Events - Event View

When you go into a bookstore or library, you see the covers of all the books, and you know there’s a story behind each one. Walking through a cemetery is like that: you see all the grave markers, and each one is like a book cover — it holds a story. Those stories are about both the people buried there and the times in which they lived. In this talk, Yvonne Van Ruskenveld will use examples to show how genealogical research has enhanced the stories she’s told in her 33 years of giving historical walking tours for the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria.

Yvonne Van Ruskenveld, long-time member and current president of the Old Cemeteries Society, leads cemetery walking tours on a wide range of topics, including women’s history and BC’s gold rushes, among others. She is a member of the Victoria Genealogical Society and has given talks on various historical topics, including war brides, cemetery symbolism and crime in early Victoria. She is also a member of the Victoria Historical Society and the Western Front Association’s Pacific Coast Branch (World War I history).