Be a Better Genealogy Helper

First of all, I want to give my heartfelt thanks to all those wonderful genealogy and family history researchers out there who unselfishly answer genealogy related questions at in-person events and in the online world. Especially in the online world, quite often there is no thanks or acknowledgement of your time and effort to provide good answers. I see you and thank you for all you do in our community!

"records" by Anna (https://www.flickr.com/photos/art_es_anna/1314358266). CC BY 2.0.

Yet, there are several problems I keep seeing crop up in the answers being provided, especially in the online communities, that are sort of pet peeves of mine.

"Just use <insert site here>" 

The first issue I have is when I see folks state, "Just use <insert site here>.", and that is it. The site might be FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, The Genealogist, Library and Archives Canada, Héritage, or a countless number of other genealogy or potentially genealogy related websites. It's right up there with "Just Google it!" as a bad answer to give. Many times, the person asking the question just doesn't even know where to start to find the answer and are feeling confused or overwhelmed.

In my eyes, giving an answer like that is similar to saying "Just go to the library, the answer is in a book there." As we all know, there are thousands of books in a library and the answer being sought may only be in one of those books in a part of the library that the person has never glanced at. So which book has the information being sought? 

In the world of libraries and books, we would probably say, "You need to check out <title of a book> by <author>, I think it might have the information you are seeking." Of course, they still have to find the book but that is what the card catalogue is for. They might even walk up to the library reference desk to ask for help in finding the book on the shelf. 

The same goes for many of the genealogy related websites. There may be hundreds or thousands of collections found on the one site. So, we need to provide a bit more guidance to point the person to the right collection or collections that could provide them with the document they are seeking.

Of course, to do that, we have to spend a bit more time crafting our answer. We might have to visit the website we are suggesting they use to get the title of the collection and possibly even the link to the search page for that specific collection. Maybe we might want to do a test search ourselves to make sure that the answer might be found in the collection. Yes, this will take more than the one minute spent giving that quick answer. Yet it will help out that poor soul who has been brave enough to reach out to ask for assistance considerably more than "Just use <insert site here>."

Does the Site Have the Answer?

Another issue I come across is related to the first one. It is when those kind folks who provide an answer haven't actually checked to see if the site they are recommending actually has the information. It could be as simple as the person willing to help out not understanding the question being asked. I know I've fallen into that trap a few times myself. Other times, the person responding to the question is parroting something they have heard or read without actually understanding the material. Unfortunately, I've come across that a few times when it comes to locating and using records and documents related to Ontario land transactions.

Honestly, this sort of answer can be really frustrating to the person posing the question. They might spend hours trying to find something on a site that doesn't have the answer. That sort of frustration can discourage them from asking their next question. They might even give up looking for their family's roots altogether.

Providing Images Without Sources Stated 

Another issue I see, again especially in the online community, is along the lines of "Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime."

I will often see someone posting the images of the documents or records they have found that may answer the question being posed. It is wonderful that they were able to locate the record being sought, but, in almost all the cases, they don't state the site where the image was sourced. I'm not talking about writing an Evidence Explained level of source citation though. 

My request to all those genealogy helpers out there who do that, is please include the name of the website and the collection where it was found. If it was a bit tricky to find the record or document, consider including the keywords that were used to find the image. Not only will you be helping out the person who asked the question, but others reading your answer might discover a new site or collection whey didn't even know about that could help them in their own research.

Not Reading/Understanding the Question

The final problem I want to bring up, at least when it comes to those willing to help out, is not actually reading or understanding the question being asked and then doing all three of the above pet peeves of mine.

Yes, I have failed at this a few times. In one recent case on Facebook, I wrote up a "good answer", posted it, and then, just because I wanted to make sure I covered what was being asked, I re-read the question. It turned out I provided an answer that applied to locating records of those who served Canada in the Second World War and not the First World War. Too bad the person asking for help clearly stated "WWI" in their question. I had seen the other answers and they all said "WWII" or "Second World War". Everyone was answering the question wrong — including me. I quickly deleted my answer — yes, you are allowed to delete your replies on Facebook — and wrote a response that answered what they were actually posing in their question.

Also, if there is not enough information in the question for you to provide a reasonable answer, ask that person a follow up question or two. We do that all the time when we are speaking to someone in person. We should do it more often in the online world too.

 

For those who have read my answers to questions posed in the various Canadian genealogy related Facebook groups, or have written to me privately asking for assistance, you might have noticed that my answers can be a bit long-winded at times. That is because I try to point folks to the collection(s) on the site(s) I might be referring to and I also try to explain the process I used to find the answer. I really am wanting to "Teach them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime." from a genealogical research point of view.

Does it take more time? 

Heck, yeah!

Most of the time it takes me at least 10 to 15 minutes to write what I consider a "good answer". Of course, an Ontario land records related question often takes much longer to answer since they can be a bit tricky at times.

Yet, at the same time, I will often learn something new or possibly clarify something I thought I had understood.

So please strive to be a better genealogy helper when answering questions. I know you can!

 

Full-Text Search + Research = A Win!

FamilySearch's Full-Text Search is a real game changer when it comes to finding records that we might not have come across in the past. The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwriting Recognition Technology tools that create the transcriptions used by Full-Text Search just don't index the names of the principal parties mentioned on the processed documents. These transcriptions and subsequent indexes index every word in the documents. It means we can search on not just names but occupations, addresses, and phrases. Of course, there will be interesting transcription errors created by the machines. So, we can't rely on Full-Text Search to find every record.

I will say it again for those in the back:

We can't rely on Full-Text Search to find every record.

Let's take a look at a case where FamilySearch's Full-Text Search helped remove the mortar that loosed a brick to help tear down a brick-wall I've had for some years in my research.

It was a simple question I've been struggling with for some time: Who were the parents of Mary Foley, my 3rd great-grandmother, and wife of Thomas Well, who lived in Blanchard Township, Perth County, Canada West/Ontario?

I had made some assumptions in my research:

• Mary Foley and Thomas Wells lived and met in Blanchard Township.
• Mary Foley was of the Protestant faith. This was based on the 1861 Census of Canada West and the 1871 Census of Canada of their household.

These two starting assumptions were reasonable based on the facts I had but, as we will soon see, wrong.

There were trees online with various possible names for her parents. However, none of them provided any evidence of their assertions. Since I barely trust my own genealogy research, I'm definitely not going to take the word of anyone else without some sort of evidence.

It all started while FamilySearch's Full-Text Search was still in the experiment phase and I was playing around with it.

FamilySearch Full-Text Search search box with the keywords '+"Thomas Wells" +Mary +Foley'.

It was a simple search using keywords. I wanted all documents that had all the following words or phrases: "Thomas Wells", Mary, and Foley found in the resulting transcription generated by the Full-Text Search tools.

I got something like this:

Screen capture of the results page from FamilySearch's Full-Text Search for '+"Thomas Wells" +Mary +Foley' from 11 Jun 2026.

That first result returned was a land record from Pelham Township in Welland County, Ontario, Canada. The associated transcription hint was enticing:

108 No 2418 . Quit Claim Thomas Wells et, al To Mary Scanlan E Registered 25th Feby . 1868 at 3 . O'Clock P.M. …
…of Ontario in the Dominion of Canada, Farmer, and Mary Wells of the same placewife of the said Thomas Wells, of…
…and Satisfaction of the Legacy to the above named Mary Wells, under the Will of the late James Foley deceased, …
…full, 2nd That I was personally present and did see, Thomas Wells, and Mary Wells the grantors named in the …

Looking and reading the document — several times in fact — provided a whole bunch of possible clues

Pelham Township, book F, Instrument 2418, Quit Claim, p. 108-109 [stamped]; imaged, “Land records of Welland County, 1796-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636751 > image 417 of 675.

• It was a land record quit claim where Thomas and Mary Wells were relinquishing any possible claims they might have had to the lot in question
• Thomas Wells was of the Township of Blanshard in the County of Perth, Ontario
• Mary Wells is the wife of Thomas Wells
• The lot was part of the North part of Lot Number 12 in the Tenth Concession of the Township of Pelham
• That lot was owned by the late James Foley, the elder
• John Foley and James Foley, the younger, had paid Mary Wells $10 per the will of the late James Foley

That seemed like a good match to my Thomas and Mary Wells.

Since I now had the location of the lot in Pelham Township, I could semi-quickly locate the abstract register of the lot and maybe even find a copy of the will in the land record copy books.

Time for me to stop searching and to start researching. So I switched from using search boxes to browsing collections, a bit researching, some thinking, and a bit of luck.

I could have used OnLand since they usually gather all the associated pages for a lot into a easily findable group of images, but I stayed with FamilySearch and their digitized copy of what they call their "Abstract index books, 1796-1958" collection created by the Registrar of Deeds for Welland County, Ontario to find this page.

Pelham Township, book A, Abstract register for Lot No. 12 in 10th Concession for the Township of Pelham [extract], p. 203 [stamped]; imaged, “Abstract index books, 1796-1958,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636746 > image 114 of 284.

There is a listing for the "Probate of Will" as instrument 481 dated 20 May 1863 and registered on 18 May 1866 in the Land Registry Office for James Foley which was transferring 20 acres to his sons John Foley and James Foley.

Pelham Township, book E, Instrument 481, Probate of Will, p. 210-211 [stamped]; imaged, “Land records of Welland County, 1796-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 8636751 > image 138 of 675.

This copy of James Foley's will along with the preamble in the land record copy book provided even more details:

• He died on or about 3 Nov 1865 at Pelham
• The will included in the land record copy book is a true copy of his Last Will and Testament
• John Foley and James Foley received lot 12 in the 10th Concession of Pelham
• He has a daughter named Anna Foley, the wife of John Hicks, and she received $200
• He has a daughter Mary Wells, and she received $10
• He has a wife named Jane

I also looked up his probate file in FamilySearch's "Probate records, 1856-1903 // index, 1856-1969" collection created by the Surrogate Court of Welland County. There in the digitized microfilm titled "Probate papers nos. 254-383 1865-1869", starting at image 127 of 1472, just in case there might be other tidbits of information.

What stood out to me in the will was that Mary only got $10 while Anna got $200. Also, Anna's husband was mentioned but Mary's husband wasn't. 

"Died: Foley," The Ingersoll Chronicle [Ingersoll, Ontario], 1 Dec 1865, page 3, column 2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 22 Aug 2025).

Using Newspapers.com, I even found a mention in the 1 Dec 1865 edition of the Ingersoll Chronicle a death notice for James Foley and his wife Jane. I thinking her age in this notice is a bit exaggerated.

I next looked for the family in the 1861 Census of Canada West to see if there might be another clue.

Census of 1861, Canada West, Welland County, Pelham Township, population schedule, page 31 [stamped]; imaged in "Census of 1861 (Canada East, Canada West, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)," Library and Archives Canada (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=census&id=45180961&lang=eng&ecopy=4108422_00504 : accessed 11 Jun 2026).

On that page I found what appears to be the household of James Foley with the following basic details abstracted:

• James Foley, farmer, born in Ireland, Catholic, age 53 years, male, married, living in a shanty
• Jane Foley, born in Ireland, Catholic, age 70 years [see, the death notice was lying!], female, married 
• James Foley, born in Canada West, Catholic, age 19 years, male, single
• Ann Foley, born in Canada West, Catholic, age 15 years, female, single 

Just a second...Catholic?

That changes my religion assumption big time.

It also might explain why Mary only got $10 in the will of James Foley and Mary's husband, Thomas, wasn't mentioned. Might she have been "punished" for marrying out of her faith?

Yet I couldn't find the family in the Census of 1851 (which was taken in 1852) for Canada West in Pelham Township. After doing a few hours of research into the land records using FamilySearch's Full-Text Search and reviewing abstract registers, I learned that between 13 Mar 1847 and 23 Sep 1853, James Foley was residing in Grantham Township, Lincoln County, Canada West.

Guess what? The Census of 1851 for that township didn't survive. Of all the rotten luck!

Now that I learned the family followed the Catholic Church, and from prior research that Mary was born about 1836 in Canada West, I took a look at what records for Catholic Churches in the Niagara area can be found on FamilySearch for the 1830s. One collection immediately stood out — "Parish registers, 1827-1910" for Saint Vincent de Paul (Niagara, Ontario) Catholic Church. Of course, it wasn't name indexed or even added to Full-Text Search. But that's never stopped me in the past.

It only took a few minutes of leafing though the images before I found her entry of baptism in the parish register:

St. Vincent de Paul [Niagara-on-the-Lake], Baptisms, marriages, burials 1827-1849, Register for the year 1835, B. 40, Mary Foley; imaged, “Parish registers, 1827-1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 5107199 > image 53 of 351.

There I learned that Mary was baptized on 4 May 1835, aged 1 week, the daughter of James Foley and Margaret McKenna, residing in St. Catharines. 

I finally had the names of Mary's parents! 

But the journey doesn't end there.

If Mary was baptized at St. Vincent de Paul, might her parents have been married there too?

St. Vincent de Paul [Niagara-on-the-Lake], Baptisms, marriages, burials 1827-1849, Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Interments in 1834, M. 1, marriage for James Foley and Margaret McKenny; imaged, “Parish registers, 1827-1910,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org: accessed 11 Jun 2026), image group number (IGN) 5107199 > image 41 of 351.

Recorded as the first marriage for 1834 we find an entry for James Foley and Margaret McKenny. And it is a treasure trove of information for someone who came from Ireland:

June 29th Were married, by me, the undersigned Priest, James Foley Son of John Foley and Mary Power, late of the Parish of Shanagolden Co Limerick Ireland; and Margaret McKenny, Daughter of John McKenny and Sarah Kelly, Co Tyrone Ireland. After one publication of their Banns.

I really struck gold in that record!

It all started with Full-Text Search which turned up that initial land record. Yet it took actual research to get to the parish register with the baptism of Mary and the marriage of her parents. Of course, it was a bit of luck too in that the register had been digitized and made available online.

I can only hope that you have similar success in using FamilySearch's Full-Text Search to start a breakthrough in your genealogical brick-wall. 

Finding LAC's Upper Canada Land Petitions

Recently a colleague passed on a message they received where someone was being frustrated with trying to use find and use the Upper Canada Land Petitions found on the Library and Archives Canada site. They were annoyed in part due to the changes that LAC has made to their site over the past several years, something I could completely understand. I provided a bit of guidance but I also thought that a blog post might also be helpful for others.

The first challenge is figuring out how to search for those Upper Canada Land Petitions in the first place.

There are two approaches.

The first is to scroll down the Library and Archives Canada home page to the "Most requested" section and, in the "Collection" column, select my favourite page on the LAC site, "A to Z research tools and guides".

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada "A to Z research tools and guides" page with "petitions" entered into the Filter items text box.

In the screen capture above, I've already typed in the "Filter items" box on the "A to Z research tools and guides" page the word "petitions". We can see only two results are returned, one for the Land Petitions of Lower Canada, and the other being Land Petitions of Upper Canada. When we click on the"Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" link, we are brought to the advanced search page of LAC's Collection search system.

Screen capture of Library and Archive's Canada "Collection search" advanced view page with the search limited to "Genealogy" and the Collection to "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865".

Here we can see that two of the search boxes have already been filled in for us. The first is that we are only searching the "Genealogy" collections. The second, and this is the important one, the only collection to be searched is the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865".

Alternately, on the Library and Archives Canada home page we can click on the green "Search the collection" button that is so prominently visible.

That brings us to the "Search Library and Archives Canada's collections" page. Towards the top of the page we find the search box to do a Collection search. Before we actually do a search, we need to click on the Advanced search link. I've circled it on the screen capture of that search box found on the page.

Doing that brings us to the same screen we saw when we clicked on the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" on the "A to Z research tools and guides" page. Yet there is one more step we need to do.

Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada Collection search advanced search view with the "Collection" item circled.

I've circled the Collection search drop-down box where we can select one of the many databases to only search in LAC's collections. We want to find and select "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865" from this ever growing list of topic specific databases.

It really doesn't matter which way we get to the search screen with the correct database collection to search. I personally prefer using the "A to Z research tools and guides" page in the hopes that one day it won't bring initially me to the search screen but to a topic page with details of what is available. That topic page does exist but we have to get to it in a round about manner at this time.

However, at this time we can just type in the name of the person we are searching for in the Upper Canada Land Petitions collection. We might also add in the place of registration but I often just start with just the name

In this example, I've search for my 4th great-grandfather, Alexander Fraser, and have included the word military since I know that he settled in the Perth Military Settlement when he came to Upper Canada. 

Screen capture of the first two search results looking for the keywords "alexander fraser military" (without quotes) in the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865 collection with the Library and Archives Canada Collection search system.

There are a few things to note in the above screen capture. The first is if you want to change the search parameters then use the "Modify search" button. LAC seems to have fixed the quirk with using the browser's back button and it not keeping the search details you filled in. However, I find that "Modify search" button always works so I recommend using that button to make any changes to your search criteria.

The next is that in the search results we see a question mark followed by a link to "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763 to 1865". This is the link to the topic page associated with this database. That page is still in the old format and will be moving to the new look and feel sometime in the future. This page is very important for us. Not only does it give some background details about how and why the petitions were created but it also has the all important link to the digitized copies of the petitions found within the old "Upper Canada Land Petitions - Microform digitization" page.

Although the petition details can be seen in the result list, we should still click on the name to get to the item detail page like I did for the entry of my Alexander Fraser:

Screen capture of the item details section for the Alexander Fraser found in Library and Archives Canada RG 1 L3, vol. 421, p. 64a.

Again we see a link to the topic page as the "Help page".

The important details for our purposes are found on the "Reference" line. There it states his name can be found within the RG 1 L3 series in volume 421 on page 64a. Just as importantly, that document is found on microfilm C-2739.

From that help page we know that we can go to the "Upper Canada Land Petitions - Microform digitization" page and look for the microfilm in that list.

However, if we are lucky, the microfilm might also be available for viewing from home in the "Petitions for land grants and leases, 1791-1867" collection on FamilySearch. I wrote "if we are lucky" since not all the microfilms from Library and Archives Canada are viewable from home on FamilySearch. However, I have created a PDF file of a spreadsheet I use that lists the LAC microfilms with links to the digitized microfilms on FamilySearch. Personally, if I can use the digitized microfilm on FamilySearch to locate the document I will. Not only because I find the FamilySearch image viewer easier to use, but also that the microfilms in this collection have been added to the Full-Text Search system on FamilySearch.

Regardless of how we are looking at the digitized images from microfilm, we want to pay attention to the information added at the bottom of the images.

Page reference information found at the bottom of the image from the Library and Archives Canada digitized microfilm C-2739, "Canada Land Petitions, Perth Military Settlement (RG 1, L 3, Vol. 420), p. 14b.

Most of the time we find the key information that is mentioned in the "Reference" line from the Library and Archives Canada item detail page for the person. Of course, sometimes that information is missing or hidden. If that happens, check the images before or after the one we are looking at. We will likely have to leap through the digitized images to find the correct volume and/or bundle.

Then we will want to start paying attention to the top corners of the pages since that is where we will find the page numbers.

Fairly quickly we should be able to find the page 64a in the "RG 1, L 3, Vol.421" for my Alexander Fraser I used in the example. Below is the image I came across on FamilySearch since microfilm C-2739 is viewable from home.

Upper Canada Land Petitions, Bundle Perth Military Settlement, RG 1 L3, vol. 421, petition 64, p. 64a, imaged, “Petitions for land grants and leases, 1791-1867”, FamilySearch, image group number 8630352 > image 491 of 1130 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H4-79VZ-P: accessed 3 Apr 2026); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-2739.

Of course, the entry on the page that is on the fold is the one for my Alexander Fraser. Isn't that always the case!

The Perth Military Settlement is a bit different from other petitions in this collection from Library and Archives Canada since we don't find the individual petitions made by the potential settlers.

When it comes to these petitions, there are often several pages in the petition. I recommend that you save all the pages for a petition to your computer for safe keeping and so that you don't have to do this every single time you want to look at the petition again.

 

[Updated: 10 Jun 2026 with link to a PDF of the LAC Upper Canada Land Petitions microfilms found on FamilySearch] 

Stop Searching, Start Researching

I'm not saying we shouldn't leverage the various computer searchable indexes to hopefully easily find those key documents available online or even in archives, libraries, and museums. Also, making intelligent and thoughtful use of the hints provided by Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and all those other genealogy related sites is a smart use of our valuable research time. But remember, those are only hints and quite often those hints won't apply to the person we are researching. So, don't blindly accept any hints provided. Yet, sooner or later, we will encounter a stumbling point — AKA brick wall — in learning about folks in our family tree such as not being able to locate them in the records. At that time, we need to stop searching and actually start researching. 

By the way, I'm not talking about the kind of researching that one might do for a college or university course.

What I'm talking about when I say that "we need to start researching" is that we need to stop relying on the computer to do the work for us and for us to start understanding the records themselves. What I often call "Researching the research". 

Some of the questions you might want to ask are:

• Where will we find the records? 
• When were the records created?
• Why were the records created?
• How were the records created? Might there be two copies where one copy easier to access. Might one copy be missing some details? 
• Are the records available for in-person consultation or have they been digitized and made available online?
• Are there privacy restrictions in place that we might have to overcome?
• Is the information we are seeking even get recorded in the records we want to use?
• Did the format and content of the records we are looking for change over time?
• Are there any "gotchas" in the records? Maybe some of the records haven't survived the ravages of time, they just weren't collected for specific years, or are there are early gaps in the records when folks just didn't follow the laws or rules.
• And the big question — do the records even exist? 

Where can we find this information?

In all sorts of places and often never in a single place.

It could be as simple as an Internet search. Ignoring the sponsored ads that might pop up, the search results might point you to an archive or even a blog post about the subject. Personally, at least at this time, I don't trust those AI summaries provided by the various search engines or large language models, LLMs, like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, etc. I've found them to be, more often as not, wrong than right. But they have just enough "right" to look and feel correct — and that is the pitfall with them.

Check with the archive that holds the original records on paper or microfilm. Quite often there are research guides on those sites to help you better understand the records themselves. How do you find that archive? Again, an Internet search is often a good starting place.

Check your local library for books on the subject. You remember books, right?

Have there been talks given on the sorts of records you are looking for? Genealogy societies and other organizations such as Legacy Family Tree Webinars might have recordings available for your viewing pleasure. Just keep in mind that you will probably need to be a member to view those recordings.

Even social media sites like Facebook can be helpful. You will often find folks willing to share their knowledge in those groups. Kind folks might even be willing to help you search for the answers to your research question. But before you ask a question on those sites, take the time to review the previously posted messages to see if someone has already asked or answered the question about the records you are seeking.

But most importantly, be curious! In your journey to better understand the records you will also hopefully become a better family history and genealogy researcher.

 

Illustrated Historical Atlases of Ontario Counties Online

If you have been reading my blog for some time, you know how important land records in Ontario can be for locating where our ancestors lived. As part of any land record research we also want to "see" where they were on a map. Quite often I will make use of the numerous illustrated atlases of the counties of Ontario found digitized on the "In Search of Your Canadian Past: The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project" hosted by the McGill University.

Partial screen capture of the landing page for the In Search of Your Canadian Past: The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project site taken 2 Feb 2026.

This site has high quality scans of maps from books originally published in the late 1870s to early 1880s. Yet have you ever wondered where those maps came from and if there was anything more than just those maps in those books?

Wonder no longer!

Some of you might have seen a group of large books like this in your local library or archive if you live in Ontario.

Picture of the shelving holding the Illustrated Historical Atlases of Ontario held at the Nepean Centrepointe Branch of the Ottawa Public Library (taken 10 Feb 2026).

Here we see a picture of the various Illustrated Historical Atlases of Ontario Counties held at the Nepean Centrepointe branch of the Ottawa Public Library. They are available for anyone to peruse. During the joint Ottawa Public Library and Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors in-person drop-ins, we've periodically used these books instead of going online to look at the maps. 

But what if you don't have access to a library or archive with those books? 

One of the projects announced in November 2024 by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, CRKN, the fine folks who bring us the Canadiana and Héritage, was an update to the Ontario Historical County Atlases. That project has now been completed.

We can find those recently digitized books online for the following counties (some counties are group together into a single book): 

Ontario county atlases:  

• Brant
• Carleton
• Elgin
• Frontenac, Lennox and Addington
• Haldimand
• Halton
• Hastings and Prince Edward
• Huron
• Lincoln and Welland
• Middlesex
• Norfolk
• Northumberland and Durham
• Ontario
• Oxford
• Peel 
• Perth
• Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
• Wentworth
• York, township of West Gwillimbury and town of Bradford

The Illustrated Historical Atlases of the counties not only have the maps of the townships but also possibly the following sections that help us understand the history of the county:

• Early settlement details
• Military history of the units raised in the county
• Key officials at the time the atlas was created
• Histories of the villages, towns, and townships
• Biographical sketches of prominent people and families in the county 

Often we will also find a list of those who patronized or subscribed to the atlas at the time of its creation. We might learn where they resided in the township, village, or town, when they settled, where they were born, and even their occupation. However, not everyone paid to have their name included. So, your ancestor might not be listed.

Then there are the pictures of various notable buildings, farms, and even people. 

If you live on the property previously owned by James McLaurin located on Lot 21 of the 6th Concession in the Township of Osgoode, wouldn't it be interesting to see what it looked like in the late 1870s?

Illustrated historical atlas of the county of Carleton (including city of Ottawa) Ont. (Toronto : H. Belden, 1879), p. 5, sketch of the "Res. of Jas. McLaurin. Con. 6, Lot 21, Osgoode Tp., Ont.," [image 60 of 100] (https://n2t.net/ark:/69429/m07m03x85b1p : accessed 10 Feb 2026).

Of course there are the obligatory maps of the townships. But you might even find street maps of the villages and towns. 

Illustrated historical atlas of the county of Carleton (including city of Ottawa) Ont. (Toronto : H. Belden, 1879), p. 46, map of Stittsville as part of the Map of No. Gower page [image 84 of 100] (https://n2t.net/ark:/69429/m07m03x85b1p : accessed 10 Feb 2026). 

In addition to the county atlases, some of the county maps are found in the Dominion of Canada atlases:  

• Bruce County edition
• Grey County edition
• Kent County edition
• Lambton County edition
• Lanark County edition
• Simcoe County edition
• Victoria County edition
• Waterloo County edition

For the counties found listed in the Dominion of Canada atlases, generally you will find the maps of the townships towards the end of the book. But don't just stop after you find maps of the townships. In many cases you will come across a "Biographical Directory" of those who lived not only in the rural parts of the county but also the towns and villages. 

Illustrated atlas of the Dominion of Canada [Victoria County edition] (Toronto : Belden & Co., 1881), Biographical Directory of Victoria County Subscribers, p 3 [image 179 of 180], Ops Township, Alexander McKinnon  (https://n2t.net/ark:/69429/m2025000032wv5b : accessed 10 Feb 2026).

Above is the entry for my 3rd great-grandfather, Alexander McKinnon, who lived in Ops Township in Victoria County. If I didn't already have this additional information, now I have a starting point not just for locating any land records but also when and where he was born, and when he came to Upper Canada. 

Just note that this directory is of subscribers, i.e. those who paid to have their name listed. That means not every person will be mentioned in the directory.

 

Even better, these books have been made full text searchable. When I typed in "McKinnon" into the search box, two matches appeared. One of them was the page that has the clipping shown above found almost at the end of the book. Of course, the accuracy of the search depends on the quality of the images. That means we may have to actually read what is on the pages on not just rely on searching for names.

 

Finally, you might have notice that not all the counties in Ontario have been digitized. Only those atlases held in the collection of the McGill University Libraries were included in this project. The maps on The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project for several counties, such as Renfrew, came from material held by Library and Archives Canada. We can see the list of where the maps came from on the The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project Primary Source Material page. 

Maybe CRKN might consider asking permission from Library and Archives Canada or the publishers of the reprints to also digitize those books that aren't already found on Canadiana?

Bill C-3 (2025) and Searching for Birth Registrations in Ontario

Ever since Royal Assent was granted on 20 Nov 2025 to Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), there has been a steady increase in the number of posts seen in the various Ontario genealogy groups on Facebook I participate in, and also by the branches of Ontario Ancestors.

Screen capture of the start of An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), Assented to 20 Nov 2025 as Bill C-3 in the First Session, Forty-fifth Parliament 3-4 Charles III, 2025.

This change to the Citizenship Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-29) for Canada removed the first generation born outside Canada limitation of Canadian citizenship in some situations.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I portray one on TV. So I don't pretend to understand the gotchas involved not only when it comes to applying for a citizenship certificate but also who can make use of this claim of Canadian citizenship through descent beyond the first generation. If you have any questions about doing this process, I'm definitely the wrong person to ask. Instead, I recommend contacting a law firm that deals in Canadian citizenship and immigration for guidance. The money and time spent talking with a competent legal expert many save you grief and disappointment later.

One of the key document that folks are often having challenges with locating is evidence of a great-grandparent's birth. With birth, marriage, and death registrations in Canada being a provincial concern, each province started civil registrations in different years. You will need to first brush up on when registrations started where your ancestor was born and then figure out where to find those documents.

Since I deal with Ontario genealogy the most, although I am familiar with other provinces, I'm going to focus on those who are seeking to use Canadian citizenship through descent where their ancestors were born in Ontario. Although similar challenges exist for all the provinces when it comes to civil birth registrations.

The key thing to know about Ontario civil birth registrations is that it didn't start until 1 Jul 1869. What is frustrating to many is even then it took many years before there was full compliance with the law. As an example of that lack of compliance with registering births, it is estimated that the birth returns for 1898 were only 80% complete. It's no wonder we sometimes have challenges looking for an Ontario birth registration prior to the 1900s. I've written about finding Ontario civil birth registrations in my blog back in 2022 and I updated it in 2024. Please take a few minutes to read the post to understand what is available and where.

Also, don't just rely on transcriptions and indexes to find your ancestor's birth registration in Ontario. If you can't find the civil birth registration by using the computer aided search feature on the various sites, then take the effort to browse the digitized birth registration index created by the government of Ontario that is found digitized on FamilySearch in their "Births, stillbirths, and delayed registration with indexes, 1869-1912" collection. That digitized material is generally grouped by the first letter of the last name, and then by year. Within the those groupings, the names are order alphabetically.

If you do find the birth registration in the digitized material and you are wanting a certified copy, then read the "Birth, marriage and death registrations" page on the Archives of Ontario site in the section under "Order a certified copy of a registration".

However, if a birth registration can't be located, that means folks will be looking for church records in the hopes that a baptism was performed around the time the person was born.

The challenge then really begins since many of the parish registers are not online and name indexed for searching. If we are lucky, the ancestor might have been baptized by a Wesleyan Methodist minister. Why lucky? Wayne Bower has generously digitized and made available those Wesleyan Methodist baptism registers now held by the United Church of Canada on his page "Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Registers
1825-1910". You might also come across some parish registers on FamilySearch and Ancestry. But those are more the exception than the rule.

Instead you will need to research the family to figure out the following from around the time of the birth:

• What religion was the family following?
• Did the denomination the family followed practice infant baptisms?
• Where was the family was residing?
• What churches may have been in existence in the area?
• Where are those records now held? 
• Have the records for that time period been made available online? 

You might have noticed I emphasized the word "research". That is because the answers to those questions require us to find other documents such as census and land records, read and understand what has been recorded in those other records, possibly use maps to find the family on the ground to identify nearby churches, reading local histories to figure out what churches were in existence at the time, and contacting existing churches or archives to find out where the records may have ended up. You might even have to research that religion to get some of those answers.

For example, the Methodist Church, Canada, the Congregational Union of Canada, and about 70% of The Presbyterian Church in Canada came together to form The United Church of Canada in 1925. There have been other congregations brought into that union over the subsequent years. That means, for those congregations you might need to contact The United Church of Canada Archives to find the records. But what about the 30% of the Presbyterian Church in Canada that didn't join in that union? Then you might need to contact The Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives. 

What if the family attended the Church of England? You will need to figure out the diocese that church was in and contact the appropriate diocesan archives in the hopes that they will be able to locate a baptism record. 

One thing to keep in mind when it comes to families who followed one of the various Protestant faiths that practiced infant baptism, you might actually find a baptism of a child performed by a clergyman of a different Protestant faith. In my own research I've come across families who stated they were Presbyterian in the censuses yet several of their children were baptized by Wesleyan Methodists circuit ministers. So keep an open mind as to where you might actually find a record of baptism.

If the family was Roman Catholic you might find the parish registers in the digitized material held by the Drouin Institute on their site Généalogie Québec. Ancestry also has many of those same registers in their copies of the Drouin collection in "Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1802-1967", "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", and "Acadia, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1757-1946". Ancestry also has a "Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923" collection that includes Ontario parishes not found in the Drouin collection. Don't forget that FamilySearch also has digitized copies of various Roman Catholic parish registers on their site. 

Even Library and Archives Canada has a number of parish registers either on microfilm or made available in an online digitized format courtesy of their partner CRKN's Héritage in their "Parish and related birth, marriage and death records" collection.

There is also the "Church records collection (F 978)" available at the Archives of Ontario. A list of the churches and associated microfilms in that fond is found on the Archives of Ontario page "Church records collection data table: 1749-1981". Some of those microfilms have been digitized and made available for viewing on FamilySearch. When looking at the microfilm numbers in that table, the ones that start with "MS" or "GS" are from the Archives of Ontario. If the microfilm starts with just a "C" or "M" followed by numbers, those from Library and Archives Canada's collections.

Just a word of caution — I have found that when dealing with any handwritten parish registers, transcriptions or indexes can be a bit iffy. So you quite often have to dive into the weeds and actually browse the images for the parish in the hopes of finding the baptism of your ancestor.

 

Please note that this blog post may be updated periodically as more information comes to light. I do stress that, in my opinion, before embarking on doing the paperwork to claim your Citizenship Certificate you consult with an immigration and citizenship lawyer who is well versed in the Canadian Citizenship Act and the changes the bill made.

I wish you best of luck in your efforts to find those sometimes hard to locate birth and baptism records. And, if it applies, I also wish you luck in your endeavours to establish your lost Canadian citizenship.

 

• [Update 3 Feb 2026: Added paragraph on baptisms by other Protestant clergymen]
• [Update 7 Feb 2026: Added link to "Guide for Paper Applications for a Citizenship Certificate for Adults and Minors (Proof of Citizenship) under Section 3 (CIT 0001)" that may clarify the 1,095 days requirement for parents residing in Canada.
• [Update 10 May 2026: Removed the Section 3 (CIT 0001) paragraph and commentary]
• [Update 12 May 2026: Added link to the Archives of Ontario Church records collection F 978] 

 

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.