Cemeteries

Gravestones are a part of our heritage.  They record an important event in the life of our ancestors and our community.  The recording of local cemeteries is one of the most important tasks of local family history groups.  Monumental inscriptions cannot be considered a permanent record because stone and other materials are more or less durable but not permanent. 
 
Gravestones can provide valuable information to the family historian.  This includes family relationships when people are buried in multiple graves or family plots.  In addition, they often provide the exact date of death and sometimes the birth dates as well.  Without a record of these monumental inscriptions, this valuable information could become lost forever.
 
One of the Abbotsford Genealogical Society's mandates is to record the memorial information from the nine cemeteries that are in the boundaries of the Cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack plus one that is across the border in Sumas USA.   The Abbotsford Genealogical Society started this work in 1982 and various committees and individuals of the Society have continued this recording over the years. 
 
After the formation by amalgamation of the City of Abbotsford in 1995 and the need to address issues raised by the new 1996 Privacy and Freedom of Information Acts in 1996, it was decided to formalize the AGS cemetery efforts.  A committee was set up and excellent progress has been made in updating most of the old records.  In 2009, the mandate of this committee was extended to include the cemeteries in Chilliwack.  Early in the update process, it was decided that an annual recheck and update of each cemetery would be made.

Through the extensive efforts over the years of many AGS volunteers, this information is available to the public on CD, in hard copy in our Resource Centre for in house research or downloaded as a PDF file by clicking on the links below.  Maps are available for some cemeteries and can be viewed by clicking on the links after the cemetery list name.

One of our members, Jim Mc Queen, has been diligently photographing gravesites in Abbotsford and has arranged for them to be included on the Canadian Grave Markers website.  By cross-referencing the information found there with that in our cemetery indexes should be almost as good as a visit to the cemetery.  Jim plans to continue with his noteworthy efforts to add to these valuable historical documents so please check regularly to see if what you've been looking for havsbeen added or updated.

The Reach P9320  The Japanese community at Clayburn just prior to the evacuation to internment camps in 1942.