Walsh United Church Cemetery [GPS:45.210/22.830], 957 Charlotteville Road 5, at Turkey Point Road, is on the northwest corner of this intersection, just south of Walsh, Ontario, in Norfolk County's historic Charlotteville Township.

The Ontario Genealogy Society/Norfolk Branch's CD-ROM of Names in Norfolk Cemeteries, lists over 660 names on Walsh United Cemetery stones as of 2003. This cemetery is still  in use.

This cemetery's name may be misleading. The United Church of Canada was founded by the merger of Methodist and Presbyterian congregations in 1925. Yet many of those buried here were interred before 1925. So presumably their obituaries and other documents of the day would have referred to this cemetery under some other name. A monument on the site reads "Wesleyn Methodist Church erected 1856, J. Clark, builder."

Many of the surviving historic stones are still fairly readable. Unfortunately, others (and not always the oldest) are weather-worn and can only be read today with great difficulty. Still others are broken or missing altogether. 

Cemetery stone transcriptions should not be taken as "gospel." Cemetery stones are not considered primary sources. Volunteers from both the Norfolk Historical Society and the Norfolk County Branch of the Ontario Genealogy Society as well as yours truly have all transcribed stones here, and transcribed the some stones differently. You have been warned.

Although well over a dozen stones can be transcribed by pausing the playback of our video when appropriate, our video is meant only as an overview of the cemetery itself, not as an alternative resource to cemetery stone transcriptions.

When it comes to cemetery transcriptions, older is frequently better, particularly when looking at the earliest stones. Volunteer transcribers from the Norfolk Historical Society transcribed this cemetery in the 1960s. A copy of that typewritten transcription is on file and available for viewing in the Reading Room of the Norfolk Historical Society. 

The Norfolk Branch of the Ontario Genealogy Society subsequently transcribed this cemetery in 1997, then updated that effort in 2006. Their updated transcription is available for sale from their web site: Ontario Genealogy Society/Norfolk Branch. (See their "Published Resources" web page.)

Our videos are merely sneak peeks -- not exhaustive treatments -- of their subject. Hopefully they will provide a touch of perspective for those who live at a distance until they can visit.

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Copyright 2007-2013 John Cardiff