Which cemetery?

[cristeen]

I have a death record for John C Steavenson in Victoria, British Columbia. Date 14 April 1895 Reg. 1895-09-009789, BCA B13078, GSU 1927288.
I would like to find out more eg. which cemetery is he buried in? Possible gravestone? Cause of death? according to old family letters he died seal hunting.
Any help or suggestions appreciated.
Christine

[Hilaryanne]

Have you tried here?

I would look for you but cant access the site from work.

http://www.islandnet.com/bccfa/homepage.html

its the british columbia cemetery finding aid.

[cristeen]

Thanks for the link. I found him in Ross Bay Cemetery Victoria and also in the 1891 census fro Vancouver Island.
Christine

[loo]

If he died accidentally, like on a seal hunt, there may very well be a newspaper article about it, either where he lived or where the incident occurred.  I would have thought that seal hunting would be restricted to the more northern, remote areas, but perhaps not back then.  If he was buried in a cemetery, that means somebody brought back his body.  Perhaps the police  (Royal Canadian Mounted Police / RCMP) or coroner were involved.

[Canuk]

Hi;

I'm happy to go look up the the death registration and send it to you next time I am at the Archives.  That will tell you the true certified cause of death, and a whole lot more.  If you've never seen a Canadian BMD Registration, you'll be very surprised at how much you can learn from it.

I'll also go take a digital picture of the grave for you and send it.

If he died seal hunting, it may not be as romantic a story as you might think, I'm afraid.  Fishermen considered seals a pest because the gobbled up lots of fish, so they got killed quite a bit.

Please write back via private message and we'll set something up.  I love doing this kind of stuff.

[J.J.]

http://www.rootsweb.com/~canbc/vote1898/votest.htm

According to this site he was a ship owner, so may have been anywhere when he  died...Although he may have been brought back and died from his injuries back at port...J.J.


also, could this have been your ancestor's discovery by chance?
http://www3.visitvictoria.com/displayObject.cfm/ObjectID.000F180D-532D-1A62-88CD80C476A90318/vvt.vhtml
haha...different Victoria...in Australia..I wasn't paying attention...but then he was a ship owner..

[cristeen]

Being a ship owner makes total sense to me. His father was a merchant from Liverpool and owned ships I believe. The link to Steavenson Falls is relevant. John worked for the Victorian Government surveying roads to some of the gold fields. The river is also named after him and a local town, Marysville, named after his wife! His is a fascinating life story and his brothers' tales are also pretty interesting.
Thanks for the electoral role info and your interest.

[J.J.]

How very interesting and exciting to have such colourful ancestors! 
I see that he was the assistant commissioner for roads and bridges,
and first settler at the site...wow...
I am delighted that the town was named after his wife... J.J.

Archival record in case you hadn't seen it
under "Roads - Glenhuntly Road"
http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/historical_records.html


Would this have been his parents, with the same name?
Marriages from the Registers of Tynemouth (1822-1829)
http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/Transcriptions/NBL/MTYN1822.html

or this merchant who was the Provost of Fortrose in 1837...?
http://www.fortrosemarkie.org/rosemarkie.htm

[J.J.]

Ohhh...other searchers....you may already have this
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NORTHUMBRIA/2002-04/1018501910