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.

Do you think that perhaps the administration would consider or is considering giving Canada its own listing in the forums like the US has rather than placing it as a category under North America? Perhaps with all the great changes its time has come.

Also, I wonder if maybe allowing for photo requests might be in the works one day. That would be great. I have two relatives in Canada who enjoy graving and would totally participate. Granted they both live in places where photo opportunities are curtailed for several months a year due to the weather...

Is there some manner to ask the admins about their plans for Canada at this time?

One other question -- is there any way to see a breakdown of where contributors are from? I know some people do not list actual locations, but many probably do. That would be interesting.

Mark is working on the Photo Requests but it will take a lot of changes to the database as each Province & Territory needs to be broken down. I know that he has been working on it and in the Help Forum it shows the breakdown he is working on for each area.

I don't know how he is going to do the Photo Requests. With our Postal codes, they change with an area. I know that I live within 30-45 minutes of 6 different cemeteries and they all have different postal codes.

I think when they first did this forum set-up, there was a breakdown of Canada by Province but because there wasn't much use, we went back to this way.

I don't think there is a way to see where people are from unless they list it.

I really don't think there are enough contributors/volunteers at Find A Grave, in Canada, to ever have something similar to the US system of photo requests.

I say just add the button to cemeteries in Canada - people with click on it. I like to visit cemeteries. Before I go, I would check to see if there are any requests. If I know I'm going to my cottage for the weekend, I can check for requests at the cemeteries in that area. Keep it simple. Forget the postal codes, the email to a volunteer etc. Don't try to make it a system like the US.
Of course some rural areas may never have photos added and then in much of Quebec your chances of getting a photo are slim to none.

I like Canada listed in the North America forum - surrounded by all those warm Caribbean countries (?Greenland) I feel like I'm going on vacation every time I click on Canada.

That is a great idea if I understand what you mean. You're saying create a button and a means to request a photo, but don't have the notification process. Allow interested people to look at a Canadian cemetery and see the requests.

I like that and think it could be very helpful without the need to deal with the zip code issues. Good thinking.

That's pretty much what I mean. I know the cemeteries in my area I want to visit. If I know that tomorrow is going to be a good weather day - I look to see if there are any requests.

This idea was posted somewhere else - I don't remember the where or the who.
But it is simple and could be implemented practically overnight. There are about a dozen cemeteries at this time here in Quebec with requests attached, but no button. Doesn't really matter how the request got there, but you can be sure I looked at those cemeteries right away. In fact there is one about twenty minutes from where I am. I will be going as soon as I can.

Ever need help on Sunshine Coast of BC..Canada i can help....or eve n Powell River...There is an old grave yard up side of a mountain near Gibsons BC...pioneers grave yard, i think.
I would never go alone..more cougars now..yikes...
but there is also a proper grave yard near Roberts Creek...and one near Pender Harbour...and one in Powell River..if ever u need a look up

the one in pender harbour is suppose to be a special thing too...not sure just all white crosses, that can be seen from road...highway 101

Cemeteries without a Province should no longer be an issue. This was caused by the 'add new cemetery' option not pulling geo data directly from the database. This was one of a few locations on the site that still use hard coded information. This particular one has been updated and now pulls information directly and forces you to select a Province before a town. The Cemetery Search page is also one that is currently hard coded, but will also be updated but there is no ETA for it.

There is a Province Breakdown Proposal in the Help Forum. This is the current planned structure to break down the Provinces into "County" level equivalents.

The current issue with Photo Requests include:

1. Currently only allows US requests
2. Currently based on US Zip Codes and GPS of the cemetery or County the cemetery is located
3. Geo Database only includes GPS for towns and Counties. Thus countries without a county level equivalent can not make the calculation. The distance from the centroid of the Zip to the GPS of the cemetery can make for interesting distance calculations when you are not near the centroid of the Zip.

Eventually, the plan is to move away from the Zip Code and into selecting your location via a map similiar to when adding GPS to a cemetery. Or possibly using the geolocation feature built into HTML5. Geolocation is highly accurate when using wireless connections, but not so much when using wired connections. Picking your location via a map or wireless geolocation increases the distance calculation, although the calculation is still as the bird flies.

The following countries are prepped for an update to county level equivalents: France, Italy, and Lithuania. However, this can not happen until the final portion of the State level equivalents is cleaned up. See Geography Updates for more information. 234 countries will have State level equivalents and 150 countries will have County level equivalents.

There are currently 5902 place names in Canada, all of which will need to be assigned to a county level equivalent.

Thanks for the update.

I look forward to "County" level equivalents for Canadian provinces. I use the 832 code to search and this works for now, but I am finding alot of Quebec cemeteries that are not in the correct town/city, one has the city listed as Montreal and a map location in Kyrgyzstan -- neither are correct!!
I'll be keeping you busy on the Fix forum.

I live in NE Alberta and I doubt there is anyone else doing this within 200 miles in any direction! As it is only a hobby and I don't have a lot of time, it's going to be a long time before I get all the local cemeteries listed. Plus don't forget we have only the summer as most stones are buried under 5 feet of snow in the winter (summer June - Sept. )

I have added several cemeteries from burial list. I try and fill in as much as I can. And although some are 2/3 hrs away, I hope that I and maybe others can at some point get photos as well.

There is one cemetery which is about 45 minutes away that I have been working on since 2008 -- there is about 1900 more photos to add and that doesn't include the people that are buried since then.

And although we don't get the snow like Little Pretty, we get rain - usually from Oct to May. I tried once after the rain and ended up driving home with a wet muddy butt. My graving kit now carries an extra pair of pants

I live in SE BC and have been working on the Nelson Memorial Park in particular. There are many cemeteries in this area including some small family plots, so I imagine it'll be an ongoing project just getting the ones in the Regional District of Central Kootenay. Once I retire from paid employment...


Ima BC Graver/SDS

Hi, New here!

I am just outside of Calgary, AB. There's a few small cemeteries around here that we've run into with geocashing. Totally willing to update the info on them and so on. Now going to go look up tips on doing so!

Lana

Interesting conversations above. Speaking for myself, I've been concentrating for the past 3 years on certain cemeteries in Simcoe County, north of Toronto, and have only recently (past 6-8 months) been "bumping into" a few other contributors working on the same area. So our numbers here in Ontario are growing, although perhaps slowly.

Part of the issue is awareness. I talk up Find-a-Grave at every reasonable opportunity, just to let people know it exists. Some check it out, others completely blank out. Few seem to have the interest (and/or the time) to get involved. But those few occasionally get _really_ involved in contributing, which is wonderful!

So in that respect, it may come down to a matter of smaller population = smaller number of people likely to pick up the hobby/dedication/love-of being involved in Find-a-Grave.


PS to Admin: I also have often thought it would be an interesting statistic to see a breakdown of how many contributors in which countries. As much as Admin already has on their plate, would it be possible someday to crunch the numbers of where-in-the-world members have registered from, and provide us some insight as to how many FindaGravers in Canada, the US, England, and elsewhere?

Oh, but when more Canadians get involved in contributing, we also have to be prepared for the down-side ....

As many American members have commented in the Forums over the years, the other side of the coin are the over-zealous enthusiasts who upload massive spreadsheets of names and dates willy-nilly, with minimal detail, dupe-ing extensively. It's a perennial pain-in-the-butt.

Up until this past weekend, I had read many of the US complaints in the Help-With Forum, and always thought -- nope, not in Canada, doesn't affect us thank goodness. Now in Simcoe County we have our own Enthusiastic Ethel (not her real nor her screen name), busy creating messes in our small, otherwise well-managed burial grounds (usually entered by someone with local interest and personal knowledge of the deceased therein).

So those few of us who are actively working in the County are reacting as quickly as we can manage, and even contacting each other off-site to strategize how to pull this person back down to earth. Considering she's likely going to receive a boat-load of Suggest A Corrections from _several_ different people, hopefully she'll be kept busy for a while on the fixing aspect of contributing.

... Too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth ... ?

Then there are those of us who don't live in Canada but travel there and add memorials/photos when we can!