Human remains unearthed during LRT dig finally find a resting place

Remains of 79 people foundduring construction of the downtown light rail tunnel will be movedto their final resting place atBeechwoodCemetery, but not before the public has had a chance to pay their respects.

The city is inviting people to attend a public visitationtaking place on Sept. 24from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Canadian Museum of History, where the individualswill restin 52 caskets.

The remains were unearthed during Confederation Line construction under Queen Street in 2013 and 2014, the one-time location of the Barrack Hill Cemetery.

The cemetery closed in 1845,making thoseindividuals"some of the earliest residents of Ottawa," said City of Ottawa archivist Paul Henry.

"From what we can tell, many of the [people] I think 78 of the 79 arrived in the Ottawa region probably a decade before the building of the Rideau Canal," said Henry, whose office is overseeing theinterment project.

"And they were mainly working class people, from all walks of life. Men, women and children."

Cemetery established in 1827

The cemetery was established in 1827 and was the final resting place for many Bytown residents including entire families who died of diptheria, malaria, cholera and other illnesses, as well as canal workers who perished on the job.

If there was no one left from a particular family, there was no one to take responsibility for moving those remains to the new cemetery.- City of Ottawa archivist Paul Henry

"It's quite clear that early Bytown was very much a difficult and hard place to live, [with people] eking out a living in what was in essence a wilderness at this time," Henry told CBC Radio'sOttawa Morning.

While the human remainswere moved to a newer cemetery in Sandy Hill after the Barrack Hill Cemetery closed,the LRT construction project revealed that some were left behind.

The rough-and-tumble existencethat characterized Bytown,Henry said, partly explains why.

"When we looked in the record, we couldn't find an organized attempt by anyoneto organizethe move of the cemetery. And so it looked like it was word-of-mouth," Henry said.

"If there was no one left from a particular family, there was no one to take responsibility for moving those remains to the new cemetery."

Chance to 'correct errors'

As for why the cemetery moved in the first place,the city was rapidlyexpanding by the mid-19th century, and given that embalming practices at the time didn't involve the use of formaldehyde, there was a public pushto relocate the graves, Henry said.

"Some of the remains were to put it delicately unburying themslves. So there was a general demand from the populace to move the cemetery," he said.

Sunday's visitation will host experts available to discuss the Barrack Hill archaeological finds, research discoveries and the history of life in early Bytown.

The individuals will be re-interred at BeechwoodCemetery in October, Henry said, in a manner consistent with 19th-century burial practices, such as using simple pine caskets painted black and closed with iron nails.

Brass plaques will also be placed at the cemetery with a number that matches the scientific report prepared by the Canadian Museum of History for each of the bodies.

That will allow future researchers to potentially identify the remains, Henry said, should DNA analysis one day allow that.

"This is an excellent opportunity for us to correct the errors of the past," he said.