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Canada Research Outline |
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Records Of The Family History Library
The Family History Library Catalog
Access To Family History Library Periodicals
Using This Outline
Canadian Search Strategies
Step 1. Identify What You Know About Your Family
Step 2. Decide What You Want To Learn
Step 3. Select A Record To Search
Step 4. Find And Search The Record
Step 5. Use The Information
Map Of Canada
Archives And Libraries
National Archives And Library
Biography
Business Records And Commerce
Cemeteries
Census
Church Records
General Historical Background
Record-keeping Practices
Records
Locating Church Records
Court Records
Provincial Courts
Federal Courts
Directories
Emigration And Immigration
Finding The Emigrant’s Town Of Origin
Emigration From Canada
Records Of Canadian Emigrants In The United States
Gazetteers
Genealogy
Historical Geography
History
Land And Property
Language And Languages
Maps
Military Records
Military History
Military Records
Minorities
Names, Personal
Native Races
Naturalization And Citizenship
Newspapers
Notarial Records
Obituaries
Periodicals
Probate Records
Societies
Vital Records
General Historical Background
Information In Vital Records
Locating Vital Records
Other Records
For Further Reading
Comments And Suggestions
BIOGRAPHY A biography is a history of a person’s life. In it you may find a person’s birth, marriage, and death information and the names of parents, children, or other family members. Use the information carefully because some may be inaccurate.
Collective biographies, sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or dictionaries, have thousands of brief biographies, usually of prominent or well-known citizens. Others feature specific groups, such as artists or clergymen. Some significant ones, found in many large libraries in the United States and Canada, are:
Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966–. (FHL book 971 D3d; computer number 215805.) Thirteen volumes cover the years 1000 to 1910. Each volume has biographies, in alphabetical order, of prominent people who lived or died within the time covered. For example, volume 7 covers persons who died between 1836 and 1850. Names are indexed for each volume. The cumulative index for the first 12 volumes is:
Dictionary of Canadian Biography: Index, volumes I to XII (FHL book 971 D3d Index; computer number 215805.)
Biography and Genealogy Master Index, 2nd ed., multiple vols., annual with five-year cumulations. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1980–. (FHL book 016.92 G131; compact disc no. 11, pts. A and B; computer number 27757.) This work indexes over seven million biographies of two million people, including world figures and United States and Canadian citizens.
Wallace, W. Stewart, ed. The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography. 4th ed. rev. W. A. McKay. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1978, reprint 1985. (FHL book 971 D3ww; computer number 520429.) This is a useful one-volume biographical dictionary of prominent Canadians who died before 1976.
Who’s Who in Canada. London, Eng., or Toronto: various publishers, 1910–. (FHL book 971 D3w; computer number 44328.) This work lists many prominent 20th-century Canadian citizens. The Family History Library has some recent issues; large libraries in Canada may have the complete series.
McMann, Evelyn de R. Canadian Who’s Who Index 1898–1984, Incorporating Canadian Men and Women of the Time. 1986. Reprint. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988. (FHL book 971 D32m; computer number 488905.) Canadian Who’s Who . . . is different from Who’s Who in Canada. Most volumes of Canadian Who’s Who Index . . . have been reproduced on 309 microfiche in:
Canadian Who’s Who in Microfiche, 1898–1988. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985–89. (FHL fiche 6334537; computer number 373898. Not available at Family History Centers.)
Canadian Men and Women of the Time. 2 vols. Toronto: William Briggs, 1898, 1912. (FHL book 971 D3cm; 1912 volume only on FHL microfilm 934811 item 1; computer numbers 332966 and 44313.) These two volumes are included in Canadian Who’s Who in Microfiche and in its index.
For additional collective biographies see the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:
CANADA - BIOGRAPHY [PROVINCE] - BIOGRAPHY
Business records include records of manufacturers, trading companies, banks, and other commercial establishments.
Hudson’s Bay Company The Hudson’s Bay Company Archives to about 1904 are not at the Family History Library but may be loaned to public libraries. There are journals and correspondence (1,900 rolls of microfilm) for more than 200 trading posts (1703–1894), and lists of officers, servants, and contracts (1774–1904). Records of employees usually give name, age, occupation, pay rate, and location of employment. Further information is available from:
Finding Aid to the Hudson Bay Company Archives. (FHL film 1730847 and 1730848; computer number 589859.) This is not a name index to the records but a description of the various series in the records.
Personal names from some of these records are in:
Briggs, Elizabeth, and Anne Morton. Biographical Resources at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives. Volume One. Winnipeg: Westgarth, 1996. (FHL book 971 U33b v. 1; computer number 790683.) This book describes microfilm and book sources and tells where to find them. It includes a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and an index. Pages 48 to 59 list more than 1,100 men associated with the North West Company before 1821. Pages 153 to 158 list persons associated with expeditions to the American Northwest (present Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon) from 1824 to 1829.
For more records, see the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under headings such as:
There are two main types of cemetery records in Canada:
Cemetery records may give the name of the deceased, age at death, date of death or burial, birth year or date of birth, and sometimes marriage information. Sometimes they may give clues about military service, religion, occupation, place of residence at time of death, or membership in an organization, such as a lodge.
Unfortunately, some people could not afford a gravestone or monument. Some monuments have been vandalized or weathered so badly as to be unreadable. Therefore, also search the sexton’s records, which should list everyone who was buried in the cemetery. These records are especially helpful for identifying ancestors not recorded in other records, such as children who died young or women. Relatives may be buried in adjoining plots, so examine the original record rather than an alphabetical transcript.
Sexton records of some burials may have been lost, and some burials may not have been recorded. In isolated areas, most burials were in family plots on the farm itself. Other than a possible family Bible entry, there may have been no written record. On Canada’s prairies, pioneer cemeteries were often located at a point where several homesteads met. Few written records were kept, and monuments were destroyed as these cemeteries were plowed under.
To find tombstone or sexton records, you need to know where a person was buried. You can find clues to burial places in funeral notices, church records, and death certificates.
You may find cemetery locations on maps of the area. See the “Maps” section of this outline. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of Canadian funeral directors are in:
National Yellow Book of Funeral Directors. Youngstown, Oh.: Nomis Publications, annual. (FHL book 973 U24y; computer number 535488.)
Some burial records have been indexed with other material in genealogical indexes. See the “Genealogy” section of this outline. The Family History Library has copies of many tombstone and some sexton records. See the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:
[PROVINCE] - CEMETERIES [PROVINCE], [COUNTY] - CEMETERIES [PROVINCE], [COUNTY], [TOWNSHIP] - CEMETERIES [PROVINCE], [COUNTY], [CITY] -CEMETERIES
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BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE
. Records of this fur trading company are some of Canada’s most important. Until 1870, the company controlled almost four-fifths of the territory of present-day Canada, including northern Quebec and Ontario and most of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. It was also active in areas now in the United States, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Hawaii.
Inter-Library Loans
The Family History Library has only a few business records for Canada. The most helpful is:
Hudson’s Bay Company Archives
Provincial Archives of Manitoba
200 Vaughan Street
Winnipeg, MB R3C 1T5
Canada
Telephone: 204-945-4932
Fax: 204-948-3236
CANADA - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE
[PROVINCE] - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE
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CEMETERIES
[FamilySearchTM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/8/2001]