*Sings* Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Technically,  it was one out of four...

It is Saturday, 7 July 2012, a balmy 26°C (78.8°F) day without a cloud in the blue, blue sky and I am going cemetery hunting. First, second layer of sunscreen (following the first layer for gardening) and finish packing the cemetery kit: camera, gloves, water, rural municipality map, pencils, erasers, clipboard with graph paper, loose-leaf paper, and transcription forms. Second, load myself and dog into car and away we go!

Up north to the Mayview district, our first search is for Holbein's wayward cemetery at SE 16-53-2-3, up near the provincial park and R.M. border.

Strike one!

I did not engage in a serious search and the dog and I only walked the south edge and saw mostly trees and canola. The south west corner of the quarter section had an interesting spot of concrete rubble slabs and such but I am thinking there was a building there that has since been pushed down.

Onto the second cemetery still in the Mayview, Mayview Cemetery at NE 33-52-2-3.

Success! 

The cemetery of the Roman Catholic Mission of Sacred Heart is a lovely little graveyard that took me only the morning to sketch out a map and photograph. It was last catalogued by the Prince Albert branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society in 2009, so the information I gathered to add to to the database was minor, increasing the record of burials from sixty-two to sixty-six residents.

Mayview Cemetery 7 July 2012

Sketched map of Mayview Cemetery,
top is north, right is east, bottom is south, left is west.

This is a very social cemetery, with everyone looking at everyone else as the graves face inward: thus the graves on the east face west, the south face north, and the west face east. First time I've come across such a layout in a country cemetery.  That also presented a bit of a challenge with photographing because of the sunlight as it moved across the sky.  I did get some of the shadows I cast in later shots, but no toes (I think) and no dog although she certainly tried to be included on occasion.

Third cemetery down south-west from Maview in the Cookson district, St. Nicholas Anglican at SW 1-53-3-W.

Strike two!

Prince Albert branch of the SGS does not have that one catalogued but I did get to see the old heart of Cookson and am becoming more familiar with the R.M.

A Tribute to the Pioneers of the Cookson District - 7 July 2012

Moving onto the fourth cemetery in the Sturgeon River district, south of Cookson, the community Sturgeon River Cemetery at SE16-52-3-W3.

Strike four!

For this cemetery I was absolutely certain that I was on the wrong road—twice on that road!—but I just could not for the life of me get onto the right one. I did find the old Sugar Hills school though and upon my return home, and conferring with Dad leaning the fair weather roads of the area better, that Sugar Hills was west on the same road as the cemetery so next time I shall find it. I shall!

Sugar Hills School No. 4251 - 7 July 2012
(and the dog did get in the pic)

One of the next thing I'm going to do though, is get in contact with the SGS about where the information for the wayward Holbein and Cookson burial grounds come from because the online index reads (abridged - with Mayview and Sturgeon River for comparison):

Cemetery name	Owner/ Operator	Location	First Burial	Last Burial	Total Burials	Recorded
Holbein	Religious Org	SE16-53-2-W3	--	--	--	--
Holbein - Mayview	Religious Org	NE33-52-2-W3	1939	2008	62	2009
Shellbrook - St. Nicholas	Unknown	SW1-53-3-W3	--	--	--	--
Shellbrook - Sturgeon River	Community	SE16-52-3-W3	1933	2007	105	2009

and thus I am wondering about those two cemeteries.

So for now, I still have recording to finish up, three cemeteries to investigate, some districts to learn more of, and more hot days of fun ahead!

Lycan Family Graveyard Found!

I have been taking time here and there to research further into the most interesting burial ground that I am aware of in the region, the Lycan graves on their family homestead. I first became aware of these graves back in 2008 when I began my cemetery research and found them noted on the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society Cemetery Index. Further investigation in a community history book, Our History of Memories, revealed a short biography of the family¹ that offered up more tantalising clues.

• John filed on his homestead NE 32-50-2-W3 on 16 October 1906; on the farm for a short time before dying of cancer.
• John's son Winn, daughter-in-law Florence and baby granddaughter Gertrude all died of tuberculosis and are all buried on the homestead.

Later perusal of the history book's Sturgeon Valley's Pictures section really got me excited with the discovery of a photograph of the shared tombstone of Florence and Gertrude with the caption "One of the five Lycan graves located on their homestead (N.E. 32-50-2-W3)".² The photo was not clear enough to read the marker with great confidence but I could make guesses. Another scan through at another time of the pictorial section and I realized there was a copy of a court document regarding John's wife Flora taking control of John's estate and that it stated his death date.³ Each clue further contributed to the whole picture.

• John F. Lycan died of cancer, 25 June 1907
• Florence M. (--?--) Lycan died of tuberculosis, 19? May 1908
• Gertrude Lycan died of tuberculosis, 24? April 1910
• Winn Lycan died of tuberculosis

I also viewed and located some of the late John Lycan's family in the 1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces⁴, a special census for the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Widow Flora was living with her eldest son, Frank, Florance's widower, who had remarried. At the time of the 1916 census Frank and his new wife had one son and according to the history book, they would have three sons before separating.

I had starred the homestead location on the R.M. map in the beginning of my research but did not think much of it until this afternoon when I re-confirmed the location and viewed it via Google Maps satellite view. Locating the closest landmark I counted quarter sections until locating the presumable homestead quarter section.


Google Maps satellite view of the area in question, 9 December Dec 2011.⁵

The satellite view was not very promising, mostly cultivated field with a forested drainage gully and no evidence of old roads or homestead. I worried that if it was the correct location, the homestead had been in close proximity or within the now forested areas and it would take time to search a quarter section and I would be very fortunate to locate the graves considering I had no idea where exactly they were. But I was happy to solidify in my mind the area where I suspected the homestead to be.

But driving home this afternoon after work, due to a drizzle of rain in the town of Shellbrook over the snow we got in early November I elected to drive home via Foxdale route which has more gravel than the predominant pavement route of Holbein. On route home I came to an area where the road curved north and I figured, that as it is impossible to get lost on grid roads, I would take a road I never had and instead of curving north would continue straight east. Eventually I came to the area where I suspected the Lycan homestead to be and thought "Wait a minute, there is a very odd copse in that field."

Odd copse in NE 32-50-2-W3, 9 December 2011.⁶

Farmers do not leave wooded copse in their fields without really good reasons so I stopped the car, hopped out, and tromped across the snowy stubble to the bluff. The closer I got the more excited I became, hoping, hoping here were the Lycan's. As I got closer I even thought at one moment—ah! that might be one—took a few more steps and went—pah! discarded farm machinery—a few more steps and—eek! it is a tombstone!

Southeast view of Lycan graves, 9 December 2011.⁶

Northeast view of Lycan graves, 9 December 2011.⁶

Happy jiggle inside! I had found the Lycans! John, Winn, Florance, and Gertrude where all there with lovely, sturdy stones in the dying light of the afternoon sun. I half circled the buff, took pictures of the two similar tombstones, Florance with Gertrude and John with Winn and bounced back to the car with plans to return in the spring and summer for more pictures, look for carver mark, etc. and to do some tidying work.

Inscription detail of Florence and Gertrude tombstone, 9 December 2011.⁶

Inscription detail of John and Winn tombstone, 9 December 2011.⁶

I was so excited that when I got home I just had to share my discovery with someone and as no one of my family was home, I bounced over to the neighbours to share it with them! After a two hour visit I returned home and got to work on this post and as I worked on it realized that the history book caption says "five Lycan graves"! What, five Lycans? Who am I missing? Did I miss a tombstone in the grass and dead-fall during my visit?

I guess I shall have to go back very soon to find out!

Sources:
[1] Coles, Cathy, ed. "Lycan Family, John." Our Harvest of Memories: Foxdale, Sturgeon Valley, Silver Cliff, Three Creeks, Rayside, Rich Valley. Shellbrook: Shell River North Book Committee, 1983. p. 55. Print.
[2] Coles, Cathy, ed. "Sturgeon Valley: Pictures." [Lycan tombstone picture.] Our Harvest of Memories: Foxdale, Sturgeon Valley, Silver Cliff, Three Creeks, Rayside, Rich Valley. Shellbrook: Shell River North Book Committee, 1983. p. 608. Print.
[3] Coles, Cathy, ed. "Sturgeon Valley: Pictures." [Lycan court document.] Our Harvest of Memories: Foxdale, Sturgeon Valley, Silver Cliff, Three Creeks, Rayside, Rich Valley. Shellbrook: Shell River North Book Committee, 1983. p. 613. Print.
[4] Library and Archives Canada. Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916. Digital image online.. (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1916/index-e.html : accessed November 2011.)
[5]"Screen capture." Google Maps, Europs Technologies. (http://maps.google.com/ : 9 December 2011.)
[6] Lycan Family Graveyard (Lycan Family Graveyard, R.M. of Shellbrook no. 493, Saskatchewan, Canada; in NE Section 32, Township 50, Range 3, West of the 3rd Meridian), Lycan family graveyard and grave markers, photographed by Alanna Carswell, December 2011.

'Hopping' Through Cemeteries

Easter Saturday, now two weeks past, was an eventful day for me involving visits to three local cemeteries in the company of some likewise graveyard enthusiast friends.

First was a visit to Holy Trinity Anglican churchyard which involved some literal hopping over the washed out entrance road. The church building itself, has been boarded up since fall 2010 due to vandalism (thankfully relatively minor) and I am looking forward to the restoration of the door (it was in poor condition before the vandalism incident).

Holy Trinity Anglican Church & Churchyard, 23 April 2011.

The big hop, 23 April 2011.

View of Holy Trinity Churchyard still covered in snow, 23 April 2011.

We breezed through the churchyard discussing the various residents and their unique histories, like the Featherstone-Robarts-Holmes conundrum, Peterson children, Annibul, Lofthouse, Pruden and various other things of interest. I took pictures of a headstone installed last year and while I looked for evidence of a recent burial, which I understand has occurred, the area in question was still covered by snow. And it is entirely possible that I got the burial mixed up with Wild Rose North Cemetery.

Speaking of Wild Rose North Cemetery, that was our next stop. Oddly, like my first walk through, once again I did not get photographs of the cemetery. Very silly considering I had camera in hand this trip. There were three things that upset me during the visit:

1. I was sad to see that the glue holding a tabletstone to its base gave way because of the marker tilt, resulting in a toppled headstone. Markers affixed to bases in my opinion should be fitted into sockets or internally pinned.
2. The inscription face of a monument badly covered with lichen was carelessly scrapped off with a metal object, leaving scratch marks on the stone.
3. The amount of horse manure. Now, I am unsure if the manure comes for individuals riding horses to visit the cemetery or the T.B. horses which have a habit of getting loose. A week after the visit in fact, I saw nine horses and a foal in close proximity.

What was enjoyable was the discussion regarding some manufactured stones which we have, based on composition, concluded for the time being to be a fine coloured concrete mix. Damage to the head of another marker revealed to me, that unlike I had concluded while viewing spalling in Foxdale Cemetery of a local wolf stone, that the decorative covering may not be concrete but stucco of some sort. [EDIT: stucco is a concrete, silly me] With the examination of two markers revealing the concealed flower vases, a fun discussion was also held about various stories that could be concocted about cemetery exploration and hidden treasure.

From Wild Rose North Cemetery we moved onto St Martin's Anglican Church and Churchyard.  The church was open and nicely heated, leading me to suspect that as it has a gas stove, the church is being warmed in preparation of a Easter Sunday service even though the church no longer has, how shall I put this?--a congregation in residence.

St Martin's Anglican Church & Churchyard, 23 April 2011.

One of the tombstones in St Martin's was carved by one of my companions grandfather who does the traditional sandblasting and while neither the granddaughter or grandfather are fan of wolf stones, she does know that he purchases them and installs them upon request. So, I do hope through the connection I can learn who manufactures the wolf stones style of my area. And what exactly they are constructed of.

From St Martin's we went on a hunt for a forth cemetery, Wild Rose West Cemetery. (Which, for some reason, I was calling South at the time... probably because it is south of the North one although West is its name.) With now map, and working with only my general recall of the cemetery having plotted it out on the R.M. map, we were not successful in anything but touring the area and seeing deer.

Four white-tail deer seen while attempting to locate Wild Rose West Cemetery.

Touring back to home base, we concluded the day with pizza, hot dogs roasted over an open fire, and the culinary debate of how to make the best s'mores.

Walking Wild Rose North Cemetery

As the grass turns greener and deciduous trees start to bud, I'm getting more and more excited about returning to the cemeteries. So excited in fact, that on Saturday with it's gorgeous weather and time in the afternoon upon returning from a meeting in the city, that I stopped in at the Wild Rose North Cemetery for my first ever visit.

It is a wonderful burial ground with a fantastically varied amount of markers: a tree stump, granite, marble, field stones, cement, bronze, fiberglass, and some sort of constructed stone that I will figure out! I found the fiberglass markers of great interest, because it is the first example I have come across of wolf stones being made of fiberglass instead of cement.

There was also unique modifications done to the "traditional" markers, such as the cross of a veteran's marker being filled in and a crucified Christ mounted in the area; a wolf stone had instead of a crushed glass or stone finish, the person's rock collection was pressed into the cement. I came across my first lamb sculptures and am looking forward to deciphering one upright pillar stone that is unique in that the west face is completely bare of lichen and the east face is just covered in it--and wouldn't you know, the east side is where the inscription is!

I didn't run into anyone there, but I know that individuals had visited within the last three days. How do I know it was three days? The offered roses were still doing well, but the most important clue--the sharply defined hoof prints in soft soil. We had snow Tuesday morning and rain throughout that day and more rain throughout Wednesday of this week, thus the visit could have only happened Thursday or maybe Friday (the roses I'm certain had been frosted over at least once already which is why I believe they weren't laid out that day).

So I'm quite excited to return soon to start transcribing the monument inscriptions and mapping the cemetery. Pictures will be a while yet--sorry I don't have any to share in this post!--as I want the grass to look mostly green before I get camera happy to record the markers.

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.

Expeditions to Holy Trinity

My expeditions to the closest cemetery to my home, Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery, happened in two stages. In the beginning of July on the 13th, later in August on the 23rd. The reason for the large gap between expeditions was the fact that the camera I use went on vacation -- to Ontario for one month and then British Columbia for a week. (Which has prompted me to consider purchasing my own camera for grave hunting expeditions.)

The expedition in July was done in the company of my two and half year old nephew, who loved the Anglican church but wasn't so enthused about Auntie taking photographs of graves. That day was split into two visits, one with the nephew and one while he was napping to get photo collection and inscriptions for about sixty of the graves.

The visit on August 23rd didn't just result in a complete transcription of the churchyard however. I went to the churchyard with Mom this time and while there we ran into three senior individuals who were looking for St. Luke's Anglican Church which was decommissioned approximately five years ago. They were to view the building to see if it would be suitable for their new church building as their community's church had burned down five months ago during the winter. So we visited, talked about Holy Trinity as a church and the cemetery, as well as St. Luke's (church with no cemetery), and St. Martin's in Briarlea (church with cemetery).

Visit concluded the three individuals went off to find St Luke's, Mom began to walk home as that had been what she'd planned to do, and I started photographing graves starting in the opposite corner of the churchyard so I didn't photograph graves that I'd covered back in July. I only covered twenty-one graves though before the batteries died in the camera. So I sighed and began the drive home and realised half way to my destination that I had the camera case with me at the churchyard -- the case with the extra batteries. But I decided that as I wasn't wearing sunscreen and it was a very sunny day I should probably get indoors anyways.

Loading the new photos onto my laptop, I began immediately compiling a photo directory with inscription information. Done that, I went back and reorganized July's data. Making and reorganizing the photo directories I discovered that I'd overlapped gravestones which means that I might actually be done with Holy Trinity but will know for sure when I compile a combined burial and gravestone record for the cemetery in the form of a transcript and map.

The third visit is to finalize the churchyard map as I realized that while I was certain I had a complete transcription of the churchyard on August 23rd, I didn't know the spatial locality of all the graves (oops!), to make sure I've documented all the markers, and take some better photographs of certain markers because of cloudy weather back in July.

First Grave Hunt Adventure

I had my first grave hunting adventure on June 7th at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery hunting for the unmarked grave of a man's grandfather. Including the grandson, Dan Johnston, there were two others with me, my mom and Art Jones, for a grave hunting group of four members.

Even though it was periodically raining, hailing, and sunny I had a fantastic time and can't wait to go on my next grave hunt.

First off, my mother and I visited Gerald Ernst who has in his possession a map of the Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery. He let us know that it isn't current as there are at least three burials in the cemetery since the map was last updated. He also explained to us that not all the noted graves have headstones and why some of the noted individuals are buried in the walkways -- either the individual was buried before they really regulated the plots or they were buried in winter when snow hid the plot makers. We borrowed the map for our hunt, with promises to return it, and were pleased to know that as we've expressed interest when the map has been updated copies will be made and we can get some.

The buried grandfather we knew was in Lot 27 Plot 4. This was indicated on the map and in the written cemetery records even though the surname was misspelled on the map. There was little doubt that the map J. J. JOHNSON was the records JOHNSTON because the records precede the map and the initials of the grandfather's first and middle name are consistent. The grandson even explained to us that while he believed his grandfather's correct name is 'John Joseph Johnston' he has regularly come across documentation for 'Joseph John Johnston' as paperwork filled out by the grandfather himself read the former and paperwork that would be completed by someone else read the later.

The trouble with locating Mr Johnston's unmarked grave is that while everything indicates he is buried in Lot 27 comparing nearby gravestones indicated Lot 27 was in one place, but once we located sufficient number of the plot markers for Lot 28 and 29, there was insufficient space in the physical cemetery to hold those three plots and have space for the walkway. So crisscrossing the area, we finally decided to ignore map Lot 28's headstone and compare with other existing headstones in the cemetery. We finally came to the conclusion that Lot 28 and 29 were misprinted on the map -- all other headstones matched their printed location on the map -- and successfully located what we were confident was Mr Johnston's real burial place. Pictures were taken of the area, including sufficient enough landmarks (i.e. gravestones, numbered fence posts) so that Mr Johnston can be locate more easily in the future by his grandson.

But working with the map got me going about mapping the cemetery out with GPS and in future bring in Group-Penetrating Radar to clearly define where the unmarked graves are. I would enjoy learning how to do both, but I think it would be really fun to be trained to use the GPR and an interesting career path. I can see it now "Have GPR: Will Map Your Cemetery!"