Cemetery Records
Cemetery records and monumental inscriptions are a very valuable source of genealogical information as they frequently include dates of birth and death as well as the names of spouses, children and other family members.
Monumental inscriptions refer to information inscribed on headstones at burial sites.
Cemetery records refer to registers of burial, which often contain more detailed information than found on headstones. Registers of burial are maintained by both churches and privately owned cemeteries.
Some persons were buried without a headstone or the inscription has become illegible. The headstone may also have been removed or destroyed. Their name may nonetheless be found in cemetery records.
When consulting published cemetery transcriptions or searching cemetery databases, it is not always clear whether they are derived from headstones or from burial registers.
British Columbia
In Print
Inscriptions on gravestones in many B.C. cemeteries have been transcribed and published by genealogical societies. The Vancouver Public Library collection includes a large number of cemetery transcriptions. These are located both on Level 6 and in Special Collections (Level 7) at the Central Library.
The best way to locate cemetery transcriptions at the Vancouver Public Library is to use the library catalogue. Try one of the following search strategies:
- Cemeteries [city/town] british columbia - e.g., cemeteries surrey british columbia
- Inscriptions british columbia [name of place] - e.g., inscriptions revelstoke british columbia
- [name of cemetery] [name of place] b.c. - e.g., ross bay cemetery victoria b.c.
Online Resources
BillionGraves, Canadian Headstones and Find A Grave cover many other British Columbia cemetaries.
A large amount of genealogical data from B.C. cemeteries has also been posted online by local organizations. Standards, organization, and features vary greatly from one source to another. For province-wide results, start with the British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid. This database includes references to over 344,000 interments in the province. Each search result provides the name of the individual, the cemetery in which they are buried, the location, the region and a reference code. The reference code can be used to order further details from the organization – usually a genealogical society – that contributed the information to the database. For specific regions, try the following sources.
Abbotsford
Abbotsford Genealogical Society: Abbottsford Cemeteries
Includes Aberdeen, Hazelwood, MacLure Road, Mount Lehman, Musselwhite, and South Popular cemeteries.
Agassiz
Abbotsford Genealogical Society: Agassiz Cemeteries
Includes Valley View and Kent Municipal (Old Cemetery) cemeteries.
Burns Lake
Burns Lake & Lakes District
Information from cemeteries in Burns Lake, Cheslatta, Danskin, Endako, Francois Lake, Grassy Plains, Ootsa Lake, Skins Lake, Streatham, Tatalrose and Wistaria.
Chilliwack
Abbotsford Genealogical Society: Chilliwack Cemeteries
Includes Carmen United, Greendale, St. Mary’s, Vedder View Gardens and Yarrow Cemetery.
Courtenay
Fraser Valley
Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia: Genealogical Resources: Cemetery Lists
Includes Greendale, South Poplar and Yarrow cemeteries.
Horsefly
Horsefly Cemeteries
Includes Harpers Lease, the Roman Catholic Cemetery and the Horsefly Cemetery.
Kamloops
Langley
Voices from the Grave: Langley’s Cemeteries
Searchable database of records from Fort Langley Cemetery and Murrayville Cemetery.
Okanagan
Cemeteries Site of the South Okanagan
Extensive website covering many South Okanagan communities.
Prince George
Prince George and Area Cemeteries
Transcriptions of Prince George local and surrounding areas cemeteries.
Rossland
Rossland
Transcriptions from the Historic Catholic Cemetery of Sacred Heart Catholic Parish.
Saltspring
Saltspring Island Cemetery Records
Databases of cemetery information for Ganges, St. Marks and Purdy-Cunningham Memorial Cemetery.
Trail
Old Trail Cemetery
Transcriptions from the South side of Old Trail Cemetery. Duplicate information found in Trail Cemeteries below.
Trail Cemeteries
Records of Old Trail Cemetery and Mountain View Cemetery in the City of Trail.
Vancouver
Burials at Mountain View includes an alphabetical list of interments. The current site is City of Vancouver: Mountain View Cemetery. The British Columbia Genealogical Society holds additional material in their library that may include burials not listed on the web.
Vernon
Vernon & District Family History Society: Cemetery Listings
Covers all of the major and many of the smaller cemeteries in the Arrow Lakes, Central Okanagan, Columbia-Shuswap, North Okanagan and Thompson-Nicola areas of British Columbia.
Victoria
Other Provinces
In Print
The Vancouver Public Library collection holds very few published compilations of monumental inscriptions from outside B.C. The best way to locate the few that are available at the Vancouver Public Library is to use the library catalogue. Try one of the following search strategies:
- Cemeteries [city/town] [province/territory] - e.g. cemeteries toronto ontario
- Inscriptions [province/territory] [name of place] - e.g. inscriptions osgoode ontario
- [name of cemetery] [name of place] [province/territory] - e.g. st. michael's cemetery toronto ontario
Online Resources
Genealogical information from Canadian cemeteries is widely available in print and on the Internet. A useful starting point to locating this information is Library and Archives Canada's Deaths, Cemeteries and Wills webpage. BillionGraves, Canadian Headstones and Find A Grave cover many Canadian cemeteries.