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Showing posts with the label canadian immigration records

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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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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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...
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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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