Upper Canada Land Books

When we are diving into the land records for what later became the province of Ontario we sometimes come clues written on the part of the petition giving the disposition of the request. Such is the case for the petition for land made by Sheldon Ward in 1825.

"Upper Canada Land Petitions, 1763-1865," digital images, Library and Archives Canada Archived - Microform Digitization (https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=29&interval=50&sk=0& : accessed 28 Jan 2024), Sheldon Ward, 1825, Volume 530, Bundle W 14, Petition 91; RG 1 L3, C-2955, image 878.

In this specific case we are interested in the line "Ent^d in Land Book M page 271" towards the top of the page

What is this Land Book they mention and where can we find them?

As stated on the "Upper Canada Land Books" collection page on the Héritage site hosted by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network, the Upper Canada Land Books hold the "...deliberations, decisions and recommendations of the Land Committee of the Executive Council of Upper Canada." As such, we may find additional clues concerning the petition and what was recommended.

Yet with 41 reels of digitized microfilms where do we start?

Fortunately a number of the microfilms actually have shelf list near the beginning of the reel giving the Land Book letter, dates, volumes, and reel numbers. So that you don't have to keep looking for that information here it is in a table for you that you can copy and paste into a document on your own computer.

Reel ID	Record Group	Province	Book	Volumes
C-100	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	selections from Quebec Land Books A and B	18
C-100	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	A, pp 1-232	19
C-101	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	A, pp 233-end	19
C-101	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	B	20
C-101	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	C	21
C-101	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	D	22
C-101	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	E, pp 1-111	23
C-102	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	E, pp 112-end	23
C-102	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	F	24
C-102	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	G	25
C-102	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	H	26
C-102	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	I, pp 1-137	27
C-103	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	I, pp 138-end	27
C-103	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	J	28
C-103	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	K	29
C-103	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	L, pp 1-484	30
C-104	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	L, pp 485-end	30
C-104	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	M	31
C-104	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	N	32
C-104	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	O, pp 1-361	33
C-105	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	O, pp 362-end	33
C-105	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	P	34
C-105	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	Q	35
C-105	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	R, pp 1-428	36
C-106	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	R, pp 429-end	36
C-106	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	S	37
C-106	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	T	38
C-106	RG 1 L1	Upper Canada	U, pp 1-388	39
C-107	RG 1 11	Upper Canada	U, p 389-end	39
C-107	RG 1 L1	Canada	A	40
C-107	RG 1 L1	Canada	B	41
C-107	RG 1 L1	Canada	C, pp 1-350	42
C-108	RG 1 L1	Canada	C, pp 351-end	42
C-108	RG 1 L1	Canada	D	43
C-108	RG 1 L1	Canada	E	44
C-108	RG 1 L1	Canada	F, pp 1-651	45
C-109	RG 1 L1	Canada	F, pp 198-end	45
C-109	RG 1 L1	Canada	G	46
C-109	RG 1 L1	Canada	H, pp 1-651	47
C-110	RG 1 L1	Canada	H, pp 652-end	47
C-110	RG 1 L1	Canada	I	48
H-1976	RG 1 L1			Index: Finding aid MSS1802-1976
H-1977	RG 1 L1			Index: Finding aid MSS1802-1977
H-1978	RG 1 L1			Index: Finding aid MSS1802-1978

In this specific case we are looking for Land Book M and from the table we can see that it is on microfilm C-104 in volume 31

Fairly quickly the entry for Sheldon Ward was found on image 233 on that digitized microfilm.

"Upper Canada Land Books," digital images, Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_205068 : accessed 28 Jan 2024), RG 1 L 1, Land Book M, volume 31, pages 270-271; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-104, image 233.

In this case it doesn't give us much more information. Just that Sheldon Ward was "Praying for a Grant of Two hundred acres of Land as a Settler. Granted One hundred acres".

The "W91" above his name references his petition found in Bundle W, Petition number 91 in the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" collection we've already found on the Library and Archives Canada site.

Other entries in the books may give additional clues such as the entry on page 270 for James Trotter of Trafalgar where it states "...that he has received a Patent for the west half of Lot No. 15 in the 6th Concession of the Township of Trafalgar, that he has a Family of five Children...". His petition could be found in Bundle T, Petition number 54 in the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865" collection on Library and Archives Canada.

Some of the entries can be quite long such as the one for Peter McGill, Esq. His petition can be found in Volume 347A, Bundle M 14, Petition number 285 in the "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865".

"Upper Canada Land Books," digital images, Héritage (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_205068 : accessed 28 Jan 2024), RG 1 L 1, Land Book M, volume 31, pages 268-269; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-104, image 232.

So one never knows what they will find in these land books.

Also, for the digitized books on microfilms C-100 to C-110 we can do a text search.

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 from Héritage of Upper Canada Land Books : C-104 performing a search with the text "sheldon ward" (without quotes) and seeing that the results include imaged 233 and 540.

Here we see that a search for "sheldon ward" (without the quotes) returns two images. We've already seen image 233 above. However, when I look at image 540 I don't see that name on either of the pages. We always need to look and read at all the suggested pages but there may be indexing errors.

Some of the other digitized microfilms in the "Upper Canada Land Books" collection are the index cards we used to find the the wooden cabinets.

Where can we go from here? I would probably look at the Ontario Crown Land RG 1 Warrants and Fiats Collections found on FamilySearch which I touched upon in my post "Ontario Crown Land RG 1 C-I-1, C-I-2, C-I-3 Collections on FamilySearch". One day, hopefully in the not too distant future, I will attempt to explain how I browse through the images in that collection to find the images of the indexes, registers, and warrants and fiats to learn more about the results of land petitions and subsequent grants to settlers in Ontario.

Toronto Trust Cemeteries on FamilySearch - Updated

Back in February 2022 I wrote about "Toronto Trust Cemeteries on FamilySearch" where I discussed using browsing the digitized images to locate records not indexed in that collection of digitized books. However, with the November 2023 changes to the FamilySearch Catalog place names, especially when it comes to places in Ontario, the first part of that post using searching for that collection by place name needs to be updated.

Instead of searching by place name we are going to search using the Author field for the words "Toronto Trust Cemeteries" (without the quotes) like this:

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 of the FamilySearch Catalog search screen searching by Author with the author name of "Toronto Trust Cemeteries" without the quotation marks.

This results in two groups being returned, "Toronto Trust Cemeteries (Ontario)" with 11 entries and "Toronto Trust Cemeteries. Superintendent of Administrative Services (Ontario)" with 1 entry.

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 of the FamilySearch Catalog search results for the Author Name "Toronto Trust Cemeteries" (without quotation marks) with the "Toronto Trust Cemeteries (Ontario)" grouping opened.

When the "Toronto Trust Cemeteries (Ontario)" group is opened you can see all the cemeteries covered by the Toronto Trust Cemeteries. This list includes not just those cemeteries in Toronto but also those affiliated cemeteries in Scarborough, North York, Concord, Oshawa, and Richmond Hill. This is the same list of cemeteries, with the addition of the Toronto Crematorium collection, that we find listed on the Mount Pleasant Group cemeteries search page.

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 of the Mount Pleasant Group cemetery search page at https://www.finditatmpg.com/Default.aspx.

Lesson for today:

With this latest update to the FamilySearch Catalog it is forcing many of us to adjust our thinking when it comes to using place names as the key item to search on when using this catalogue. So if you can't find the collections that you are looking for via a place try using the other fields to search on. I've been finding the Title and the Keywords to be particularly useful to hunt down the misplaced and reassigned collections within the FamilySearch Catalog.

FamilySearch Catalog Update and Ontario Foul Ups

Normally we really don't pay much attention to many of the updates to catalogues and databases on genealogy and family history sites since these updates either often don't affect us or the update provides a benefit to us. This isn't the case for those researching in Ontario when FamilySearch updated their Catalog in November 2023 with their "newest FamilySearch place standards". You can read about what this update is supposed to accomplish in their article "What's New with the FamilySearch Catalog".

So how does this update affect us?

For those researching our kin in Ontario, most won't see a difference. That is unless we are trying to locate the digitized collections for a few counties that somehow got incorrectly filed in the wrong places. Most of these collections haven't been indexed so we need to be able to find and browse the digitized microfilms to find potentially useful documents.

 

This all started with a question from a fellow researcher when they couldn't find the land records for Grenville County. I used to be able to type "Canada, Ontario, Grenville" in the Place search box and it would appear. Now when I do that it returns "British Colonial America, Canada West, Grenville" and there are no associate collections. This was bad.

After much playing around with the search I did find the lost land records collection so at least they weren't completely missing.

Screen capture of FamilySearch Catalog Search screen taken 24 Jan 2024 using the search parameters of Author Name: "grenville county" and Keywords "land ontario" listing three land record collections.

It took me a bit more work to actually find where these missing collections had been squirreled away in the FamilySearch Catalog. It turned out they had been misfiled under Canada, Ontario, Prince Edward, Gardenville!

Screen capture of FamilySearch Catalog Search screen taken 24 Jan 2024 with the Land and property subject open for the place "Canada, Ontario, Prince Edward, Gardenville".

That was very unexpected to say the least since it made no sense in my mind. It had to have been an operator error when the FamilySearch Catalog was being updated. I reached out to the North American Support of FamilySearch via email, and after a bit of back and forth, they realized yes I was correct, it wasn't a transcription issue, and the Catalog was in error. The support folks directed me to contact an internal group within FamilySearch to have it resolved. This internal group also agreed that there is definitely an issue in the FamilySearch Catalog for Grenville County, which is half of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, and they would work on getting it resolved. Unfortunately, they didn't have an estimate as to when it would be fixed.

I thought that this was a one of issue.

I was wrong!

A few days ago at the Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors virtual genealogy drop-in another researcher mentioned they were having problems finding land records in another county in Ontario

Oh no! Not again!

Since I'd gone through this process once I was able to quickly locate the missing land records. Yet I also wondered if there were other misfiled county level records for Ontario.

So I searched using the Subjects "Ontario land property" to get a list and count of the collections found under all places within "Canada, Ontario" and the subject "Land and Property". Note that I didn't search using the Place "Ontario" since that wouldn't have searched the place names under the "Canada, Ontario" category.

Screen capture of FamilySearch Catalog Search screen taken 24 Jan 2024 searching on Subjects: Ontario land property.

What I was looking for were places with three or more collections in the "Land and property" subject that aren't at the county level of the catalogue. Most were just fine but I did find six changes, including the issue with Grenville that got my attention:

Old "Grenville County"

As I've mentioned, the old Grenville County level records are currently mis-shelved under "Canada, Ontario, Prince Edward, Gardenville". I expect that they will ultimately be colocated with the "Canada, Ontario, Leeds and Grenville" place within the FamilySearch Catalog.

Old "Leeds County"

The county level records are now found under "Canada, Ontario, Leeds and Grenville". Ultimately I expect to also find the old Grenville County level records here once FamilySearch fixes their Catalog.

Old "Prescott County"

Much like the old Grenville County level records, this has been misfiled. At this time they can be found under "Canada, Ontario, Leeds and Grenville, Augusta, Prescott". I think that the operator selected the Town of Prescott without realizing that Ontario likes to have towns, townships, and counties called the same but located in different parts of the province. In the future I would expect to find these collections under "Canada, Ontario, Prescott and Russell" since it is one half of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell

Old "Russell County"

Speaking of the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, the county level record that used to be found under Russell County are now found under "Canada, Ontario, Prescott and Russell, Russell". Unfortunately for FamilySearch, the Russell in that place name is the Township of Russell. The applicable collections will hopefully be moved up to "Canada, Ontario, Prescott and Russell" level.

Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

The county level records for the three counties that make up the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry are all under "Canada, Ontario, Stormont Dundas and Glengarry".

Old Victoria County

The county level record collections for Victoria County can still be found by searching for "Canada, Ontario, Victoria" in the FamilySearch Catalog. However, the search will automatically redirect you to the current name of that area which is now located under "Canada, Ontario, Kawartha Lakes". 

 

What was done with the old Victoria County collections and the automatic redirection to Kawartha Lakes is what I personally believe should be done with those older entries that have either been misfiled or relocated under the applicable united county name. But that is just what I would have done.

Hopefully by documenting these issues you won't have the struggle I initially had when trying to find the missing records for Grenville County.

Also, as a side note, it really is important to learn how to use the catalogue search features on the various genealogy sites. Knowing how to manipulate and tweak a search may result in finding unexpected but very useful "hidden" collections.

2024 Speaking Engagements

Hello gentle readers. It has been about six months since I last posted anything here. Since I generally only write about the genealogy challenges I've faced or have helped out others and I haven't really be doing deep dives into the records, I haven't had much to write about. However, I'm trying hard to get back into my family history and genealogy research so look for some articles over the next few weeks.

I haven't ignored genealogy though. Instead I've been working on writing new presentations and they do take time and energy to write. 

I do have a number of speaking engagements coming up in 2024 that are accessible from home via Zoom. All times listed are Eastern Time unless otherwise indicated.

2023-2024 - British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO)

British Isles Back to Basics Series - This is a new series where I look at the various online resources and collections that can help us when looking for our kin in the British Isles. I've already covered the following subjects and, if you are a member of BIFHSGO, you can watch the video recordings and download the handouts from the Members' Area of their site. For the upcoming presentations with BIFHSGO you can get the Zoom registration links from their Events page.

• 9 Sep 2023: England and Wales
• 14 Oct 2023: Ireland
• 18 Nov 2023: Military Service
• 13 Jan 2024: Scotland
• 10 Feb 2024: Census Records
• 9 Mar 2024: Civil Birth, Marriage, and Death Registrations
• 13 Apr 2024: Church Records
• 11 May 2024: Immigration and Emigration

7 Feb 2024 7:30 p.m.: Huron Branch, Ontario Ancestors

OnLand From a Genealogist's Perspective - Once we know where our ancestors lived the next step in our research journey is to see if we can find the land records such as deeds and even wills. In this presentation we will be taking a look at the Ontario Land Property Records Portal, AKA OnLand, to help us locate the documents concerning the properties where our ancestors lived. We look at the various historical books, try to find a property in an urban area, and even walk through placing an order for an instrument.

16 Mar 2024 10 a.m.: Kingston Branch, Ontario Ancestors

Beginner's Irish Genealogy Research - As anyone who has had the opportunity to research their ancestors who came from Ireland can well attest to, it can be a challenge. It isn’t just the missing records that can make it difficult, but also the partition of the island into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In this presentation we go back to the basics. We look at a bit of the history that has created some of these challenges, some of the key sites that hold the records, and a few tips to possibly help us over our Irish genealogy brick walls.

16 Mar 2024 1 p.m.: Quinte Branch, Ontario Ancestors

FamilySearch's Ontario Land Records - FamilySearch has a number of collections concerning Ontario land records. However, these collections are not name indexed for easy use by genealogists. In this session we learn how to use and navigate through the various FamilySearch collections such as Abstract Indexes, Land Record copy books, and Township Papers.

8 Apr 2024 7 p.m.: Oxford County Branch, Ontario Ancestors

OnLand From a Genealogist's Perspective - Once we know where our ancestors lived the next step in our research journey is to see if we can find the land records such as deeds and even wills. In this presentation we will be taking a look at the Ontario Land Property Records Portal, AKA OnLand, to help us locate the documents concerning the properties where our ancestors lived. We look at the various historical books, try to find a property in an urban area, and even walk through placing an order for an instrument.

15 Apr 2024 7 p.m.: Sudbury Branch, Ontario Ancestors

Doing Family Tree Research in Your Pajamas - The focus of this presentation is to look at various online resources that can be used to find information on your family's history. We start the talk by touching upon how one might organize the material (paper or electronic) and mention the various software we might want to use. Then we dive into online resources and key types of records we may want to look at when we starting our research.

14-16 Jun 2024: Ontario Ancestors Conference 2024

14 Jun 2024: A Deep Dive into the 1931 Census of Canada workshop - By the time of this conference, it will be just over a year since the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 was released to the public. In this hands-on workshop we will be taking a deep dive into this census to understand what was asked and how to find those enumerated on the different sites. We will learn and apply various tips, tricks, and techniques to hopefully locate some of our hard-to-find kin and possibly make some interesting discoveries as we go.

15 Jun 2024: A Beginner’s Guide to Searching Online Ontario Land Records - Until relatively recently, looking for the land records in Ontario was a challenge since they weren’t readily available online. That has changed over the past few years. In this talk we will be learning about the various online resources available to help us to find where our ancestors lived in Ontario and where we might be able to find the government records concerning the land upon which they lived.

18 Jun 2024 7 p.m.: Nipissing Branch, Ontario Ancestors

Exploring Ontario Civil BMD Records - Sooner or later those researching their relatives in Ontario will be looking for the birth, marriage, and death registrations of their kin. In this presentation we will be looking at what can be found, the changes over the years to the various forms, “gotchas” we may encounter, and research tips to find the records for those elusive ancestors.

5 Sep 2024 7 p.m.: Ontario Ancestors 2024 Webinar Series

A Genealogy Toolbox for Researching Ancestors in Ontario - We are fortunate that there are many online resources available to those researching their ancestors who settled in Ontario. But for those starting off their Ontario family history research it can sometimes be overwhelming and we might miss some key records by not knowing what is available. In this talk we take a look at some of Ken’s favourite sites and resources that he uses when researching the various branches of his tree that came to Ontario. We will look at some well-known genealogy focused sites and also some lesser known resources that can help you in your research journey.

11 Nov 2024 7 p.m.: Bruce County Genealogical Society

Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War - Taking you through the process of researching an ancestor that served in the First World War on behalf of Canada. Real life case studies are used to highlight the various resources available to you when researching a Canadian who served in the First World War.

 18 Nov 2024 7 p.m.: Sudbury Branch, Ontario Ancestors

Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served - This talk covers not only the records to help us learn more about those who died in the service to Canada during the Second World War but also looks at other records that can help us in researching those who survived that terrible conflict.

9 Dec 2024 7 p.m.  CST: Southeast and Winnipeg Branch, Manitoba Genealogical Society

Exploring Library and Archives Canada Online - Over the past few years the website for Library and Archives Canada has undergone a number of changes. For some long-time users of the old site, this has caused moments of frustration. In this talk we take a look at the new site, touch upon using the new census search system, and explore other resources they have made available to us.

 

The list of all my talks that I can present to an organization are available on my "About Me" page.

I hope to see some of you online over the next year.

[Updated 15 Apr 2024]