William DeBoo Back in 1889, the City of Saint John Board of Health wanted to detect and control contagious diseases, so it issued an order that anyone buried in the city required a burial permit. These permits were not only a must for anyone who died in Saint John and was to be buried here, they were also needed for any body returned to Saint John for burial or any body passing through the city for burial elsewhere. Burial permits were issued until 1919. To the citizens of 1889, these permits were probably looked at as just one more interference by government into their personal affairs. But to those of us who are doing genealogy, the information found on burial permits saves us all kinds of digging, so to speak.
Burial permits provide a wealth of information.
And often, you'll find information that you would probably never find from any other source. In the Cusack family, I was trying to locate the date and place of death of Thomas Cusack who was the brother of my husband's grandfather. His body was sent home to be buried, and since it was passing through Saint John on its way to Kings County, a burial permit was required. You can often identify the community of migration of a family that had left Saint John from the burial permit. You can also use the permit to find out how, where and when the person died, where they lived and where they were buried among other things.