Yukon Death Barnes

[Kozmos]

Is there anyway of finding a death near a place called Whitehorse?
John Barnes possibly was buried there in the late1880's or early 1890's.
He was killed in a cave-in aged between abt 18 and 22.

Cheers

Kozmos

Guess I may be posting in the wrong "Topic" here

[Lendevon]

Presumably died in "the Gold  Rush". I should try the USA section.
Might find a few nuggets there! 

[Kozmos]

Thankyou Lendeven

heers

Kozmos

[hawickborn]

Hi Kozmos,
just browsing as I'm new to Rootschat.
I was wondering if you had found any more info on your Yukon death.
I am a Scot living in Dawson City Yukon, ( 6hrs drive north of Whitehorse), and will be dotting around Whitehorse in the middle of May. I have an interest in exploring old graveyards and the "pioneer" graves.
South of Whitehorse is a place called Carcross which on the Yukon end of the Chilkoot Pass, the goldrushers stopped there, went on to Whitehorse and then headed up my way to get rich...or..not on the Klondike.
If you would like me to have a look for you...I'm going that way anyway...let me know if you have  any other info that would be useful.  A rudimentaty grave may have town/country/age, but they are usually not full of information. At least I could e-mail you pictures of sites. The goldrushers didn't wander too far from the beaten path, especially in winter.
Cheers Sandra.

[Kozmos]

Hi Sandra,

Thankyou for your very kind offer.
I have found nothing else on John Barnes and have been told that it would be looking for a needle in a haystack. (Perhaps a haystack without a needle)

But if you happen upon a grave or Cross with a Barnes on it, I would love to know all about it.

Sometimes John was called "Jack" and in his brothers possession there was a poem to "Jack"
Obviously written to Jack/John by Frederick his brother after his death. The two of them were together  when the cave-in occurred, but only John died..
The parents were Katherine and Frederick Barnes. All the family lived in England.

We live in a goldmining area here in NZ so I know there were a lot of unrecorded deaths, but I had hopes that because John had a brother to bury him, he may have gone to some trouble.
The poem alone indicates that he cared for him a great deal.

Anyway Sandra, once again, many thanks.
Happy Hunting

Sue

[hawickborn]

Hi Sue,
Not a problem, I'll keep an eye out for a marker.
When the Yukon River melts and the melt run-off goes down, I'll take a hike along to an old graveyard we have here in Dawson. You never know, he could have made it up here to the goldfever "hotspot"... and the report was wrong. Even to this day, Whitehorse seems to be the only place in the Yukon in peoples minds, and Alaska is where it all happened !!!!
Also we have a very good historical society and museum here...when it opens in May, I'll ask if anyone has recorded Yukon gravesites, and I'll let you know if I find anything.
Cheers Sandra.

[Kozmos]

Thankyou very much Sandra.

My old Dad is thrilled to recieve this news.
We both know that it is a long-shot, but stranger things have happened.

Many Thanks

Sue

[hawickborn]

Hi Sue,
It's my pleasure...you can tell your dad that I love a good detective story !
A little update for now...I've discovered there's a North West Mounted Police archive, (precursor to todays Mounties), my RCMP friend will call me with the "www" tomorrow.
 I discovered that the NWMP were stationed at checkpoints and documented entry into the territory. Your John might be in there if he came through a checkpoint. I can do it on Saturday afternoon while my son is at piano lessons. Not promising anything...but it's a start.

Have you tried looking at ships manifests to see if you can find his North American landing  point? I surmise he would have come across land by the railroads in either country and perhaps left Seattle or Vancouver by boat. There is also a pioneer trail which the highway follows now, north of Vancouver up through the Fraser Canyon towards Northern BC and into the Yukon.   Who knows?
Anyway, that's the plan and when I drop my son off at school tomorrow, I shall pop into the Library and see if they can point me in the direction of cemetery archives. The communities are all linked to the large Whitehorse library and museums, so if the cave-in was documented, we might find it in the newspaper archives. I also thought about procurator fiscal reports...but I don't know how far back they go and how important they would be to someone after the statutory record-keeping time expired !
My Gosh...we could write a book here !
I'll shut up now and go walk the dog !!!!!
Cheers Sandra.

[hawickborn]

Hi again,
Thanks for the PM.
I may have aphoto of Point Levis in Quebec....it's now a small car ferry that folks use to pop across the St. Lawrence straight into Old Quebec.
I have been on that ferry ! The photo is from the top of the hill looking down at all the old buildings/cobbled streets. I'll have to have a good hunt.
AND YES....the St. Lawrence freezes in the winter all the way down and nowadays modern icebreakers plow the river to keep the waterways open. The Great Lakes region and out of the Seaway gets terrible winters...they still skate the rivers in Ottowa and Montreal. For Englishmen used to mild winters, they may have been a tad unprepared for the -30*F temps.
St. Catherines is right down by Niagara - a big industrial area with lots of rail/sea traffic in the late 1880s. New York State borders the USA side, so your hospital could have been named for that. I know of a NY Hospital of Special Surgery in downrown NY, (escorted a patient there once). Your boys got around. There is also a town of St. Annes in Ontario.
I looked up census records for the Territories, on the off-cjance...but no luck there. The census was not kept because of "minimal population".
There were in fact hundreds of people, native/non-native, scattered far and wide eith the fur trade !
Thanks for all the information..it gives me an idea of their route.
Got to be going to school now, better go.
Cheers Sandra.