Legislative Acts and Ontario Genealogy

Over the past few years I've been looking at the acts that have been passed by the Government of Canada and also the Legislature of Ontario to help be better understand notations made on records, why some of the documents we use in our research are the way they are, and when the various laws came into effect or changed what we use.

For example, often folks state that the civil registration of birth, marriages, and deaths in Ontario didn't start until 1 Jul 1869. But where did that date come from? It came from "An Act to provide for the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths" found as Cap. XXX (AKA Chapter 30) "Passed in the Session Held in the Thirty-second Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria Being the Second Session of the First Parliament of Ontario".

Clipping of the act title for the Second Session of the First Parliament of Ontario (1868-1869), Chapter 30, "An Act to provide for the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

However, what many folks don't realize is that the civil registration of marriages actually started much earlier than that. Hopefully in a future blog post I will touch upon the requirement to register marriages in Canada West and Upper Canada before this act took effect such as "20 Vic Cap. LXVI - An Act to amend the Laws relating to the solemnization of Matrimony in Upper Canada" from 1857.

Why would we want to look at the acts. They are just boring and filled with "lawyer-talk".

Just a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer or a parliamentarian.

Let's dispel the notion that the acts are filled "lawyer-talk" at the start. 

I've read a number of the acts passed by the Parliament of Canada and Legislature of Ontario, and I've actually found them to be fairly readable.

They can be dry reading but the information contained within can help us understand why something might not be found on a form. Such as "In registering a birth of an illegitimate child, is shall not be lawful for the name of any person to be entered as the father, unless at the joint request of the mother and of the person acknowledging himself to be the father..."

Boring, yes. But readable.

Over time, we might even find the act being updated with additional clarifications that the lawmakers never dreamed of when the act was first passed.

So where can we find these acts?

For Ontario it all depend on the time period.

If we are looking for legislative acts passed prior to Confederation on 1 Jul 1867, then I will turn to
"British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867" hosted by the University of New Brunswick. You can search on key words, filter by the province, and sort on the year the act was passed.

For example, maybe you are interested in reading about "An Act to provide more effectually for taking the Periodical Census of the Province. 30th August, 1851." found in 14 & 15 Victoria, Chapter 49:

Screen capture from the British North American Legislative Database, 1758-1867 showing the page for "An Act to provide more effectually for taking the Periodical Census of the Province. 30th August, 1851", 14 & 15 Victoria, chapter 49.

I can read the transcribed act and even download the images of the original act to my computer. 

For acts passed by the the Legislature of Ontario after Confederation, I will often turn to the Osgoode Hall Law School's Osgoode Digital Commons' Statutes collections. This is where I've found the annually published statutes and revised statutes as passed by the Ontario Legislature.

Screen capture of the Osgoode Digital Commons Ontario: Revised Statutes advanced search for "vital statistics" in the Title.

In the screen capture above, I've done an advanced search for "vital statistics" in the title of the Ontario Revised Statutes. It returned back 8 results. I can then download the specific act or acts to my computer as a PDF for reading for free.

What about the acts passed by Parliament in Ottawa?

Why would I want to look at those acts?

The biggest reason is that until 1930, divorces in Ontario could only be granted by an Act of Parliament. That changed with the passing of 20-21 George V, Chap. 14, "An Act to provide in the province of Ontario for the dissolution and annulment of Marriage", assented to on 30 May 1930.

We can search for these federal Acts of Divorces using the database on the Library and Archives Canada site: "Acts of Divorce, 1841-1968". Keep in mind that this is still hosted under the old LAC site so the URL will be changing sometime in the future. However, all that database will return are the names of the petitioner and spouse, a reference, a year, and a citation. That's good start but we probably want to read the act itself.

Let's take a look at the divorce of Clarice Sheppard from James Henry Smith found in the "Acts of Divorce" database. The reference is the "Statutes of Canada" in 1916 with a citation of 88. I picked this one since it was the first one that appeared when I searched for a spouse with the surname of Smith.

We are fortunate that the "Acts of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada" AKA "Statutes of Canada" have been digitized and made available on the Internet Archive. Filtering on just the year 1916, two volumes are returned: "Acts of the Parliament of Canada (12th Parliament, 6th Session, Chapter 1-29), 1916" and "Acts of the Parliament of Canada (12th Parliament, 6th Session, Chapter 30-94), 1916". Since the citation from the database stated "88", I would look in the volume containing chapters 30 to 94. Very quickly I was able to find "An Act for the relief of Clarice Smith" recorded in 6-7 George V, Chap. 88. Not only do we find when the divorce was granted but also where they were residing (Toronto, Ontario), when and where they were married (25 Oct 1913 in Chicago, Illinois), and the reason for the divorce.

I will also sometime look in the "Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources" hosted by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.

For more modern acts from about 2000 onwards, I will usually head over to CanLII to search their Legislation databases or the Law Society of Ontario "Great Library" and their library guide "On the Web: Where to Find Canadian Legislation" to point me to where I can find the current legislation.

 

As an aside, you might have noticed acts include something like "6-7 George V" or "20 Vic". Instead of writing the year of when the session of the legislature or parliament was held, earlier acts included the year of the reigning monarch. To help me figure out the year I will turn to the "Convert Regnal Years to Calendar Years" page hosted on Barry Sharples' Bosbury History Resource. Looking up the 20th year of Victoria's reign it tells us that the year is 1857.

Often when I have a question about why something was included or changed on a form, or I find a semi-cryptic ink stamp on a record, I've found that reading the legislation can help me understand what I've found. 

Hopefully this will also help you out in your family history research endeavors.

Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Death Registrations [Update]

Back in February 2023 I wrote "Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Death Registrations". Since then, Ancestry has made available the digitized images for deaths registered in Ontario in 1949 and 1950 in their "Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1949" (as I write this post it still states "1949" in the title) collection as a partner of the Archives of Ontario.

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1949," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Apr 2024), Harry Dempsey, died 27 Dec 1948, Registration of Death form; citing Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: Registrations of Deaths; Series: Registrations of Deaths (43-500); Reel: RG 80-8; Certificate Number 043124.

As we can see in the above image of the Ontario Registration of Death, Form 6, for Harry Dempsey, all the information about him and his death is found recorded on a single form. The top half of the form has all the genealogical information we crave such as the name, place of death, residence, possible name of the spouse, names of the parents, the name and address of the informant, and possibly where the person was buried. The bottom half of the form has the "Medical Certificate of Death" including when the person died along with the cause(s) of death.

This changed in 1949 when the single form was split into two forms: Form 15, now titled "Statement of Death" and Form 16, "Medical Certificate of Death".

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1949," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Apr 2024), Catharine Aileen Gibson, died 27 Mar 1950, Statement of Death and Medical Certificate of Death forms; citing Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Deaths, 1950; Series: 80-08-0-2918, Certificate Number 012230. 

Since the name is written on both forms you may come across a difference in the spelling like we see for Catherine above.

In my looking at the various forms I also came across a few tidbits and gotchas:

• On Ancestry, the image of the Medical Certificate of Death seems to come after the Statement of Death image on their virtual filmstrip. So, for 1949 onward, make sure you review and even download both of those forms when you are documenting a death of someone who died in Ontario. 

• For those of the First Nations in Ontario you may come across their registration of death recorded on a different set of forms for 1949. Note that these titles are the titles used on the forms from that time period. Form 33 is "Statement of Death of an Indian" and Form 34 is "Medical Certificate of Death of an Indian". The differences seem to be primarily in the details describing where a person died where it asks the name of the "Indian Agency to Which Deceased Belonged." 

• The counties for the 1950 death registrations are a real mess if you are attempting to browse the collection. For example, if you select Lanark County, you don't find any deaths for 1950. There is a "Lanark, Middlesex, and Ontario" grouping for 1950 but they are a hodgepodge of various counties with the first one being for Peel county. I did a search for "Lanark" as an exact place of death for 1950 and found deaths recorded in county groupings such as "Essex, Peterborough, Simcoe, Wentworth, and York" and "York". Until someone at Ancestry can sort out this mess, browsing by counties is a bit of a mess to say the least!

As an aside, those with a sharp eye might also notice that on both the death registrations I use in my examples we find in the "Cause of Death" section a set of numbers added in. For Harry it is "180-0" and for Catherine it is "776X". Those are the codes from the "International List of Causes of Death" and "International Classification of Diseases" which can be found at http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/. Harry's code is a tricky one since in 1948 a new revision came out, ICD Revision 6. If we use that revision it states he died of "Malignant neoplasm of kidney". That doesn't make sense since it is clearly written on the form "Asphyxia due to fire in which he was burned to death." However, if we look at ILCD, Revision 5 we see that code 180 is "Conflagration". That makes much more sense. So be careful when looking up those codes for those years a new revision came out.

February 30? - Always Find the Source of the Source!

With this being a leap year I thought I'd share one of the more interesting calendar related errors I've come across in my travels. It is for the burial of Michael Stafford, who according to the transcription of the record was buried on 30 Feb 1900.

Screen capture taken 28 Jan 2024 from Ancestry for the "Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923" register page with the entry for Michael Stafford buried 30 Feb 1900 in St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada.

As we all know, we can't trust transcriptions so our first thought is that the transcriber of the register made a mistake and no one caught it.

St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada), Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923, "Baptism, Marriage, Burial, Confirmation; Goderich, St Augustine; 1861-1910," Michael Stafford, buried 30 Feb 1900, Interment p 2; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024).

I thought that too. But when I looked at the column formatted register page, on the second to last line in the register the date is clearly written "1900 Feb 30".

Yet this is a column formatted register and it isn't in the usual format we often see in Roman Catholic church registers.Might there be an entry in the parish register itself?

Fortunately for us, that set of books have been digitized and also made available to us on both Ancestry and FamilySearch.

St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Ontario, Canada), "Baptisms 1895-1917, Deaths 1895-199, Marriages 1895-1911, Confirmations 1895-1927," p 14, burial of Michael Stafford, 3 Feb 1900; DGS 5,107,225, item 3, image 148 of 684.

We can clearly read (at least those who have learned to read cursive) that:

"On the third of February nineteen hundred, I the undersigned parish priest buried in the Catholic cemetery of St. Augustine, the body of Michael Stafford aged sixty seven years."

At least the original entry in the church books makes sense. I just wonder what the poor clerk was thinking when they created the entry in that column formatted register. Their brain might just have been tired from copying the information.

Since his death was in the time when civil registrations of deaths in Ontario should have been filed with the authorities we can check the date of his death.

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1949," database on-line, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jan 2019), entry for Michael Stafford, died 1 Feb 1900; citing Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 97.

And we can see that on line 4 of the death register that it is recorded that he passed away on "Feby 1 1900" with the date of registration on "Feby 2 1900".

So remember, when things just don't seem to add up, start digging deeper!

This is just another lesson of why we always need to try to follow the records back to the original source document. Sometimes, such as in this case, we can make use of the digitized image. Other times we may need to consult a microfilm or original paper document.

Finding on the Ground: Northern Ontario Districts

For most folks researching their kin in the land records of Ontario they are dealing with the records in the counties where we have abstract books organized by township, concession, and lot. That isn't the case for those looking for the land records who settled in the more northern districts of Ontario. So please indulge me as we take a journey to those districts of Ontario and look at their land records.

Recently in one of the genealogy groups I frequent on Facebook the following query was posted:

Looking for some help to decipher the information in column 3 on this 1901 census, schedule 2.  It is for my ancestor William (Guillaume) Gauthier.
From what I can determine, it says " a NBay  b 39 & 40 in 11 con "
I assume NBay is for North Bay and 39 and 40 are lot #’s?  Is there any way to locate this location on a map?

The following image was also included:

Image of the 1901 Census of Canada, Schedule 2, Ontario, District 92 (Nipissing), Sub-district 1, Ferris, p 1 combining the header section of the page with and extract of lines 40 to 50 with line 43 highlighted with a red box; original source of image unknown; image of the full page found on Library and Archives Canada (http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1901/z/z002/jpg/z000085084.jpg : accessed 3 Feb 2024).

The first thing to note is that the enumerator has combined the instructions on how to record the information in column 3. In the "Instructions to Chief Officers, Commissioners, and Enumerators" for the Fourth Census of Canada 1901 we find that the "Place of habitation" should really just be prefixed with a single letter to indicate the sort of description:

• a. Name of Municipality
• b. Range or concession and lot, or cadastral number
• c. Street and house number
• d. Or other description

Here, the enumerator has written both "a" and "b".

So the entry in that column "a NBay b 39 & 40 in 11 con" can be translated as "The name of the Municipality, Township, or Parish is North Bay; lots 39 and 40 in the 11th Concession". But is that "North Bay" a reference to a municipality, township, or parish?

The top of the census actually gives us a few important clues to help us answer that question. There we find that it is Schedule No. 2 for the Province of Ontario, District No. 92 Nipissing, Sub-district Y, Polling sub-division No. 1 in Ferris.

1901 census of Canada, Schedule 1, Ontario, district 92, sub-district y-1, p. 5, top of page; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/1901/z/z002/jpg/z000084890.jpg : accessed 3 Feb 2024); citing microfilm T-6483.

Looking at the top of page 5 for Schedule 1 of that same place we see that it is for the Township of Ferris. Why page 5? That is the page referenced in column 1 of Schedule 2. For the 1871 and 1901 Census of Canada, most of the non-population schedule pages don't have a name recorded but instead the page and line number of where the head of household is found on Schedule 1.

With all that information we can surmise that we are looking for lots 39 and 40 in the 11th concession of Ferris Township.

Using the Make A Topographic Map site from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry we can "Search by Location" and then "Select a Township & Lot/Concession" to plot that location on a map. I cover how to do this in my "Finding on the Ground: An Ontario Concession/Lot on a Map" post. The look and feel of site has changed a little bit (what website doesn't change over time) since I wrote that post in 2021 but the steps are basically the same.

So question two has been answered: "Is there any way to locate this location on a map?"

Yet why stop there? 

What about locating the land record transactions?

In my talks and blog posts I usually focus on the counties on Ontario. It's about time I also talk about the challenges with the districts of Ontario. Just so that we are clear, these aren't the early districts of Upper Canada like Johnston, Midland, Home, etc. but places like Nipissing, Muskoka, and Parry Sound.

For many of the lots in these district, in the Ontario land record books you won't find them referenced in the Township/Concession/Lot format. Instead they are listed under parcel numbers. So how does one take a known township, concession, and lot number and convert it to a parcel number?

For that we need to visit the Ontario Land Property Records Portal, AKA OnLand, and hope that the historical books they have digitized on that site will point the way.

For this case we will be looking in the Historical Books for the Nipissing Land Registry Office (LRO 36). For the more southern counties we could just search the Abstract/Parcel Register Books for the concession and/or lot and get a list of books to browse through.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the OnLand LRO 36 Historical Books search results of the Abstract/Parcel Register Books for Concession 11.

That is not the case here as you can see from the screen capture above.

Instead I will turn to browsing the First Registration Books in the Historical Books for the LRO. These First Registration Books "contain a list of first registrations from registry to land titles (e.g. Crown Patent or Crown plan)." I have found these books useful in translating the concession and lot into a parcel number.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the OnLand LRO 36 Historical Books listing for the First Registration Books.

Since we are looking for Ferris Township I selected Book 2 "TOWNSHIPS; D TO L" since Ferris Township should fall within that range of letters. On the first page of that book it does list "Ferris (East)" and "Ferris (West)" so there is hope.

On image 57 of 236 in that book I found the start of the Township of Ferris (East) for lots 1 to 29. So I just kept moving forward through the images until I came to image 80 of 236 and found the page titled "CON 11" in the corner for the Township of Ferris that had the listing for lots 39 and 40.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 from OnLand from Nipissing LRO(36), Historical Books, First Registration Book, Book 2, Township of Ferris, Concession 11, Lots 25-41, image 80 of 236.

There for Lots 39 and 40 we see written: "All Lot - Pcl. 2408 Nip." We also see that lot 41 references the same entry. That "Pcl" abbreviation stands for "Parcel" and it seems to reference "Nipissing". This differs from other entries on the same page that state "W&F". That little detail will be important in the next step.

But now that we have a parcel number we can search the Abstract/Parcel Register Book for the Nipissing Land Registry Office

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the OnLand LRO 36 Historical Books search results of the Abstract/Parcel Register Books for Parcel 2408.

We find several results returned. One with the Township / Municipality labeled "WIDDIFIELD; FERRIS". That probably would be book we'd want to look in if the reference was "W&F". But we are wanting the "Nip." books so we have a choice, either the NIPISSING "PARCEL 02326 TO 02449" or "LEASEHOLD PARCEL 02401 TO 02600". We don't know from the information available as to whether William Gauthier owned or leased the land but I usually go for the non-leasehold books first.

Screen capture taken 3 Feb 2024 of the OnLand LRO 36 Historical Books of the Abstract/Parcel Register Book for NIPISSING Municipality Parcels 02326 to 02449 for Parcel 2408 found starting on image 152 of 326.

Fairly quickly I found the start of Parcel 2408 on image 152 of 326 from the NIPISSING "PARCEL 02326 TO 02449" book. There I could read that William Gauthier received a Free Grant Patent number 1393 dated 11 Feb 1905. Remember that to get the patent William would have had to have performed settlement duties so he would have been on the land for several years prior. In the first paragraph I could see the description of the land was for Lot Number Thirty-Nine, Broken Lot Number Forty, and Broken Lot Number 41 all in the 11th Concession of the Township of Ferris.

Unlike the Abstract Register Books where we need to consult the instruments to see the details, these Parcel Books have the details in them. For Parcel 2408 there are six pages of information describing how the land was transferred from one person to next...all available for download in a PDF for free.

I will admit that this was a relatively easy example for me to work through. I did make some assumptions that bit me when I was doing my first attempt at locating the property. One assumption was that I should have been looking in the "WIDDIFIELD; FERRIS" book. That was because I forgot to look at the whole page listing the lots for that concession to see what was written elsewhere. That rabbit whole took me about 30 to 45 minutes to get out of.

Just a heads up, some districts and townships may be a bit more of a challenge to research. In one of my presentations I make use of an area in Parry Sound district as an example of researching land in the districts. There I found that some lots were in the Abstract Register books while adjacent lots were recorded in the Parcel Books. 

So just be flexible when it comes to researching land records of properties found in the districts of Ontario.

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.

Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Death Registrations

Along with people asking about finding Ontario birth certificates, which I discuss in my post "Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Birth Registration", folks want to locate the death certificates for their long departed kin.

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 May 2013), entry for Luke McMullen, died 21 Oct 1906; citing Archives of Ontario; Series: MS935; Reel: 126.

Before I begin this guide, I would recommend people read the "Death Registrations" page from the Archives of Ontario along with their "Research Guide 202 - Vital Statistics Records" to gain a basic understanding of what is available and why.

Registration or Certificate?

Keep in mind that usually folks aren't actually looking for the death certificate but a copy of the completed death registration. When my father passed away a few years ago the paperwork that was filled in was titled "Statement of death - Form 15" and also included "Medical Certificate of Death - Form 16" completed my the physician. The "Statement of death" has all the details about someone's death such as when and the place where they died, where they resided, the names of their parents, and the name and address of the informant. The "Medical Certificate of Death" includes all the information about their cause of death. There is also the Ontario Death Certificate but that document usually only has a name, the sex, marital status, date and place of death, age, date of registration, and the registration number. 

As genealogy and family history researchers we generally want the document with as much information as possible. So if requesting a document concerning the death of someone and the records are only available through ServiceOntario via their "How to get a copy of an Ontario death certificate online" page you will want to try to get the "Certified copy of death registration" or even the "Certified copy of death registration with cause of death information". Of course, due to privacy reasons, not everyone can request a certified copy so you may need to have a relative make the application on your behalf.

Years Covered

Death registrations are only publicly available from 1869 to 1951 from the Archives of Ontario. For death registrations registered after 1951, those are still currently held by the Office of the Registrar General of Ontario and can only be requested via Service Ontario. The registrations that are no longer protected by the veil of privacy are transferred from the Office of the Registrar General to the Archives of Ontario on a yearly basis for safekeeping and public access.

Why 1869 and not 1867 when Ontario became a province of the Dominion of Canada? It wasn't until January 23, 1869 when "An Act to provide for the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths" was assented to by the Crown. In that act it states that "This Act shall come into force on the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine..." That is why you generally may not find any early deaths recorded in the civil death registrations. Although there are a few from before the July 1, 1869 date found in the records they were registered several years later after the death. But those very few entries are the exception.

Where are the Records?

Before diving into where the registrations may be found, it is worth noting that the format of the registration forms changed over the years. One may come across the form with six boxes per page, or with spots for only three registrations in a column format. The more recent registration forms only have a single registration of death on the page. 

However, there was also a registration form that is laid out horizontally. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry will generally only show you the left side of this two page register. So make sure you also get the second part of that register page!

Archives of Ontario

The Archives of Ontario is the repository for those registrations transferred from the Office of the Registrar General. If you are living in or visiting Toronto, Ontario then you can drop by the Archives of Ontario and look at the various microfilms in person. This includes the years 1948 to 1951 since they aren't available online yet. However, according to the Archives of Ontario site, the microfilms holding the 1949-1951 registrations aren't available since they are in the process of being digitized. So always check the Death Registrations page from the Archives of Ontario or email them for up to date information before visiting in person.

It is important to note that the Archives of Ontario does not have the death registrations available on their web site.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch has the digitized microfilms of the Ontario death registrations and indexes from 1869 to 1937 in their "Deaths - registration, 1869-1937 and index, 1869-1937" collection. This collection is freely available for use from the comfort of one's abode. FamilySearch also has their dedicated search page "Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947" to aid you in your efforts to find a death registration so that you don't have to manually go through the digitized indexes and registrations.

You might notice that FamilySearch has "Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947" included in that search page. Those are the deaths of Ontarians who died overseas due to the Second World War. The images for those registration are found on FamilySearch in their "Ontario statistics overseas--deaths, 1939-1947" collection. Quite often the completed civil death registration is a bit sparse on the details but it is a great clue that you should probably look up that person's Second World War service file in the Library and Archives Canada "Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947" database.

FamilySearch, in addition to their indexes created by way of their transcriptions of the registrations, also has the images of the government created Vital Statistics Index (VSI) for deaths on their site. In the days before the Internet and the mass indexing projects, the VSI is what folks would consult first on microfilm before looking on the applicable microfilm that held the registration of death form for the person they were seeking.

Ontario Registrar General,  Deaths - registration, 1869-1937 and index, 1869-1937, (Archives of Ontario, Toronto), 1913: extract from page for Carrick, Michael to Carscallen, Oswald Gurney; FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org: 27 Feb 2023), DGS 8105303, image 16.

Yet even now these Vital Statistics Indexes are still useful to us. One reason is that the indexes are alphabetical by surname. One can, with practice, quickly glance through the years for possible names that have been "interestingly" read and transcribed from the original documents.

You might notice that in the "CONT." column in the example above for the VSI there are two codes: 91 and 21. The 91 indicates that it is a death (9) and is the original entry (1) where as the 21 indicates that it is a stillbirth (2) original entry (1).

What about finding online those deaths after 1937? For those we need to turn to Ancestry.

Ancestry

On Ancestry we have their "Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1948" collection which has the death registrations from 1869 up to 1948. That collection includes the deaths related to those Ontarians who died overseas due to the Second World War.

Other sites

Some might wonder where is Findmypast or MyHeritage in the list of genealogy sites to use to find Ontario civil death registrations? I wondered the same as I was writing this post. It seems that both Findmypast and MyHeritage don't have the registrations for Ontario. Findmypast has indexes for British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan though.

One of the other sites I will sometimes use is The Ontario Vital Statistics Project. I like this site for a few reasons. The first is that the records are transcribed by folks not associated with FamilySearch or Ancestry. So they might see the written words differently. Also, the transcriptions are alphabetical in columns and I can quickly glance through a page.

Partial screen capture from The Ontario Vital Statistics Project for Ontario Death Registrations "McL-McY" Surnames page.

Still Can't Find it!

It could be as simple as the death may not have been registered with the civil authorities. For a number of years, even decades, the civil registrations of births, marriage, and deaths in the Province of Ontario fell far short of 100% coverage. In one case I was looking at the mother's death wasn't registered but her young son's death the following year was. According to the law no one should have been buried without a death registration filed but often it slipped through the cracks.

So where else can one look for clues concerning a death if it can't be found in the civil registrations? Some possible sources include:

• Newspapers: I couldn't find a civil death registration for William Henry Chipman who died in Ottawa, Ontario on 10 Apr 1870. However, I did find his death in various newspapers since he was a member of the first parliament of Canada.
  
• Parish registers: It is important to remember that parish registers generally only record the burial of someone. If we are fortunate we will find that the parish priest or clerk will have also recorded the date of death in the register.
  
• Cemetery registers: Much like parish registers, cemetery registers are there to record the date of the burial. But since a person is not supposed to be buried before they are dead it can set an upper limit for the date when a person passed away.
  
• Monumental inscriptions on marker and memorial stones: However, don't necessarily trust the year or exact date found on a marker or memorial stone in a cemetery or graveyard. Sometimes the stone is a replacement and the date may be based on the memory of whomever is paying for the new marker. See my post from 2013 "Zombie in the census?" for an example of this issue. Also, just because a person has a marker in one place doesn't mean that they died in that community or are even buried in that cemetery.
  
• Schedule 2, "Nominal return of the deaths", from the 1871 Census of Canada: This schedule was supposed to record all deaths that took place in the year prior to the start of the 1871 Census of Canada which was 2 Apr 1871. Just like any other record made weeks or months after the event, the date in this schedule may be based on someone's faulty memory.
  
• City Directories: Sometime a clue can be found for the death of the male head of household. The directory entry may switch from his name to that of his wife and she will have "widow of..." after her name.

Even if the death has been registered and one has a copy of the registration, see if you can find other records about the death. I have run into a case where the civil registration of death has the wrong date recorded. Both the grave marker and the newspaper have a date several weeks before the "official" date in the civil registration. Since a newspaper doesn't often report on a death before it has occurred, in this case I actually trust the newspaper more than the government record.

Hopefully some of the guidance in this post will help you find those sometimes elusive civil death registrations in Ontario.