now accepted, as are funeral vaults for winter burials. Visiting the family of the deceased has changed from their home to centrally placed funeral parlours; embalming is now the rule.

Cemeteries

Cemeteries provide a wealth of information for genealogists; we have obtained transcripts from the Heritage Foundation of P.E.I. for local cemeteries, which are stored in our Stanhope History Committee reference files, and which we feel may be helpful to present and future researchers in this area, who are most welcome to consult these files.

In this section we will consider the three cemeteries actually in Stanhope: Long Pond, the Shaw family burial plot, and Stanhope Cemetery on the East Road. We have no record of a French (Acadian) burial ground here, but it is possible that the Long Pond cemetery was begun by the Acadians; however, with only two French families here for a relatively short period of time, there cannot have been many burials. Older residents tell of another cemetery near Stanhope Beach Lodge on the Point, at the cliff’s edge with the occasional bare human bones protruding from the earth after heavy rains. (Mrs. Allie Mutch). This was supposed to be a very old Indian burial place, though some think it was French.

Cemetery transcripts listed in our files are: —

West Covehead, St. James’ Church. West Covehead, MacMillan family. Marshfield, St. Columba’s Marshfield, Pioneer

York, United Church.

Dunstaffnage, Central United Church. Covehead Road.

Covehead Road, St. Eugene’s.

Corran Ban, St. Michael’s.

Brackley Point, MacCallum Portage Road, Brackley Presbyterian.

Portage Road, Pioneer. The transcript of the East Road Stanhope Cemetery will be found in the appendix of this book.

Long Pond Cemetery

This is one of the oldest pioneer cemeteries on the Island. It is situated beside Long Pond on the Nature Trail of the National Park in Stanhope, with access nowadays from the Gulf Shore Highway; in older times a farm track led from the Stanhope East Road (the “New Road” then) between the Carr and Foster properties to the cemetery. It

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