Gwen, I can't help you with your specific case but the lack of burial records is a question I am asked often about our on-line databases. Most cemetery photographic databases are the same: photographs of what is visible. Very often church burial records are not public and cemetery records do not exist. This is especially true in old cemeteries where the records were kept in the head of the caretaker in the years prior to the implementation of provincial regulations. Stones fall over, wood disintegrates, grass grows over the plot, food was more important than a marker on grandma's grave - lots of reasons for there not to be a marker. As a matter of interest, I have worked with the records of many, many families and in most cases the burial records or places have been nigh on impossible to locate. Very often the burial record is not in the church register but is in the death registration. The reverse is also true. One look at the size of a church burial register will tell you that many entries are missing as they are usually the smallest of the church's registers. In a local cemetery here there are at least 900 burials for which there are no entries in the register. And this is a fairly small cemetery! Be assured, they are dead and have been buried - somewhere. Does it really matter where, when you consider our ancestors' final resting places in earlier centuries are unknown? If it is just to know the date of death - well, that is another story about accuracy in death or burial records. Good luck! Pam > I have looked for the tombstone at the online Canadian Photographic Gallery and have not found it. I've looked at the online Ontario Gen Soc cemetery listing and there is no listing for either Charles > Laughlin or his wife Florence McArthur.

I'd like to add to this, Pam. I recently found a cousins death (1947) after a long, long search. This was on a local site that only recently went online. I called the County Clerks office about his burial, because it had "See note", but that was nowhere online. The woman I spoke to was able to tell me he had died elsewhere and was buried locally but without a headstone. The main reason that fact was known was, the groundskeeper at that time made sure he mades notes of burials. So as with all you've explained, there continues to be more explanations that can be added to your list. Ruth ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pam Tessier" <pamtessier@sympatico.ca> To: <can-ont-simcoe@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 1:42 PM Subject: [CAN-ONT-SIMCOE] cemetery inscriptions Gwen, I can't help you with your specific case but the lack of burial records is a question I am asked often about our on-line databases. Most cemetery photographic databases are the same: photographs of what is visible. Very often church burial records are not public and cemetery records do not exist. This is especially true in old cemeteries where the records were kept in the head of the caretaker in the years prior to the implementation of provincial regulations. Stones fall over, wood disintegrates, grass grows over the plot, food was more important than a marker on grandma's grave - lots of reasons for there not to be a marker. As a matter of interest, I have worked with the records of many, many families and in most cases the burial records or places have been nigh on impossible to locate. Very often the burial record is not in the church register but is in the death registration. The reverse is also true. One look at the size of a church burial register will tell you that many entries are missing as they are usually the smallest of the church's registers. In a local cemetery here there are at least 900 burials for which there are no entries in the register. And this is a fairly small cemetery! Be assured, they are dead and have been buried - somewhere. Does it really matter where, when you consider our ancestors' final resting places in earlier centuries are unknown? If it is just to know the date of death - well, that is another story about accuracy in death or burial records. Good luck! Pam > I have looked for the tombstone at the online Canadian Photographic > Gallery and have not found it. I've looked at the online Ontario Gen Soc > cemetery listing and there is no listing for either Charles > Laughlin or his wife Florence McArthur. ***************** Ten People All Genealogists Should Follow On Twitter: http://tr.im/hBAy Simcoe Co. GenWeb at http://www.waynecook.com/simcoe.shtml ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to CAN-ONT-SIMCOE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message