2024 -After our success this past year with the Kennedy Burial Site project, we are looking forward to moving ahead with research on other abandoned burial sites in the Carman/Dufferin area [Carman-Dufferin Cemeteries, pp.107-113.] Our burial site team won’t have the dedicated research of people like Margaret Glanfield to draw upon for these sites, so it’s going to involve a lot of digging through old obituaries and talking to local seniors to get the names of people buried in these locations.
On the other hand, we are finding that a lot of other folks also are looking for lost burial sites. A number of requests for information have been coming to our committee and to others involved with local cemeteries. Volunteers with the Manitoba genealogical Society (MGS) and Find-a-grave projects have been active in this area as in other parts of the Province. Locally, members of our committee have been working with the folks at Greenwood Cemetery to locate and identify ‘lost’ graves. Questions also have been raised about both the upkeep of records and future burials in Broad Valley Cemetery. One of the main issues, even in these and other ‘official’ cemeteries, has been the loss of cemetery records. In the case of Greenwood Cemetery, loss was the result of flood damage. One of C/D MHAC’s activities has been to encourage cemetery committees to make copies of their records and to store them in a location separate from the originals.
A site that has generated a number of queries is the early Îlets-de-Bois Cemetery in the St. Daniel area. A cairn at the site bears the names of families who lived in the area, however, the number, location, and identity of those actually buried here is largely undocumented. This is one of the most significant heritage sites in the municipalities, particularly with respect to its association with early Métis settlement in the area. Unfortunately, there are no architectural components to the site, and it hasn’t received designated heritage status.
One of our broader goals this coming year will be to see how the many groups and individuals who are researching the sites can begin to collaborate and pool our findings. The satisfaction we’ve seen with families who have been able to locate and place markers on ‘missing’ family graves provides ample justification for the time spent on this research. “‘As long as we remember a person, they’re not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us.” (J. Cronin).
If you or anyone you know happens to have information about the people buried in the Harrison, Campbellsville, McKee or other undocumented burial sites in the area, we would be delighted to hear from you.
List of Abandoned Burial Sites
- Campbellville Burial Site
- Harrison Burial Site
- Kennedy Burial Site
- McKee Burial Site
- Stephenfield Summerfeld Mennonite
Please note that abandoned burial sites are located on private property and are not accessible to the public.