When I did my research on cemeteries in Quebec back in the fall of 2011 the consensus was that Methodists and Presbyterians were the denominations represented at Reilly Cemetery, along with a few Anglicans -- Anglicans like Catholics are usually buried in consecrated ground. Nowhere in my research did I come across any mention of any ceremony consecrating the ground at Reilly Cemetery, but that does not mean it never happened-- it just means I haven't seen any written record saying so. At the time I did my archival research the records for the Holy Trinity Church at Lascelles (Anglican) were nowhere to be found. When I put my lists of the confirmed and likely buried at Reilly Cemetery I used only those for which I had a written record. Two thirds of the headstones at Reilly Cemetery did not have corresponding entries in the Methodist and Presbyterian records. The Anglican records recently turned up-- they were there all along, just labelled in such a way as to be misleading. The Anglican diocese was of North Wakefield, the records were listed as being from Low. Well now that I have my hands on these I have started the long process of transcription, along with a few
Anyhow, those familiar with this blog will remember that from time to time I could cheerfully choke men of the cloth for their less than adequate record keeping. Again I am experiencing that desire. John Seaman, long time minister at Holy Trinity, only very rarely records a place of burial, I have yet to see a cause of death or place of death, and his spelling and grammar are...interesting. I realize that everyone's handwriting has variations depending on haste, standing or sitting, angle of the paper and all that stuff but I"m pretty sure that someone else wrote out a fair number of the entries (naughty Vicar, NAUGHTY!)-- namely his wife. I base this on the 'hand', and the fact that she could spell and he could not. Mrs Seaman was also passingly familiar with the use of commas. Rev'd Seaman was fond of underlining AD, he often inserted e's or shortened words to suit his fancy or lack of space, and he joined people in Wholey Matrimony. Neither Mrs nor Rev'd Seaman were great with punctuation, for they capitalized almost capriciously and neither used periods. These little, sometimes entertaining, irritants are NOTHING compared to what is coming in another 20 years or so of records for I HAVE SEEN into the future (insert revivalist preacher tone here) and the man who replaced Seaman writes in loops. Seriously, lots and lots of loops with remarkably little by way of dotted i's, crossed t's or any other differentiation of letters. Looking ahead to those records makes me want to cry.
What does all this have to do with Reilly Cemetery? Some of the names that are in those Holy Trinity records are very VERY familiar. Ignoring the vagarities of spelling there are Fairburn, Moore, Mahon, Riley, Shouldice, Shannon, Obre, and Chilcott names in these birth, marriage and burial records. I've recognized a few already but there is, frustratingly, no place of burial given most of the time. I'm wondering if those headstones without Presbyterian or Methodist records may belong to Anglicans...so that would mean that I need to add some names to the likely list and the paper over which I slaved so long and hard tells only part of the story. But that is the fun, and the point, of doing academic work-- there is always more to learn! No story is ever entirely told or unchanging and that appears to be the case at Reilly Cemetery.
