This week\’s 52 Ancestors prompt is \”At the Cemetery\”. I\’m going to look at some of the more unusual records you can find on the Canadiana website relating to cemeteries. Through my research I haven\’t found a lot on there that pertains to indexes and transcriptions. However, I did find some interesting records.
Monographs
- The first Catholic cemeteries of Montreal : and a guide to the present cemetery by Simeon Mondou (1887). Go to the image 200 to see the cemeteries listed. If your ancestor owned a business in Montreal in 1887, then check out the last set of images showing advertisements.
- A monograph of St. Paul\’s Cemetery by George Mulane. Published in Halifax 1902.
- Customs and arts of the Kwakiool by George M. Dawson (circa 1888). Starting on image 348 is an outline of their burial practices.
Government Publications
To see all 1,846 monograph results on Canadiana using the search word \”cemeteries\” click here. Try playing with search terms. You might find some surprising things. For example, I tried \”funeral\” and start getting results for funeral invitations. I then tried \”funeral notices\”. I got over 4,000 results. The top results were invitations and notices dating back to the early 1800\’s. Here\’s one for a Mr. Jacob Duseler from 1832:
Some publications I didn\’t include above but are worth looking into for cemetery information on Canadiana:
- Place histories
- Directories
- Church newsletters
As always with Canadiana, book yourself a good chunk of time to explore the site.
Finding Your Canadian Story 