Canadian Veteran's Headstones and What They Can Tell Us

Abstract

This paper was an exercise that stepped outside of my comfort zone, as an undergraduate history student, by gathering data in the field before contextualizing it with a healthy dose of library research. This task involved visiting a cemetery, determining a research question and then answering it by gathering data on site before contextualizing the findings with existing sources. The synthesis of gathering one’s own data and supporting it with a more traditional exploration of secondary research before expressing unique findings was an exhilarating experience. This paper explores the information gathered from Canadian Veterans headstones found in the Victoria Lawn Cemetery in St. Catharines, Ontario while focusing on key variables such as age at death, distribution of service branches, and religious affiliations present on the headstones.