Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

• That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
• We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
• On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Kaslo (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Kaslo. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

A Few Details for Kaslo ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

• The naming (or the toponymy) of Kaslo:

There seems to be several stories for the naming of Kaslo:<1>

- According to D.P. Kane, postmaster in 1905: "Kaslo was named by my brother and myself in the year 1890. Previous to this time my brother and myself staked a pre-emption and a purchase comprising a mile square or 640 acres more or less at the mouth of the river that flows into Kootenay lake at this point. The river was then and had been for many years before named Kaslo so we named the town after the river".

- Also from D.P. Kane: "For a time when I was alone here I had an old Frenchman trapper staying with me in the cabin for awhile and he told me that years before when the Hudson Bay Company came in on this lake to get lead from the Blue Bell Mine for bullets, that there was a Frenchman with their party by the name of John Kaslo or Kasleau, who came up the lake to the head looking for placer gold and had named the river after his name."

- From a transcript provided by Innes Cooper: "The name Kaslo is derived from an Indian word, 'As-Kas-leo', meaning place where blackberries grow. The name was given to the spot prior to the advent of the whites, and was due to the fact that the Indians went to that point on the shore of Kootenay Lake each summer to harvest the prolific yield of blackberries that grew on or near the area now covered by the city."

But as a counter-point, consider D.P. Kane again: "I do know that there is nothing in the fable of 'where blackberries grow' as blackberries do not or ever did grow here. In early days I lived alone at this point and for a whole year had nothing by Indians around and not one of them could tell me a word as to how the name originated. The name is not Indian, that is certain."

- From Mrs. John Keen: "Named after John Kasleau, Hudson's Bay Company trapper, who placer mined on the creek. The town was plotted by John Keen in 1891 and [he] corrupted the name to Kaslo."

• Kaslo was founded in 1891.
• It was incorporated on August 14, 1893.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Kaslo:

• Websites specific to British Columbia
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search

• Cemetery Information and Directories for British Columbia
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of British Columbia
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of British Columbia
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of British Columbia
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of British Columbia

Cemeteries Near Kaslo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kaslo.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Kaslo covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Kaslo, with the one closest to Kaslo listed first.

• Kaslo Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • The Kaslo Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Kaslo Municipal Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kaslo Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2295920 <2>
• New Denver Municipal Cemetery
  (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • The New Denver Municipal Cemetery has also been known as:
  • New Denver Village Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Denver Municipal Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1997606 <2>

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Kaslo. See our List of 1890's Communities around Kaslo.

Off-the-Road Links ...

The official website for Kaslo: www.kaslo.com/

The official website for Province of British Columbia: https://www.gov.bc.ca/