A listing of all known York County cemeteries can be found at CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project

Cemetery records of Toronto are more difficult to access than those of the other counties. With its large population and long history, York County has a significant number of cemeteries still in frequent use. Finding someone buried in York County is not impossible but it does present a challenge!

Transcripts

The Ontario Genealogical Society started a project in the 1970’s to transcribe Ontario cemeteries. While the Toronto Branch, and the York Region Branch, have done many transcriptions, the truth is there are just too many cemeteries in the Toronto area for them to keep up. Also, many of them are in use, so there are always additions to be made.

First, check both Toronto Branch & York Region Branch of the OGS to see if the cemetery you're interested in has been transcribed. These transcriptions are available from the branch for sale, or you can request a lookup for a small fee. Toronto Branch OGS covers Metropolitan Toronto, while York Region Branch covers the remaining townships of York County.

You can also find many transcriptions at

Archives of Ontario

Toronto area Libraries

Library & Archives Canada in Ottawa

Family History Centres (worldwide!!)
Some of those are on microfilm, but at the Toronto Reference Library and the North York Central Library (Canadiana Room) they are bound into books. Those available on microfilm can be borrowed through Inter-Library Loan.

Indexes

Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid - is a consolidated index of many cemetery transcriptions across the province. However, there are many York County cemeteries which are not included in the database. Only half of the OCFA database is available to be searched online; to search the addendum, download the surname file from the "Files" page and open the file with a word-processing program (Select "Convert from ASCII Dos Text").

Toronto Branch OGS has a surname index, which they will search for $5 for the first surname, and $1 for each additional surname. That will tell you each cemetery where there are people buried by that surname (I assume that this is only for transcribed cemeteries). That charge is only for the index search, and the index search will only tell you surnames, not given names, so this is of limited use. Also, you then have to arrange to get the actual gravestone information from them.

There are also many websites offering partial indexes, photos and lookups. Where known links to these have been added to CanadaGenWeb’s Cemetery Project

Books

Directory of Cemeteries in Metro Toronto and the York Region is out of print but might be available from the library.

Accessing Burial Records for Large Cemeteries in Metro Toronto and the York Region. Available from Toronto Branch OGS.

Some cemeteries also have had books written about them, so don't forget to check the publications lists of the Toronto & York OGS branches, library catalogues, online book vendors (i.e. Amazon or AbeBooks), and even try a search engine search (Google anyone?)

Cemetery Boards

As many cemeteries in York County are still in use it’s easy to contact the cemetery directly and inquire about their burials. BUT if you are looking for more than two people in one cemetery, don’t call. The cemetery staff don’t have the time to look up every person in your family tree.

If you are seeking several people in one cemetery, and a transcript is not available, send the cemetery a polite letter the old-fashioned snail mail route (be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope!). Or consider hiring a local researcher to visit the cemetery on your behalf.

Use Canada 411 to obtain the address and phone number of cemeteries currently in operation.