OLRI Now Digitized

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

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

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

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

What did we get from this project?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Township/Town/City: Drummond

Lot: NE 1/2 16

Concession: 2

Date ID: 8

Issue Date: 05 Nov 1812

Transaction Type: FG

Type FG: M

Type of Lease/Sale:

Name of Locatee: Alexander Fraser

Archival Reference

RG: 01

Series: CI3

Volume: 123

Page: 69

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Webinar - Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War

I will be speaking at the Lambton County Branch of Ontario Ancestors meeting on Thursday, November 10, 2022 starting at 7 pm ET on "Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War". In this presentation I will be looking at the various online resources that are available to us as we seek to learn more about and honour those men and women who served Canada during the First World War.

Registration to attend via Zoom can be found at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtdOyoqTksGNVrfjOh0Sf8fiu4QJIVB_O_.

I hope to see you there!

Searching the Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files Database

On February 4, 2021, the Ontario Ancestors hosted Serge Paquet from the Archives of Ontario where he gave the presentation "From Petition to Patent: Crown Land Records at the Archives of Ontario". A copy of this webinar can be found archived on the Ontario Ancestors Webinar Recordings page.

One of the record sets he mentioned was that of the Second Heir and Devisee Commission case files. In this collection there are 5184 case files date from 1804 to 1895 and document claims for land. From the About section on the Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files Database page at the Archives of Ontario this is what may possibly be found in the case files:

• Copies of searches conducted by the Surveyor General's and, later, the Crown Lands Department, and sent to the Commission recording: whether a location had been made for the land in question and, if so, the name of the individual to whom the land was located and when the location was made; the justification for the location (e.g., an order-in-council); background information relating to the location; whether the land had been described for a patent; whether settlement requirements had been met. Files also may include copies of location tickets;
• Notices signifying the intent of claimants to pursue a claim before the Commission, as well as affidavits from the local Clerk of the Peace attesting that the notice had been publicly read and proclaimed in the Court of General Quarter Sessions and had been displayed in the office of the clerk;
• Lists of documents compiled and submitted relating to the claim, as well as affidavits submitted by claimants and supporting affidavits from witnesses;
• Copies of relevant indentures assigning interest in the land in question, as well as original wills and copies of wills assigning interest in land to heirs;
• Affidavits from Land Registrars attesting to the fact that the indentures, memorials and wills in question had been registered, as well as incoming correspondence received by the Commission from claimants, trustees, solicitors, and other interested parties;
• Copies of receipts issued by the Crown Lands Department documenting the payment of instalments on sales as well as reports from land agents relating to the claim in question, and maps showing the land claimed.
• Some files include family trees. Documents within the files can contain genealogical information concerning the background of both the original locatee and of the claimant, their occupation, and family connections.

So how do we use this potentially useful resource?

The first step is to search the database. The link to that database is sort of hidden on the page. It is actually the clickable link in the word database in the first paragraph on the Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files Database page. When you click on that link you are brought to the search screen.

Screen capture of the Archives of Ontario Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files Database search page.

 

As an example, I'm going to use the name of David Lee of Bastard Township. Why David Lee? No other reason than this is the person Serge Paquet used in his examples during his webinar.

 

This is the result of that search.

 

Screen capture of the Archives of Ontario Second Heir and Devisee Commission Case Files Database search for David Lee of Bastard township.

Only one entry appeared in this case. If more than one entry was in the database you are presented with a list of names and check boxes to select, and the option to "Show Selected Records"

From the search results screen there are a few details we need to record. The first is the Case File Number. In this example it is 40-0555. The other detail is in the line near the bottom in the "How to view this file" section. We can see that the Family History Centre has also recorded the case files on their microfilm reel 1314011. We will need that microfilm number in the next set of steps.

 

For the next step go to the FamilySearch site and sign in with your free account. 

 

Instead of searching for a location we are going to search for that microfilm number provided in the search page from the Archives of Ontario. To do that:

1. Clink on "Search" in the top menu bar, then select "Catalog"
2. On the FamilySearch Catalog search screen click on the "Film/Fiche Number" link
3. Type in the microfilm number. In this case it is 1314011
4. Then click the Search button

 

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Catalog search screen looking for microfilm 1314011.

By doing the search for the microfilm number we don't have to guess as to which collection holds that microfilm.

 

The search results will show "Land records, 1796-1894; Author:    Ontario. Heir and Devisee Commission (2nd); Upper Canada. Heir and Devisee Commission (1st)"

Clicking on that link will display the list of all the microfilms in that collection. You will need to find that microfilm, in this case 1314011, in the list. Usually I will just press Ctrl-F (or whatever the "find" command keystroke is in your web browser) and type in the microfilm number to have my browser bring me to the correct microfilm on the page.

Once you find the microfilm number in the list you will see that it is associated with "Case files (40-554 to -631) 1822-1823". Since our case number is 40-0555 I would say we have found the correct microfilm.

Since these pages are viewable from home we just need to click on the camera icon found on the same line as microfilm number in order to bring up the digitized microfilm.

This is where Case File Number, 40-0555, which we also wrote down finally comes into play. 

 

It's  now old fashioned using newfangled technology research  since we need to go through the digitized microfilm images to locate the start of Case File Number 40-0555. A few minutes later and we find this:

Screen capture of the file start for Case File Number 40-555 at image 11 from FHL 1,314,011 in the Canada, Ontario - Land records, 1796-1894 collection.

This is the start of the file concerning David Lee of Bastard Township and there are 29 additional pages concerning the issues over the land. A potential treasure trove of information.

When was Josias Inch and Jane Hoskin married? 1763 or 1764?

With relatively easy to use online genealogy databases and images along with the capabilities of computers to search large amounts of data very quickly, today's genealogy research can be very easy at times. Yet, it can also be challenging at the exact same time. This is one of those cases.

At the Ottawa Public Library Local History & Genealogy Drop-In Club that meets every second Tuesday at the Nepean Centrepointe staff of the OPL and members from the Ottawa branch of Ontario Ancestors attempt to help those researching their family tree by providing guidance and suggestions. A while back we had a question about the Inch family that resided in the Port Hope area of Ontario. Since then we've been working with that researcher every few sessions digging through the records and providing suggestions as to where to look next to answer questions about the family. Recently I ran into her at the Ottawa Stake Family History Center where she was working on researching her Inch family that came from Cornwall, England. She had the basic details of the family in Cornwall from other sources but now she was looking for the records to confirm or refute the information that had been provided to her¹.

But on with the research...

For today's research problem we are looking for the date of the marriage for Josias Inch to Jane Hoskin. According to research by others, they were married in St. Breward, Cornwall, England in the mid to late 1700s.

For records in England I often first head over to Findmypast. Findmypast started in England as the 1837online.com site with images of the General Register Office register pages. While they have branched out from just English collections they have continued to enhance their offerings of England and UK records with new collections being added almost every week.

In searching for Josias Inch in Cornwall within the Parish Marriages of the Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers) collection for England we came up with seven matches with four of those matches in the time period we are interested in.

Screen capture of search results for Josias Inch in Parish Marriages on Findmypast.com

This makes it easy since the first three results all seem to agree that the marriage took place in 1763. The last result is actually the same as the first but just presented in a different format.

The Phillimore Marriage Registers, 1531-1931 collection is made up of the marriage registers transcribed and published by William Phillimore Watts Stiff (later he changed his surname to be Phillimore) prior to his death in 1913. Yes, I could save the image provided by Findmypast to my computer but, from the transcription provided by Findmypast, I learned that the transcribed record for the marriage of Josias Inch and Jane Hoskin can be found in the Cornwall Parish Registers Volume 1. A quick hop over to the Internet Archive and a few minutes of searching I was able to find the complete volume there. Even better, I could download that book to my computer!

W. P. W. Phillimore and Thomas Taylor, editors, Cornwall Parish Registers. Marriages  (London, England: Phillimore & Co., 1900), 1: 22; marriage of Josias Inch and Jane Hoskin, 14 Feb 1763.

Well that was easy. We can stop right there and we are done, right?

Not quite.

There is an asterisk '*' beside the entry. At the bottom of that page we see that the asterisk means that the information is from the Bodmin Transcripts. Why didn't Phillimore just use the parish registers. On page 5 of this volume he explains that between 1753 to 1813 the church marriage records are apparently missing and he made use of the extracts made by Rev. Thomas Taylor, M.A., Vicar of St. Breward. These extracts were created from the Archdeacons' Transcripts held in Bodmin, Cornwall, England.

What about the other two transcripts for the marriage of Josias Inch and Jane Hoskin? The transcription from the Cornwall Marriages collection was made by the Cornwall Family History Society but we don't know where they got their information. But it does states the marriage took place on 14 Feb 1763 in the parish of St. Breward. The record from "England, Boyd's Marriage Indexes, 1538-1850" was provided by the Society of Genealogists and only states the marriage took place in 1763 in St. Breward. Again, we don't know the source they extracted this information from.

Can we possibly find the Archdeacons' Transcripts somewhere else?

Often the place I turn to for more records is FamilySearch. A search of their catalogue reveals that they have in their digitized collection the "Bishop's transcripts for St. Breward, 1676-1773" that was microfilmed from records at the District Probate Court in Bodmin, Cornwall. What is nice about this collection is that you can view it from the comfort of your own home.

In looking up the details about these transcripts for Cornwall, it seems that the Archdeacons' and Bishop's transcripts might be the same since Cornwall was an Archdeaconry. A Bishop's or Archdeacons' transcript isn't necessarily accurate since it is a copy of the parish register but in our case, with the missing register entries for the years we want, it is the best we have.

Parish of St. Breward (St. Breward, Cornwall, England), "Transcript of the Register Book of the Parish of Simon Ward alias St Bruer, March 1763 to May 1764," marriage of Josias Inch and Jane Hoskin, 14 Feb; FHL microfilm 90,240, item 7, image 770.

But notice a little problem...

The dates for the marriage entries are from March 1763 to May 1764. However, all those other records we looked at on Findmypast from various collections all state the marriage took place in either February 1763 or just 1763. However, in the calender's I've used, February comes before March. If we look closely at the entries we see the months increase until after the marriage of John Colmer when it goes from November to February for Josias Inch's marriage followed by another marriage in the parish taking place in April that was recorded after Josias'. That would mean that according to this transcription they were married in 1764 NOT 1763!

Could we have uncovered a century long error in the records that ancestors of Josias may have been using? I think so. It is a problem I've seen before in transcriptions of parish records since often they go from Lady Day (March 25) to Lady Day².

From this I believe we can safely state that Josias Inch of the Parish of St. Tuly and Jane Hoskin of the Parish of St. Breward were married on 14 Feb 1764 in the Parish of St. Breward, Cornwall, England.

This becomes yet another reason why we always need to hunt down the records that transcriptions are created from.

---

1. It is something we constantly harp on in the Drop-In Club. Always read the information on the image and if no image is provided look for source of the transcription. We also stress the need to be organized whether using paper or a computer for your record keeping.

2. Lady Day was, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in England and it's colonies in 1752, the start of the new year.

Upcoming Genealogy Presentations in 2019

I have a number of upcoming occasions where I will be giving presentations on the subject of genealogy research methodologies. So if you are in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada area and you have an interest in learning how to better research your family tree please drop by and say hello.

Yours Truly at the Dec 8, 2018 meeting of BIFHSGO. Photographer: Dena Palamedes

Date	Event/Location	Talk	Cost
Apr 6	OGS Ottawa Gene-O-Rama	Genealogical Miracles	$42 for the day
Apr 11	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	Doing Family Tree Research in Your Pajamas	Free
May 11	Voices From the Dust	Top Ten Tips and Tricks for Finding Your Ancestors	Free
May 23	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	Chipping Away at the Brickwall	Free
Jun 1	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	So you want to start researching your family tree?	Free
Sep 27	BIFHSGO Annual Conference	Exploring your past with Findmypast	TBD

You can also usually find me helping out at the Ottawa Public Library - Nepean Centrepointe branch every second Tuesday at their Local History & Genealogy Drop-In Club.

"A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study" video

At the November 22nd, 2014 meeting of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society I gave an update of my talk titled "A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study". In this presentation I spoke about the various resources that are available to family history researchers to learn about those that served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War of 1914-1918.

With the magic of technology along with the recording and creative efforts of John D. Reid a video has been created of the slides and yours truly talking about researching Victor Sornberger and Samuel McKinlay.

So for those that weren't able to attend the meeting in Ottawa  here is the presentation for your viewing enjoyment.

30th Gene-O-Rama in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

From the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society:

The 30th Gene-O-Rama takes place less than a week away on March 21-22 at the Confederation Education Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. If you haven't already registered, there is still time! Registration information can be found here: http://ogsottawa.on.ca/gene-o-rama/

We are really excited for this year's event! We have lined up some great presentations for you. Here are just a few you can look forward to:

• Excited to learn more about the largest collection of genealogical information on the planet at Gene-O-Rama? Even if you have used FamilySearch.org before, Shirley-Ann Pyefinch will tell you about all the newest features! 

• Get ready to identify your genes! Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections blogger John Reid is ready to untangle your 'Genetic Genealogy'.

• Local genealogy guru Glenn Wright and Ancestry.ca's Lesley Anderson will be educating us about the Military settlements in Richmond, Perth and Lanark - and since many Canadians can trace their ancestry to Eastern Ontario, there should be useful information for almost everyone!

• Wherethestorytakesme.ca author Jane MacNamara from Toronto will be telling us about the evolution of women's property rights in Ontario - and the records associated with land ownership contain some of the richest genealogical treasures out there.

• Hoping to learn more about your First World War ancestor? The work being done by volunteers at the Rideau Township Historical Society and the Rideau Branch of the City of Ottawa Archives should showcase sources you can use while learning more about the young men from Rideau Township who gave their lives during that global conflict.

• Hoping to overcome your brickwall at Gene-O-Rama? Ken McKinlay is ready to educate you about various ways to work around them, using real-life examples! 

In addition to speaking at the conference I will also be the host of the Research Room. So if you are attending, please drop by and say hello!

Oct 26th, 2013 Talk - A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study

At the Nepean-Centrepointe branch of the Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) Public Library on Saturday, October 26th, 2013 at 11 a.m. I will be giving a presentation as part of their "Canada in the First World War" program. This day is being held in partnership with the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa and the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogy Society. Along with my talk, archivist and historian Glenn Wright will give an overview on searching for information on your military ancestor, historian and strategic analyst Andrew Godefroy will present the Ottawa Branch's Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture on the contributions of Canada and Ottawa to the Great War, and Robbie Robertson and Bob Anglin from the Canadian War Museum will be there to help identify Great War artifacts. This free event starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. and you don't even have to register in advance, just show up and learn more about Canada in the First World War.

My part of this will be a talk titled "A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study". At the recent BIFHSGO Conference in September one of the visitors to the research room asked me to find out how her cousin Victor Lou Sornberger lost his leg in the Great War of 1914-18. I will be going through the steps I took to get the file, what was found and where I looked next for more details. I will cover the basics of visiting the Library and Archives Canada building in Ottawa to review his service file, locating digital copies of  the war diaries, and finally figuring out roughly where on the battlefield he suffered his wound.

If you are in Ottawa I sincerely hope you will be able to make it out to the "Canada in the First World War" day.