information and grave locations - often there was a linelup for this service. I have a couple of Mountain View burial 'puzzles' myself, but I saved those for another visit.

Outside in the cemetery, Lorraine Irving, a BCGS member and long time Mountain View Cemetery researcher, and John Atkin, a Vancouver heritage guide and writer, gave group tours. These were well attended, and afterwards many came into the hall in search of further information about the 'Friends'. The City of Vancouver has a video on-line about the history of Mountain View Cemetery featuring Lorraine Irving and Glen Hodges, Mountain View's manager. As Lorraine says, a cemetery is "a museum without walls" and Mountain View certainly reflects the history of Vancouver.

Lorraine Irving is the real inspiration behind the 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' idea and she has plans for many different tour themes which we hope will become regular events. Right now, John Atkin has written two self guided tours - one on Vancouver's Mayors and one on the Princess Sophia sinking in 1918.

By far my own favourite among the recently renovated areas at the cemetery is the Infants section, formerly a communal grave area, which now commemorates about 10,000 stillborn or very young infants buried in the cemetery between 1914 and 1971 - most in common graves. In 2005-2006, this was landscaped with a dry stream bed - "One Stone for Every Infant..." where stones engraved with an infant's name can be placed.

This is now a very pleasing area and many today listened to music under the trees and then wandered through the paths here. Others, as you can see, took the time to place flowers on their family graves or simply sat and reflected.

Above photographs, Infants Area, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC. 11 July 2009

All in all, a very good day. I do hope that Mountain View Cemetery's Open House will become an annual summer event in Vancouver.

If you'd like to know more about the 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group, please contact me at canadagenealogy at shaw.ca

Open House - July 11, 2009 - Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver BC Canada

2009-07-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

In Loving Memory of Sarah Ann Saggers Born June 10, 1849, Kelshall, Herts, Eng Died Oct. 13, 1909. Thy Will Be Done.

Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC, Canada

(Horne 1-5-04-010-0009) Family collection; photograph date unknown.

Coming up this Saturday is an Open House event at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

There will be live music, various demonstrations of Chinese traditions and guided tours of the cemetery by John Atkin and by Lorraine Irving. Lorraine is a very active member of the British Columbia Genealogical Society and a long time Mountain View Cemetery researcher. Don't miss her tour.

If you haven't been by the cemetery recently, you may want to have a good look at the changes and improvements made at Mountain View in recent years - for instance, the new columbaria, the Celebration Hall and the nearby gardens with water features.

Cemetery staff are suggesting that on Saturday you 'picnic by the fountain' and help start a new summer tradition at Mountain View Cemetery. I'm all for this, although I know some are not so enthusiastic.

You may see me over in Horne 1 -5 -04 -010 -0009. Nowadays there are few monuments at all in that area of the cemetery but Great grandma Sarah Ann is buried there (and, I believe, Great grandpa too, although Mountain View has no record of him).

Mountain View Cemetery's website has a new look, but still features all the same useful information - including maps and listings of the burials,

along with a good bit of history.

The Mountain View Open House invitation says:

"After 120 years, it’s the beginning of a new relationship between the public and Mountain View, Vancouver’s only cemetery." Especially for those of us with strong family ties to Mountain View, it will be interesting to see what develops in the future.

Since 2005, the cemetery has hosted the Night for All Souls event which is now very well attended. I've written about All Souls before, and hope the summer event will prove as successful.

A number of people are keen to form a 'Friends of Mountain View Cemetery' group or committee. If you're interested, there will be a table for the Friends at the Open House. Be sure to come by and talk with us about this.

Bitterest Tears - Quotation - Harriet Beecher Stowe

2009-06-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

from Little Foxes by Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe, published under the pseudonym, Christopher Crowfield, page 128. (Boston, USA: Fields Osgood & Co., 1869)
(Accessed at Google Books. Original from Harvard University, digitized 27 Nov 2007: http://books.google.ca/books?id=1OgRAAAAYAAJ )

Her grave is in Phillips Academy's Cemetery at Andover in Massachusetts, USA. She was born 14 June 1811; died 1 July 1896.
Her husband and one son were buried in this cemetery before her.

A description of her funeral was published in The New York Times.

MRS. STOWE'S FUNERAL; The Burial at Andover -- Her Old Home in Mourning.
4 July, 1896, Wednesday, page 4.

Somber Sunday - 7 June 1899 - Vancouver BC Canada

2009-06-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

For Sombre Sunday, I post deaths from British Columbia, Canada from the first Sunday of each month as published in a selected newspaper or other source.

Today, two sad stories which were published in Victoria, British Columbia's Daily Colonist newspaper, 7 June 1899, although both events occurred in Vancouver, BC.

First, "A Murderer Let Suicide"

Donald Perrier, convicted of stabbing to death his mistress, Jennie Anderson (aka Rogers)1, in New Westminster, 30 November 1898, tried to kill himself on 6th of June with a pen-knife. Perrier had been granted a month's reprieve while doctors decided if he was sane or not. The newspaper reported that the knife he used "which was evidently smuggled in" to his cell was new.

He had claimed the killing was in self defence. According to the paper, Jennie Anderson had refused to continue as his mistress and he had followed her from Vancouver to New Westminster where she was stabbed in her room "in a house of ill fame".2

Perrier did recover, and was executed 30 June 1899 at New Westminster.

Second "A Sad Experience"

Another chapter is chronicled in the checkered life of Peter Deville, the famous French Pete, Klondike King and discoverer of the Treadwell mines. Deville is over 60 years old...." On visiting Paris where he was born he had fallen "in love with the daughter of an old friend of bygone days. The girl was but 20, very beautiful and highly cultured....Deville asked her to share his millions and become his bride."

Married six weeks before, they had just arrived in Vancouver when Deville's bride became ill and died. Deville "says he would give up all his wealth and become a beggar if it would bring back his wife."

Mina Deville died in hospital 6 June 1899 and was buried in Vancouver's Mountain View Cemetery.

This post was written for Somber Sunday, or, as we spell it here in Canada, Sombre Sunday, which is a day to post obituaries or sad stories - the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts .

Notes

Note 1 The Canadian Death Penalty Index shows the victim as Annie Anderson but the death registration and all the newspaper articles I have seen call her 'Jennie'.

Note 2 This one quotation is from the Victoria Daily Colonist, 14 April, 1899, p. 8. All others are from the paper, 7 June, 1899. Located at The British Colonist Online Edition, 1858-1910</span>

Nelson, British Columbia, Canada - CAMPION, JONES

2009-05-17T06:27:00.000-07:00

Nelson Memorial Park (Cemetery), Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

In Loving Memory of
William Richard & Sarah Ann Campion
Donated by their Daughter, Wilma Jones

Comic Cemetery Postcard -Tombstone Tuesday - BOND - Kenton Manitoba Canada

2009-05-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

Postmarked: Carberry, Man. MR 24 09 PM

Addressed to: Mr. Myrle Bond, Kenton, Man

Hello, Myrl

This is Sunday and it is storming I guess I aint going to be able to see Kenton this winter We unloaded our Auto's this week and they are just slick. I found that 35¢ of yours up stairs on dresser. So goodbye Hugh.

Somber Sunday - 3 May 1883, Yale, British Columbia, Canada

2009-05-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

For Sombre Sunday, I post deaths from British Columbia, Canada from the first Sunday of each month as published in a selected newspaper or other source.

The items today are from the Inland Sentinel, a newspaper from Yale, BC, issue dated 3 May 1883. At this time, much of the news is about the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the area and the 'opening up' of land thereabouts to settlement.

Advertisement, p. 2

Public Notice
$1,000 REWARD!

Whereas one AENEAS DEWAR 1 was, about the month of July 1882, murdered at or near Cherry Creek, by some person or persons unknown.
Notice is hereby given that a Reward of One Thousand Dollars will be paid by the Government for such information as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of the offender or offenders.
By Command
John Robson
Provincial Secretary,
Provincial Secretary's Office,
15 March 1883

From p. 3

KILLED-A middle-aged man named John CARR 2 was killed last Sunday morning at Camp 14, by the falling of some rock. He was badly mashed up; the remains were brought to Yale and buried Tuesday. We have not been able to learn particulars as to where deceased came from, or the length of time employed.

Also p. 3

There are at present seven patients in the Accident Hospital 3 here and they are recovering as speedily as could be expected.

1 Aeneas DEWAR, a Scotchman, was a tax collector for the provincial government. Apparently his body was found in a cabin at Cherry Creek. See, for instance, a report in the British Colonist of 22 October, 1882 and a letter to the Editor written by 'Prairie' calling for a reward to be offered, dated 7 January 1883 from the Okanagan, published in the British Colonist, 25 January 1883. This reward ad appeared in several newspapers and many times in 1883.

2 John CARR's death was registered as 29 April, 1883. BC Death Registration #1883-09-236630. His age was given as 27 and his religion as Roman Catholic. The cause of death was given as 'Fracture of skull and various other bones. Immediate." There was an additional note --"This man was killed by a slide of rock above No 14 Quesnel. Particulars to be given by the District Superintendent."

3 The Accident Hospital at Yale was for white, male railway construction workers.

This post was written for Somber Sunday, or, as we spell it here in Canada, Sombre Sunday, which is a day to post obituaries or sad stories - the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts.

Abdie Kirkyard Gravestone Photo - TourScotland

2009-04-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

Sandy Stevenson, who has organized and guided small group tours of Scotland for twelve years now, has been posting Scottish photographs on-line, both contemporary and historical ones. He's on Twitter - as tourscotland - and he has several blogs, including the Tour Scotland Photographs blog.

This morning he posted his own great photograph of a gravestone at Abdie Kirkyard in North Fife, Scotland which shows old agricultural tools. He has many other graveyard and kirk photographs.

Have a look at this Abdie Kirkyard gravestone here. If you click on the photo, you will see it full screen.

Sandy's other blogs include Genealogy Tours of Scotland.

In an earlier post, Tombstone Tuesday - Auld Burial Ground, Galashiels, Scotland, 2004... I referred to the 1896 book, In Search Of Gravestones Old And Curious, by W.T. [William Thomas] Vincent which has a few other examples of 'agricultural' gravestones. A copy of this with illustrations is available at Project Gutenberg. See my post above for a direct link.

And see GENUKI for genealogical resources for Abdie in Fife, Scotland.

Somber Sunday - 5 April 1882, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

2009-04-05T12:25:00.000-07:00

Somber Sunday, or, here in Canada, Sombre Sunday, a day to post obituaries or sad stories, is the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts.

I am posting deaths from British Columbia, Canada the first Sunday of each month – today from The British Colonist, 5 April, 1882

PARALYZED – We regret to hear that Captain JACK, chief wharfinger ¹ of the Hudson Bay Company, has been stricken with paralysis and is lying seriously ill at his residence. p.3

WHAT SOME PEOPLE SAY – That John KENNEDY, a Victoria pioneer, is dying at Seattle of pneumonia. p. 3

Also Legal Notices

Re Estate of Thomas LEWIS of Sumas; contact Mrs Thomas LEWIS of Sumas BC p.1
Re Estate of David Latimer BALLANTINE; John James BALLANTINE, Adminstrator p.1
Re Estate of James LOWE, late night watchman at the Albion Foundry; Mr Joseph SPRATT, Administrator p.1
Re Estate of John LEWIS, late of the town of Yale. Also concerning James CAMPBELL, Frank CROTTY, George STUART p.1
Re Estate of Hugh ROSS, late of Barkerville; Alex MUNRO, Executor, Victoria p.1
Re Estate of Peter BROWN; Joseph MASON, Administrator, Barkerville, p.2

And from page 1, an intriguing note:

Mr HAYWARD begs to intimate that he (sic) coffins lately seized by the customs authorities were not imported by him. ²

Further regarding James JACK, from The British Colonist, 6 March, 1882, p.3

DEATHS
In this city, on the 5th inst., James JACK, a native of Paisley, Scotland, aged 51 years.
The funeral will take place on SUNDAY at 2 p.m. from the residence, Superior street, and from the Presbyterian Church, Courtenay street at 2:30 oclk.
Friends are invited to attend.

DEATH OF A WORTHY CITIZEN
Capt. James JACK, wharfinger for the Hudson Bay Company, who was stricken with paralysis on Monday evening, died early yesterday morning. On Monday he was in excellent health and spririts and attended to his duties on the wharf as usual. Between 7 and 8 o’clock, while in his own house, he was suddenly paralyzed. Mrs. JACK conducted him to a sofa, but he never spoke intelligibly and scarcely moved after. Capt. JACK was a worthy and greatly respected citizen. Faithful, energetic and assiduous there was no employee of the great corporation in whose service he was for fifteen years, who was more entitled to their esteem and confidence. Capt. JACK leaves a wife and daughter to lament his untimely decease. ³

Notes:
1 wharfinger – from my big 1958 Oxford International Dictionary – 1552 – old form wharfager – an owner or manager of a wharf
2 I believe this would be Charles HAYWARD, undertaker (and carpenter, contractor). He was later a Mayor of Victoria, as was one son, Reginald. The company is still in business.
3 James JACK’s death registration gives the cause of death as: cerebral apoplexy 3 days. James’ Jack’s wife was Ángela (also indexed as Angalah/Anglah) GURARO (d 1912); the daughter was Helen Louisa (d 1886). Angela was born in Mexico, Helen Louisa in California. Both died in Victoria, BC, Canada. If anyone has a connection, I do have additional information about their life in British Columbia. I am not related and as far as I know there are no descendants for any of the three. They are buried together in Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria.

Newspaper references, all from The British Colonist, Victoria, British Columbia, on-line: www.britishcolonist.ca
^{I 'accidentally' posted this article to my other blog, CanadaGenealogy first. (Must make more coffee!) so am posting as a duplicate here. Watch this blog for future Sombre Sundays though.}

Chinese Funerary Burners, Tombstone Tuesday

2009-03-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Funerary Burners, at the Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point, in Victoria,

British Columbia, Canada. Photographs, M. Diane Rogers, May 2007

Resources on-line

Chinese Funerary Burners: A Census, compiled by Terry Abraham

Chinese Funerary Burners: A Bibliography, compiled by Terry Abraham

Chinese Cemetery at Harling Point, Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Harling Point Chinese Cemetery, Victoria, BC, Canada, Graveyard Rabbit of British Columbia, Canada

Chinese Cemetery - Nanaimo, BC, Canada - Tombstone Tuesday

2009-03-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Chinese Cemetery, Townsite Road, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

Photographs taken by M. Diane Rogers, May 2008

This cemetery first opened in 1924, and was paid for by members of the Chinese Canadian community in the Nanaimo area (from Chemainus to Qualicum Beach). In the background a burner for spiritual offerings can be seen.

In the 1970s, the Cemetery was refurbished by Nanaimo's Chinese Canadian community and donated to the City of Nanaimo which now operates it. This is no longer exclusively a Chinese cemetery, but the name has been kept.

Sombre Sunday - 8 March 1888, Victoria, BC, Canada

2009-03-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Somber Sunday, or, ahem, Sombre Sunday, a day to post obituaries or sad stories, is the idea of Brenda Kay Wolfgram Moore who writes at Day-ly Genealogy Blogposts: www.hte46.blogspot.com

I will be posting deaths from British Columbia, Canada.

Those for today were from Vancouver Island and New Westminster, BC as published in The British Colonist newspaper, Victoria, BC, 8 March, 1888.

DEATHS, p. 4
KINGSFORD, At St. Joseph’s Hospital, on the 5th inst., George M. Kingsford, aged 28 years, a native of Halifax, N.S. [mention of funeral]

[ADVERTISEMENT], p. 1
Members of Victoria-Columbia Lodge, No. 1 of the A.F. & A.M. are hereby notified to attend the funeral of our late Bro. George Moore Kingsford, of St. Andrew Lodge, Halifax, N.S., from the Masonic Temple,
On Thursday, (To-Day) at 3:30 pm
Members of Vancouver-Quadra Lodge, No. 2 and sojouring brethren in good standing, are cordially invited to attend.
By order of W.M.
R.B.Esnouf, Secretary mar 8

A PIONEER GONE, p. 4
Mr. James PRICE, a native of Belfast, Ireland, died last evening at the Royal Hospital, aged 72 years. He was an old pioneer of the province.

LOCAL BRIEFS, p. 4
John HANNIGAN, a prisoner at the penitentiary, New Westminster, died on Monday morning last.

LEGAL NOTICES, p. 2
There were also legal notices about 2 estates.

George MILLS, late of Saanich; executrix Mrs. Margaret Ann Mills
Patrick MURPHY, late of Comox; Very Reverend J.J. Jonckau, executor

Recent deaths from elsewhere in Canada and the United States are reported, for instance the death of “Louise A. Allcott, the well-known authoress” p. 4

From The British Colonist, Online Edition, 1858-1910
http://www.britishcolonist.ca

You can search the British Columbia, Canada Vital Events genealogy indexes on-line. Deaths - 1872-1988: www.bcarchives.bc.ca

The British Columbia Genealogical Society will look up copies of British Columbia birth, marriage and death registrations, obituaries, and much more for a nominal fee. See www.bcgs.ca or e-mail: queryrequest@bcgs.ca

Tombstone Tuesday - Auld Burial Ground, Galashiels, Scotland, 2004 - From My Cemetery Travels

2009-03-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

The gate of the Auld Burial Ground at Galashiels, Scotland (also called Old Burial Ground, Old Town, or Gala Aisle Burial Ground or Cemetery), photographs taken June 2004.

Gala Aisle, the burial vault built in 1636, seen to your right through the gate, was originally beside the parish kirk, which was demolished circa 1813-18. Seen beyond the graveyard is St Paul's Kirk steeple.

Some tombstones. I do have a few more photographs from this cemetery and will put them on Flickr.com soon.

The smaller right hand side tombstone from the previous photograph has a fascinating front, now almost up against a tree. There are no longer any visible names or dates. There is visible a skull, some flowers, suns, asterisks? and what appears to be the number 'four' in bones. One author had this to say about the 'number four' motif in Scotland:

"....The other trade emblems speak for themselves, excepting the reversed figure 4 in the stone of 1710 (No. 3). This sign has been variously interpreted, but the most reliable authorities say that it is a merchant's mark used not only in Stirling but in other parts of Scotland, if not of England. There are in Howff Burial-ground, Dundee, and in many country churchyards round about that town and Stirling, numerous varieties of this figure, some having the "4" in the ordinary unreversed shape, some with and some without the *, some of both shapes resting on the letter "M," and others independent of any support whatever. It has also been supposed to have some connection with the masons' marks frequently to be seen in old churches, and is even regarded as possibly of prehistoric origin."13

Figure 1710

Footnote 13: The vulgar explanation of the sign is "4d. discount on the shilling," and some of the guide-books are not much better informed when they assume that it marks Stirling as the fourth city of Scotland, for in the old roll of Scottish burghs Stirling stands fifth

Quoted from In Search Of Gravestones Old And Curious. Author: W.T. (William Thomas) Vincent. Release Date: July 21, 2004 [EBook #12978: html version: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12978/12978-h/12978-h.htm p. 88-

Originally

GRAVESTONES
OLD AND CURIOUS.
With One Hundred and Two Illustrations
BY
W. T. VINCENT,
PRESIDENT OF THE WOOLWICH DISTRICT ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY;
AUTHOR OF "THE RECORDS OF THE WOOLWICH DISTRICT,"
ETC., ETC.
LONDON:
MITCHELL & HUGHES, 140, WARDOUR STREET.
1896.

Galashiels Old Burial Ground, Galashiels Town Trail tour: http://www.galashiels.border-net.co.uk/trail/burialground.html

Here are a few photographs of this cemetery on the Geograph British Isles project which is collecting collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland, : http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=5486447

For transcriptions of monumental inscriptions for this Galashiel cemetery, also for Galashiels deaths 1762-1788, contact Nigel Hardie, Selkirk Genealogy: http://www.sgtranscriptions.co.uk/6.html

Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens in North Vancouver, BC, Canada - Winter 2009

2009-02-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens in North Vancouver, BC, Canada is not a traditional cemetery; it's a 'cremation cemetery', featuring columbariums, a rose garden and a 'forest grove', and the lake area which is shown in these photographs. There are a number of different kinds of arrangements for memorial inscriptions - from small, simple markers placed in landscaped areas to plaque installations, inscriptions on walls or 'shutters' , inscribed benches, etc. In some cases, memorial inscriptions may have been added for family members whose remains are not here. Originally there were only plastic markers in the ground, grey granite walls or 'shutters' with names inscribed, and the Heather Columbarium. Significant additions and changes have been made in recent years. I believe the pillars and other installations around the lake were done in 2000.

Cremation is very popular here - today apparently some 70% of British Columbia's deceased are cremated. Boal Chapel's originator, Doug Foreman, was one of the members of the Memorial Society of BC which formed in 1956 and he opened an alternative funeral services business in the early 1960s.

His memorial inscription at Boal Chapel reads:

"This sycamore tree was planted in memory of J. Douglas Foreman,founder, who died March 4, 1976. His aim was to provide service which
would ease the emotional and financial burdens of final arrangements and
preserve in memory the life rather than the death of the deceased."

Mr. Foreman's funeral business became First Memorial Funeral Services. Since the late 1980's, Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens and First Memorial Funeral Services have been owned and operated by Service Corp. International (SCI).

Several family members and friends of mine are remembered in this cemetery and I was there recently for a memorial service for Bev Sherman, the British Columbia Genealogical Society member who transcribed the memorial inscriptions here for the Society. Boal Chapel, as it's most often known here, is part way up one of our 'North Shore' mountains and there was still quite a bit of snow on the grounds. I noticed how many visitors have left decorations, flowers or plants at or near a loved one's plaque - some were clearly Valentine's Day tokens.

The Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens is open every day. This is a quiet, calm, peaceful place to walk or, in better weather, to sit in the sunshine and reflect on happy memories.

Members of the British Columbia Genealogical Society have published a CD of memorial inscriptions from Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens, North Vancouver. If you are interested in obtaining a copy, or you have a British Columbia genealogical research query, see the BCGS website: http://www.bcgs.ca/

Boal Chapel Memorial Gardens and First Memorial Funeral Services, 1505 Lilloet Road, North Vancouver, BC. is accessible by public transit, although there is a bit of a walk uphill from the bus stop. There is parking if you were to drive there: www.firstmemorialfuneral.com/northvan

This post was written for the very first Graveyard Rabbits Carnival - from the Association of Graveyard Rabbits.

Burnaby South High School World War II Memorial, British Columbia, Canada

2009-01-31T19:53:00.000-08:00

This post is a response to the new Weekly Genea-Blogger Prompt. This week's was 'Take a genealogy day trip and blog about it.'

For some time, I've been meaning to travel away across the city I live in to take new photographs of this Burnaby South High School War Memorial on Southoaks Crescent, just off Sperling and Kingsway, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

On Thursday, I had an good opportunity to do this. The last time I was on this street it was really winter. Then I had to brush the snow and ice off with my mittened hands to read the names inscribed. This week, although it was misty and cold, there was little snow left around. As you can see, several apartment towers now dwarf the park, but many people live and walk in this area or come by when visiting the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre which is in the same block.

The photographs above and below show the Burnaby South High School Cenotaph and the three Memorial Tennis Courts honouring 51 of the High School's students who died in service during World War II. Dedicated on November 10, 1948 by South Burnaby Royal Canadian Legion Post 83 and Burnaby South high school students, the memorial was the site of Remembrance Day ceremonies for the school until it closed in 1993.

At that time, the City of Burnaby designated this area Burnaby South Memorial Park. The 1914 building to the east is known today as the Alan Emmott Centre, but was originally Kingsway East (elementary) School. From 1922, this building was Burnaby South High School's manual training building. In 2002, it was re-purposed as a community centre and is the home of Burnaby's Community-Centred College for the Retired.

In 2004, the Burnaby South memorial courts and cenotaph were re-dedicated by Burnaby South Secondary School and the South Burnaby Royal Canadian Legion Post 83.

The surnames on the cenotaph are:

BARKER
BORRETT
BRADSHAW
BROOKMAN
BUCKINGHAM
BRYANT
CAMPBELL
CLAY
COSH
CULLEN
CUSTANCE
DOLTER
FERNQUIST
FISHER
FITZGERALD
FREBERG
FREEMAN
GREENWOOD
HALLDING
HARDY
IRVING
LINDEMERE
MCCOMBIE
MCINTOSH
MCKERCHER
MCLACHLAN
MCWILLIAMS
MANSON
MIDDLETON
NESBITT
NORRIS
NORTHEY
O’CONNOR
OWEN
PEARDON
POWER
QUINN
RIDGEWAY
SHERRY
SMITH
SMITH
SPACKMAN
STOCKEN
THOMAS
THOMAS
THOMAS
WALKINSHAW
WESTLEY
WHITTAKER
WILSON
WILSON

For more information on any of these, see first the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website for unit information, place of burial, and other details, usually including next of kin: http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14

Library and Archives Canada now has an index on-line to identify the files held for Canadian World War II dead. Copies of these files can be ordered or you must pre-order to see the files yourself in Ottawa at the Archives: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/war-dead/index-e.html

Burnaby Remembers. The City of Burnaby has sponsored several projects to identify and honour the city's war dead, including those who died in World War II: http://www.city.burnaby.bc.ca/residents/about/hstryh/brnby_rmmbrs.html

See also "Burnaby South High School Students, 1930’s and World War II" by Eunice Robinson, The British Columbia Genealogist, December 2005 Volume 34 #4, p. 178

Alloway Kirk, Scotland - Burns Grave

2009-01-25T20:04:00.000-08:00

Alloway Kirk, Scotland, postcard, unmailed, splitback. (no year given)

addressed to Mrs. J. P. Estham, Gordon Head PO, Victoria, BC

X Burn's father 6th Sept
Dear Mother: We have been to the Burn's Country & we think it more beautiful than ever. Love to all. M. Alexander

All over the world today Scots of all kinds are celebrating the poet Robbie Burns's 250th birthday.

Robert Burns: 25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796

Above is a photo of Alloway Kirk in South Ayrshire, Scotland, the supposed setting for one of Burns' famous poems, 'Tam O' Shanter', and the resting place of Burns' father, William.

Although William Burns' Alloway headstone mentions Agnes Brown (or Broun), Burn's mother, she was not buried here. Her grave at Bolton in East Lothian, Scotland is being restored by the Grants Braes Burns Club.

Burns himself was buried in St. Michael's churchyard at Dumfries, Scotland on the 25th July, 1796. Some years after his death, a mausoleum was built and, in 1815, his remains were interred there.

Photos of the front and back of William Burn's (or Burnes or Burness) gravestone at Alloway Kirk with transcriptions, Martin J. Galloway, Klickthis: http://www.klickthis.com/article_alloway_auld_kirk.html

Alloway Old Kirk - photos of some of the other interesting headstones (a blacksmith's, maybe a farmer and a miller's) and of two mortsafes, Undiscovered Scotland: http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/alloway/oldkirk/index.html

Graveyard Restoration Project, Grants Braes,The Burns Club: http://www.grantsbraes.org.uk/graveyard-restoration.html

Photo of the Grave of Robert Burns' Mother (Agnes Brown), kevin 76, Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/kevinr/3043727112

1882 photo of Burn's mausoleum, National Burns Collection (search for more images of the mausoleum): http://www.burnsscotland.com/database/record.php?usi=000-000-135-680-C&scache=62acugz7za&searchdb=scran

Funeral of Robert Burns, The Burns Encyclopedia: http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/FuneralofRobertBurnsThe.371.shtml

Image of Burns' funeral procession by W. E. Lockhart, National Library of Scotland : http://www.nls.uk/burns/mainsite/final/final.htm

Anastasia G. WIENS, Sardis, BC, Canada - Wordless Thursday

2009-01-22T00:20:00.000-08:00

Greendale Cemetery (First Mennonite Church and Mennonite Brethren Church), Sardis, British Columbia, Canada

Epitaphs - the magazine for and by cemetery lovers

2009-01-21T10:47:00.000-08:00

Just received my new issue of Epitaphs, Fall & Winter 2008.

Great photographs from around the world - heartbreaking ones by Epitaphs's Editor in Chief, Minda Powers-Douglas in "Chippiannock Cemetery's Storm of the Century", Rock Island, Illinois, USA, intriguing photos by Michele Jankowski about "Saltzburg's [Austria] Gardens of the Dead" - other cemetery photographs are from around the US, and from London, England and Turkey.

And don't miss William 'Terry' Thornton's article about the Graveyard Rabbits - "Taphophiles Are Multiplying Like Rabbits."

Both Terry Thornton and Minda Powers-Douglas are members of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits. Terry, founder of the Association, writes about cemeteries in Mississipi, USA and Minda writes and teaches about cemeteries in the Quad Cities areas in Illinois and Iowa.

LINKS

Epitaphs, TheCemeteryClub: www.thecemeteryclub.com/magazine.html

The Association of Graveyard Rabbits: http://www.thegraveyardrabbit.com/

The Graveyard Rabbit of the Quad Cities (IL/IA), Minda Powers-Douglas: http://qcgraveyardrabbit.blogspot.com/

Graveyard Rabbit of the Hill Country, Terry Thornton: http://graveyardrabbithillcountry.blogspot.com/

Chinese Canadian funeral procession, Victoria, BC, 1918

2009-01-19T23:46:00.000-08:00

The Early Chinese Canadians, 1858-1847 is a new on-line exhibition from Library and Archives Canada.

Among the features of the exhibition is a 1918 film of a Chinese Canadian funeral procession in Victoria, B.C. I thought some of the readers of a previous post here about Victoria's Harling Point Chinese Cemetery would want to see this.

It would be interesting to know what research has been done about this event and the film.

My previous post -

Harling Point Chinese Cemetery, Victoria, BC,Canada, January 4, 2009: http://graveyardrabbitbc.blogspot.com/2009/01/harling-point-chinese-cemetery-victoria.html

The Early Chinese Canadians, 1858-1947, Library and Archives Canada: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/chinese-canadians/index-e.html

Chinese funeral procession, 1918, Allan D Taylor collection, Library and Archives Canada: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/chinese-canadians/021022-1500-e.html#v2

My Key to Ireland: Carnival of Irish Heritage & Culture, 11th Edition - IRWIN and MOFFAT, County Cavan

2009-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of years before I began researching our family tree, my mum and I travelled to Great Britain together on a sight-seeing trip. She knew our Irish immigrant ancestors’ names – Mary Jane MOFFAT and James IRWIN – but believed they had come from County Armagh, so while in Ireland, we gave the obligatory wave to the family roots, but no more than that (as we did in York, England – at least we were closer to the truth there).

Very soon, perhaps even because of our trip, I decided to start researching. My original goal was to identify each of my North American immigrant ancestors, their places of birth and when they came to Canada.

I did start with myself, or at least, my mum and dad, and worked backwards in the approved manner, but in fits and starts, as I was working and had teenage children. I searched Ontario and Manitoba census records on microfilm and combed through Ontario microfilmed indexes of births, marriages and deaths. I made copies or sent for copies through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and collected quite a bit of information.

We did have IRWIN relatives besides our branch who had come to British Columbia though. The earliest one I knew of was James IRWIN (b. 1860, Victoria County, Ontario, Canada) who had settled in Sardis, BC. He was a brother to my mum’s grandfather, William IRWIN; both were sons of James IRWIN and Mary Jane MOFFAT. Our families had been in touch for years so I already had his date and place of death. In BC, registration forms for earlier deaths (currently up to 1988) are indexed and available on microfilm, so his was one of the first family death registrations that I looked at. His daughter had been the informant. She gave both his parents’ names, and in both cases, she had said their place of birth was County Cavan, Ireland. She could have been wrong, of course, but with this in mind, I went looking to see who else was researching IRWINs. Since I knew the family had lived in Ontario, I checked the Ontario Genealogical Society’s members' surname interests and queries and soon I did find two other relatives researching the same IRWIN names and places; one had done years of research already. We were soon in touch and the County Cavan, Ireland origin was confirmed. I was then able to get a copy of James and Mary Janes’s marriage – at the Coroneary Meeting House in the Townland of Coroneary, Knockbride Parish, District of Cootehill, 18 August, 1846. This led me to much more information. There's a tip - always look at collateral relatives, especially brothers and sisters of your direct ancestors.

I knew where they had died – Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. At the turn of the century, after their children had gone west from Ontario to Manitoba in the 1880s and 1890s, Mary Jane and James had migrated to Manitoba too, settling in Neepawa. The Riverside Cemetery in Neepawa offered lookups and sent me a transcription and the location of the grave, but it wasn’t until 2003 that I was able to visit.

Riverside Cemetery in Neepawa is an often visited cemetery with several ‘important’ graves and a beautiful location. I did have one genealogical tip brought home to me there – don’t assume. By 2003, I had visited a lot of cemeteries. My family are mostly ‘ordinary’ people; few even have gravestones. I had checked with the Riverside office so I knew there was an IRWIN stone, but somehow I couldn’t find it. Finally a cemetery worker volunteered to re-check the location and lead me to the spot. Heavens! James and Mary Jane had a tall standing monument. I must never have even looked at it – I had been right by there already. Even though a bit hot and bothered by that time, I did appreciate the joke on me – I must have only been looking for something small and low.

JAMES IRWIN
DIED
JULY 13, 1910
AGED
88 YEARS 9 MOS
Asleep in Jesus blessed sleep
From which none ever wake to
weep

MARY JANE MOFFATT
HIS BELOVED WIFE
DIED
APR 22 1909
AGED 82 YEARS 6 MOS

Mary Jane died first. Did she have her own stone after her burial or was this one erected then and James’ details filled in later or was it only erected after James’ death? This monument seems really James’ – Mary Jane is identified as “His Beloved Wife” but her own surname is given. The cemetery’s burial index identifies her as ‘Mary Jane IRWIN (Mrs. James)’, burial date: 24 April, 1909. James was buried the 16th of July, 1910. The grave’s location is: Lot: 212, Block: D, Row 19.

Here’s something else to be careful of too. The cemetery’s burial information omits Mary Jane’s surname, but as well, the inscription transcription I received originally said “Asleep in Jesus blessed sleep From which none ever wake to sleep.” The monument though says “to weep”. Always check the original. Now that digital photographs are so easy to take and to share, it’s perhaps less of a problem to double check cemetery inscriptions.

Both the ‘Asleep in Jesus’ inscriptions seem to be common and are from the hymn by the same name written by Margaret Mackay, published in 1832, and inspired, she said by a cemetery inscription seen at the Pennycross Chapel in Derbyshire, England. (Words to the poem were published in the Baptist Reporter and Missionary Intelligencer, New Series Volume X, edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks (London, England: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1853. See below.)

And just to show that I am not too, too serious about all this, here is one of the Riverside Cemetery postcards I send home to my children from Neepawa – Gilles is one of the cats. (We have no family rabbits.)

LINKS

Riverside Cemetery, Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. On-line burial index, history: http://www.neepawa.ca/profile/cemetery.asp

IRWIN and MOFFAT, County Cavan, Ireland - 8th Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture. A previous post with a photograph of Mary Jane Moffat and James Irwin: http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2008/09/mary-ann-moffat-and-james-irwin-from.html

‘Asleep in Jesus’ historical notes and music: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/s/asleepin.htm

‘Asleep in Jesus’, mentioned in English Hymns: Their Authors and History by Samuel Willoughby (New York, USA: Duffield Funk & Wagnalls, 1886) p. 46. Google Book Search: http://books.google.ca/books?id=OSkPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=english+hymns+their+authors+and+history#

‘Asleep in Jesus’ text (printed without attribution), Baptist Reporter and Missionary Intelligencer, New Series Volume X, edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks (London, England: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1853), p. 8. Google Book Search: http://books.google.ca/books?id=0yQRAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%E2%80%9CAsleep+in+Jesus+blessed+sleep+From+which+none+ever+wake+to+weep.%E2%80%9D&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0#PPR1,M1

Harling Point Chinese Cemetery, Victoria, BC, Canada

2009-01-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Photographs taken May, 2007 by M. Diane Rogers

The land for this cemetery was purchased by the Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in 1903. Before that many Chinese Canadians had been buried in Victoria's Ross Bay Cemetery, but in a section prone to erosion from the ocean. Many of the Ross Bay graves were exhumed and the burials relocated at Harling Point after 1903.

For some, this was only a temporary spot - their bones were later sent to China for burial as they had wished, but after the mid-1930's, this was no longer possible. Some, whose bones were stored in the hope of future reburial in China, were finally laid to rest in mass graves here in the 1960s.

For many years, Victoria's Chinese-Canadian community worked to raise money to refurbish the cemetery and to raise awareness of its significance in Canadian history. In 1995, this cemetery was designated a National Historic site, the only cemetery west of Toronto and Ottawa to be so recognized. In 2001, the cemetery's refurbishment was completed with funds from the community and from the governments of British Columbia and Canada.

The Harling Point Cemetery is close to Ross Bay Cemetery, and is now in a highly residential area where once Chinese Canadians were forbidden to buy property, but the landscape with Gonzales Hill behind and the rocky areas nearby apparently provide good feng shui, most important in a burial site. I believe this is usually a very peaceful spot, although I have never been there when it is stormy. Families do come now to clean graves and pay their respects at the altar during the springtime Ching Ming Festival. Wildflowers still grow here among the old grave stones while the sea and the tide worn rocks lend their own beauty to the cemetery.

Members of the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria, BC, sometimes offer tours at Harling Point. If you are planning a visit, check the Old Cemeteries website for up to date tour information.

There is a film about the cemetery and its history, From Harling Point, directed by Ling Chiu for the National Film Board of Canada in 2003. Participants in the film were Jim Wong-Chu, Charlayne Thornton-Joe, Edna Chow , David C.Y. Lai (also the historical consultant), Geraldine Peet and Paul Chan.

LINKS

From Harling Point, National Film Board, Canada: www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/index.php?id=51184

Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria, BC, Canada: http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/

Westbank, British Columbia Cemetery Photographs Now On-line

2008-12-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

The Kelowna and District Genealogical Society has just published photographs of gravemarkers at Westbank Cemetery in Westbank in the Thompson-Okanagan region of British Columbia, Canada. Special credit is given to Margaret and Peter Knoess for their work on this project which was finished in summer 2008.

These photographs are on the Canadian Gravemarker Gallery website hosted by Murray Pletsch who is now well known among Canadian genealogists.

The gravestone photographs are indexed by surname. There are four 'unknown's shown from this cemetery - listed under U. The Gravemarker Galley doesn't allow for additional information or comments on individual photographs, as some other sites do.

One of the unknown photographs has no identification, one shows a photograph on the marker, one shows a cross that says 'Chris', another shows a broken gravestone: " In Loving Memory Olive Ethel ___TT __ 9? _____955

Could this be for Olive Ethel Hewlett, whose death was registered as at Kamloops, B.C., 7 November, 1955?

The Kelowna and District Genealogical Society has other publications available on cemeteries from the area. All are reasonably priced. Click the 'Publications' tab on the KDGS website for more information or contact the KDGS Cemetery Recording Committee.

LINKS

Westbank Cemetery, Westbank, Canadian Gravemarker Gallery: http://www.gravemarkers.ca/british/okanagan/westbank/index.htm

Kelowna and District Genealogical Society: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bckdgs/index.html

UPDATE: I did look up the death registration for Olive Ethel HEWLETT. She was born in Kelowna, had lived in Kamloops for 12 years, and was to be buried in the Westbank Cemetery. She died the 7 November 1955. The date of removal on the registration was 9 November 1955. Her father, the registration informant, was William Henry Hewlett, her mother Ethel Baskerville Perkin Hewlett. It appears that they are both also buried in Westbank Cemetery. See the other Hewlett grave marker photographs.

Searching for Hidden or Forgotten Burials - with 21st century tools

2008-11-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

University of British Columbia Reports (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) has an interesting article this month about the use of a new ground penetrating radar device last summer in an archaeological field school pilot project to detect 'lost' burials in local First Nations cemeteries. This device can 'see' 5 metres down, allows for non-destructive surveys, and is ideal for use in urban spaces. Already new temporary burial markers have been erected at the Kwantlen First Nation cemetery in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

"Finding the Lost: Ground Penetrating Radar Helps First Nations Honour Ancestors", by Basil Waugh, UBC Reports, 6 November, 2008: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubcreports/2008/08nov06/lost.html

We Will Remember Them, 11 November, 2008

2008-11-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

Commonwealth War Graves Commission area, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. October 2008

We will remember them.

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial, with links to individual war graves: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website: http://www.cwgc.org/

Mountain View Cemetery, Renovation of Commonwealth War Grave areas, 2004: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/nonmarketoperations/mountainview/military/improvements.htm

This Month's Quote - Free Death Notices, 1910 - Abbotsford Post

2008-11-08T19:14:00.000-08:00

Abbotsford Post, 3 June 1910, British Columbia, Canada, p. 2

We do not charge for publishing births, because we like to see parents happy; we don't charge for publishing weddings...; we publish the notices of death free of charge because when we die we want our friends far and near to know that such a fair fellow has departed this life, and we don't expect we shall ever leave enough to have such notice paid for - unless we make it in the newspaper business.

More about A Night For All Souls, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

2008-11-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Douglas Todd, the 'spirituality and ethics' writer for the Vancouver Sun newspaper wrote a good article about the Night For All Souls event this year at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I thought some of my readers would be interested to read this at his blog:
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/thesearch/archive/2008/10/27/vancouver-cemetery-hosts-the-night-for-all-souls.aspx

A Night For All Souls, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, B.C., October 2008

2008-10-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Mountain View Cemetery, 25 October, 2008, Vancouver, B.C.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Vancouver, British Columbia, perfect weather for the 'A Night for All Souls' event at Mountain View Cemetery. I thought I'd post a few photographs to show something about it.

Mountain View Cemetery opened in 1887. It's not the oldest cemetery in this area, but it is certainly the largest. Today it's 105 acres with about 100,000 burials. In recent years, there have been many changes - the most obvious now the construction of new offices and columbaria, the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's upgrading of its areas and the City and the Last Post Fund's construction of 13 monuments to commemorate the almost 1,000 'known' unmarked veteran's graves at Mountain View. Perhaps more about these projects another time.

Perhaps the most successful addition is the new 'infants burial' stream bed - every rock symbolizing a burial. (These were all in common graves.) One of the 'All Souls' shrines was right beside this area.

Link:

'One Stone for Every Infant', Infant Area Project, Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/projects/childrensarea.htm

A Night For All Souls - October 25, 2008 -Mountain View Cemetery - Vancouver, BC, Canada

2008-10-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

See my other post about this event: A Night for All Souls - Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

The 'Night for All Souls' event at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, British Columbia is a newer tradition for the city - a special time to honour the dead with art and music, and with offerings of candles and lanterns, flowers, personal memorials and thought.

Paula Jardine is Mountain View's 'artist in residence' and she began 'A Night for All Souls' in 2005. She creates events like this which blend art, music and dance with community and purpose and she was the founding artistic director of the Public Dreams Society.

This year, A Night for All Souls at Mountain View in Vancouver is October 25, 2008 from 6 to 10 pm.

"It will be a family friendly sanctuary of beauty for tender feelings, with fires to warm us, music to uplift us, tea to refresh us and materials to create personal memorials for our dead." There are workshops during October so that people can fashion particular kinds of offerings or memorials, if they like.

After 'All Souls', from October 26 to November 2nd, artists will be at the cemetery each evening and there will be opportunities for smaller, more informal gatherings each night.

LINKS

A Night for All Souls, Mountain View Cemetery: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/allsouls/index.htm

Paula Jardine, artist: http://islandsinstitute.com/gallery/Jardine/frontpage.htm

Wordless Monday - Lillie Hornkoist 1910 - Merritt, British Columbia

2008-10-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Nellie Hornkoist - 1910

Cemetery at Merritt, British Columbia, Canada

taken September 28, 2008