Reilly Cemetery FAQs

How big is Reilly Cemetery?

According to my gps unit the Reilly Cemetery is .89 acres or around 3600 square metres in size.

Who is buried at Reilly Cemetery?

Methodists and Presbyterians were buried here, as were a few Anglicans it seems-- most people were from the families in the surrounding area although there were people who had no obvious local connection as well. I refer you to the page of Confirmed and Likely Burials.

How many people are buried at Reilly Cemetery?

We don't really know for sure exactly how many people are buried here because the records are far from complete but it is very likely that there are far more people buried at Reilly Cemetery than the records indicate. Like most protestant cemeteries in Quebec, it seems that anyone could be buried at Reilly Cemetery; they did not appear to exclude anyone based on religion. It is quite possible that as many as 3 to 5 times as many people are buried at Reilly Cemetery than the confirmed burial records (55 before 1900 and 20+ after 1900) indicate.

When did Masham become Rupert?

The first mention of Rupert in the burial records is in 1898, one George Percival McKortel (2 months of age) was interred by H. Krupp, Methodist minister. Rupert was in brackets after Masham, so it appears that some referred to the town as Masham and others to it as Rupert. I haven't come across anything specifying when the town name was changed, but it wasn't the goal of my research so such evidence might well be out there for the eager historian to track down.

How did you do your research at Reilly Cemetery?

First I read a lot of books about pioneer cemeteries in Quebec. Then I started poking around on the internet to find sources of information specific to the Gatineau area. I got lucky early on when I got in contact with some local authors and the Gatineau Valley Historical Society-- they recommended books on the area and pointed me toward sources of primary documents. This was a huge leg up and provided the background information I needed.

Field work involved working with volunteers to clear the site (thanks again everyone!), laying out a 5m by 5m string grid to enable relatively accurate measurement and mapping of the site, and then recording the information that each square offered. This included soil types, vegetation patterns, features and anything that caught my eye. This information revealed much about the overall distribution of monuments, ornamental plantings and change to the site over time.

My tools were simple. I used a handheld gps unit (wildly inaccurate, very frustrating), a compass, two tape measures, a camera and a note book.

How did you figure out which monument went where?

Many of the monuments were made in sections, with mortar between the layers. I measured the mortar marks and matched them to the monument sections out front on the cement pad, or those known to have been moved to Rupert Union Cemetery. Sometimes is was a really easy match to make, others were less clearcut. In one case a photograph sent in by a blog reader made it possible to choose between two candidates. Basically observation and a tape measure did the trick.