Links to useful resources I have found in my family history researchrelating to my ancestors from or in Canada will be listed on this page (so as not to lose track of something helpful). Hope you find something to help you, too.
GENERAL
Ancestry.com - subscription database of family history databases. Massive amount of content.
FamilySearch.org - free family history and genealogical records database- Church of the Latter Day Saints FamilySearch Canadian Historical Record Collections
Olive Tree Genealogy / Canada - links to free transcribed ships records, immigration info & links to all sorts of genealogical info per province
Marj's Place - Oodles of information/ links, for general Canadian genealogical data, child migrants, 19th Century immigration, extractions of names from the Sessional Papers of the Government of Canada and British Parliamentary papers
Cyndi's List/Canada - Links to Canada specific websites/information. free comprehensive, categorized, and cross-referenced list of links to genealogical research sites online.
Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada / Electronic Collection
Facebook for Canadian Genealogy, as updated September 2015 - Gail Dever's list of Canadian genealogy and historical pages and groups on Facebook, in English and French (currently almost 17 pages long. If you need it's probably in here.)
J.J.'s Complete Guide to Canada - I used it for the history mostly, but it explains, history, government, culture, etc.
Ethno-Cultural Groups Collection - Click through to see long list of databases
Canada Year Book Historical Collection - covers the first century of Canada's history, from 1867 to 1967, with historical text, tables, charts and maps, supplemented by interconnected learning resources.
Canadiana - "Canadiana.org identifies, catalogue, and digitizes documentary heritage—books, newspapers, periodicals, images and nationally-significant archival materials—in specialized searchable databases."
Canada GenWeb "Gateway to Free Canadian Genealogy"
Heritage - "The Héritage project is a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 60 million pages of primary-source documents."
Genealogy A La Carte - Truly excellent blog on Canadian genealogy and history. Do yourself a favor, and just click through and subscribe.
The Multicultural Canada digitization project - "Included in this web site are an extensive range of Collections, the majority in a language other than English. The geographic coverage is wide, from Franco-Ontarien newspapers to the organizational records of Victoria’s Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Material types include audio files, published text such as books and newspapers, unpublished text such as manuscript documents, photographs, and ephemeral items such as identity cards."
Automated Genealogy - Indices to Canadian Censuses
Bytown.net – It says it is “A Digital History of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2014”. It is one LONG scrolling page chock full of genealogical and historical information, links, maps, tables.
New Mennonite Photo Archive in Canada explanation article from the University of Waterloo’s Mennonite Archives of Ontario, contains a link to the new database (MAID) which currently has over 80,000 descriptions of photos and over 9,000 images and will be expanding.
Canadian Census Enumerator Instructions links to the manuals for the various years
Canadian Resources I Use from the Life from the Roots blog - gathered over the course of her 19 years of research in the Eastern Townships in Quebec
Black Sheep Ancestors - genealogical prison records and insane asylum records for the US, genealogical prison records for the UK. numerous links to historical court records, execution records and biographies of famous outlaws & famous criminals across the US, UK and Canada.
HISTORY
GenDisasters - USA & Canada. Genealogy site compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents our ancestors endured. Database and records searchable by surname.
Our Roots, Canada's Local Histories Online - Canadian local histories in French and English. Over 5600 digital texts with 1.3 million pages of facts about Canadians and Canada. Fascinating, useful, and free.
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
Timeline: "Canada" before Confederation
The Peopling of Canada
Multicultural Canada / Peopling / 19th Century
Multicultural History Society of Ontario
Wikipedia: Scottish Canadians
Wikipedia: Irish Canadians
Wikipedia: Upper Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia - online Canadian historical encyclopedia.Very helpful on providing context.
UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS (United Empire Loyalists were those who had been settled in the 13 colonies at the outbreak of the American Revolution, who remained loyal to England and who took up the Royal Standard, and who settled in what is now Canada during or at the end of the war.)
The United Empire Loyalist
United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada
Olive Tree Genealogy / Loyalist Genealogy
The Old Empire Loyalist List
CanGenealogy - United Empire Loyalists
IMMIGRATION/EMIGRATION
1832 Emigrants Handbook for Arrivals at Canada (transcription) - fascinating!
Female Emigrants Guide of 1854 (transcribed extracts) - interesting
19th century Immigration to Canada, many links, ships lists, voyage accounts, lots of other information
Child Immigrants to Canada - lots of links
The Scots to Canada Website
Canadian Museum of Immigration Museum website
Crossing Borders: Scottish Emigration to Canada
By Way of Canada: U.S. Records of Immigration Across the U.S.-Canadian Border, 1895-1954 (St. Albans Lists)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada Statistics
MILITARY
Canadian Military Heritage Project - Free searchable military databases for each war and rebellion Canada has been involved in.
ALBERTA
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
MANITOBA
Olive Tree Genealogy / Manitoba
Manitoba Genealogical Society
Manitoba Historical Society
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick - multiple searchable databases. Very helpful.
Olive Tree Genealogy / New Brunswick
New Brunswick Genealogical Society
New Brunswick GenWeb
The New Brunswick Irish Portal -Irish immigrant centric links
The Irish of New Brunswick at Mid-Century
ONTARIO / UPPER CANADA
Puslinch Historical Society - Extremely helpful website and people who answer the emails. The research they've done & posted as to the Lot Histories (info on every family that had owned the lot from the beginning: names, marriages, etc., helped me make/confirm a major connection!).
ClarksofTomFad.ca - Website has an amazing amount of information about the history, and communities and people in history, of Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario (& pre-unification), and transcribed records therefrom.
The Canadian County Atlas Project, Ontario - The County Atlas Digital Project is a searchable database of the property owners' names which appear on the township maps in the county atlases (produced between 1874 and 1881). Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned, with links from the property owners' names in the database.
Ontario (Upper Canada) History Online Resources - list of Ontario History books, directories etc. that are free to read online, or download to your home computer
Ontario and Upper Canada Genealogy and History (links)
Olive Tree Genealogy / Ontario - hundreds of links
Mary's Genealogy Treasures / Ontario - hundreds of links
Canadian Genealogy and History Links / Ontario - hundreds of links
Ontario Historical Society
Ontario GenWeb
Brant County GenWeb
Huron County GenWeb One of the more extensive county GenWeb's I've run across. Lots of links & pages
Middlesex County GenWeb
Oxford County GenWeb
Wellington County GenWeb
Ontario's Historical Plaques - pictures of Ontario's roadside historical plaques
Bytown.net – It says it is “A Digital History of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2014”. It is one LONG scrolling page chock full of genealogical and historical information, links, maps, tables.
QUEBEC / LOWER CANADA
Place Names of South West Quebec, alphabetical order, with a bit of description
Quebec Genealogy Records Online - lots of links, wide variety of sorts of records & databases Quebec-wide and by county. (indicates whether in French or English)
Olive Tree Genealogy / Quebec
Lovell's Montreal Directories - Home and business directories for Montreal 1842-1977, digitalized. Per Gail Dever of the Genealogy a la carte blog, "Don’t feel daunted by the French-language interface. Simply click on Série principal (1842-1977) in the left-hand column under Montréal, and you will discover the rest is in English." It looks extremely useful for those with ancestors in Montreal. (Don't forget to look at the ads! I love the ads in directories.)
Missisquoi County Rootsweb Blog - Thousands of area censuses, notary records (the Notary's personal records of what he notarized, for whom, and when), directories and parish registers have been transcribed and are freely accessible and searchable through links on the blog.
Bytown.net – It says it is “A Digital History of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2014”. It is one LONG scrolling page chock full of genealogical and historical information, links, maps, tables.
British,Irish, Scottish, Loyalist, American, German,Scandinavian, Dutch, Huguenot families in Lower Canada and Québec - contains information on villages and communities where families settled in Lower Canada and Quebec from 1760 onward, including name changes in the counties, villages and settlements.
GenDisasters - USA & Canada. Genealogy site compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents our ancestors endured. Database and records searchable by surname.
Our Roots, Canada's Local Histories Online - Canadian local histories in French and English. Over 5600 digital texts with 1.3 million pages of facts about Canadians and Canada. Fascinating, useful, and free.
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
Timeline: "Canada" before Confederation
The Peopling of Canada
Multicultural Canada / Peopling / 19th Century
Multicultural History Society of Ontario
Wikipedia: Scottish Canadians
Wikipedia: Irish Canadians
Wikipedia: Upper Canada
The Canadian Encyclopedia - online Canadian historical encyclopedia.Very helpful on providing context.
UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS (United Empire Loyalists were those who had been settled in the 13 colonies at the outbreak of the American Revolution, who remained loyal to England and who took up the Royal Standard, and who settled in what is now Canada during or at the end of the war.)
The United Empire Loyalist
United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada
Olive Tree Genealogy / Loyalist Genealogy
The Old Empire Loyalist List
CanGenealogy - United Empire Loyalists
IMMIGRATION/EMIGRATION
1832 Emigrants Handbook for Arrivals at Canada (transcription) - fascinating!
Female Emigrants Guide of 1854 (transcribed extracts) - interesting
19th century Immigration to Canada, many links, ships lists, voyage accounts, lots of other information
Child Immigrants to Canada - lots of links
The Scots to Canada Website
Canadian Museum of Immigration Museum website
Crossing Borders: Scottish Emigration to Canada
By Way of Canada: U.S. Records of Immigration Across the U.S.-Canadian Border, 1895-1954 (St. Albans Lists)
Citizenship and Immigration Canada Statistics
British Isles Family History Society of Great Ottawa(BIFHSGO) Home Children Indexes and Databases
Passenger List Indexing Project, by the Nanaimo FamilyHistory Society of British Columbia - Indexing of passengers arrivals at Quebec Ports (Montreal is included in the Port of Quebec) for the period 31 Jul 1903 to 13 Oct 1910. An additional eight arrivals prior to this period are also included.
MILITARY
Canadian Military Heritage Project - Free searchable military databases for each war and rebellion Canada has been involved in.
Canadian Virtual War Memorial - a registry of the more than 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who have given their lives serving Canada or the United Kingdom.
ALBERTA
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
MANITOBA
Olive Tree Genealogy / Manitoba
Manitoba Genealogical Society
Manitoba Historical Society
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick - multiple searchable databases. Very helpful.
Olive Tree Genealogy / New Brunswick
New Brunswick Genealogical Society
New Brunswick GenWeb
The New Brunswick Irish Portal -Irish immigrant centric links
The Irish of New Brunswick at Mid-Century
Saint John Almshouse, New Brunswick, records - ecords from the Saint John City Almshouse Admission Registers from 1843-1897 and the Saint John Almshouse Admission Registers, 1843-1884 for individuals admitted to the Alms and Work House, the Emigrant Infirmary, and the St. John Emigrant Orphan Asylum.
ONTARIO / UPPER CANADA
Puslinch Historical Society - Extremely helpful website and people who answer the emails. The research they've done & posted as to the Lot Histories (info on every family that had owned the lot from the beginning: names, marriages, etc., helped me make/confirm a major connection!).
ClarksofTomFad.ca - Website has an amazing amount of information about the history, and communities and people in history, of Puslinch Township, Wellington County, Ontario (& pre-unification), and transcribed records therefrom.
The Canadian County Atlas Project, Ontario - The County Atlas Digital Project is a searchable database of the property owners' names which appear on the township maps in the county atlases (produced between 1874 and 1881). Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned, with links from the property owners' names in the database.
Ontario (Upper Canada) History Online Resources - list of Ontario History books, directories etc. that are free to read online, or download to your home computer
Ontario and Upper Canada Genealogy and History (links)
Olive Tree Genealogy / Ontario - hundreds of links
Mary's Genealogy Treasures / Ontario - hundreds of links
Canadian Genealogy and History Links / Ontario - hundreds of links
Ontario Historical Society
Ontario GenWeb
Brant County GenWeb
Huron County GenWeb One of the more extensive county GenWeb's I've run across. Lots of links & pages
Middlesex County GenWeb
Oxford County GenWeb
Wellington County GenWeb
Ontario's Historical Plaques - pictures of Ontario's roadside historical plaques
Bytown.net – It says it is “A Digital History of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2014”. It is one LONG scrolling page chock full of genealogical and historical information, links, maps, tables.
Our Ontario – over 1 million photographs, maps, videos, oral histories, government documents, and newspapers
TONI (The Ontario Name Index) - contains more than 3 million names, shows where information about a particular name can be found.
QUEBEC / LOWER CANADA
Place Names of South West Quebec, alphabetical order, with a bit of description
Quebec Genealogy Records Online - lots of links, wide variety of sorts of records & databases Quebec-wide and by county. (indicates whether in French or English)
Olive Tree Genealogy / Quebec
Lovell's Montreal Directories - Home and business directories for Montreal 1842-1977, digitalized. Per Gail Dever of the Genealogy a la carte blog, "Don’t feel daunted by the French-language interface. Simply click on Série principal (1842-1977) in the left-hand column under Montréal, and you will discover the rest is in English." It looks extremely useful for those with ancestors in Montreal. (Don't forget to look at the ads! I love the ads in directories.)
Missisquoi County Rootsweb Blog - Thousands of area censuses, notary records (the Notary's personal records of what he notarized, for whom, and when), directories and parish registers have been transcribed and are freely accessible and searchable through links on the blog.
Bytown.net – It says it is “A Digital History of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull / Gatineau 1600 to 2014”. It is one LONG scrolling page chock full of genealogical and historical information, links, maps, tables.
British,Irish, Scottish, Loyalist, American, German,Scandinavian, Dutch, Huguenot families in Lower Canada and Québec - contains information on villages and communities where families settled in Lower Canada and Quebec from 1760 onward, including name changes in the counties, villages and settlements.
The Université du Québec à Montreal's Bibliographie sur l'histoire de Montréal – an online bibliography of books, articles, and theses about the history of Montreal that contains 9,684 titles in English and French. [Extensive Online Bibliography about History of Montréal an Important Resource for Genealogists from the Genealogy À La Carte blog explains how to find English documents through keyword searches and the filters.]
SASKATCHEWAN
Peel's Prairie Provinces -An online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items. Contains approximately 7,500 digitized books, over 66,000 newspaper issues (4.8 million articles), 16,000 postcards, and 1,000 maps.
NEWSPAPERS
Connecting Canadians - Canada's Multicultural Newspapers
Historical Canadian Newspapers Online -Bowling Green State University (in Ohio, USA) collection . Extensive.
The Ancestor Hunt: Canada Online Historical Newspaper Links
Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics - Johnson read all English-language New Brunswick newspapers available in original form or on microfilm, and copied out notices of births, marriages, deaths, and also of ship wrecks, trips outside the province and many other events, all containing names that would further the search for an ancestor. This database was very helpful for me!
The Ancestor Hunt: New Brunswick Online Historical Newpapers
Library and Archives Canada - Newspaper Collection
BOOKS
Google Play Books - new and old ebooks. Google has digitized and made available 1000's of old, off copyright books. I've found a whole bunch of old Canadian histories and biographies there for free, and purchased other newer ones.
WorldCat.org - the world's largest library catalog allows you to search the collections of libraries around the world. It will tell you what libraries have the book & how far away they are. My local library will try to get the book through inter-library loan, if its in the circulating collection of the library that has it. Your library might do the same if you ask them.
Global Genealogy - Canada's History and Genealogy Store. Some very helpful material: books, preservation products, forms & charts, printing solutions
Abe Books - Online marketplace for books. Millions of brand new books, used books, rare books, and out-of-print books are offered for sale through the AbeBooks websites from thousands of booksellers around the world.
The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond, by Lucille H. Campey (copyright 2005, published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto, CA) [Nookbook]
Library and Archives Canada - Newspaper Collection
BOOKS
Google Play Books - new and old ebooks. Google has digitized and made available 1000's of old, off copyright books. I've found a whole bunch of old Canadian histories and biographies there for free, and purchased other newer ones.
WorldCat.org - the world's largest library catalog allows you to search the collections of libraries around the world. It will tell you what libraries have the book & how far away they are. My local library will try to get the book through inter-library loan, if its in the circulating collection of the library that has it. Your library might do the same if you ask them.
Global Genealogy - Canada's History and Genealogy Store. Some very helpful material: books, preservation products, forms & charts, printing solutions
Abe Books - Online marketplace for books. Millions of brand new books, used books, rare books, and out-of-print books are offered for sale through the AbeBooks websites from thousands of booksellers around the world.
The Scottish Pioneers of Upper Canada, 1784-1855: Glengarry and Beyond, by Lucille H. Campey (copyright 2005, published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., Toronto, CA) [Nookbook]
Hey Jo Maybe consider adding out Missisquoi County Rootsweb Blog to your Quebec list next year. We have transcribed 10s of thousands of area census, notary, directories and parish registered and made them all freely available and searchable over the past past 10 years http://missisquoigenealogy.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI looked at your blog - that's an impressive amount of work! I've added it to the Canada resource page, above. It's not a yearly list. It's a permanent part/ page of my family history blog. I was intending to add to it quarterly (just to keep it manageable), but if someone tells me of, or I find something really good, I'll put it up as soon as I can.
Delete