New To Canadian Research

[Ed McKie]

Hi
Have just established that my Fathers Sister and her family migrated to Canada in 1911. I don't know how to find out what happened to them. Just too late for the 1911 census. Have checked the BC on line indexes without success, but now don't know where to proceed. If someone would like to suggest an elimination list, I would be obliged.

Cheers.Ed

[Jfremont]

Did you find them on ships passenger's list? Often the destination is shown. Unfortunately, the provinces have responsibility for BMD records so it is difficult to locate people when you don't know where they landed up.

John

[Ed McKie]

Did you find them on ships passenger's list? Often the destination is shown. Unfortunately, the provinces have responsibility for BMD records so it is difficult to locate people when you don't know where they landed up.

John

John, since my original post, yes I found the whole family arriving, and the father on the 1911 census in Toronto. Is that the end of the story for me ?
It seems from the sites that I have looked at so far, that there are no Canadian equivalents of the GRO indexes to find marriages of the children and deaths of the others. Also the eldest son appears to have returned to the UK as he married there in 1917- to fight in the war perchance ?

Cheers..Ed

[Keewatin]

If your relative was in the Canadian forces in WW1, you can search for his attestation papers here
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/cef/001042-100.01-e.html.

[Ken Boyce]

Hi Ed – I’m far from being knowledgeable about Canadian genealogical resources as I’m the only member of my family in Canada and my Canadian wife’s post 1920 immigrant family has yet to be docutated(!).

I cannot attest to their accuracy but here are a few random thoughts that you may find useful –hopefully now that I’ve put pen to paper someone more knowledgeable will offer comments
Immigration was/is a Federal jurisdiction

The (Federal) Canadian National Archives in Ottawa have an extensive online collection of family history stuff

The main Port of Entry was Quebec City although disembarkation was often downriver at Montreal because of better port facilities. Other p.o.e was via Hudson's Bay Because of icing immigration through Canadian ports was restricted to certain months of the year. Some immigration was indirect via US

Many immigrants were quarantined on an island in the St Lawrence River called Grosse Isle

BMD records were/are a Provincial jurisdiction for the provinces and a Federal jurisdiction for the Northern Territories

I believe the 10yr census were a Provincial jurisdiction many of these are available online

Each Province has its own family history archives as do most of the large cities

The above situations may be different pre and post Canadian Confederation – not all Provinces joined Confederation at the same time

Refs to Upper and Lower Canada are best understood by viewing an atlas.
Prior to Canada obtaining Dominion status the above would most likely have been under the jurisdiction of London

Regards

[Jfremont]

Hello Ed,

I am not close to the Ontario records so unable to help much. But if your people were in Toronto in the early 1900's, you might find the directories on this site of some help http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=toronto%20directory. They are not searchable so rather time consuming ploughing through the pages.

The BMD records are on Ancestry but for Ontario the records are open for births at 100yrs, marriages 85yrs, deaths 75 years or thereabouts. I have a subscription so if you post names I will search.

This site http://www.islandnet.com/~jveinot/cghl/cghl.html has many sites that might help if you haven't already found it.

Regards,

John

[Ed McKie]

Thanks for the suggestions. Have only just managed to get back to this subject. Have found the attestation papers for one of the sons. Would like to obtain the full Army file, but the open-ended cost is rather off-putting.
John, the Ontario Directories are quite fascinating. Have only looked at two so far. fortunately the attestation papers had an address I could look for.so that was OK for 1917 But with the 1921 directory, I opened up the text file and using Ctrl-F was able to search and found them at a different address. Will continue with other directories this later.

Cheers..Ed

[gcoulter2]

Hi Ed:

If you know what city they lived in you can check old telephone directories in the local library. Canada is such a huge place you really ned to be in the local area to do any real research. Best of luck.

Gary

[Ed McKie]

Hi Ed:

If you know what city they lived in you can check old telephone directories in the local library. Canada is such a huge place you really need to be in the local area to do any real research. Best of luck.

Gary


Ah well theres the rub- Canada always sounds too cold for me !! And a bit far from Bundaberg just to nip into the local libray. Since starting this thread, have moved along a bit more, but have come to the conclusion that I will not find much more. Still cant understand why my dad never mentioned that his sister was in Canada- new all about my Mums brother in Canada- but not my aunt. !!

Cheers..Ed

[Cathy Calvert]

We just received the entire WWI file for my husband's Great Uncle. It was 41 pages and cost us $22 total (incl. taxes & postage). Other than the fact it is a record, in our case it didn't contain any thrilling information (in & out as a Private). He was treated 4 times for some foot/toe problem but it is very difficult to read the handwriting and they use lots (and lots) of short forms. The family has always "known" that he was gassed, but a quick look doesn't describe anything like that. We only received the pkg last week and so haven't tried too hard yet to decipher it.

It took archives about 4 weeks to process our order and had to call us back before mailing because they lost the billing info. I had hoped that you could order on CD but you can only order photocopies.

That was our experience, hope it helps you.
Cathy

[Kingetter]

Hi Ed –
The main Port of Entry was Quebec City although disembarkation was often downriver at Montreal because of better port facilities. Other p.o.e was via Hudson's Bay Because of icing immigration through Canadian ports was restricted to certain months of the year. Some immigration was indirect via US



Other (Eastern) Ports of Entry into Canada certainly during the 1800's and for how much longer I cannot be accurate about, include Saint John and Chatham in New Brunswick, Halifax in Nova Scotia. My own gr-gr-grandparents emigrated from Scotland 1840's to Chatham NB.
Some early settlers arrived in 'USA' and moved north.

James.

[bwebster186]

Many families came to Canada in the early 1900's to settle on homesteads. This site help locate those in Saskatchewan:
http://vsgs.health.gov.sk.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx
The University of Regina sent me homestead records that were quite fascinating. Also, the Public Archives of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are very good, and can be searched for free. British Columbia have alot of records on line, but I find them and Ontario a little overwhelming. The are BIG provinces, so that stands to reason.