Researching 20th Century Ancestors with the 1940 National Registration File

Tracking Canadian ancestors after the 1921 National Census can be frustrating at times. Those with Western Canada ancestors recently had the 1926 Census released to the public. Canadian law says that a Census will only be released after 92 years. The 1931 National census won't be eligible for release until 2024. If past experience is any indication, it will be a longer wait than that before the general public will get to see it. 

Provincial privacy laws dictate when birth, marriage, and death records get released. There are some mid 20th century marriage and death records available, depending on the province. However, as far I know, no provinces allow any births past 1919 or so. Because you can't depend on BMDs and Census records, you have to look outside the box to find your ancestor. 

One of these sources is the 1940 National Registration File. This excellent resource was created under the National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940 and the War Measures Act. They are held by Statistics Canada. Between 1940 and 1946, every person over the age of 16 was required to register. The only exception were people:

• serving in the military
• who were a member of a religious order
• confined to an institution

The purpose of the files were to establish a pool of people who could contribute to the war effort. The obvious reason was to identify potential people for conscription into the military. But, they also wanted to know who had training in agriculture, nursing, or other special skills that might be used to contribute to the war effort here at home as well. Once completed, people were given registration cards to carry for proof they had registered. 

So what information can you get? There were two different forms for men and women. Library and Archives Canada has sample images of them on their blog. I've found a link to a PDF of instructions for registrars/ You can find it here. On both forms, the following information was asked:

1. Full Name
2. Address at time of registration and date of registration
3. Age last birthday and birth date
4. Marital Status- Single/Married/Divorced/Widowed
5. Dependents- Sole support of Mother/Father/ Number of children under 16 years/ Number of other dependents? Do you partially support anyone?
6. Country and place of birth - Yourself? Mother? Father?
7. Are you a British subject and by what means? If not born in Canada, provide details of Immigration and/or Naturalization
8. Racial Origin
9. Languages known- English? French? Other (state details)
10. Education-level of education
11. General health- good/fair/bad. Any disabilities and details.
12. Disability pension- War pension? Workman's Compensation? Old Age or Blind?Other (provide details)
13. Employment information (the questions and detail wanted were slightly different for men nd women)
14. Agricultural experience and details- Brought up on a farm? Worked on a farm? How long? Drive a tractor? Use farm equipment? Handle horses? Milk a cow? Other farm work?
15. Men- past military experience, and if rejected for military service in the present war. Women- whether you could contribute to the war effort at home, and in what way

Because of the nature of the collection, these records do not fall under the 92 year rule that our Census records do. They instead fall under the Privacy Act. If a person has been deceased for more than 20 years, then the information contained in the file is no longer considered personal and therefore private information. The rules are simple. If your ancestor:

• Was born less than 110 years ago- proof that death occurred at least 20 years ago must be submitted with your request. A death certificate is the preferred proof, but they will also accept an obituary.
• Born 110 or more years ago - no proof of death is necessary

Take note that if your ancestor died between 1940 and 1946, then their file may have been destroyed. 

 

This is not a free resource. But it is reasonable for the information you get. Each successful search is $45. According to Statistics Canada the following conditions apply:

• Canadian clients add either 5% GST and applicable PST or HST.
• All sales are final.
• Orders under $250 must be prepaid.
• Clients outside Canada pay in Canadian dollars drawn on a Canadian bank or pay in equivalent US dollars, converted at the prevailing daily exchange rate, drawn on a US bank.
• Shipping charges: no shipping charges for delivery in Canada. For shipments to the United States, please add $6 per issue or item ordered. For shipments to other countries, please add $10 per issue or item ordered. 

The best way to have a successful search is to provide as much information as you can. The records are arranged by electoral district, so having at least an approximate address is essential. You can try to find this by City Directories (see my blog post on how to find them). Voter's Lists on Ancestry are another option (I wrote about them previously here). You might also want to check Tax Roll records in Municipal archives.

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/93C0006

If your ancestor was born over 110 years ago, you can use the online form . If it was less than 110 years ago, then you can mail your request and supporting documents to:

Statistics Canada

Census Microfilm and Pension Search Sub-Unit

B1E-34, Jean Talon Building

170 Tunney's Pasture Driveway

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0T6

You might also be able to email your request to statcan.censuspensionsearch-recherchesurpensionrec.statcan@canada.ca.

My maternal line is quite well documented. It's my paternal lines that I'm having trouble with, especially my great grandfathers. I've never been able to positively confirm birth or parental information on either one. I had suspicions both were in World War I. However, with such common names and very little birth information, finding their service files is an act of frustration. I was really hoping to get new avenues of research with their forms. So I requested searches of each of my paternal great grandparents. They were all born in the late 1800's, so I was able to use the online form and gave Stats Can the following information:

• James Henry "Harry" Douglas - lived at 600 Roselawn Avenue, Village of Forest Hill, York South, Ontario (according to 1940 Canada Voter's List). Born @1888 in either Ontario or in England

• Mary Douglas (nee McArthur) - lived at 600 Roselawn Avenue, Village of Forest Hill, York South, Ontario (according to 1940 Canada Voter's List). Born @1883 Scotland.

• John Wellington "Jack" McDonald - lived at 17 Reed Street (1935 death cert. for child), and at 34 McMurrich in 1942/1943 (City of Toronto Directory and tax rolls). Born @1894 in either Ontario or NY state. His occupations have been listed as labourer, factory worker, driver

• Edna McDonald (nee Johnson/Jordan, previous married names -Boutilier and Fredericks)- lived at 17 Reed Street (1935 death cert. for child), and at 34 McMurrich in 1942/1943 (City of Toronto Directory and tax rolls). Born @1894 in Nova Scotia.

I gave approximate years of birth as opposed to specific dates to leave wiggle room if needed. I submitted the online form on Dec 31. I received a reply Jan 2 confirming receipt of my requests. Each great grandparent was given their own reference number, and I was told that I would receive an answer within 60 days. To my surprise I received an email earlier than expected on Feb 6. They let me know that all four of my searches were successful. In the email they gave me a final total, and then payment options. I chose to phone in with credit card information. It took me a few tries but I was able to get through on Feb 7. I was told that my documents would come by courier, and I received them exactly 1 week later on Feb 14. My package included for each great grandparent:

• a typed transcription of the form
• a typed extract from the form showing Name/ Address/ Date of Birth/ Age/ Place of Birth/ Date of Registration
• a photocopy of the microfilmed original registration. A nice bonus because now I have a copy of each of their signatures.

John McDonald and Edna Johnson

My great grandmother Edna Johnson's line goes back to the settlers of Lunenburg, and I've documented it quite well. I didn't obtain any earth shattering information, but I wasn't really expecting to. I might have been more upset that her microfilm image wasn't very clear if I didn't have her so well documented already. Thankfully, the other three I requested were clear as a bell. I did however, find that she was skilled in sewing, and could milk a cow. 

Great grandfather John McDonald stated his birth was in Kingston, Ontario. He stated he lived on a farm until 13 years old and had skills in handling horses and driving a tractor. His mother was born in Dublin, Ireland, and his father in Belfast, Ireland. This matches information from his marriage to Edna. This brings up some interesting puzzles though, as through DNA I strongly think my great grandfather was adopted. I'm beginning to suspect he didn't know he was adopted. But the best information I got was military service. He stated that he served from Aug 7 1914 to May 19 1919 as part of the 14th Montreal Battalion. He also stated he was rejected for military service in WWII due to being unfit due to being deaf in his left ear.

Headstone of James Douglas and Mary McArthur

My other paternal great grandfather James Douglas stated he was born in Woodstock, Ontario and his parents in Southern England. I've always wondered why he was buried in Woodstock, having lived in Toronto and Windsor between 1921 and his death in 1966. He had stated on the 1921 census he was born in Ontario, but 2 of his children were born in Scotland. I suspected it was military service that landed him in Scotland but I could not find a Canadian WWI service record for him. His military service stated on the 1940 registration has potentially given me an answer. He stated that he served with the English Imperial Army as part of the Army Service Corps from 1915 to 1917. I've been looking in the wrong record set the whole time. No wonder I didn't find him.

My great grandmother Mary McArthur gave me a critical nugget of information on her form. She stated that her father was born in Argyleshire, Scotland. I have been trying to narrow down which of two Dougal McArthurs was her father. One was born in Argyleshire, and one wasn't. Now I know which Dougal to trace farther back. I also found that she stated she had been trained as a registered nurse. 

This is just a sampling of what information I found out. For each of my great grandparents I also found out employment details both current and past, and other little interesting tidbits to file away for future research. I know that shilling out extra money on a record set can make you think twice. Especially one where you are not sure of what information you'll get. But take it from me. For about $50 a person, it was definitely money well spent on my part.  

52 Ancestors: Week 41 - Finding Context with BC Newspapers

The prompt for Week 41 of 52 Ancestors is "context". Sometimes its not enough to know the specific events of your ancestor's life. You also have to look at why they did what they did. My future great great grandchildren will probably wonder how I ended up in my new home province. Now, as a good family historian, I will be leaving them the reasons why. Unfortunately our ancestors weren't so accommodating. It's up to us to make educated guesses, and look into records that us some context about what their world was like.

A great way to find out about the social history of our ancestors is through newspapers. If you have British Columbia ancestors, you'll want to bookmark the University of British Columbia's BC Historical Newspapers website.

https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers

One of the UBC's Open Collections, the site has had over 10 million image views and over 240,000 downloads. It has 51,093 digitized copies of 168 different newspapers that cover most of the province. I was happy to see some Northern BC historical papers in the collection, as the north of the province is often ignored here. The majority of the newspapers cover the south of the province.

I have a half great uncle, Robert Simpson Douglas. Born 1905 in Scotland as Robert Simpson Herd, he was a son of the first marriage of my great grandmother Mary Black McArthur. He emigrated to Canada as a British Home Child and ended up reuniting with his mother in Canada. He took the last name Douglas from my great grandfather James Henry Douglas, who seems to have unofficially adopted him and his brother, another British Home Child. A mining engineer, Robert ended up migrating from Ontario to British Columbia. He passed away in Vancouver in 1975. I decided to look into the newspapers available to see if I could find mention of him, his wife Matilda "Tilly" Patton, or his son George Robert Douglas. there are several ways you can search.


General Search
I used the general search first. The trick with the general search is to use quotations. Just typing in Robert Douglas will give me results showing all papers with both Robert and/or Douglas. By using "Robert Douglas" I can narrow down the results considerably. Robert moved from Ontario to BC sometime between 1937 and 1953. His son George was born in Kirkland Lake Ontario in 1937, and I first found Robert in BC Voter's Lists in 1953. I then filtered the results further by newest to oldest. You can do this by using the filter just to top right of the results:

https://open.library.ubc.ca/search?q=%2522robert%2520douglas%2522&p=0&sort=0&view=0&circle=n&dBegin=&dEnd=&c=6&collection=bcnewspapers

Now in the results, you don't want to click on the title of the paper. That will take you to the first page of that particular issue. What you want to do is click on the Show Details button. This will give you more information and the page that the result appears on.

https://open.library.ubc.ca/search?q=%2522robert%2520douglas%2522&p=0&sort=6&view=0&circle=n&dBegin=&dEnd=&c=7&collection=bcnewspapers

Then click on the page number. This will then take you to the page the result is on. You can zoom in and out, and you can also download the image to your computer.



Search by Newspaper

https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers

As you can see from the map above, there is an interactive map on the website to help you narrow down which newspapers they have from your ancestor's area. You can either click on the newspaper name, or click on one of the location pins. A window will pop up with the name of the paper. Then click on the explore button to go to that paper's search page.

I chose The Mining Review out of Sandon BC. I did not expect to find information of my great uncle because of the publication dates. However, it might give me some insight in the history of mining in the province. Once I went to The Mining Review page, you have two options. You can use a search term in the box at the top of the page:

https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xminingrev

Or, you can scroll down and browse by individual issues. Just click on a year, then one of the highlighted boxes for an individual issue:

I used search first. I used the term engineer. The search results page works exactly the same as I described above when using the General Search. What I found in the "Mines and Mining" column on October 27 1900 was a tidbit about mining engineer Alex Sharpe. He was in the area looking over operations on behalf of the Burns-Wilson syndicate. But what I found farther down the page was really interesting:

"...The Noonday mine at Silverton, another property that paid the large wage for the short day during the lockout, and whose manager used to say could do it with profit, is in serious financial difficulties; and it is a question if the ownership is not changed all around before all is over..."

Now for me, the mention of a lockout is interesting. If I had a mining ancestor in that area and time period, I would want to research that lockout. To be honest, I want to anyway.


All in all this is a great site. It is very user friendly. As well, the images are very clear and crisp. I looked through several papers, and I did not find a bad image once. Underneath the images are the metadata information. You should have no problem doing source citations from the information given.

52 Ancestors: Week 29 - Finding 20th Century Ancestors

https://www.picxclicx.com/free-stock-photos-library-book-shelves-1/

I'm a little behind on my 52 Ancestors prompts. I took a bit of a vacation going back to Ontario to visit family. Of course I also took the opportunity to some research on my Ontario lines. As a result I've fallen behind, so I'll be doing some catching up over the next few weeks.

The week 29 prompt for 52 Ancestors is "Challenge". The biggest challenge for Canadian researchers is trying to research 20th century ancestors. Because of privacy constrictions, post 1921 research can be challenging. The 1921 National Census is the most recent census available, and we won't see the 1931 until at least 2023. If you have ancestors in the Prairie provinces, then you can access the 1926 Census done for that part of Canada. The valuable BMD records are scarce. No province that I know of offers access post 1921 for births. Some marriage and death certificates are available after 1921, but it depends on the province you are searching in. So how do you find those living in the 20th century?

City Directories
These are an often overlooked and useful resource. Through City Directories, I was able to find the names of my great grandparents. The only information I had to go by was the name of my paternal grandmother Madelynn Douglas, and two of her siblings, Marshall and Irene. By looking at Toronto city directories I was able to find them with their parents, James Henry Douglas and Mary Douglas. It gave me a jumping off point to take them back to the 1921 Census, and then back to Glasgow, Scotland. I wrote a blog post about City Directories when I first found them, which you can read here. The post gives links to find directories across the country.


Voter's Lists
Another great way to find those 20th century ancestors. With Voter's Lists, you can find eligible adults of legal voting age. If you have an Ancestry subscription, you're in luck because they have the federal voting lists from 1935- 1980. I used the Voter's Lists to take my Douglas great grandparents back to 1935. Using them and the help of a Douglas cousin who saw my post on city directories, I was able to find them in the 1921 Census. As a follow up to the City Directories post, I wrote a post on Voter's Lists, which you can access here.


Tax Assessment Records
While I was in Toronto, I stopped by the City of Toronto Archives. My great grandfather James Douglas ran the incinerator on Roselawn Avenue until he retired in the 1950's. I was hoping to find a picture, as the house my great grandparents lived in was very close to it. While looking at their record sets, I saw they had tax assessment records in their collection. Before I ran out of research time, I was able to find my Douglas great grandparents in the records for 1925, 1926, 1927, and 1928. At the time they were living on Spadina Road.

You are probably not going to be able to access these kinds of records online. It will require doing things "old school". Cities will more than likely have dedicated archives. If your ancestor lived in a more rural community, then look to see if there are County or Township archives. Also look at the Provincial and Territorial Archives, especially for areas of Canada that have smaller populations. If you can't visit in person, then try emailing or calling the Archive in question. My experience with the staff at the City of Toronto Archives was a very pleasant one. They were very helpful. Keep in mind though that the services at these types of Archives will most likely not be free if you're researching from a distance. However, in my experience I have found most Archives to be reasonable with their fee structure.


The 1940 National Registration File
Between 1940 and 1946, every person over the age of 16 had to be registered as part of the National Resources Mobilization Act and the War Measures Act. The only exclusions to the compulsory registration were members of the armed forces, members of the clergy, and those institutionalized. Because of the circumstances and nature of the registration it is not held to the same privacy laws that Census records are held to. The rules for access are:

• The person must be deceased for at least 20 years
• Proof death is required, unless the birth date of the person is more than 110 years ago. A death certificate is preferable, but a published obituary is also accepted.

There is a $45 fee for any successful search. Taxes are extra. To find out what information is included in the questionnaire, you can look at Library and Archives Canada's blog post. To order a search from Statistics Canada, click here.

Newspapers

I could write a whole blog post about newspaper research. Most people forget to look beyond the Birth, Marriage and Death announcements in them. There's so much more to be found. As an example, I have found over the years in my research activities:

• An article describing the increase of house sales in the past 6 months. Among the buyers listed was my mother-in-law's grandfather. It also stated the purchase price of the house he bought.
• A friend's great great uncle was a prolific bootlegger. His activities and subsequent arrest made the news.
• I received a picture of an unknown couple. By finding an ad for the photographer, I was able to narrow down the location and time period of the picture, and figure out which family line these people belonged to
• A personal ad of a husband looking for his wife, who appears to have left him
• A person that I had lost track of showed up in a local gossip column. They had moved from the area, and the column noted that they had come back for a visit to their parents.

A future post will delve more into newspaper sources. Here's a few starting points to looking for newspapers:

• Public Libraries. Most libraries offer online access to larger newspapers through their websites, if you have a library card. Smaller papers can sometimes be found on microfilm.
• Local Genealogical and Historical Societies
• Provincial Archives
• Canadiana
• Google Newspaper Archive
• Library and Archives Canada
• Kenneth Mark's The Ancestor Hunt

This is just a sampling of 20th century records that can be found in fill in the gap. If you have other suggestions, feel free to comment below.

Finding Ancestors with the Federal Voter's Lists

Source: Ancestry.ca

Last post when I was talking about City Directories, I had mentioned about looking at the Federal Voter's Lists for my grandmother's family.

What are the voter's lists? These were directories of all persons eligible to vote, put together by Office of the Electoral Officer for Canada. They were broken down by province or territory, then further broken down alphabetically by electoral district.The federal voter's lists came into being in 1935. Before that municipal voter's lists were used in federal elections.

More rural areas tended to be broken down alphabetically by surname, with their postal address listed after their name. Urban areas were broken down by street address. Every person of voting age was listed at each particular address. Along with their name and address was their occupation. This can come in handy when you are looking at ancestors that tended to reuse the same first names over and over. Ages are not listed on these lists. Knowing that your "John Smith" was a carpenter will come in handy when when trying to figure out which of the 3 John Smiths that lived in that area is the John Smith you're looking for.

Federal Voter's Lists were not compiled on a regular basis. These were only done for election years. There can be a gap as little as 1 year, or as large as 5 years between lists. Publicly available are the following years:

• 1935
• 1940
• 1945
• 1949
• 1953
• 1957
• 1958
• 1962
• 1963
• 1965
• 1968
• 1972
• 1974
• 1979
• 1980

If you are looking for female ancestors, keep in mind that most married women were listed as "Mrs. John Smith" in early directories. For instance, my grandmother Marie Anne Mallais was listed as Mrs. Henry Govereau from 1935 until the 1960's. As a sign of the times, in early directories a woman's marital status is listed, sometimes instead of an occupation. She was listed as either "spinster", "married woman" or "widow". Depending on the district, this went on for a lot of years.

As with any record, use variations on your ancestor's name. My French great grandfather Patrice Mallais is listed as Patrick Malley in the 1935 voter's list. As I had mentioned in my post on City Directories, also check under middle names and even nicknames. My great grandfather John Wellington McDonald was Jack McDonald in 1935, John McDonald in 1945, Jack Wellington McDonald in 1949, and back to John McDonald in 1958.

Here's where to find Federal Voter's Lists:

• Library and Archives Canada has a great overview on the Federal Voter's Lists and how to determine your ancestor's electoral district. They have the lists available on microfilm. By clicking on each year, you will get a chart that lists Province, electoral district, the page numbers for that district and the microfilm number. As well, they also have microfilms for the federal By-election years 1937-1983. See their guide on inter libray loan if you are not able to access onsite.

• Ancestry has the Federal Voter's Lists from 1935 to 1980, but not the By-election lists. 1935-1974 have been indexed, and the years 1979 and 1980 are browse only. Keep in mind that the indexed years were done by OCR software, not by a human indexing team, This means that there WILL be errors in spelling, as well as gaps on who has been indexed. In my own research, I've found a wife's name appearing on indexes, but not the husband's. I've also found whole segments of a page not showing up at all, so be prepared to have to use the browse function even for the indexed years.

• Check your local and/or provincial archives. Since the Federal elections depended on municipal voting lists before 1935, many of these are in the custody of that province. Doing a quick search, I found voter's lists available at The Rooms in Newfoundland, BaNQ in Quebec, the Archives of Ontario, the Archives of Manitoba, and the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Check with them for years and areas available, and how to access the records.

One last tip. Keep in mind that the requirements to vote have changed through the years. If your ancestor does not show up at all, it could be because they did not meet the eligibility requirements for that particular year. In the historical background section on Ancestry of their Federal Voter's Lists collection, they said:

 "By 1935, the year of the earliest voting records in this database, the franchise had been extended to both men and women age 21 and over for federal elections in Canada. The last property qualifications were done away with in 1948, and exclusions for Inuit and Indians living on reserves were eliminated in 1950 and 1960. In 1970, the voting age was lowered to 18 and the franchise reserved for Canadian citizens, though some British subjects retained their right to vote until 1975."

For a more complete history of the vote in Canada take a look at Election Canada's website and at the Canadian Encyclopedia's page "Right to Vote in Canada".

Getting Lost in City Directories

This post is a little later in the week than normal. That's because I finally broke a major brick wall in my family history research by using city directories.

I took a day trip to the Archives of Ontario on April 19th with members of the Kawartha Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. My purpose was to look at the Toronto City Directories on microfilm to track my great grandparents John W McDonald and Edna Johnson. On a whim I decided to try and look for my grandmother Madelynn Douglas' family. I never met my grandmother, and the only information I had on her was that she had a brother Marshall and a sister Irene. I did not know her parents' names, or even a date of birth. Well, by looking at the directory for 1948 I found her! I took note of the address (600 Roselawn Avenue) and then looked through the rest of the Douglas names in the directory. I found the following people also at that address:

Jas H Douglas
Lawrence J Douglas
Marshall Douglas

By looking at other years I was also able to find an Irene Douglas living at this address as well. Using the information I gleaned from the directories, I've managed to find and track the family through the voter's lists on Ancestry back to 1935. I've determined that James H Douglas and his wife Mary are my great grandparents. Lawrence and Irene are of voting age in the early 1940's, which means they are over 21 (the voting age at the time). This means that they were born before 1921. I managed to find a Douglas family in Toronto in the 1921 census that has a Lawrence and Irene listed as children. They are at a different address than 600 Roselawn. Thanks to inter library loan between the AO and my local library, I've been bringing in a few years of city directories microfilms at a time to track the family back from 1935 to 1921, to try and determine if the 1921 family belongs to me.

If you haven't looked at city directories, then you are missing out. I can't believe I didn't think to go this route before for my Douglas family. They contain a wealth of information on an individual:

• occupation
• place of employment
• home address
• whether they owned or rented their home
• others living with them
• In the Toronto directories I looked at for the WWII years, those in active service had "act ser" next to their names. This gives you another avenue of research for your ancestor. 

The directories are usually broken up into 3 sections. There will be a business directory, a surname directory, and the last is a street directory. The street directory is helpful for you to see who your ancestor's neighbours are, and how the neighbourhood looked. Was there a church close by? Perhaps they worshiped there. Who's their next door neighbour? Perhaps that person was a witness to a marriage or baptism.

In the beginning of the directory are all kinds on information about the area. You can see names and addresses of churches, commuity groups, and government institutions. If your ancestor held public office, then they'll be listed in the front pages. You can lose yourself looking at ads for area businesses. There's also usually statistical data about the area. For instance, in the 1926 Toronto directory:

• The population of Toronto proper was 650, 055. The surrounding suburbs' population was 95,181. 
• In 1925 The Toronto Hydro Electric system served 143, 648 customers
• There were 333 churches
• There were 167 schools
• 60% of the population were home owners

I've compiled a list of places to look for city directories:

General Sites

• Internet Archive has many city directories in their database. These are free to view and free to download. You can download either the whole directory, or just a page by right clicking on the image of the page, and saving as a picture. In the search box, use the key words "City directories" and the name of the area you are looking for to see if it has been uploaded to the site.
• Ancestry has a database called Canada, City and Area Directories, 1819-1906. They cover various cities across Canada. 
• Check the local library of the area you are researching. Many libraries have collections of directories, either originals or on microfilm. If you live in a bigger city, check to see if your local library has other cities on microfilm. For instance, the Toronto Public Library system has directories for British Columbia and Quebec as well. 
• Our Roots have digital images of city directories among their many local histories. Use their search function to see what's available. 
• Library and Archives Canada has directories from different parts across the country. They come in print, microfilm , and digital forms.
• FamilySearch has many directories available on microfilm. Check out the wiki for what they have and microfilm numbers.

Newfoundland and Labrador

• Newfoundland's Grand Banks Genealogy Site has transcriptions of directories covering various years between 1864-1936.
• Memorial University of Newfoundland has some early 20th century directories digitized online.
• City of St. John's Archives has city directories covering 1885-2000. Contact them to check on what years are available and how to access.

Prince Edward Island

• The Island Register has a great chart listing various directories and where to find them. Some have been transcribed on their site.
• The University of Prince Edward Island's Robertson Library has some city directories in their holdings. They can only be viewed onsite.

Nova Scotia

• Nova Scotia Archives has the 1907-1908 directory online. Onsite, they have both print and microfilm of various years. Contact the Archives for availability.
• City of Halifax Archives has directories in their holdings for both Halifax and Dartmouth.

New Brunswick

• The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has a searchable index of the Hutchinson's 1865/1866 and 1867-1868 Directory, and the Lovell Directory 1871. They are also on microfilm.
• The New Brunswick GenWeb has transciptions of the Eastern Division of the 1912 Telephone Directory.

Quebec

• BAnQ has city directories for both Quebec City and Montreal. They cove various years from 1822-2010, and are available online.
• Don's List has various Montreal directories online. You should also take a look at the Ottawa directories they have. The Ottawa directories also include Hull.

Ontario

• The Archives of Ontario has not only Toronto directories on microfilm. They have city and county directories from all over the province, going back to the 1800's. As I mentioned above, they do inter library loan if you aren't able to look at them onsite.
• Queen's University has some directories in their holdings. Contact them for rules of access.

Manitoba

• Peel's Prairie Provinces has the Henderson's Directories for various areas. These have been uploaded and are available to view online.
• Past Forward has Winnipeg directories digitized from 1880-1965.
• The Manitoba Genealogical Society has an extensive collection of Henderson Directories in their resource library.

Saskatchewan

• Peel's Prairie Provinces  has directories for Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, and Regina.
• The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan has some directories in their holdings. contact them for availability and access.
• City of Saskatoon Archives  have directories in their holdings. Contact them for availability and access.

Alberta

• Peel's Prairie Provinces has directories available online for different areas of the province.
• Provincial Archives of Alberta has directories onsite for various areas of Alberta.
• Alberta Family Histories Society has directories available on site.

British Columbia

• British Columbia Genealogical Society has an extensive collection of directories at their Walter Draycott Library in Surrey.
• viHistory has a database of the Nanaimo and Victoria directories for 1882, 1892, and 1902.
• Vernon and District Family History Society has PDF transcriptions for the Vernon City Directories of 1889, 1898, 1909, 1910, 1919, 1921, and 1924.

The Territories

• Anchorage Borough, Alaska GenWeb has some early 20th century directories available to view online for the Yukon.
• Peel's Prairie Provinces' Manitoba directories also include the Northwest Territories.

A few final reminders when researching city directories:

• Always read the front few pages to see who's been included. For instance, in the 1926 Toronto directory, these people weren't included:

1. Maids, domestic servants, and employed young girls under the age of 18
2. Married women and female relatives over 18 that are unemployed
3. Young girls living at home and not employed
4. Students in all levels of schooling, including colleges and universities
5. Office and messenger boys, and boys working in factories under 18 years of age
6. Children under school age
7. Inmates of hospitals, asylums, convents, orphan's homes, and institutions
8. "Foreigners" from China, Russia, Balkans, and Central Europe. 
9. Transients living in hotels, boarding houses, and rooming houses

• Also check for the index to abbreviations. Checking this can save you a lot of grief trying to figure out what that occupation is supposed to be, or what an asterisk beside their name means.
• Due to printing deadlines, the information may not be the most current. If your ancestor moved to the area in 1921, then they may not show up until 1922.
• A lot of directories have an "Addendum". This is an alphabetical list of people and businesses that were added too late to be inserted into the regular directory. 
• As with census records, check variations for your ancestor's name. In my recent research, Madelynn Douglas was listed as "Madeline". Also check under middle names. Through researching voter's lists later, I realized that though Madelynn's brother was listed as "Marshall Douglas" in city directories, in voter's lists he is "George M Douglas". Even her father switched between "James H" and "Henry J"in the directories.

Well, back down the rabbit hole for me. I have more searching to do in directories.....