Canada Resources

Name of site

URL

Focus

Automated Genealogy

www.automatedgenealogy.com

Automated Genealogy hosts several projects to index Canadian censuses. An interesting feature of the site is the ability to link various records associated with a person together.

Bruce- Grey Genealogical Society

http://www.ogs.on.ca/bruce_grey/

Bruce & Grey County OGS is a non-profit branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS). To join a branch you need to join OGS and then select our branch. See Branch Info tab for further details.

Canada 1831 & 1842 census

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list

FamilySearch.org has added 92,000 records from the 1831 census of Lower Canada (modern day Quebec) and created a new collection composed of 47,000 records from the 1842 census of Lower Canada. Both record sets can be searched by first and last name. Access is free.

Canada/US Border ports

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/index-e.html

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has released a collection of some 121,000 images of new immigration records for people who passed into Canada from United States border posts between 1908 to 1918 and 1925 to 1935. These are browseable images. One thing to note is that there were many unmanned border posts between the two countries during this period. It is possible someone migrated from the United States to Canada without formally declaring themselves to the Canadian government during this time period. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth checking this collection. With this latest batch, LAC has released all the immigration records in its custody from 1865 to 1965. Access is free.

Canadiana Discovery Portal

search.canadiana.ca/

Enter keywords in this site to discover articles and books related to the topic. Most articles and books can be viewed online.

Historic Mail Order Catalogues

http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat0000e.shtml

The Canadian Museum of Civilization has put online a fascinating collection of Canadian mail order catalogues. The catalogues span the years from 1880 to 1975. If you are trying to date an old photograph by the type of hat or dress worn by the women in the image, or by the date of other artifacts in the image, then a collection of old catalogues can be a very valuable resource. Hats and dresses go in and out of fashion and (with a bit of practice) by cross-comparing cloths in an old photograph to the cloths in a catalogue you can reasonably narrow down the date range when an image was taken. Access to the catalogues is free.

The Canadian County Atlas Project

digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/printresults.php

The County Atlas Digital Project is a searchable database of the property owners' names which appear on the township maps in the county atlases. Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned, with links from the property owners' names in the database.

The Ontario Vital Statistics Project

www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onvsr/index.htm

If you have relatives in Ontario Canada, this  is a free site that has information on vital statics based on volunteer transcriptions.