New Brunswick Branch: Loyalist Burial Site Project

New Brunswick Branch has started a project to mark the burial sites of Loyalists within the Province. The idea for the project was hatched in 2011 and was refined through numerous discussions and e-mails during that year. The Branch made a decision to proceed at the Branch AGM in June 2012 and followed up with an an application to the UELAC Grants Committee in November. The long-term objectives of the project are:

1. to identify and mark every cemetery, public and private, known to contain the remains of one or more Loyalists in the Province of New Brunswick;
2. to prepare a one- or two-page description of each Loyalist grave within the identified cemeteries showing the grave stone and a transcription thereof along with some details of the Loyalist (see the Association’s Loyalist Burial Site Project);
3. to create, perhaps in co-operation with the Provincial Government, a tourist map showing the location of each identified cemetery;

We will be using a routered polyresin sign, designed by Hamilton Branch, that will stand up to weather conditions. The plaques are typically mounted on 2-inch capped steel posts with stainless steel hardware but they can also be attached to existing structures.

Our membership renewal form prompts people to supply information about the burial places of their Loyalist ancestors and we have positively identified 48 cemeteries, public and private, where original grave markers remain intact. Dominion Council approved our request for a major grant in the amount of $3,000 and we are now in a position to purchase 20 plaques to be placed during 2014.