Documents & Records
Community and Church Cemeteries - British Columbia
Basics
Many people of Chinese origin are buried in B.C. cemeteries. These include both community cemeteries without a religious or ethnic affiliation, and those associated with churches. In addition to community and church cemeteries, which were used by individuals of various ethnic origins, there were also separate Chinese Cemeteries.
One of the earliest, most historic public cemeteries in B.C. is Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria. The first Chinese burial there occurred on March 18, 1873 and was simply identified as "Chinaman No. 1." About twenty other individuals were similarly identified, but many Chinese names do appear in Ross Bay records. Chinese burials at Ross Bay took place in a segregated section of the cemetery near the water, and many graves were washed away during severe storms in 1909.
Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, opened in 1887, has many Chinese burials. It too had a separate Chinese section, in which the Chinese community built a ceremonial altar in 1902.
Records of Chinese burials can also be found at other cemeteries - religiously-affiliated and otherwise.
Finding the Records
At the Vancouver Public Library
Vancouver Public Library owns many transcriptions of monumental inscriptions collected and published by the British Columbia Genealogical Society.
Records of burial for persons of Chinese origin have been noted in the following titles, although in some cases there are very few:
Capilano View Cemetery, 1928-1982 (1991)
Ref. 929.5 C24b
Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, B.C., 2 vol. (1993)
Ref. 929.5 F84h
Mountain View Cemetery: Index of Monumental Inscriptions (1997)
Ref. 929.5 M928h
Ocean View Cemetery Monumental Inscriptions (2002)
Ref. CD-ROM 929.5 O15h
St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery, New Westminster, B.C. (1992)
Ref. 929.5 S14h
Online
Burial information about many Chinese people is included in the following databases:
Ross Bay Cemetery Search
This database indexes about 29,500 burials in Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, from 1872-1980.
Burials at Mountain View
Indexes burials at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver, which began operation in 1887.
A few Chinese burials have also been noted in:
Fort Langley , Murrayville and Langley Lawn Cemeteries
Over 10,000 records from three cemeteries in Langley B.C., covering 1874-2001.
An online database of over 344,000 interments throughout B.C. is available, and includes many Chinese names:
British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid, Version 2
264 B.C. cemeteries and two in Washington State cemeteries are included in the database. A name search will generate a list of "hits", including the name of the individual, the cemetery in which he or she was, the location of the cemetery, and a reference number. The reference number indicates the name of the organization that contributed the record. An Address List is available and provides contact information that can be used to request the full transcription from the contributing organization. There is likely to be a small fee.
For links to additional information regarding the availability of cemetery records corresponding to communities throughout B.C., select one of the following listings from the Canadian Genealogical Project Registry
Communities A-G
Communities H-Z
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