Toronto Trust Cemeteries on FamilySearch

For those with ancestors and relatives who were buried in several of the Toronto Trust cemeteries FamilySearch has created a searchable name index as part of a project with the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. You can find the search page at Canada, Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989.

Screen capture of the Canada, Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989 search page from FamilySearch.

However, just like any searchable database, before you dive right in and start your searching you really need to be aware of the limitations within that name index. 

Before you begin first click on that "How to use this collection" button on the search screen and read the page that appears. This helps set your expectations of what might be found in the searchable index. Note the cemeteries and the range of dates covered in the index:

• York General Burying Ground (also called Potter’s Field), 1826-1855
• Necropolis Cemetery, 1850-1912 (the index will continue to 1935)
• Mount Pleasant Cemetery, 1876-1933
• Prospect Cemetery, 1890-1935

You can even browse the images by clicking on the "Browse all 7,234 images" button. But, if you are like me, you will get very confused and puzzled when you see the list of volumes for the four cemeteries since, with the except of "Potters' Field Cemetery", they all have several volumes with the same volume number but different date ranges as you can see from this image for the image waypoints of Prospect Cemetery. There is also a gap in the dates for volume 4.

Screen capture of the image waypoints for Prospect Cemetery from the Canada, Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989 search page on FamilySearch.

So just where are these digitized volumes really found on FamilySearch?

For that we need to use the FamilySearch Catalog. If you aren't familiar with the catalogue then you are missing out on a huge (I mean really, really big!) part of FamilySearch. The catalogue is just that, a catalogue of all the books, manuscripts, microfilms, volumes, and digitized collections held by FamilySearch. Of course, not all of it is online. And even if it is online in a digitized format it may not be accessible from the comfort of your home due to licensing agreements. You can tell if a digitized set of records can only be viewed from a Family History Center or Affiliate since those records have a key above the camera icon in the collection list.

Just like searching the genealogy records, you can also search the FamilySearch Catalog [see the update at the end of this post for a better way to locate for this set of collections]. When searching for a place it goes from largest to smallest in terms of jurisdiction.

Screen capture of a search for the place Canada, Ontario, Toronto in the FamilySearch Catalog search screen.

You might note that it actually doesn't find "Canada, Ontario, Toronto" but the first item in the possible places to select from is "Canada, Ontario, York, Toronto". That is the place we want.

Screen capture of the partial list of subjects found in the "Canada, Ontario, York, Toronto" catalogue on FamilySearch.

You will see a really long list of possible subjects for just "Canada, Ontario, York, Toronto" but notice that one of the items is "Cemeteries". In the parentheses it indicates that there are 24 collections within. Clicking on that line will open up the list of collections. Even though I'm focusing on just a few of the items in the list make sure you glance through the full list. The ones I'm focused on for now are these four:

Screen capture of four burial records/registers of the Toronto Trust Cemeteries listed in Cemeteries within "Canada, Ontario, York, Toronto".

I'm going to pick on Prospect cemetery to highlight what can be found in most of those collections.

Screen capture showing death registers and interment registers for Prospect Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada found on FamilySearch.

Looking at the above image you might note that there are death registers and interment registers. If we look back at the list of images returned from the "Canada, Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989" search page and compare it to this list then you can see that the first "Volume 04", which has a date range of 1930-1935, is probably for a Death register. What about the second "Volume 04" from 1953-1962? That is probably from the "INDEXES to death/interment registers v.4-7" which started in 1953. So that searchable name index is probably a combination of an index created from the death registers directly and a a transcription of an existing index. Confused? That's normal so don't worry!

You might have also noticed that only two of the digitized items have a magnifying glass on the right side. Those are the ones which are searchable. The rest...well...we have to do the work by looking in those digitized but non-computer searchable indexes to find the number of the entry in the death or interment register. Then we have to manually go through the death/interment registers to find that number. I'm not going to walk you through how to bounce (my term for how I use the digitized images on FamilySearch) through the images of the pages from the index. It is just one of those skills you pick up the more you use FamilySearch. But it really isn't too hard!

From a death notice in the Toronto Star I know that my great-grandfather, George Kaye Warrener, who died in 1945 was supposed to have been buried in Prospect Cemetery. In theory I should be able to find him in the "INDEXES to death/interment registers v. 1-3 1890-1953". It is also important to realize that those digitized set of images are not the only collections on this specific virtual microfilm but are found in items 7-9. So I had to "fast forward" through the images and then take a look in each of the three registers.

"Index to Death Register, v. 2,"  FamilySearch, Images (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Feb 2022), p. 558, George Kaye Warrener [ name highlighted in a red box]; citing DGS 8265661, item 8, image 935 of 1113.

Here he is in the index to the death registers. Since there was more than one index register I had to start with the first one and then move on to the next. I now know I need to find the death/interment register book which has number 71002 in it.

Even without knowing his date of death I could see that the "Death registers v. 4-6 (52529-87250)" is probably where I want to look. But note the little gotcha for the Interment registers:

(NOTE: The following interment registers were filmed in descending numerical and chronological order within each volume, i.e. 1957-1953, 1962-1958, 1967-1963, etc.)

This can really mess you up if you are expecting the pages for 1953 to be first in order in the images. So always read and pay attention to the notes. They are important!

Quickly I was able to find the page in the Death register with the entry for George Kaye Warrener. Since these registers are really two pages make sure you review the left and right page to see all the information.

"Death Register, v. 5,"  FamilySearch, Images (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Feb 2022), p. 267, no. 71002, George Kaye Warrener; citing DGS 8265660, item 2, image 371 of 841.

From the left side of the page, if I didn't already have his date of death I now know it is 26 Feb 1945, that he died of myocarditis, and he was interred on 1 Mar 1945. On the right side of the page I learn that he was buried in section 26, lot 625 and the owner of that lot is Ernest and Mary Palmer. Also the nearest relation is Mrs. Henrietta Warrener of 688 Gladstone Avenue. Because this is my own family line I know that Henrietta is his wife.

What next?

It just so happens, at least for the Prospect, Mount Pleasant, and Necropolis Cemeteries, the Plot cards have also been digitized and made available to us also on FamilySearch. Looking at the list of digitized records I see that I need to look at FHL 1493608/DGS 8738039 "Plot cards: Section 26 (no. 426-942) Sections 27-28 Section 30 (no. 1-750)" to locate the plot card.

"Plot cards: Section 26 (no. 426-942) Sections 27-28 Section 30 (no. 1-750),"  FamilySearch, Images (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Feb 2022), Section 26, Lot 625; citing DGS 8738039, item 1, image 407 of 3078.

Now we know who is buried in Section 26, Lot 625 and even the dates of death. Those other two buried with George Kaye Warrener? From my research I know that Mary Adele Palmer is his daughter (my grand-aunt) and Ernest George Palmer is Mary's husband. I now have their register numbers and dates of death so I can quickly look up their entries in the death/interment registers.

But don't stop there!

If you go to the next image you will even see how the grave has been laid out. How cool is that!

"Plot cards: Section 26 (no. 426-942) Sections 27-28 Section 30 (no. 1-750),"  FamilySearch, Images (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Feb 2022), Section 26, Lot 625, plot layout; citing DGS 8738039, item 1, image 408 of 3078.

Yet wait a second. Where is his wife Henrietta? She's not buried with him. From her death notice in the Toronto Star I know that she died in 1966 and never remarried. Is there any record of her?

Well, yes. In the "Crematorium records, 1933-1989" collection with "Toronto Crematorium (Ontario); Toronto Trust Cemeteries (Ontario)" listed as the author. Just like with the burial registers I soon found an entry for Henrietta Jane Whitfield Warrener, page 9358. This is one of the registers which was filmed backwards but it still didn't take long to find her in the cremation register.

"Cremation Register, v. 2,"  FamilySearch, Images (www.familysearch.org : accessed 9 Feb 2022), no. 9358, Henrietta Jane Whitfield Warrener [image formatted for blog]; citing DGS 8362351, item 1, image 205 of 1170.

In that entry, on the far right side we can see that there is a notation of "Remains sent to Hespeler on Nov. 22/66".

There is even a collection of a number of digitized images from the Mount Pleasant Group from 1989 to 1995 titled "Ontario, Toronto cemetery records, 1989-1995" available for one to review from the comfort of one's home. Not just for the Necropolis, Prospect, or Mount Pleasant cemeteries but for several others managed by the Mount Pleasant Group.

Of course these collection aren't just the only resources for you if you have ancestors or relatives buried in those cemeteries. The Mount Pleasant Group has a database on their site called "Find A Grave". There are a few challenges with using this database since you have to know the cemetery the person is interred plus you need to know how the surname has been spelled in the database. Also you have to provide at least an initial for the first name. But it might help you find details about where someone is buried. Here is what was returned when I searched their site for Prospect Cemetery, surname: Warrener, first name: G

• Given Name: George Kage
• Surname: Warrener
• Year of Burial: 1945
• Age of Deceased: 0
• Property Type: Land
• Section: 26
• Lot: 625
  

What is nice about the Mount Pleasant Group Find A Grave database is that they also provide a map so you can visit where the person is buried. This is always handy when dealing with large cemeteries. Additionally, with the section and lot information I could have gone directly to the Plot Cards to find his register number and then look him up the death/interment register.

Then there is also Find a Grave to help you locate a burial. However, with Find a Grave the information is quite often provided by volunteers based not just on what may be recorded on a marker but from their own research. So I always treat what is on Find a Grave as a clue unless I can actually view an image of the marker. Even then there may be errors.

Here is the marker for George Kaye Warrener in Prospect Cemetery from his entry on Find a Grave.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169703644/george-kaye-warrener : accessed 9 February 2022), memorial page for George Kaye Warrener (1870–1945), Find a Grave Memorial ID 169703644, citing Prospect Cemetery, Toronto, Toronto Municipality, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Family Foliage (contributor 49085284).

You might notice a Ronald MacGregor Warrener recorded on that marker yet he's not listed on the plot card. Is the plot card wrong? Not at all! Ronald is actually buried with his fallen comrades at the Agira Canadian War Cemetery in Sicily. Just another reminder that one can't believe that everyone listed on a grave marker or memorial stone is actually buried there.

There are many other sites to help you in your search of an ancestor or relative in these cemeteries such as:

• BillionGraves
• TONI - The Ontario Name Index from Ontario Ancestors
• Canadian Headstones
• Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid
• Ontario, Canada, Toronto Trust Cemeteries, 1826-1989 on Ancestry
  

 

Happy researching!

 

[2024 Jan 28: With the changes to the FamilySearch Catalog when it comes to searching by places in Ontario, see the post "Toronto Trust Cemeteries on FamilySearch - Updated" for a different way of locating these collections on FamilySearch