The government announced the launch of a new tool designed to track information related to cemeteries. The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS) designed the Cemetery Database with support from the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority (FCAA).
"We are committed to preserving an important part of Saskatchewan's history," FCAA Chair and CEO Dave Wild said. "This database will help historians and communities keep track of a wealth of information about our people and our past. It will help communities as they develop plans for their cemeteries."
The database stores information like the location and the size of the burial site, years it was active, the number of people buried on site, the identity of the owners of the land or persons responsible for the cemetery and more.
"We're interested in tracking and finding cemeteries because they are a major source of genealogical information," Saskatchewan Genealogical Society Executive Director Linda Dunsmore-Porter said. "They tell the story of our province and help us honour the people who came before us."
Before the database was created, information about our cemeteries was not widely available or easily accessible. This easy-to-access, online tool will help groups responsible for cemeteries make better informed decisions about care and maintenance of burial sites. It will also make genealogical research easier to do. Saskatchewan has more than 3,700 cemeteries already mapped and an estimated 700 unknown or unmapped sites. The SGS invites communities across the province to contact them and submit the latest information about their local cemeteries to help improve the database.
People can access the database online at http://stockfamily.ca/cemeteries/.
