Ontario cemeteries
- Guidelines for designating a cemetery
- A brief history of cemetery improvement in Ontario
- Example of a cemetery designation
- Helping to restore Ontario's cemeteries
Ontario cemeteries are a tangible link to ordinary individuals as well as famous people in our past. Many are an irreplaceable part of the province's cultural heritage. Their monuments and vegetation are part of our built environment, with their own unique history, development, and growth. Older cemeteries are a tangible link to ordinary individuals as well as famous people in our past. The inscriptions on their monuments instruct us about local, medical, and material history, cultural geography, historical archaeology, folklore, genealogy, and much more.
Setting monuments in mortar, reconfiguring monuments, changing heritage planting patterns or wholesale clearing of vegetation and maintenance with machines and chemicals have destroyed heritage plants and historic vegetation patterns. Learn more: read A brief history of cemetery improvement in Ontario.
Cemetery trustees who want information and technical advice about current, reversible methods to maintain and conserve their historic tombstones can order the ministry publication Landscapes of Memories - A Guide for Conserving Historic Cemeteries: Repairing Tombstones. Its authors are specialists in masonry conservation.
