Monument Analysis

For our project we looked at and mapped the St. John the Baptist Heritage Church graveyard in Colwood, B.C. The graveyard contained mostly immigrants to B.C. born in the mid to late nineteenth century. When a birthplace was shown on the gravestones it tended to be from the U.K. or other commonwealth countries or British Territories such as Australia and in one case Burma.
We learned that the parish was founded in 1913. It appears to have been a very devout community with several Reverends interred there and given some of the more striking monuments, they were never out of place in the graveyard but were distinct nonetheless.
One of the graves that caught all of our eyes was that of Hubert Wilberforce Wilson. Not because his tombstone was anymore impressive than any of the others but because of his name. We all loved that we found someone named Wilberforce. The name so inspired us that several of us went on to find out as much as we could about him through some basic genealogy sites on the internet. We learned for instance that he was on of eight children and was born in Hong Kong. He became a minor diplomat in South America and was granted the honour of CBE or Commander of the order of the British Empire.

One of the most interesting things that we discovered in the course of researching Hubert Wilberforce Wilson was that the date of birth on his tombstone is wrong. According to the records we found online he was born in 1867 not 1857 as stated on his grave.
All in all this was a fascinating project that allowed us to explore a piece of British Columbia history through a unique lens.

Military Burials

I found this article and thought it was particularly relevant given some of the discussions of how we treat fallen soldiers in Western society. Battlefield archaeology is handled differently from other sorts of graves. The excavation hopes to learn as much as possible but with soldiers, especially soldiers who may still have living relatives such as those that served in both World Wars, the aim is to return and reinter the fighters with honour. Even the remains that cannot be identified are given full military burial, to be acknowledged and treated with honour.
That is why this article caught my eye, the idea that an Army run military cemetery could have so many mistakes, misplaced headstones as well as misplaced remains were both mentioned. The fact that this is not an isolated incident but rather spans several military cemeteries across the United States it is clear why this iscausing shock and anger from families and the Veterans Administration.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/burial-problems-found-at-va-cemeteries/2012/01/23/gIQAYXLFMQ_story.html