Headstones of Chinese graves can hold a wealth of undocumented information, such as:
- Name in Chinese characters
- Location of ancestral village, county, and province in China (in Chinese characters)
- Birth and death dates
The Chinese Graves at Melbourne General Cemetery external website documents the graves of Chinese interred at the Melbourne General Cemetery and is continuously being updated by CAFHOV.
Use it to search for ancestors who died in Melbourne.
You will find details about each grave including
- Photographs of the grave that may include the headstone, a view of the plot and other possible photos such as facial portrait.
- Location of the grave plot within the cemetery
- A transcription of the headstone inscription – Details may include Names(English and Chinese), Dates, Locations of origin in China
The Melbourne General Cemetery was opened in 1853 and designed as a public park with curved pathways and rest pavilions. There are about 300,000 burials in the cemetery which include notable people such as prime ministers and premiers.
Many of the graves are already documented and discoverable via dedicated English based websites. The Chinese are documented but important detail written in Chinese is unavailable to the public to read or discover.
Hence this website endeavours to make this important information available for researchers and genealogists to discover about the Chinese buried here. Chinese names and village names in Chinese characters are critically important for family researchers.
Discover
- Other people with the same family name using Chinese characters
- Other people from the same county, township or village using Chinese characters
Visit the Chinese Graves at Melbourne General Cemetery external website
Learn how to search the website
Other useful resources:
- Chinese Cemeteries in Australia (transcriptions) – Kok Hui Jin, FamilySearch
- How read a Chinese Headstone. CAFHOV 2023
- Cemetery Trust records. PROV
- History of the Melbourne General Cemetery Southern Memorial Cemetery Trust.
- Melbourne General Cemetery background – Andrew Wong
- Kok, H. J. (2016). Melbourne cemetery : old Chinese section / a study by Dr Kok Hu Jin. Dee Why, NSW: JKOK Media.