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Showing posts with the label canadian genealogy free

Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show a side to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her - that one that the heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Immigration Records (Part II)

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In my previous post I discussed two strategies that can be used to find a person in Canadian Immigration records and showed an example on how to apply them to find a Form 30A record. In this post I will explain how to find someone in the more complicated  Passenger Lists, 1865-1922 .    This collection is not organized by surname but rather by shipping information. Basic searches can be conducted using with any/all of the following parameters: Name of ship Year of arrival Port of arrival Shipping line Port of departure If you desire to perform an advanced search you can add any/all of the following parameters to the basic search: Date of departure Date of arrival The search results are displayed in a table which can be sorted using any of the headers: Item number Ship name Port of arrival Date of arrival Note: In some cases there are two ports of arrival listed but only one date of arrival. This does not mean that the ship arrived in both ports on the same day, but rathe...
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6 Tips to get the Most out of City Directories

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When I first learned that many city's had made their old directories available online, I thought they were only useful if you knew your ancestor's exact address. Over time I have learned that they have far more uses than just that. I personally use Internet Archive when working with directories because it has a vast range of cities and years.  1. Family movement This is by far the most obvious use for a directory. Just as their name implies, they tell us where people lived which means we can use them to chart our ancestor's movement. What I find most fascinating is when these addresses are plotted on both a timeline and a map. Together this dual plotting approach gives us an idea of how frequently they moved and how major each move was. It also can tell us if they ever returned to an address.  I have taken the mapping a step further and added the people in an ancestor's FAN club. This can give a better idea of where and when an ancestor may have met that person. The cl...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Immigration Records (Part I)

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Library and Archives Canada has a large collection of immigration records which can be found here . Despite having such a vast collection, the passenger lists are not fully indexed. Unlike many of their other databases, you cant search for a specific person. The search method varies with collection, however the most common options are by shipping information or by browsing through alphabetically organized immigration forms. So how do you find someone when you can't search for them by name? There are a few techniques that you can use: 1. Check the Census Information When you pay attention to the entire family unit on a census it can help you establish a timeframe for when the immigration might have occurred, especially if they didnt come over all at the same time. First check if the immigration year is given on the census. This column was first introduced on the 1851 census in response to the large influx of Irish famine immigrants. This year is not always accurate but can provide a...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Canadian Census Records (Part IV)

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In Part III of this series I talked about how occupational codes can tell us more information about someone's occupation. Specifically I used the example of how the term 'farmer' had been used as broad terms to describe anybody who lived off the land or cultivated something. The farm and goods census (1851 and 1861 only) served as a pre-cursor of sorts to occupational codes.  The farm and goods census record provided information such as: total lot size number of farm hands (male and female) how the acreage was divided between crops, pasture, residential, and bush land acres occupied by each crop and how many bushels were produced of each number of livestock income from the production of commercial goods (candles, shoes, leather, etc.) The above information was to be provided by the owner of the farm with production values given for the previous year of operation.  Before finding the person in the farm and goods census be sure to find them in the general population census. T...
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Demystifying Scottish Gaelic Naming Patterns: How to Interpret Patronymics and Bynames

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When I first started my Scottish research I was caught off guard by the structure of the names. Some had long lists of names held in brackets after the first name, while others had reoccurring Gaelic words as a middle name of sorts. I have come to learn that these are referred to as patronymics and bynames respectively. This topic right here is one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog. It belongs to the lesser known parts of history - especially bynames. Researching this topic is difficult as few available sources of information have been indexed by Google. The ones that have, offer little more than a few sentences and maybe an example or two. I have compiled the information from these sources below.  Patronymics  Patronymics are commonly used in families which use a naming tradition because they help to differentiate two individuals which share the same name. More simply, a patronymic is a list of names which descend the paternal generations of the family. The names are...
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A Great Big List of (Mostly) Free Canadian Genealogy Websites

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One of the main reasons why I started this blog is because I noticed that there were few sites that focused on Canadian genealogy. Over the years I have amassed quite the list of resources. Some cover the entire country while others focus on specific areas that I'm researching. I have organized the list below by location and as always I have identified paid resources with ($).  Nationwide Canadian Genealogy Resources  I have provided more detail about the following resources on my Canadian Resources page.  Library and Archives Canada   Provincial Databases (some $) -  Familysearch Wiki - Canada Internet Archive Familysearch ProQuest  ($) Canadiana Military Resources I wrote a post on military resources and loyalists which can be found  here  and  here .  Database: WW1 Service Files Database WW2 War Dead Service Files The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Veterans Affairs Canada Wikipedia WW1 CEF Battalions Canadian Great War Project A S...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Canadian Census Records (Part II)

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In my previous post ( here ) I wrote about the Canadian census collection featured on Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac). Although understanding where to find census information and what parts of it are important can be a challenge, the most challenging part by far is performing a successful search that yields a manageable number of results. As much as I LOVE to conduct searches using a Degrees of Freedom analysis (which I wrote about here ), the limited number of search fields on bac-lac makes this a near impossible task. To further complicate things, bac-lac does not perform "fuzzy" searches meaning that it does not search phonetically or for names with similar spellings. This can be especially challenging for names that have many variations or that were abbreviated on the census return. For surnames that contain a prefix this adds another level of complexity as the prefix may be placed at the end of the surname. For example the surname "O'Reilly" may have ...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Canadian Census Records (Part I)

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People who know I love genealogy know that I am always talking about Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac). When I first was starting my genealogical research this website was my top resource. I still use it quite often when performing my Canadian research and each time it seems as though I discover a new set of collections.  Bac-lac is a website owned and curated by the Canadian government. They have a wide range of digitalized collections and an even wider range of ones that are cataloged or transcribed. Some of their most popular collections include census, immigration, and military records. They also have a page that offers genealogy help both in the form of basic tips and how to hire a professional (since I was a broke student when I started my research, I opted for the tips).  This post is going to focus on how to search census returns. I will write (and link) posts later on for the military and immigration records.  Census Records On the census records page, each c...
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Excel for Genealogists: Why you should be Constructing Timelines

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Timelines are one of the most overlooked genealogical tools. I love them because they put the events in order and allow me to identify gaps where information is missing, and they let me quickly tell if a record is a match. I started writing timelines out by hand on blank printer paper but quickly realized this was incredibly inefficient because it was easy to run out of space during a certain timeframe (especially if the family was frequently on the move) and thus have to rewrite all the information. For the past three or so years I have been using Excel. I love how easy it is to add information by inserting rows, and how easy it is to customize the way that the information is displayed. My timeline is not a conventional line but rather a chronological table of events. I colour code the cells of major life events to help me visually breakup the information. I have included below the blank template that I use to create my timelines.  On the left hand side I have a summary of the fam...
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Who were the Loyalists?

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I remember when I was in elementary school and my history teacher told the class that "history is written by those who won the war". At the time I was in grade 7 and too young to realize the true depth of that statement. I didn't fully understand what he had said until years later when I began researching my own Loyalists roots. Almost every source I read on the American Revolution portrayed the Patriots such as Washington as heroes. They payed little attention to the Loyalist side of the conflict. Loyalist victories were glossed over, and even less mentioned were sacrifices and struggles of the Loyalist families. The true experiences of the Loyalists are best told through the few documents they left behind such as the Loyalist Claims.  One of my ancestors, who served with the Westchester Refugees, told the British government of the terror he faced because it was commonly assumed that he was a Loyalist. He "says he was considered a Torie from the very beginning becau...
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How to find Canadian Military Records

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Its that time of year again when everyone starts thinking about veterans. For genealogists this is the time when many choose to focus their efforts on finding their ancestors that served in the military. I have provided below a list of some of my favourite resources for finding ancestors that served in the Canadian military.  1. Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada's (bac-lac) boasts a large military collection which contains service records for a variety of different conflicts. I have attached links below to two of their most popular collections (WW1 and WW2 service files). Due to Canada's privacy laws WW2 service files have only been digitalized for those who did not survive the war. All service files have been digitalized for WW1 regardless of if they survived the war or not.  Database: WW1 Service Files Database WW2 War Dead Service Files Each database allows you to perform a 'basic' and 'advanced' search. A basic search allows you to sear...
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Ford's Folly and the Slum of Little Hell

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Battersea: The Sinkhole of Surrey During the Victorian Era, Battersea had gained the reputation as being “the sinkhole of Surrey” due to its widespread poverty and slum-like conditions. Many of the poor in Battersea were subject to irregular income from the building trades. For a family to scrape by in the winter they would have to apply thrift spending during the summer. This was often complicated by the reliance on alcohol which was used as a means of escape from the depression of living in such widespread poverty. The irregular income caused many of Battersea’s poor to frequently be on the move. On average a family lived in one place for less than two years before moving no more than a few streets away. After hopping from neighbourhood to neighbourhood the family would eventually return to where they were once exiled from, moving in only a few doors away from their former address. Ford’s Folly and the slum of Little Hell In Keith Bailey’s report Orville Road, Battersea: a Victor...
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Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show a side to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her - that one that the heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are...
Read more

Courting Disaster: The 1915 Niagara Trolley Accident

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The worst electric rail crash in Ontario’s history and the  3 rd  worst in Canadian history (at the time)  occurred at Queenston Heights in Niagara Falls on July 7 1915 . In total the crash of car number 685 claimed the lives of 15 people and was responsible for injuring 130 people.  To put the scale of the accident into context, more lives were lost and more people were injured during the 1915 trolley accident than British soldiers during the battle of Queenston Heights.  The main occupants of the trolley were members of Toronto’s Wood Green Methodist and St John Presbyterian Sunday school groups. The two church groups had organized a day trip to Niagara Falls for the approximate 1,100 parishioners (majority of which were women and children). The accident occurred when the two groups were on their way home.  All day the weather had been ideal for taking portraits and going picnicking, however towards the evening hours (approximately 7:15 pm) it began to ra...
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