Explore Woodlands Cemetery

Michael,

The comments made about your great grandmother break my heart. My great great grandfather and grandmother are buried at Woodlands. They were a secret my family kept for 3 generations which I recently uncovered. I visited their final resting place here just yesterday and am still processing what happened to them and so many like them, although I do not know why they ended up at Essondale.

The generational trauma really stands out to me. My father isn't a part of my life, and his father took this family history with him to his grave, never uttering a word about his dad or his grandparents. The son of my great great grandparents who died at Essondale was likely left an orphan. I imagine this began a long and poorly understood chain of trauma and absent fathers in my family.

If there ever is a support group for the descendents, I am absolutely eager to be a part of it.

Sending strength and with you in solidarity.

May your great grandmother's memory be remembered with compassion.

Hello,

I would like to visit the memorial garden and find the exact spot where my uncle is buried. His name was Gordon Scarlett. He died in 1937 at 6 years old. I have his plot # from this website, but when I clicked on the map that shows the exact location, the page won’t load because of “too many redirects”. The “full cemetery map”. He is buried in plot 9, block 17. Do you have access to this map? I would like to see a screen shot of where he is in the cemetery.

Thank you,

Leah Shuler

I tried to find who could help me get a headstone for my uncle in 2021, but I was just shuffled around from one government agency to the next. City of New West could not even help me. Did you ever find out how to get a headstone there? I would really like to know.

The land on which the cemetery lies (Woodlands Memorial Gardens) is owned by the provincial government and the ministry responsible is Citizen' Services. You could try contacting the Real Property Division as a start.
I too have a great uncle buried there and wish to lay a headstone for him.

I hope this information finds its way to Darlene so long after her comment. Yes Arthur Alderson died at the Provincial Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster on November 23, 1915. I have him on my list of likely (but not confirmed) burials at the Douglas Cemetery in New Westminster. He is not listed in the Bowell Company register as being buried by that undertaker. However, it is likely that he was buried by the Murchie firm. Sometimes the Death Certificate lists the undertaker and\or cemetery name. So look carefully for this information. If you have not found a burial for him at another cemetery in the Lower Mainland he is likely interred in the cemetery I am documenting.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR INPUT!!!

Honestly, I had forgotten about posting to this site and the input from each of you is GREATLY appreciated. This coming year my brother, S-I-L and myself are planning a road trip to visit burial grounds and hopefully old home places of my father's people including my great grandfather Arthur Alderson. Thinking the library records for the funeral home will be an excellent place to search as well as the BC archives. I had reached out to the archives probably around 2014 when I posted here originally. The lady who I spoke with at the archives said there are records regarding to him in their files along with the original death certificate which I was able to access online. Our Dad had never known anything of his grandfather until the copy of his death certificate was found. Dad was pretty excited to have even that much information about his grandfather.

Currently we are planning our 'attack' to visit as many places as possible as most of Dad's relatives were in the Montana, Idaho, Utah and California areas along with in Canada. Researching prior to travel is necessary and if there are any additional suggestion, please share!!

Again, Thank you all!!! DW

Going back to see if there was any further input on my great grandfather, Arthur Alderson, it occurred to me I had not replied back to you comment directly. On the death certificate, I believe Sam (?) Bowell is listed as the undertaker. I will have to go back and find the death certificate to confirm the first name. The last name was definitely Bowell from the Bowell Company. The name on the DC as the undertaker is the same as the person who I read had dug up some of the bodies and literally 'carted' them out of the cemetery. Seeing as he passed in 1915, it would seem he was buried in the Douglas Cemetery as the Woodland Cemetery had its first internment in 1920.

Thank you again SO MUCH for your input!! Hoping to locate the his DC before leaving on our adventure next week. Still planning a trip to the BC archives to see what they have there.
Darlene

WE FOUND HIM!!!

My brother, sister in law and myself started last week on a homage of sorts to visit as many of our ancestral resting places as we could in a short amount of time. They drove their fifth wheel camper from Okla and met me Billings, Montana, after my flight from Texas. We visited cemeteries where our father’s side of the family tree were located fist finding the resting places of Greats, Great-greats, Great-great-greats, cousins and uncles/aunts in Montana and Idaho before traveling north to Bew Westminster, BC. Our first stop was the New Westminster Archives where their search yielded nothing for our great grandfather. But the lady at the desk said it didn’t mean they had nothing. It just wasn’t in their database. The three of us spread out to find something….ANYTHING! After about an hour, my SIL found a book listing his burial plot information. However, we didn’t know which cemetery. I asked a very nice gentleman we had just met in the reading room if he could help us figure it out. He looked at the IOOF and stated, “That’s in Frazier!” After using the old card catalog with the references for Bowell Funeral Home, we had his full burial information confirming the plot record.
So we went to Frazier with a very limited map. Fortunately the caretaker was there and printed off the plot map. Within 3 hours of starting our research, we were at his grave site. Now we are looking to get a permanent marker. From what they’re telling us, we’ll probably have to get our proof of lineage so we can claim the deed to the plot. And then we can get with Fraser Cemetery about placing a marker unless someone else knows a little easier way of going about it.