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Manitoba Research Outline |
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Table of Contents
Records Of The Family History Library
Research Strategy
Archives And Libraries
Census
Church Records
Collections
Directories
Emmigration And Immigration
Genealogy
History
Land And Property
Military Records
Municipal Records
Naturalization And Citizenship
Newspapers
Periodicals
Probate Records
Schools
Societies
Vital Records
For Further Reading
Comments And Suggestions
COLLECTIONS The Provincial Archives has a large collection of notes, journals, land deeds, and other records of the late 1800s settlers of the province. Published genealogies and family histories, letters, and papers on many Manitoba families can also be found there.
Another collection of published sources useful to genealogists is found at the National Library of Canada, in Ottawa (Ontario). Copies of city directories, local histories, newspapers, and periodicals published by historical and genealogical societies may be available through interinstitutional loan.
Early directories Many Manitoba directories up to and including 1900 are available on microfiche:
Pre-1900 Canadian Directories. Ottawa, Ont.: Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions, 1988. (On 4219 FHL fiche beginning with 6360453. These fiche do not circulate to Family History Centers.)
Ships’s lists prior to 1803 are rare. In 1817, the British government required captains to keep passenger lists. Those which have been found from 1817 to 1831 are found in the colonial office and are indexed. Many helpful works and published articles from periodicals can be found in the Provincial and National Archives, and in local libraries and archives.
Records of the Immigration Branch of the Dominion Government, 1873–1953, are available on microfilm at the Provincial Archives. Unfortunately, most are not indexed.
These records include files on agents, passenger manifests, and records of steamship companies. There is a list of the available individual case files.
The United States kept records of people crossing the border from Canada to the United States. These records are called border crossing lists, passenger lists, or manifests. There are two kinds of manifests:
In 1895, Canadian shipping companies agreed to make manifests of passengers traveling to the United States. The Canadian government allowed U.S. immigration officials to inspect those passengers while they were still in Canada. The U.S. immigration officials also inspected train passengers traveling from Canada to the United States. The U.S. officials worked at Canadian seaports and major cities like Québec and Winnipeg. The manifests from every seaport and emigration station in Canada were sent to St. Albans, Vermont.
The Family History Library has copies of both kinds of manifests. Because the manifests were sent to St. Albans, Vermont, most are grouped under St. Albans District Manifest Records of Aliens Arriving from Foreign Contiguous Territory. Despite the name, the manifests are actually from seaports and railroad stations all over Canada and the northern United States, not just Vermont.
Border Crossing Manifests
Border Crossing Indexes. In many cases, index cards were the only records kept of the crossings. These cards are indexed in four publications:
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DIRECTORIES
can be useful in locating individuals, tracing their moves, and providing the location of legal descriptions of lands owned by settlers. For Winnipeg, the directories run from 1876 to the present. There are directories for other areas of the province for the period from about 1880 to the present. These are all available at the Provincial Archives.
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EMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION
Canadian Border Crossing Records
. Manifests may include information about name, port or station of entry, date, age, literacy, last residence, previous visits to the United States, and birthplace. The manifests are reproduced in two series:
—Traditional passenger lists on U.S. immigration forms.
—Monthly lists of passengers crossing the border on trains. These lists are divided by month. In each month, the records are grouped by railroad station. (The stations are listed in alphabetical order.) Under the station, the passengers are grouped by railroad company.
The Soundex is a surname index based on the way a name sounds rather than how it is spelled. Names like Smith and Smyth are filed together.
[FamilySearchTM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/9/2001]