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.

Note those very important words, "in some situations," that is on the page from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. In looking at the "Document Checklist: Application for a Citizenship Certificate (Proof of Citizenship) (CIT 0014)" form I noticed this note in Scenario 3 on the paper form:

On December 15, 2025, the Citizenship Act was amended requiring that applicants who are born outside of Canada to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada must demonstrate that at least one of their Canadian citizen parents has 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada prior to the birth of the applicant. 

I initially had a feeling this is a very important note. But, based on a comment sent to me and reading Appendix F on the "Guide for Paper Applications for a Citizenship Certificate for Adults and Minors (Proof of Citizenship) under Section 3 (CIT 0001)" page, this seems to only apply to folks born after 15 Dec 2025.

However, 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.

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.

 

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. 

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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.