Book Review: Remember Me As You Pass By

Book

Remember Me As You Pass By: Stories from Prairie Graveyards
written by Nancy Millar

Nancy Millar learned two things as she explored Alberta’s graveyards: graveyards contain our history, and our history is never boring!

In this lively and most unusual history book, you’ll – learn about the real Sam McGee who lived and died in Alberta; discover why babies died in the bad old days; look at the differences between men and women in the graveyard; learn about the changing style in gravemarkers.

Nancy Millar’s refreshing perspective offers up an intriguing and very personal look at history that touches us all.

Review

Remember Me As You Pass By: Stories from Prairie Graveyards by Nancy Millar is interesting and while I definitely recommend it for anyone from Alberta or genealogy in the province, I confess to expecting more from the prairie provinces because of the subtitle "Stories from Prairie Graveyards" which would have been much more accurate to state "Stories from Alberta Graveyards".

The cover blurb of course does specify Alberta, but that isn't much help when you're looking for titles using keywords such as "cemetery" and "graveyard" to learn more about them in a library catalogue.

One way that I relate to how Miller chose to present her subject is that for me, the first and strongest draw to cemeteries has always been the markers. The ultimate footnote in the story of life. Only as I've started transcribing cemeteries have I become interested in learning the stories of the "permanent residents." Though of course, with Miller stating to have visited 250 some cemeteries while researching, only a small fraction of the most interesting stories were included in the book.

I do wish though that Miller had devoted more to "look[ing] at the differences between men and women in the graveyard; learn about the changing style in gravemarkers" as promised by the blurb. It's why I really wanted to read the book in the first place, to learn about those sort of things.

All in all though, I doubt any taphophilia would mind vegging out with this book.

Source: Millar, Nancy. Remember me as you pass by : stories from prairie graveyards. Calgary; Glenbow, 1994.

Visit to the Synod Office Archives

I arranged to visit the Diocese of Saskatchewan Synod Office for the Anglican Church to ask permission to view the burial record archives and copy the information.

I had no idea there was so many little things involved, not only in gaining permission to "publish" the information but how the information is kept. The Information Act only covers stuff before 1910, all my cemeteries are later on (I think) like Holy Trinity which was constructed in 1914.

I'll be writing a letter to the Diocese to see if I can publish the death dates, burial dates, where born, and late residence as well as name on this blog and in printouts that will be given to the researched churches, communities, and genealogical society.

That was also the only information that I was permitted to hand copy, nothing about cause of death but that isn't vitally important to me so of no real matter to my research. (Photocopying wasn't permitted.)

Although a cemetery, like Holy Trinity, may be Anglican they only have burial records for individuals that an Anglican minister preformed the burial service for. So that means that if a person was buried by a minister of a different church or community members if a minister wasn't available, that individual will not be in the Archive's registers.

Plus, a minister may serve one area but provide the service in another area an record the burial information in his 'home' area. To better explain, before Holy Trinity had it's own minister services were provided by the minister at the Sturgeon Lake Mission (Sturgeon Lake Indian Reserve #101) thus the data would be entered in the Sturgeon Lake Mission register not the Holy Trinity register.

Also, later on in the Holy Trinity register there was data for burials in Briarlea (St. Martin's Anglican Cemetery) as well as the two Wild Rose cemeteries that are community operated and not run by any religion.

And then there is the fact that register books aren't all organized the same, so while one book asks for birth, death, and burial dates another only has columns for death and burial dates.

Later I will be printing out what I typed up and taking it back to the Archives to confirm the information I copied to hopefully eliminate transcriber error. And as much as people bemoan archaic handwriting (and I fell I will fast be joining the ranks), I do have to say that I'm in love with Rev. Clayton's writing who served Holy Trinity from 1942 onward. He has very neat printing (yeah!) but slightly unusual due to the fact that his lowercase t's look like larger lowercase r's.

The Archives, once I've compiles everything, also intend to check my records against their computerized records to see if we all have the same thing.

But in any case, I enjoyed myself and look forward to my return visits. My only disappointment is learning that as the Anglican Church is a 'step' away from the Roman Catholic Church, other religiously affiliated cemeteries in my district, like St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery of Deer Ridge may not have centralized archives like the Anglican Diocese to visit.