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Explore Woodlands Cemetery
Over three thousand people were buried in the cemetery at Woodlands from 1920 to 1958.
The cemetery list shows the names of the individuals and the burial plots. The list is based on an updated database provided by The British Columbia Association of Community Living, BCACL.
Click on the individual names to see where they are buried and to read comments about them.
You can also add your own comments.
The cemetery map shows markers for all the individuals buried in the Woodlands cemetery.
The search box can be used to look up individuals by name or key words.
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Comments
Advice for locating Gorden Scarlett actual gravesite
hi Leah
Thank you for your note about your search for your uncle’s grave. I understand your frustration. I created the new survey of the former woodlands cemetery and the interactive cemetery google map enabled website almost 20 years ago as part of a public art project/exhibition. The interactive map aspect of the website has been deteriorating lately and it doesn’t work well now. I have been supporting this public art project for the past 20 years and now can’t afford to fix it. Not sure what I'm going to do about it.
Being able to find coordinates for individual grave sites is still helpful. If you can get hold of a handheld GPS finder you can enter the coordinates available on the website next to your uncles name and then use it at the cemetery to locate your missing grave. The new handheld GPS devices are quite accurate and not overly expensive. I have included a screen shot of the map as you requested it clearly shows plot 9 in block 17. Also places it in an accurate relationship with the architectural features and the trees on the site.
Hope this helps you with your search for your uncle. Please keep us posted on your progress and of your effort to place a proper marker at the grave.
Cheers!
MdeC
Site Administrator
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Possible contact for cemetery
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 would like a headstone too
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.
Gordon Scarlett GPS location
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
Support Group
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.
Gravestone
To whom it may concern,
Recently, through a DNA test my sister was contacted by a cousin in Australia. My sister and I decided to travel down under and met with all four of our cousins. While there, my cousin showed us medical records she had found in the BC archives. I was shocked to learn that my Great Grandmother was “incarcerated” in the then BC Hospital for the Insane and later died in Woodlands in 1913. Her name was Huldah Edlund. I found her name on your list.
Secrecy and shame permeate our family tree. I was appalled looking through the medical records to read words like stupid, dirty, problematic and awful… It was heartbreaking to read letters to her from the family. I’m no doctor, but the fact my great grandmother was taken to this institution mere days after giving birth to my grandmother screams post partem. 8 years later she died in Woodlands.
I have yet to really process any of this. I’ve read several posts on your site. I too would be interested in purchasing a new gravestone honouring the life of my great grandmother. I wonder too about whether any support groups have been formed to deal with the inter generational traumas that occurred as a result of this and other institutions like it. When I met my long lost relatives it became apparent we were sharing the same pain…
Please let me know ..
Best regards,
-Michael
Current status
Was there ever any information gathered on how to go about having our relatives graves properly marked? I’m in the process of trying to find (closer) relatives of James T. Underhill. If I don’t find them or if they are not interested in replacing his marker, I would like to take care of it myself so he can be properly remembered.
headstone
Hello
Im not sure if i responded to your email before so here is the information. I worked with Eric Lees from Lees and Associates to get Arthurs headstone placed.
Mark Clark
Insane paralysis was the term
Insane paralysis was the term used to describe the final stage of neurosyphilis, a common reason for a person to be housed in a mental hospital at the time
Placing/replacing a gravemarker in the former Woodlands cemetery
Hi Mark, I am the site administrator. This site has been receiving more and more messages asking for information as to where and how one goes about placing/replacing a marker in the ground at a grave in the former Woodlands Cemetery. If you can you share with me who to contact about this I will be happy to pass the information along to interested parties. Thank you Michael de Courcy