When I look at the number of cemeteries listed in Canada, I am struck by how few are actually listed here, compared to the USA.

I know that genealogy is a VERY active hobby in Canada (I correspond with a lot of people, in virtually every province).

I can't help but wonder why there is not more of an effort to post Canadian cemeteries on this forum?

Canada is much like the USA, in that a lot of families started out in the Maritimes, Quebec or Eastern Ontario, and moved west for greater opportunities. I have family that lived, and died, in every province that borders the USA, as well as some that don't.

Yet I can find almost none of the cemeteries where they were buried even listed, much less information on their graves.

Is there some particular reason WHY this information is not being posted? I know that a lot of historical societies in Canada have published books about the cemeteries in their areas, but the basic information itself can NOT be restricted (meaning anyone can walk through a cemetery, note the information, and post it wherever they choose).

Of course, you can NOT take the information from a book, and post it here, but I would imagine that there are a LOT of people in Canada that COULD post a lot of information on cemeteries, that they have personally gathered.

The Old Medic, a dual citizen of the USA and Canada

Some of my thoughts about this -- when you look at the Official Statistics posted by Mark, Canada moved from third to second in total memorials. So the input is there. Of course there could be more - I wish there was more.
Does it come down to US population 312 million - Canada 34 million.
I'm not a statistician (is there one amongst us?)- how do the ratios compare?
I would like to see a breakdown by province of the numbers for Canada. I did my part for Quebec cemeteries this past summer and loved it. Not only adding photos but many of the cemeteries I visited were on rural backroads that I never would have had any reason to travel. I am looking forward to spring to head out again.

Another interesting stat from Mark's post is the Memorials by State - of the top 10 listed - I would consider 7 of those states to have several months where weather would limit graving. Those 7 states must have very active gravers. Maybe some of you would like to head north.



Grace

Total Cemeteries by Canadian Province
-Feb 3 2012 9am

Ontario 3,730
Nova Scotia 925
Québec 923
Saskatchewan 852
Alberta 751
New Brunswick 543
British Columbia 354
Manitoba 337
Prince Edward Island 230
Newfoundland & Labrador 43
Yukon 16
Nunavut 4
Northwest Territories 2

(I had forgotten about the province codes posted by mySunnyIsle)

I would say that part of it might also be that the site is not as easily broken down for searching for Canadian cemeteries (as we cannot search by province other than clicking on a memorial and searching for that person's surname in that cemetery. county or province.

As well, there is no direct way to request photos in a Canadian cemetery (and I've been told that admins do NOT like the workaround often used).

I'm sure there are other reasons but those are the ones that I could think of off the top of my head.

Maybe once I've been here longer, I'll have more thoughts on this.

CaraMaeH, check out the first topic just above this one - Tips for searching Canadian cemeteries by provinces - there are code numbers for each province. This was posted by mySunnyIsle(thank you very much mSI) and it does allow you to search one province at a time.

It will be interesting to see, if there is an increased interest, if/when it does become possible to Request A Photo in Canada.

My list of Canadian cemeteries by province has a wrinkle
Cemetery lookup -- Canada -- result 9,304
Total on my list 8,780 - does that mean 524 cemeteries have no province listed??!! gosh somedays it's tough being Canadian eh!

I just think it depends on the area. I have been adding memorials to the Lower Mainland for almost 5 years and have only once found someone else working on a cemetery close to me. As she was doing so well at getting them, I left those 2 cemeteries to her to complete.

I added one cemetery and got a list of the names and plots and started taking photos in 2008, got sick and had to take off almost a year and half. As of today, I still need to take 2105 photos there. I have yet to see anyone else taking photos there.

Another cemetery out here had only 1 memorial, I have found a list of the names so while I can't get out there because of the weather, I am listing the names (about 500) and then will take my daughter and see if we can get all the photos for it. It is about 2 -3 hrs away from me.

I find that alot of people just post on my page when they want a photo of a headstone in a cemetery where they see I have already posted photos.

It would be interesting to find out how many Canadians actually work on the cemeteries.

susan

There are several contributing factors for this disparity.

First, Find A Grave was primarily a US site, expanding to North America and the rest of the world at some time after it was opened to non-famous graves (remember that it was famous graves first).

Second, there was a readily available source of cemetery names, including obscure cemeteries in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), a public database administered by the United States Geologic Survey. Thousands of US cemeteries were added, with maps, by the admins in the early 00s or earlier.

Third, in my experience, the number of cemeteries in an area tends to proportional to the area, not to the population. Thus, the relatively densely populated area of Canada (the part within a few hundred km of the border) would actually be expected to have as many cemeteries as the US areas close to the border. Many of these cemeteries would be relatively small, though, because of the small Canadian population.

For an idea how these affect things, here's my experience with cemeteries in Martinique. I saw that there were zero, not any, cemeteries listed for Martinique. I did a good amount of research on the names and locations, and was able to list what I believe are all the cemeteries there, 48. Now, Martinique is a small country (island) at 1,128 km2. This area is equivalent to a circle a little less than 38 miles across.

For comparison, consider Toronto. The city proper is 630 km2, the urban area is 1,749 km2, and the metro area is 7,125 km2. So, the urban area of Toronto is more that half again as large as the entire country of Martinique (55% larger).

It looks like there could be:

Just to see, I typed in "An" in Canada in the Cemetery search.

and sure enough

Anglican Cemetery

But not only doesn't it have a province, it is a duplicate cemetery. So, I have sent a Suggest A Correction to move it, marked it in to make sure it is deleted.

susan

An alternative is that the system may be counting AKAs differently on the two lists.

Great new from Canada

I just opened Find A Grave - I opened my list of cemeteries in Quebec - magically the total is now 1012. All the other missing provinces have also been added and now show up where they should. That's why contributors are telling me the province is already marked. I thought I had lost my mind. (could have). My blitz had poor results - many of my Suggest A Correction are probably sitting in the junk pile. Then there were some who couldn't or wouldn't (what's up with that?)
I'm a happy camper.

Thank you very much to whoever you are.
(should that be whomever?)

Forgot to mention - it's official - I have arrived - someone thanked me for policing Find A Grave. My badge must be in the mail.