EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION

People

Europeans. The original European settlers came in the early 18th century from France or from French Canada. They first settled the area surrounding the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, which now separate Ontario from Michigan. Ontario has continued to receive significant numbers of overseas settlers from that time to the present day.

Americans, Loyalists. Beginning in 1784, large numbers of American Loyalists came from the United States to settle along the St. Lawrence River.

Most of the earliest settlers of Upper Canada (Ontario) were natives of the United States. By 1810, eighty percent of the white population of the province was estimated to have been born in the U.S., but only 25 percent of them were Loyalists (who had arrived by 1796) or their descendants. The rest were Americans who had recently come to Canada for land or other economic opportunities. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were listed as states of origin of many of these “late Loyalists,” as they were sometimes called.

British. The British Isles soon replaced the United States as the main source of immigration to Ontario. Many Irish settlers came beginning about 1820. About sixty percent of the Canadian Irish were Protestant.

Eastern Europeans. Large numbers of immigrants came into Ontario from Britain and from eastern Europe during the pre-World War I period, 1891-1914. Jews, Slavs, and Italians contributed to the ethnic diversity of large cities such as Toronto.

Canadian Emigrants. A favorite 19th-century destination of Canadians leaving Ontario was Michigan. About one out of every four Michigan families finds a direct connection to Ontario.

Records

There are only a few scattered immigration records for Ontario for the period before 1865. There are several incomplete lists of Loyalist settlers in Ontario. For example:

Crowder, Norman K. Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993. (FHL book 971.3 H29c; not on microfilm.) Transcribes and indexes various provisioning lists and returns of settlers during 1783-89.

Fitzgerald, E. Keith. Ontario People 1796-1803. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993. (FHL book 971.3 D2f; not on microfilm.) Has district Loyalist rolls.

“Emigrant Returns” of early settlers, 1815-1834. (FHL film 1,319,966-67.) These are mainly for Lanark, Leeds, and Perth counties. The Archives of Ontario also have filmed copies.

Names and addresses of some later Ontario immigrants and of the relatives they left behind are in:

Holt, Ruth and Margaret Williams. Genealogical Extraction and Index of the Canada Company Remittance Books 1843-1847. 3 vols. Weston, Ont. and Oakville, Ont.: Holt and Williams, 1990. (FHL book 971.3 W29g; not on microfilm.)

Various collections of papers in the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives of Canada list names from British-subsidized emigration programs such as the Irish movement into the Ottawa Valley and near Peterborough, 1823-1825, led by Peter Robinson. Many of those lists have been published in various sources, including those given in Brenda D. Merriman's Genealogy in Ontario. See the “For Further Reading” section of this outline.

Overseas immigrants to Ontario usually landed at Quebec or at ports in the northeastern U.S., then took smaller vessels or came overland into Ontario. Very few lists for Canadian ports exist before 1865, and only a handful for U.S. ports prior to 1820. Some names of early immigrants have been indexed in:

Filby, P. William. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. 3 vols. plus annual supplements. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981-. (FHL book Ref 973 W32p; film numbers are in the compact disc Family History Library Catalog under computer number 75625.)

Passenger lists for ships coming to major Canadian ports after 1865 are described in the Canada Research Outline (34545).

Ontario Department of Immigration Records, 1869-1897

Under the confederation of 1867, both the Dominion Government and the Provincial Governments had responsibility for immigration. The Archives of Ontario and the Family History Library have some Ontario Department of Immigration records for 1869-97.

Much family information is included in two alphabetical series of Six-Dollar Bonus Refunds for 1872-76. About one-fifth of the immigrants into Ontario during that time had such papers. See:

• Refund bonus applications (Series J). (On five rolls of microfilm, FHL film 1,405,787-88 and 1,405,910-12.)
  
• Refund bonus certificates (Series I). (On six rolls, FHL film 1,412,649 and 1,405,952-56.)