FamilySearch Full-Text Searching of Ontario Probate and Land Records

Thank you to John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections for the heads up on the addition of Canadian records to the Full-Text Search on FamilySearch in his blog post "***** FamilySearch Experimental Labs Search of Canadian Probate Records"

What is really exciting for genealogy and family history researchers researching their kin in Canada is that FamilySearch has now included two virtual collections: "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" and "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020". If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you know that I have a particular interest in Ontario land records, and that is what the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection includes. So I'm really excited to see this addition to the Full-Text Search on FamilySearch.

So what is this cool FamilySearch tool and where do we find it?

On FamilySearch there is a not too well-known area called FamilySearch Labs containing what FamilySearch calls "experiments". These experiments are features that the teams at FamilySearch are working on but they aren't quite ready to release as part of the main FamilySearch site. 

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs landing page (accessed 29 Aug 2024: https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/).

There is one experiment that quite a few people have been playing with and that is the "Expand your search with Full Text". This has many folks excited since it uses handwriting recognition (HWR) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to create word searchable index of various records. I've used this experiment to discover land records in Vermont that had my 6th great-grandmother's name mentioned in the documents. 

To enable this experiment, click on the "TRY IT" bar under "Expand you search with Full text". That will bring you to the "Find Results with Full-Text Search" landing page where you can give it a go.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs experiment landing page for Full-Text Search" (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

Before diving it to this experiment, please take the time to watch the view that they have linked to on the page. It might just save you some frustration in your searches.

But since I know most of you won't watch the video until later, let's jump in.

In the search box, as a keyword, just type in a name that you are interested in and press search. In my case, I used the surname "Smith" as my starting place since it is a common surname since I wanted to see what collections and provinces were included from Canada in this experiment.

It came back with 12,262,190 results from various countries.

This is where the fun begins. And it is a good sort of fun.

First of all, note the search tips on the right side of the page in the search pane. We can:

• use quotation marks to find an exact word or phrase. Example "Henry Jones"
  
• use the + symbol to include a specific word of phrase. Example: +Judith
• use the - symbol to exclude a specific word or phrase. Example: -John
• use the ? symbol to find different spellings. Example: Jens?n will return Jensen and Jenson
• use the * symbol to find different forms of a root word. Example: Car* will match car, cars, carriage, carpenter, etc.

Next, we want to reduce the number of items returned. This is where the "Filters" come in handy. We can filter on the collection name, year, place, and record type.

I've been finding it easier to first filter by the place.

Since I'm currently interested in the records found in Ontario, Canada, I'll select "Canada" then "Ontario" using the Place filter. I could even narrow it down further to a specific county and then possibly to the township or town. For now, I'll keep it at the Ontario, Canada level. However, the ten provinces of Canada all have results returned so these virtual collections have been made up from many collections on FamilySearch.

Next we can filter the results by collection. If you are searching for probate records such as wills, estate records, letters of administration, etc. then you will want to select the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection. If you are looking for entries found in the land record copy books for Ontario like I am, then you are wanting to select the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection. As an aside, FamilySearch is treating both of these collections has holding "Legal Records" as the record type.

For the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection I have noticed one caveat. They seem to have only applied the handwriting and OCR software against the digitized records that are accessible from anywhere. If the digitized material still has a key above the camera in the catalog listing, it may not have been added into this experiment.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs Full-Text Search query for Luke McMullen in "Canada, Ontario" within the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection. (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

From the screen capture above you, can see that there several items that have been found in the Lanark County probate estate files for my Luke McMullen. I searched for his name within quotes. If I already didn't have his file, now I can get it quickly. For Luke, when I was first looking for his file, I had to manually look through the image since the digitized index for all the years is still only accessing from a FamilySearch Affiliate or Centre.

Fortunately for me, the Ontario land record copy books don't have this sort of access restriction issue.

Looking for "Luke McMullen", I again used quotes for the keyword search, in the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection returned back 13 results.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs Full-Text Search query for "Luke McMullen" in "Canada, Ontario" within the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection. (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

You might come across records where the person was also a witness to the transaction. That's something that won't be mentioned in the land Abstract registers.

When it comes to Ontario land records we will also probably want to then find the Abstract Register of the property mentioned in the returned records to see if there were any other transaction that this experiment missed. To do that, we just need to read those instruments copied into the land record copy books to find the township, concession, and lot. Hopefully you still remember how to read cursive!

Although I have focused on just Ontario in this post, I did a search for Charles Howe in New Brunswick in the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection and it returned back a link to the image of his land petition in New Brunswick. I don't think I have this one in my files!

For the Quebec records, you might come across names in the "Québec, district judiciaire de Québec, tutelles et curatelles, 1639-1930" or "Lower Canada land petitions and related records, 1637-1842" collections on FamilySearch.

Just keep in mind that the handwriting recognition software has the same challenges you have when reading poor quality images or lousy handwriting. It won't be able to index those documents. But the doors it can open up for us will contain rooms full of treasure. 

Have fun in your searches!

But the research has already been done!

Sometimes when I'm talking to people about their family history they will state something along the lines of "That branch has already been researched and there is even a book so why should I do it?" When I first started my family history and genealogy research I used to have the same feelings. The Chipman family has a number of books compiled by various family members, same with the Fraser family of which I'm a descendant. Why should I duplicate all the work done by others?

To answer that question, how about we take a look at an interesting case concerning the family of "Daniel Wilsey Hatfield". Daniel married into the Lannen branch descended from Simon Baxter, in theory my 6th great-grandfather¹, of New Brunswick, Canada.

This is from the book "The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York" by Abraham Hatfield published in 1935 that I found on the Internet Archive.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 99; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

As you can see there is a lot of good information provided. Even better, on the next page the compiler has included the authorities from where he receive the information. Something that is often omitted in these sorts of family genealogies.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 100; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

So everything should be good to go and we can trust what is written, right?

For those that have been reading my blog you will know that one mantra I stress is along the lines of "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if written in stone it might be wrong."

So what can we verify concerning the facts about Daniel as written in his biography? How about we start with his marriage to Mary Ann Lannen?

We are fortunate that a number of the New Brunswick marriage registers are available on FamilySearch in the New Brunswick marriage registers, 1792-1889 collection. This includes the Kings County, v. A, 1812-1844; v. B, 1844-1867 marriage registers. How do I know to look there? One reason was that Ancestry gave me a hint from the New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950 collection but the main reason is that back in 2012 at Library and Archives Canada I came across the entry in the transcriptions of the marriages registers by Ruby M. Cusack in her work "Kings County Marriages: Register A".

Kings, New Brunswick, Marriage Register v. A, 1812-1844, Daniel Hatfield-Mary Ann Lannen; FHL microfilm 845,798, item 1, image 163.

According to the marriage register, which would have been created closer to the time of the event than the biography, they were married in 1828 and not 1829. That means for me that everything in his biography from this book is now suspect and needs to be verified.

I've not been able to confirm the date of his birth but based on the decennial census enumerations between 1851 and 1871 he was born about 1798. I was able to locate abstracts of newspaper articles through the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics database found on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site to confirm the date of his death in 1878. I haven't taken the time to confirm his land ownership but with the New Brunswick, county deed registry books, 1780-1930 collection on FamilySearch it wouldn't take to much effort to track any land transactions for him.

As for Daniel's middle name, the abstracts from the newspaper articles either record it as "W." or "Wesley". In the land deed records in Kings County, New Brunswick he is recorded as "Daniel Hatfield of Norton" without any initials. His youngest son, Heber, middle name is recorded as "Wolsey" in  the 1871 census of Canada and the articles about Heber's death in Chicago. But it could be Wilsey, we just don't know.

What about Daniel's wife, Mary Ann Lannen? What can we learn about her? Using the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics collection we can find the abstract for her death notices in two newspapers and they both match what is in the biography. That's a good start.

However, it seems that she is not the daughter of Simon Lannen and Abigail Baxter but of John Lannen. This can be found in the abstract in the Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835 database on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site. There in the abstract from John Lannen's will is written: "Daughter Mary Ann HATFIELD, wife of Daniel HATFIELD land."

But can we trust Wallace Hale's work? So far I haven't had any issues but since I try to verify everything, through the magic of the interlibrary loan program, back in 2015 I ordered a copy of the microfilm from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick that holds the probate file for John Lannen.

Kings County, New Brunswick, Probate Files, RS 66, John Lannen, 1832, will, p 2; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, F11570. 

Although authorities have been listed for the information, this book doesn't indicate where they got their information. Was it from newspapers or bibles or was it from what they were told as they were growing up? We will probably never know. Just from a bit of digging through the records that are available to us we can see some mistakes in the biography of Daniel Hatfield and Mary Ann Lannen were found.

Can we blindly trust these sorts of compilations of family histories and genealogies? For me, I'd say no. However, they can provide clues for us to follow and confirm through using our own research skills.

So even if there is a book written about your family, take a look at the information held within and take the time and effort to verify and validate the facts recorded. You may just find that you discover something else that no one else has found that could change the family narrative (Widow's Pension Application = One Less Brick Wall).

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1. I say "in theory" because I've not been able to connect, to my personal satisfaction, my 4th great-grandmother, Hannah Baxter, to her probable parents of Elijah and May (nee Smith) Baxter.

A Black Hole No Longer - Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada

One of the many challenges faced by genealogy and family history researchers is accessing records for places that are a distance from you. Even with the Internet, this problem still exists since many of the records are still only available in archives and libraries. This has long been the case for me when researching my ancestors that lived in Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada. For many years I considered that region of New Brunswick a genealogical black hole...people may have gone there but, aside from the decennial census, almost no trace could be found of them except in indexes. That is until recently.

NordNordWest. “File:Map of New Brunswick Highlighting Queens County.png.” Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons, January 29, 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_New_Brunswick_highlighting_Queens_County.png.

In the past year the New Brunswick Genealogical Society has freely made available to all a number of publications on their web site. This includes two extremely useful books pertaining to Queens County. The first is the often referred to but hard to find History of Queens Co., N.B. by E. Stone Wiggins, LL.D. This work is the copy, made in 1993, by George H. Hayward, of the 1876 history of Queens County that was originally published, starting on 7 Oct 1876 and ending in 17 Feb 1877, in the Saint John, New Brunswick newspaper The Watchman. What makes this book so important for those researching families in Queens County is that there are short biographies of many families that resided in that county at that time.

The second book of particular interest to Queens County family history researchers is the Queens County, New Brunswick, Marriage Records, Registers A, B and C, 1812-1887 found on the New Brunswick Marriage Records page. This compilation by Elizabeth S. Sewell & George H. Hayward had been a challenge for researchers to find in their local libraries and archives. It is a challenge no longer.

However, that extract of the marriage records is just that...an extract. Here is a snippet of one of the families that I am particularly interested in, the Jenkins line.

Elizabeth S. Sewell and George H. Hayward, editors, Queens County, New Brunswick, Marriage Records, Registers A, B and C, 1812-1887  (Fredericton, New Brunswick: Elizabeth S. Sewell and George H. Hayward, August 2002),  5.

What if you want to see where this information came from? The preface of the book states that the records were transcribed from Provincial Archives of New Brunswick microfilm reels F15491 and F15492. If you have access to a library that participates in the interlibrary loan program then you might be able to arrange to have those microfilms delivered to a local library for you to view.

However, this is another option and that is to visit a hopefully nearby Family History Center. Due to the massive microfilm digitization project undertaken by FamilySearch you can view and download pages from the digitized version of the Marriage registers A-C, 1812-1888, for Queens County, New Brunswick found on film 851191.

Here is the entry in the digitized microfilm of the marriage register for Maria Jenkins and W F Howe.

Queens, New Brunswick, Marriage registers A-C, 1812-1888, W. F. Howe-Maria Jenkins; FHL microfilm 851,191, image 442.

However, this isn't the original source of the information. A little bit of searching within the FamilySearch Catalog for "Canada, New Brunswick, Queens" results in finding several additional catalogue entries including Marriage certificates, 1812-1887.

Queens, New Brunswick, Marriage certificates, 1812-1887, W F Howe-Maria Jenkins; FHL microfilm 1,508,597, item 1, image 549.

Without being there for the marriage or holding the original piece of paper, this is as close as you are going to get to the register entry for Maria Jenkins and W F Howe (William Franklin Howe).

Of course, those aren't the only records available but due to the ravages of time we do get bitten at times when researching Queens County. For the 1851 census of New Brunswick that took place on 11 Jan 1851 the only sub-district where that census enumeration has survived for Queens County is for Wickham found on microfilms C-996 and M-7482¹. If you had family in the Gagetown area in 1861 you are also out of luck since those records haven't survived².

We are fortunate that land books for Queens County have been preserved on microfilm and digitized for us. They can be found on FamilySearch in the New Brunswick, Queens County, deed registry books, 1786-1919; index, 1786-1993 collection. Much like the marriage registers above, there is no electronic index to bring you to the right page but with a little bit of practice and patience you can learn to find the right documents fairly quickly. Even better, unlike the digitized marriage registers and certificates, you can do the research from the comfort of your home.

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site also has a number of useful resources that covers Queens County that are easily and freely accessible from the comfort of your home. In no particular order:

• Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141): These are the birth, marriage, and death records in the government records that we always hope to find. You will find the images of the actual records. Keep in mind that not all counties started keeping records at the same time and not all records may have survived.
• Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics: This is the database created out the work primarily by Daniel F. Johnson and his extracts from newspapers. Whenever possible, try to view the source of the transcription. Sometimes you will find additional information that wasn't transcribed.
• Index to Marriage Bonds 1810-1932 (RS551A): This is only an index of the marriage bonds. Keep in mind that the bonds do not mean they actually married. To see the microfilmed copy of the original bond you will need to order the applicable microfilm through the interlibrary loan program.
• Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835: This used to be a book that you could either purchase or get at your local library or archive. Now it is available online to search from your home. You will find extracts of the wills of some of the people that lived in Queens County.
• Queens County Genealogical Guide: This has been put together by the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick to let you know what records and microfilms they have in their collections.
• Place Names of New Brunswick - Queens County: If you can't quite read the name of a place that is scrawled in a record then maybe this page will be of great help. Along with a bit of information on the location often there is a cadastral map to view showing lots and owners.
• Index to New Brunswick Land Grants, 1784-1997 (RS686): A searchable index, here you will find details about the size of the grant and the microfilm, volume, and page to view the grant.

For cemeteries there are a few online resources for you to peruse:

• Find A Grave: Cemeteries in Queens County, New Brunswick: If a marker you are interested in hasn't been photographed you can always place a request. Keep in mind that it may take months (or even years) before some kind hearted person takes the photograph for you and places it on the site.
• CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project: This project may also have photographs of markers or point you to resources where you can find transcriptions of the markers in a cemetery
• Queens County GenWeb Cemeteries: This site has sort of survived the great Offlining of Rootsweb. Here you may be able to find images and/or transcriptions for a number of cemeteries. Be forewarned that there are still some issues with the pages with SSL security errors/warning.
• Canadian Forces Base Gagetown Cemeteries: There are 44 cemeteries on the land occupied by CFB Gagetown including some in Queens County. Most of the markers have been photographed. Make sure you read the "Introduction" page to learn more about this project.

Knowing who might have received property and goods after someone dies can help establish family relationships. The digitized microfilms in the Probate record books, 1788-1941 and Probate records, 1785-1885 collections are available for viewing at your local Family History Center. There are no quick and simple searchable indexes to those films but they have digitized the indexes to the volumes to help you find the right book to review.

Don't forget to check the Queens County Heritage site to view their virtual exhibition or, if you are a descendant of Samuel Tilley UE, read the Some Descendant of Samuel Tilley, UE c1740-1814 genealogy.

I hope that this helps you out if you too have ancestors that lived in Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada.

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1. See Districts and Sub-districts: Census of 1851, New Brunswick on the Library and Archives Canada web site to find out what other enumerations didn't survive.
2. See Districts and Sub-district: Census of 1861, New Brunswick.