Using the OLRI in Ontario Land Research

This past weekend, the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society presented "A Celebration for the OLRI". The recordings of that event are now available to watch on their page "A Celebration for the OLRI: Recordings" and, if you have tried to do any land research in Ontario, I strongly recommend that you watch the videos to pick up some really good tips and tricks. In my own 25 minute talk, "OLRI to the Rescue", I gave two examples where I used the Ontario Land Records Index to find in a specific collection that is found digitized on FamilySearch.

However, I know that some folks prefer reading how to do something instead of watching and re-watching a presentation multiple times, so here is another example of how we can connect the various Ontario land records together that are available online for free.

This is part of what came to me via an email and it was just enough of a challenge for me that I thought it deserved a blog post. Please keep in mind that I will often just point you to the collections and my "Finding on the Ground" series of blog posts. So, please don't inundate me with requests for assistance or else I will have to start charging for the help I've freely given over the years.

"I want to find the original patent documents. I have looked in the Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865 on LAC for him but have not found his entry. I used variations of his names, and also searched everyone who patented land in Sullivan, but he is still not coming up. 

Do you have any advice on where to find his patent info? This is my first foray into this record set."

They also provided the image from the Abstract Register found on FamilySearch. I really liked that since the image provided key details I could use to confirm what I was seeing in the other records.

Registrar of Deeds for Grey County (Ontario), Abstract register for Sullivan Township, vol. 1, p. 2, Division 2, Lot No. 3, Concession 1, patent entry for Edward Elliott dated 10 Jul 1849, "Abstract index books, ca. 1832-1958," imaged, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVG-GSNL-8 : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8129790 > image 8 of 550.

My first assumption, and we all know that assumptions are not a good thing, is that they are not looking for the land patent records but the petition records since they mention searching the Land Petitions of Upper Canada found on the Library and Archives Canada site. If they are looking for the patent paperwork, they would have to visit the Archives of Ontario in Toronto to go through the microfilms since they aren't digitized.

What do we know from the abstract register entry?

We see that Edward Elliott was granted letters patent on 10 Jul 1849 for Lot 3 located in the 2nd Division on Concession 1 in the Township of Sullivan.

Using the Ontario Land Records Index, OLRI, found digitized on the Internet Archive we can browse digitized fiche either by the township index or nominal index. If I have a location I will generally start with that since the person who received the letters patent might not have been the person who was originally allotted the lot.

Once I get into either the Nominal Index or Township Index collection, I will always re-sort the fiche sheets by the "Title" since the default is by weekly views and I don't really care which fiche were looked the most. By re-sorting the list of fiche I can quickly find that "OLRI Township Index: Fiche 60 Stephen-Sydenham" should have Sullivan Township.

Then it's just looking through the digitized images of the fiche to find the image with Sullivan Township, Concession 1, Lot 3, Division 2.

Ontario Land Records Index, Township Index, Sullivan Township, p. 2221, imaged, Internet Archive, (https://archive.org/details/olri_township-index_060_stephen-sydenham/page/n185/mode/2up : accessed 21 Jan 2026), Township Index > Fiche 60 Stephen-Sydenham > image 186 of 270; citing the Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

We can see that the fourth entry from the bottom has the following details:

• Township/Town/City: Sullivan
• Lot: 3 in 2 Div
• Concession: 1
• Date ID: 8
• Issue Date: 18490413 [13 Apr 1849]
• Trans Type: FG
• Type FG: AA
• Name of Locatee: Elliot Edward [last name followed by the first name]
• Archival Reference: RG 1 CI3 Series Vol. 149, page 14

To decipher some of those codes we need to take a look at the OLRI Fields and Codes finding aid (the French version is here).

The "Date ID" of 8 means that it was issued via an Order-in-Council. That means we should probably be able to find the petition in the Upper Canada Land Petitions on the Library and Archives Canada site. The "Trans Type" of "FG" tells us that it was a "Free Grant" but administrative fees may have been charged. And the "Type FG" of "AA" means that it was "Gratuitous—free grants to individuals who were (a) judged destitute by a government board and/or (b) had all their administrative fees waived."

We also get the old Archives of Ontario reference details. Many, but not all, of those files have been digitized and placed online on FamilySearch in their "Land records, ca. 1792-1876" collection. In the past, I used to dread having to use this collection since, before the digitization of the OLRI and also the Full Text Search feature on FamilySearch, I had to first find the name indexes for the various sets of volumes, then the register pages, and hopefully finally the images of the fiats or warrants. It sometimes took hours of browsing the images to find that one nugget.

To find out if the reference is on FamilySearch, have to go to the Archives of Ontario in Toronto, or request an interlibrary loan of a microfilm we can look in the OLRI Archival References document (French version) to see if there is an entry in the "FamilySearch DGS" column for that series and volume.

Just a heads up, that "CI3" is not "See One Three" but "See Eye Three".

In that OLRI Archival References document for RG 1 C-I-3 Volume 149, we learn that it is:

• found on the Archives of Ontario microfilm MS 693 Reel 153,
• the new reference in the archive is RG 1-155-2-1,
• found on FamilySearch microfilm number 1376110;
• found on FamilySearch DGS (Image Group Number) 8126225.

Awesome, we can view it from home! 

In the FamilySearch "Land records, ca. 1792-1876" collection created by the Crown Lands Department of Ontario we see that Image Group Number (DGS) 8126225 is described as "Fiats - A.A. (v. 148-149) bundle 401-646, 1851-1869, ca. 1846-ca. 1870 (includes index to 367-646)". In this case, we have to scroll through the images a fair bit before we get to the start of the volume described as "R.G. 1, C-I-3, VOL. 149 REGISTER FIATS - A.A., FIATS 367-646". For this register, they included a name index so we have to scroll past them to get to the register pages to locate page 14 of the register.

Crown Lands Department (Ontario), RG 1, C-I-3, Vol. 149, Register for Fiats - AA, p. 14, “Land records, ca. 1792-1876,” imaged, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSVK-TCBV-L : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8126225 > image 676 of 938; citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

Edward Elliot is the first name for the entries in Sullivan Township and all the location details match what was found in the Abstract Register and in the OLRI. In the column before the number 1211 for the Description number is the date of the Order-in-Council which is 13 Apr 1849. That's the "Issue Date" in the OLRI. However, what is interesting (at least to me) is that there are a number of names associated with number 384 in the first column, the Fiat Number. So it would appear that maybe one petition was made on behalf of a number of folks. So that might explain why we couldn't find a petition under Edward Elliot's name.

When it comes to the fiat and warrant books held by the Archives of Ontario and found digitized on FamilySearch, we need to realize that the indexes and registers come after the volumes they reference.

For those "A.A." fiats that are mentioned in volume 149 we will need to look in volumes before and the correct digitized microfilm that has fiat in question. In this case, it is the microfilm described as "Warrants, etc., (v. 147-148) bundle 101-400, 1820-1851" on FamilySearch which is on Image Group Number (DGS) 8346087.

It didn't take me too long to find the start of Fiat 384 A.A. on image 1100 of 1160:

Crown Lands Department (Ontario), RG 1, C-I-3, Vol. 148, Warrants, Fiats Bundle 301-400, Fiat 384 A.A., “Land records, ca. 1792-1876,” imaged, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTB-2S81-Q : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8346087 > image 1100 of 1160; citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

There we see that it was approved by an Order-in-Council on 13 Apr 1849 and it was for "Alexander McLaren & others". When I did a search for any Alexander McLarens in the Library and Archives Canada "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" database, I didn't find any from 1849.

Yet it was the next image that had the clue I was looking for.

Crown Lands Department (Ontario), RG 1, C-I-3, Vol. 148, Warrants, Fiats Bundle 301-400, Fiat 384 A.A., “Land records, ca. 1792-1876,” imaged, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSTB-2S81-Q : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8346087 > image 1101 of 1160; citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario.

There it stated, "Confirming Locations Owen Sound Settlement Garrafraxa Rd".

The rest of the pages from that fiat included all the names for this settlement.

When I went back to LAC "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" database and searched for "Owen Sound" as an exact phrase and the date 1849 I got one entry:

• Year: 1849
• Place of registration: Owen Sound
• Reference: RG 1 L3, Volume 396A
• Bundle: O 5
• Petition: 13
• Microfilm: C-2487
• Hierarchical level: File
• Type of material: Textual material
• Found in: Genealogy / Land / Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865
• Item ID number: 51910

I could use the "Upper Canada Land Petitions - Microform digitization" on the LAC site, but I also know that FamilySearch has a number of these microfilms digitized in their "Petitions for land grants and leases, 1791-1867" collection and, honestly, I prefer the navigation tools on FamilySearch over that archived microform system on the Library and Archives Canada site if I can access the digitized microfilm from home. Fortunately for me, microfilm C-2487 is available on FamilySearch in Image Group Number (DGS) 8630347 and is accessible without braving the cold to visit my closest FamilySearch Affiliate or using the LAC site.

To say it was underwhelming when it came to details was an understatement since all we got were two pages with little detail except that yes, it was approved in council on 13 Apr 1849.

Upper Canada Land Petitions, “O”, Bundle 5, 1848-1850, RG 1 L3, vol. 396(a), petition 13, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H4-MSPG-K : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8630347 > image 670 of 1282; citing Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-2487.

Upper Canada Land Petitions, “O”, Bundle 5, 1848-1850, RG 1 L3, vol. 396(a), petition 13a, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H4-MSP8-9 : accessed 21 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8630347 > image 671 of 1282; citing Library and Archives Canada, microfilm C-2487.

I even checked the Upper Canada Land Books for the minutes of the meeting on 13 Apr 1849 but they didn't have much more.

Upper Canada Land Books, Book E, p 697, Minutes of 13 Apr 1849 meeting, imaged, CRKN Héritage, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c108/697 : accessed 21 Jan 2026), microfilm C-108 > image 697 of 1056; citing Library and Archives Canada.

We can't forget to check the Township Papers collection from the Archives of Ontario that can be found on FamilySearch in two separate collections with the same name:

• Township papers, ca. 1783-1870's: Abinger  - Haldiman
• Township papers, ca. 1783-1870's: Hallowell - Zorra

To find the correct digitized film on FamilySearch, I always visit Jane MacNamara's "Where the story takes me..." and check her "Ontario Township Papers: How to find them" post to save me a bunch of frustration. In short order I found that I probably should be able to find any documents for that lot in Sullivan Township on Image Group Number (DGS) 8347285.

With a little bit of effort I found the file for Lot 3 on Concession 1. Within the file starting at image 386 of 1019 on the digitized microfilm I came across a copy of the grant document issued to Edward Elliot.

Crown Lands Department (Ontario), RG 1 Township Papers, Sullivan, Lot 2, Con. 1 to Lot 30, Con. 6, Sullivan Township, Concession 1, Lot 3, Grant issued to Edward Elliott, imaged, “Township papers, ca. 1783-1870's”, FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSY9-GCR4 : accessed 16 Jan 2026), image group number (IGN) 8347285 > image 387 of 1019; citing Archives of Ontario.

That's actually a pretty neat find and does sort of answer the original question, even if by accident! 

Except for the entry in the Abstract Register, all of these discoveries came about due to using the Ontario Land Records Index that we know find in digitized format on the Internet Archive. In total, it probably took me about an hour to locate all of these digitized documents — all without leaving the comfort of my home and braving the cold winter weather in Ottawa.

So, when looking for the documents concerning settlement of land in Ontario, especially when it comes to the folks who received the letters patent from the government, don't forget to check the digitized fiche of the Ontario Land Records Index to help you locate the warrants and fiats.

An Itch Needing Scratching - UE and The Unity of the Empire

Have you ever had a genealogical itch that you just needed to scratch but ultimately led you on an interesting research adventure? That's what happened when I got curious about the source of the UE post-nominal letters that some descendants of United Empire Loyalists choose to add after their name.

A number of years ago, I had applied to the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, UELAC, to get formal recognition that I was a descendant of Lieutenant Caleb Howe of the Queens Rangers who fought on the side of the Crown during the American War of Independence of 1775 to 1783. I undertook that task for two reasons. The first was that my great-grandfather, Joseph Edwin Howe, in 1939 had been certified as being of "United Empire Loyalist Descent" by UELAC and I wanted to do the proof myself since the standards for the evidence needed have changed over time. The other reason is that in 2012, when I did my application, I was in the relative early stages of my genealogy research and wanted external validation that I might actually be a competent researcher.

Over the years, my interest in genealogy research has moved beyond just the records we so often use in our efforts to understanding the source of why those records might exist in both the legal and historical sense. And that brings us to those "UE" post-nominal letters.

On the UELAC site on their Membership in the UELAC page they state:

Being a proved Loyalist descendant confers no special status in Canadian or other society, but many members use the post-nominal letters “UE” after their name, in consequence of Lord Dorchester’s Order in Council in 1789, conferring recognition of the service of the Loyalists in defense of “The Unity of Empire.” 

Just what really came out of Lord Dorchester's Order in Council in 1789?

On the UELAC's History of the UELAC page they state:

November 9, 1789: Lord Dorchester’s Proclamation conferred the “Mark Of Honour” on the United Empire Loyalists

The link to Lord Dorchester's Proclamation on that page points to a transcription of a document which includes the following:

"...on their coming of full Age and that it was his wifh to put a Mark of Honour upon families who had adhered to the Unity of Empire,.."

along with the following note after the transcription:

Accompanying the resolution to London to be presented to the king, was attached a "Form of
militia roll for the western districts to discriminate the families before mentioned" which included the following....
"N.B. Those Loyalists who have adhered to the unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in the year 1783, and all their children and their descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following capitals, affixed to their names: U.E. alluding to their great principle the unity of the Empire."

I don't know about you, transcriptions are nice but I generally really want to view the actual documents to see if there might be additional clues or details not included.

Fairly quickly I found the proclamation document on Canadiana as the item described as "At the Council Chamber at Quebec, Monday 9th. November 1789." and on BAnQ as "At the Council Chamber at Quebec, Monday 9th. November, 1789".

With the proclamation being from the "Council Chamber" at Quebec, I also looked in the Upper Canada Land Books found on the Canadian Research Knowledge Network Héritage site since I knew from past experience that those books may hold the minutes. Without too much effort I came across the minutes from the Monday 9th November 1789 meeting on Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-100 starting at image 730 of 1034.

Now it got a bit more interesting. That proclamation document published by S. Neilson was only one item of business from that meeting. Here is the section from the minutes with the margin title of "Sons & Daughters of UE Loyalists":

Selections from Quebec Land Books A and B, 1787-1791, p 110, Minutes from 9 Nov 1789; imaged, CRKN Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c100/732 : accessed 8 Jan 2026); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-100.

But on image 677 of 1034 I noticed that they wrote, "A Copy of all the Minutes of Council, concerning the Waste Lands of the Crown lying in the province of Upper Canada, transcribed from the Land Books A and B, in the Council Office at Quebec...". So this is also just a copy.

After a bit more digging I found that book A should be on Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-94. It too is digitized on Héritage described as "State minute books of the Executive Council of Lower Canada". Those minutes are found starting on page 316 (image 990 of 1037) with the "Sons and Daughters of Loyalists" section starting on page 321 (image 993 of 1037).

State minute books of the Executive Council of Lower Canada, Minute Book A, p 321, Minutes from 9 Nov 1789; imaged, CRKN Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c94/993 : accessed 8 Jan 2026); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-94.

State minute books of the Executive Council of Lower Canada, Minute Book A, p 322, Minutes from 9 Nov 1789; imaged, CRKN Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c94/993 : accessed 8 Jan 2026); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-94.

I've found that each version is slightly different from the other in terms of spelling or what has been written in the margin but nothing that takes away from what I originally came across on the UELAC site.

At least I know know where that proclamation came from.

But what about the note found after the transcription of Lord Dorchester's proclamation?

I didn't see anything along those lines in the published proclamation, the Upper Canada Land Books, or the State minute books of the Executive Council of Lower Canada. That had me really puzzled.

What is curious and also frustrating is that the UELAC site didn't really cite their source.

So I turned to the ever helpful "Loyalist in depth study" Facebook group for guidance. There Brenda Dougall Merriman, the author of the ever useful "United Empire Loyalists, A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada" pointed me to her footnotes from that book. There the key footnote was concerning a dispatch from Lord Dorchester to William Wyndham Grenville sent on 27 May 1793 that is found in "Colonial Office 42, Vol. 67, pages 367-373 (Library and Archives Canada microfilm B-47)".

Since I live in Ottawa and have a LAC user card, it was fairly simple to drop by Library and Archives Canada and access that microfilm from the open access microfilm shelves.

Fairly quickly I found the dispatch in question from CO 42/67 except there was nothing in the letter concerning that note I was trying to hunt down.

But I then saw an interesting word at the end of the letter to W. W. Grenville after Lord Dorchester signed his name. That word was "Schedule". Could there be something more that Lord Dorchester included after his letter?

There on the next page on the microfilm I saw the title "Schedule of Inclosures" with 15 items listed including:

8. Order of the Governor in Council of the 9th Novem 1789 for allocating lands to the Sons & Daughters of such Loyalists, as have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and jointed the Royal Standard before the Treaty of separation in 1783, and for putting a mark of honor upon their families.

9. Form of a Militia Roll for the Western Districts to discriminate the families of the loyalists before mentioned.

Ummm, the item 9 matched the description given by UELAC. This looks really promising!

As I moved through the various inclosures, I came across that proclamation document I had found on Canadiana and BAnQ. But it was the next item that grabbed my attention. There on page number written 407 and stamped 204 was that elusive form:

CO 42/67, p 407, stamped 204, Dispatch #25 from Lord Dorchester to William Wyndham Grenville sent on 27 May 1793, schedule 9, Company of Militia form; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm B-47.

On the form we see in the column for Names that elusive statement:

N. B. Thoſe Loyaliſts who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of ſeparation in the year 1783, and all their Children and their Deſcendants by either ſex, are to be diſtinguiſhed by the following Capitals, affixed to their names:

U. E. 
Alluding to their great principle
The Unity of the Empire.

I now had the answer to the question of where that additional note came from that was mentioned on the UELAC site. Honestly, I could not have found it without the kind assistance of Brenda Dougall Merriman and her book.

Finally this itch has disappeared. Of course, there are others that I periodically need to scratch but they will hopefully be dealt with sometime in the not so distant future.

 

Archives of Ontario RG 1-100 Patent Plans Update

Back in 2014 the Archives of Ontario released downloadable high resolution images of the RG 1-100 Patent Plans of townships in Ontario and there was much happiness. Fast forward to 2022 when the Archives of Ontario Archives Descriptive Database was replaced with the new Archives and Information Management System (AIMS), suddenly all those high resolution images disappeared. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. To view those high resolution images we would have to ask the staff at the Archives of Ontario to send them to us. And yes, I would politely email the reference desk once a year asking if the folks who ran AIMS were ever going to fix this problem.

Well, we can now celebrate once again.

Before diving into the reason for our collective celebration, you might be wondering what I'm writing about. The RG 1-100 Patent Plan series of document held by the Archives of Ontario often have the earliest "maps" of settlement for places in what became known as Ontario. On those plans we might come across the names of those who received a patent from the Crown as the first settler/owner of a lot.

Recently the Archives of Ontario updated their site¹. As I was looking at some of the updated pages, on their "Crown land – Patents" page I came across little nugget:

Find patent plans online

Access high-resolution copies of most of our patent plans online for free through the University of Toronto’s Map and Data Library.

You can:

1. Use the searchable list of patent plans to find a plan by title. Select a plan to start downloading the high-quality .tif file.
2. Search for plans using an interactive online map. Plans have been georeferenced using their latitude and longitude and can be found on the map in the location they depict.

When we visit the Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection hosted by the University of Toronto we get a list of 3996 items in their collection. We can then start typing in the name of the township to whittle down the list to something a bit more manageable, especially since the list doesn't seem to be sorted alphabetically.

I have run into a few quirks with this page when I filter by the township or place and it all depends on which web browser I'm using.

• If I'm using Firefox, if there is no thumbnail image being shown then the text in the first column overlaps with the text in the second column. That text in the first column appears to be the "alt" text for the image and Firefox is showing you all that text.
• If I'm using Chrome, if there is no thumbnail image being shown then I get the "broken image" icon and the alt text is truncated to fit in the column

No matter which browser you are using, you can click on the thumbnail image or text to download the high resolution image to your computer for viewing and/or saving. Just a heads up...those images aren't small JPG images like we normally see on websites. Instead, each of the images are TIF files and can be easily between 80 to 250 MB in size. 

Let's take a look at an example. 

We can search the Archives of Ontario AIMS database for these RG 1-100 Patent Plans by doing the following:

• Select Archival search from the left panel of the "Search the Archives of Ontario"page.
• Under the search box, click on the "Archival advanced" link on the "Search archival collection" page.
• On the Archives advanced search screen:
• Put "RG 1-100" (no quotes, but the space after the "RG" is important) in the "Higher-level reference code" box.
• Put the name of the township you looking for in the "Title" box. e.g. Drummond
• Leave all the other search boxes empty.
• Click the Search button at the bottom of the page and hope the search is working².

When I did a search for Drummond Township it returned 5 results. I picked "Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan" as the one I wanted to look at in this example.

Screen capture of the Archives of Ontario details page titled "Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan", RG 1-1000-0-0-160.

There we see that the Reference Code is "Item RG 1-100-0-0-160" and the title is "Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan". Useful details for our source citation.

If we click on the image on the page, we can only view the low resolution version of that patent plan. Zooming in using the magnifying glass with the "+" symbol in the upper right corner of their viewer only gives us an unreadable image since everything is blurry. That image is fairly useless for our purposes of reading what is written on them.

Using the new "Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection" page hosted by the University of Toronto we can filter on the title for that patent plan we found in AIMS. 

Screen capture from Chrome of the "Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection" page hosted by the University of Toronto with Drummond as the title or plan name.

We can see that title in the list but the thumbnail is showing a broken image icon. No problem, click either on the broken icon or the title and, depending on your browser setup, the image will appear in your browser or you will be prompted to save it to your computer. I always recommend saving it to your computer so you don't have to go through this exercise each time you want to look at the patent plan.

In the case of that "Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan" image, the image is 9648 x 7784 pixels. That would be about 81 x 65 cm if printed out assuming 300 DPI. The file size is over 200 MB. What I would call "big".

Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan, digital images, University of Toronto Maps and Data Library, Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection (https://maps.library.utoronto.ca/datapub/Ontario/PatentPlans/PatentPlansOntario/PP.html# : accessed 29 Oct 2025); citing Archives of Ontario, RG 1-100-0-0-160.

This is the map zoomed in about 85% and I can clearly read that one of the settlers on Lot 16 in the Second Concession of Drummond is recorded as "Corp^l Alex Fraser 49 Reg^t. Oct. 1816". That's my 4th great-grandfather.

Township No. 2 or Drummond, Blotter Plan zoomed in at 84.2% using Irfanview showing Alex Fraser as a settler on Lot 16, 2nd Concession, digital images, University of Toronto Maps and Data Library, Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection (https://maps.library.utoronto.ca/datapub/Ontario/PatentPlans/PatentPlansOntario/PP.html# : accessed 29 Oct 2025); citing Archives of Ontario, RG 1-100-0-0-160.

If I hadn't already known that Alexander served in the 49th Regiment of Foot, I would have learned a new fact about his life. If I was researching Nathaniel Stedman, from this patent plan I would have learned that he probably emigrated in November 1816. Keep in mind, that most patent plans don't have this sort of detail. For example, in another patent plan for Drummond, RG 1-100-0-0-474 "Drummond ~ County of Lanark", it just has the names of people with no other details.

I have run into a few cases where I get the dreaded 404 error when I try to access a patent plan. When that happens, I hold my breath, count to ten, and try again. I can usually then access the patent plan.

 

We can also use that other link provided on the Archives of Ontario "Crown land – Patents" page which points to the "Ontario Patent Plan Access" site.

Screen capture of the Ontario Patent Plan Access index.

Each of the dots on the map is a patent plan we can view and download.

When you first go to the page, you will get a pop-up with a link to the Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection that we've been looking at. Either press the faint "OK" button or press Escape on your keyboard to close that pop-up. We can now zoom in on the map to better see the individual dots with titles beside them. Clicking on a dot or title will display another pop-up where you can then download the patent plan being referenced.

 

For those who use the very useful Heritage Property INdex site to find early freely available maps for Ontario, when the Archives of Ontario moved to AIMS and broke the links to the high resolution maps, the links on Heritage PIN in the Pre-Confederation Patent Maps pages were also messed up. But the image names were still kept on the screen.

How does that help us?

Instead of searching for a township or plan name on the "Ontario Archives Patent Plans Collection" site, we can search for that file name in the search box. For example, for Drummond Township there are three maps linked to: I0043121, I0043403, and I0050655. We can search for I0050655 and the patent plan "Drummond Township (Perth Townsite)" appears. Now we can download the map for our viewing pleasure³.

In my opinion, for those with early settlers in Ontario, these patent plans should be one of your go-to resources. 

---

1. That's a post for another day since I'm still trying to figure out the good, the bad, and the ugly in terms of our genealogy research endeavours with the new Archives of Ontario site. I'm waiting a week for some of the initial quirks to be hopefully ironed out.

2. Yes, the AIMS back-end still has some serious issues where it just spins its wheels and seems to crash, at least from an end-user perspective. That actually happened as I was writing this post.

3. I have let the owner of the Heritage Property INdex site know of this new development in the ongoing saga of the RG 1-100 Patent Plans.

Online New Brunswick Land Records

On September 29, 2025 the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick announced their updated RS686: Land Grants database with a new look, and even more importantly, digitized images of the records. Previous to this release of these images, if you didn't live near the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, one would have to request the microfilm via interlibrary loan or find someone to make a copy of the pages found on the microfilm. 

Screen capture of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick RS686: Land Grants database released 29 Sep 2025.

Why is this newly released digitized collection important for our research?

It fills in a gap between the petitions and the deed books.

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, PANB, has had their searchable database "Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918" from RS108 available for a long time. With that database, although not linked to any images, with some effort we could find the digitized images on FamilySearch in their collections:

• Land petitions, 1783-1857
• Land petitions, 1858-1918

Accessing the images on FamilySearch isn't perfect since, due to probably licensing restrictions, the images can't be easily download to your computer. Of course, that doesn't stop you from using various clipping tools to grab what you see on the screen to save to your computer for safe keeping.

For example, when I search the "Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918 (RS108)" for Caleb Howe, my 5th great-grandfather, a result from 1907 is returned:

Name: HOWE, CALEB
Year: 1807
County: Kings
Microfilm: F4171

Fairly quickly — mainly because I've used this collection and similar ones on FamilySearch quite often — I was able to locate the start of his file from 1807 on Image Group Number (DGS) 8191404 starting at image 610 of 846. There I find his petition where he, as a half pay Lieutenant of His Majesty's Late Regiment of Queens Rangers, is asking for 500 acres :

Screen capture from FamilySearch for Image Group Number (DGS) 8191404, image 611 of 846 showing the image of the petition for land by Caleb Howe, late of the Queens Rangers.

But those are the petitions. 

The "RS686: Land Grants" collection takes us from the petitions to the actually granting of the land to the settler. But was Caleb granted his request?

I knew he had been because I found him listed on a map and even in the county registry books. Yet it's always nice to see the document that actually granted Caleb the property.

When I searched on his name, Caleb Howe, in the new "RS686: Land Grants" database nothing was returned. However, I also know that often the "e" is missing from "Howe" so a searched again but for Caleb "How".

It returned only one match:

Name: HOW, Caleb
Grant: 518
Date: 1809-12-13
Acres: 500
County: Kings
Place: Kennebecasis 

Clicking on the "View" link I was brought to the details page

Screen capture of the New Brunswick Land Grant RS686 result page for searching for Caleb How.

In Caleb's case, he is mentioned with 42 other grantees. Since trying to read the images in my browser can be a bit of a challenge since I can't easily zoom right in, I downloaded the four images to my computer. Fairly quickly I found that on page 2 on image 1 he is recorded:

"...unto the said Caleb How Lot number forty one in the fifth Division containing five hundred Acres,..." 

After the land has been granted then we can turn to the "New Brunswick, county deed registry books, 1780-1930 : COLLECTION RECORD" collection of county deed registry books found on FamilySearch for viewing and downloading from the comfort of one's home. There we find when the property may have been sold, a possible will associated with lot, and even mortgages taken out on the property.

To aid us in our exploration of where our ancestors may have lived in New Brunswick, we probably want to find the lot on a map. For that we can turn to the "Place Names of New Brunswick: Where is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present" After we type in the community name to find, and then select the right place, we come to a page with a description of the community, a map showing the parishes, and the ever useful cadastral maps. I've found that I need to download the full size version map to see the whole map and not just the one presented zoomed on the screen.

On map No. 150 to the left of the letter "U" in Upham I found Caleb Howe on Lot 41 with 500 acres and Charles Howe on Lot 42 with 200 acres. Charles is Caleb's son.

New Brunswick Cadastral Map No. 150 which includes the parishes, parts or whole, of Springfield, Sussex, Norton, Hampton, Upham, and Hammand in Kings County, New Brunswick; Provincial Archives of Ontario (https://archives2.gnb.ca/App_Handlers/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?filename=/DigitizedDocuments/Communities/Maps/Cadastral/_Oversize/GRPA158.jpg).

For those with early New Brunswick roots, these online land record collections can be a valuable resource in learning how our ancestor acquired the lots the family may have lived on for years.

 

William Tegerdine, where did you live in Almonte?

Recently a friend and genealogy colleague reached out to me with a bit of a land related question concerning the ancestor of some of her cousins. She was trying to find a location of where her cousins' great-grandfather, William Tegerdine, who died in 1891 in Almonte, Ontario, Canada, resided so that the cousins could possibly visit where William lived before his death.

It sounds like a straight forward proposition. Except at this point, all we know is that William Tegerdine lived in Almonte based on the census returns and registrations of his children's births.

Here is how I approached this genealogy question... 

First of  all, I'm being a bit "lazy". I'm doing all this research from the comfort of my home.

Although we have the population schedules available for the 1881 and 1891 censuses of Canada, the agricultural schedules were not put onto microfilm to be later digitized for our use today. That means we need to look elsewhere. Possibly we could look at town or county directories or even the tax assessments to find out where he lived. I could have also re-examined the birth registrations of his children to see if my friend missed anything — unlikely she did since she's a good researcher.

Instead, I turned to the Full Text Search on FamilySearch to see if I can find any references to his name using the keywords "+tegerdine" (without any quotes).

There are 350 results from all the full text searchable collections. A few too many to scan through for me, so I filtered on the place "Canada" and then "Ontario". Now there are only two records to read. For one of the full text search results, it indicated that it was from the 1887. That looks interesting.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Full Text Search results for "+tegerdine" for the year 1887 result showing instrument 5105 from the virtual "Almonte. Land Records 1892–1893, 1887–1889, 1889–1892" collection.

 

Fortunately the handwriting is not too bad to read but there was a bit to read and I'm doing this fairly quickly. That will cause me troubles fairly quickly though!

About half way down the instrument on that page, I came across the location of the property: "...composed of a part of the west half of Lot Number sixteen in the Ninth concession of the Township of Ramsay..."

Well that was easy!

I could now turn to the land abstract index books for Ramsay township that are found on FamilySearch. I could also have used those same historical books found on OnLand for Lanark (LRO 27). The only challenge with the Lanark County abstract index books on FamilySearch, at least for me, is that we have to know if the location is in the South or North part of the county. For Ramsay township, we find that township in the Abstract index books, ca. 1820-1959 books by the Registrar of Deeds (North).

But I quickly ran into a problem.

I couldn't find his name listed in any of the pages for Lot 16 on the 9th Concession. Maybe I had read the writing wrong.

I sort of did read it wrong. Or more correctly, I didn't read it all for a few words later it continued, "...and may be better known as being Town Lot number one hundred and thirty nine on Hope Street in the Cameron Section of the aforesaid Town of Almonte..."

That is an important detail. It also highlights why one should read the whole document and not just latch onto the first detail that may be of interest. And yes, I'm very guilty of not always doing that, especially in this case! I probably should paid attention to the computer generated transcription provided by FamilySearch. Those transcriptions aren't perfect by a long shot but they can help us when quickly glancing at a document.

There are several abstract index books also available on FamilySearch for Almonte. Fortunately near the front of the first two books I looked at the registrar has written which surveys or areas the specific book includes. I found that volume 2 states "Cameron Survey from 1 to 226".

Within just a few minutes I was able to locate Lot No 139 Cameron Survey on Image Group Number (DGS) 8636227, image 470 of 620 and there was instrument 5105 listed in the abstract. That's the same instrument that we had found by doing the Full Text Search using his last name.

Lanark County (North), Ontario, Abstract index books, ca. 1820-1959, Almonte Abstract Register Volume 2, p. 139, Town of Almonte, Lot No. 139, Cameron Survey; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H6-5SPT-V : accessed 9 Oct 2025); DGS 8636227, image 470 of 620.

What is interesting is that there are several other instruments that the Full Text Search didn't identify. For example, it missed instrument 5106. That's because the handwriting recognition transcribed his name of "Legerdine". That instrument is valuable since it provides the name of William's wife, Rhoda, so that I could confirm I'm chasing the right family — and I am.

If I had used "tegerdine legerdine" (without quotes) in my Full Text Search I would have come across this record. Curiously, using "?egerine" (without quotes) in the Full Text Search actually returned this error message on FamilySearch, "Sorry, we encountered a problem. The question mark and asterisk are wildcard symbols and cannot be used as the first letter of a search term. Please modify your search and try again." Hmmm, an interesting quirk in the search.

That should be it, right? I have a location of Lot 139 on Hope Street in Almonte, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada.

Except when I put in that address into Google Maps, it put me in the water. The address numbers on a present day map for Hope Street go from about 271 to 412. It seems like the lot numbers don't match the street address numbers. Sigh.

Looking at the abstract register page for the lot, I see that Rhoda Tegerdine still owned that property until 1907 so maybe the 1901 census of Canada would have a street address for me in Schedule 2.

Schedule 2 you say? Most folks only know about schedule 1, the Population schedule, of the 1901 census of Canada. The challenge with schedule 2 is that it doesn't have names on it but refers back to the page and line number of the head of household in the Population schedule. In my 2021 blog post "Finding the Concession and Lot in Ontario in the 1901 Census" I wrote about how we can use schedule 2 in our research. A number of the URLs pointing to pages on the Library and Archives Canada site have changed since I wrote that blog post due to the revamp of the LAC site in 2022, but the links to the schedule 2 PDF finding aids for the provinces still work (for now). 

In searching for Rhoda Tegerdine in the 1901 census of Canada I found her and her family residing in Ward 1 in the Town of Almonte in polling division 2 of sub-district A in the Lanark North (80) district on page 3, line 36 in dwelling 32 as family 32 (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=census&id=36646761&lang=eng&ecopy=z000076057). Using the schedule 2 finding aid for Ontario, I found that the images for that sub-district and division started at https://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1901/z/z002/jpg/z000076052.jpg. Looking for the entry in schedule 2 for the household that is found on page 3, line 36 in schedule 1, I found her address is recorded as "138-139 Hope".

Great. Not the modern address I was looking for. It seems that the lot number was still being used. But "138-139"?  I know about lot 139 from my search on his last name where I found the instrument and subsequently the abstract register page.

Back to the FamilySearch images of the abstract registers I went.

Lanark County (North), Ontario, Abstract index books, ca. 1820-1959, Almonte Abstract Register Volume 2, p. 138, Town of Almonte, Lot No. 138, Cameron Survey; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H6-5S5J-P : accessed 9 Oct 2025); DGS 8636227, image 470 of 620.

There is his name starting with instrument 5702. Yet another instrument missed by the full text search since the name was automagically transcribed as Legerdine. The computers aren't quite there to take over the role of a good researcher.

But we still don't know exactly where the Tegerdine family lived on Hope Street.

I next turned to maps. Keep in mind that I'm doing this all from the comfort of my home and I really don't want to have to travel anywhere at this point to look at material that isn't online.

I checked all sorts of maps, including a distorted image of a fire insurance plan for Almonte that I came across. No luck.

That's when I remembered that OnLand has maps associated with the Property search page. I've used these maps a few times in the past when attempting to locate an urban property. They can be sometimes a pain to use but in this case, it really worked out well.

After I selected Lanark (LRO  27) as my virtual land registry office on OnLand, I went to Property and then Map. Before clicking 'View Map" I clicked on the Area list and to my pleasant surprise I found that Almonte was one of the specific areas I could focus on. Going to that map I could search by the street name without having to worry about picking the right Hope street in Lanark County. I started typing "Hope" and it gave me the option of "Hope Street" or "Hope St". I chose the first and this map appeared with Hope Street highlighted.

Partial screen capture of the Ontario Electronic Property Index Map for Lanark (LRO 27), Almonte with Hope Street highlighted.

There I could see the lot numbers and even street names. For lots 138 and 139 we can see that they are basically on the corner of Hope Street and St. Andrews Street.

Finally I could use Google Maps to find the corner of Hope Street and St. Andrew's Street.

Screen capture from Google Maps showing the intersection of Hope Street and St. Andrews Street in Almonte, Ontario, Canada.

Not bad for about two and a half hours of research over two days. The first hour and a half was spent researching the land records. The last hour was trying to find an online map that had the lot numbers on it. Once I remembered OnLand did, it took me less than 5 minutes to get an exact location of those lots on a modern map.

My friend's cousins can now visit the same lots their great-grandfather, William Tegerdine, and family resided on in Almonte. 

Yes, I started with what could be called AI assisted results for the first breakthrough. That saved possibly days or even weeks of effort, but it took actual knowledge and research to put all the pieces together to come up with an answer for my friend.

Finally, this is a reminder to "Stop searching, and start researching" when you have challenging research problems.

OLRI Now Digitized

In the Saturday, October 4, 2025 edition of the Ontario Ancestors eWeekly Update, it was announce that the Ontario Land Records Index had been digitized and can be found on the Internet Archive in their Ontario Land Records Index collection. Jane E. MacNamara wrote a guest post for the Internet Archive Canada making the announce of this important release at Now Online! Ontario Land Records Index.

These sorts of digitization projects take a number of folks to make it happen. To put the OLRI into a digital format and place it online took a number of partners:

• Archives of Ontario provided a copy of the fiche to be digitized 
• Toronto Branch of Ontario Ancestors (OGS) funded the project
• Internet Archive provided the place to host the digitized images
• Additional Technical support was provided by the Internet Archive Canada, Our Digital World, and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network. 

Additionally there were key folks that Jane mentions in her announcement that performed that valuable task of fixing up the file names so we could actually use the digitized fiche in a manageable way.

What did we get from this project?

First of all, this isn't a plug in a name and the computer will magically bring us to the page with the name on it. This is the digitized representation of the pages of the fiche from the Archives of Ontario. We need to treat it as such but without the annoyance of finding a place with the OLRI and a working microfiche reader. We will be looking through the sheets and pages to find the information.

The digitized nominal index came from 53 sheets of fiche and the township order index from 75 sheets of fiche. You might think that that's not too many sheets to image. However, unlike microfilm which is one continuous roll of images, each fiche sheet can contain up to 270 very tiny pages. That can make it a bit more complicated to scan for digitization as can be seen in this 2-hour YouTube video of the Internet Archive doing microfiche scanning. For the OLRI, that's about 34,000 images to process!

Just what is this index and why is it so valuable for those researching their Ontario roots?

As Jane wrote in her guest post, this "is an index to those settlers who were allocated Crown land in Upper Canada/Canada West/Ontario." It was compiled in the 1970s by the Archives of Ontario and published in 1979. For many of us who have used the OLRI in the past, we quickly became familiar with the fiche found in the various archives and libraries that was so often scratched up from use over the years. Just as importantly, we knew which institutions had working microfiche readers.

When using the Ontario Land Records Index on the Internet Archive, at this time I recommend that when you get to the "Ontario Land Records Index" page, to select either the "Township Index" if you know where your person resided or the "Nominal Index" if you don't.

Next, click on "Title" in the "Sort by" menu bar. This will organize the sheets in an alphabetical order so that Fiche 04 comes after Fiche 03. Otherwise, the default sort is by the number of weekly views and that will really annoy you when trying to find that one sheet for "Bennet Rich J - Boulton Dary Edward" that is Fiche 04.

We also need to keep in mind that the OLRI is exactly what its name implies. It is an index.  

Archives of Ontario, "Ontario Land Records Index," Alphabetical Listing by Township/Town/City, Fiche 19 Douro-Dungannon, p. 4069-4070, Drummond; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/olri_township-index_019_douro-dungannon/page/n169/mode/2up : accessed 7 Oct 2025).

Here we can see the page from the alphabetical listing by township/town/city, AKA Township Index, for Drummond Township in Lanark County that has my 4th great-grandfather, Alexander Fraser, listed on it. How do I know that this is my Alexander Fraser and not the Alexander Fraser who lived about a dozen lots away on the same concession?

A bunch of research plus I had found him in the Abstract register book where he was listed as the first settler to be recognized the owner of that property by the Crown.

Lanark County (South), Ontario, Abstract index books, ca. 1800-1959, Drummond Township Abstract Volume A, p. 78, Township of Drummond, North East Half Lot No. 16 in 2nd Concession; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGS-WQFH-H : accessed 7 Oct 2025); DGS 8200306, image 96 of 601.

I can also find him listed in the Alphabetical Listed by Name of Locatee, AKA Nominal Index. Of course, Alexander Fraser isn't exactly an uncommon name. So, I would need to know where he resided to make sure I was looking to the right person.

Archives of Ontario, "Ontario Land Records Index," Alphabetical Listing by Name of Locatee, Fiche 16 Fisher Andrew Jr - Fraser Joseph, p. 4264-4265; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/olri_nominal_index_nl_016_fisherandrewjr_fraserjoseph/page/n243/mode/2up : accessed 7 Oct 2025).

Here is the abstract for his lot from the Township Index:

Township/Town/City: Drummond

Lot: NE 1/2 16

Concession: 2

Date ID: 8

Issue Date: 05 Nov 1812

Transaction Type: FG

Type FG: M

Type of Lease/Sale:

Name of Locatee: Alexander Fraser

Archival Reference

RG: 01

Series: CI3

Volume: 123

Page: 69

There is a bit to understand here. Fortunately for us, the Archives of Ontario has their "How to use the Ontario Land Record Index" PDF document to help us decipher some of what we see in the index entry.

• Hopefully by now if you have done any land record research in Ontario, you know that the "NE 1/2 16" for the lot means the North East Half of Lot 16.
• The Date ID code of "8" means that this was granted by an Order-In-Council.
• The Transaction Type of "FG" indicates that Alexander received this as a  Free Grant — a transfer of land ownership by the Crown that wasn't done by a sale.
• Since it was a Free Grant, we learn that the "M" means it was a grant for his military or militia service.

As for the Archival Reference, that is actually the really useful part of this index for it points us to the record that was used to create this index entry.

To figure what that is , we need to consult the "Understanding the Archival Reference Code in the Ontario Land Record Index" page also from the Archives of Ontario. There we find that RG 01, Series CI3 is from the Fiats and Warrants. Clicking on the link that is provided in that document we find that volume 123 is on microfilm MS 693 Reel 138.

That would be sort of annoying, but acceptable if there wasn't another option, if we had to order that microfilm. Fortunately for me, I happen to know that many of the microfilms from the Archives of Ontario that hold the CI3 series have been digitized and placed online on FamilySearch. They can be found in the "Land records, ca. 1792-1876" collection. That collection does include the Ontario Land Records Index but not in the digitized format — that's why the release of the OLRI in a digitized format is so important.

However, if you didn't know that little fact, you might have discovered it by reading the "Finding Aid to Archival References in the Ontario Land Records Index (OLRI)" also found on the OLRI Internet Archive page.

Since I hadn't yet looked at that document, after looking through the list of volumes for the warrants and fiats I found volume 123 in the digitized microfilm titled "Military warrants (v. 121-122) bundle A127-Z140, 1831-1867 Military fiats (v. 123) 1817-1836 (indexed)" in Image Group Number (DGS) 8312358 with volume 123 starting at image 1027 of 1148. Within a few minutes I had found his entry in the register book.

Archives of Ontario, "Land records, ca. 1792-1876", Military fiats (v. 123) 1817-1836, RG 1 C-I-3, vol. 123, p. 69; digital images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSRG-BWDZ-S : accessed 7 Oct 2025); DGS 8312358, item 7, image 1122 of 1148.

I remember when I didn't have easy access to the OLRI and it would take me easily an hour to find the source document in this collection on FamilySearch. It took me five minutes to find it this time. That is why this index is so valuable to those using land records in Ontario for their genealogy and family history research. The Ontario Land Records Index is a huge time saver.

Of course, not all the land records have been digitized and made available online as can be seen in that "Finding Aid to Archival References in the Ontario Land Records Index (OLRI)". It would be so nice to have the Canada Company land transaction records and others used as the source material for the OLRI also online but I will happily use whatever resource I can find.