New Brunswick Ancestors: The New Brunswick Irish Portal

When one thinks of the people who settled New Brunswick, there are three main groups that come to mind: The Acadians, The Loyalists, and the New England Planters. But there's a good chance that within your New Brunswick ancestors are another group that tend to be forgotten about: The Irish. Even my own maternal tree, which is 98 percent Acadian, has the odd Irish name in there.

https://archives.gnb.ca/Irish/databases_en.html

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) created a web portal dedicated to the Irish immigrant experience in the province. They have several different categories of records you can look at, most of them containing digitized original records.

Saint John Almshouse Records

This section provides images of admission registers from two collections

• Saint John City Almshouse fonds , Admittance Registers 1843-1897
• Graeme Somerville collection, Saint John Alms House Records, 1843 - 1884

The digitized microfilms can be browsed page by page, or you can search. There is also a name index that can be accessed. Before you start, make sure you look at the pdf About the Records. 

Brennan Funeral Home Records

This section contains transcriptions of the confirmed Irish in Brenan's records. If ireland was not mentioned in the entry, they are not included. However, they will be in the main database on the PANB's website. There is a 50 year restriction on access to the records. Right now, you can access records from 1901-1971. Records for 1972 will be available after Jan 1 2022. You can search the indexes by

• Surname of deceased
• Surname of spouse
• Surname of mother
• Surname of father
• Occupation
• Cause of death

Even though these are not original images, the indexes do contain a lot of information. Here's an example for a Mr. John Robinson, who passed away in 1937

Fitzwilliam Estate Emigration Books 1847-1856

This section is a database of 295 names of people that emigrated from the Fitzwilliam Estate in County Wicklow. When you click on the database, it automatically sorts by surname. Howver, by clicking on one the headings, you can resort the names however you wish. I clicked on reference number, as this would sort by family groups. In reference 1, I got this family group

As you can see, Pat and Rose Waddock are now included with the Balance family. You now have a possible maiden name for John Balance's wife Anty, as well as her mother and brother's name. We also have their Townland and Civil Parish in Ireland. Anyone who has tried to research in Ireland knows these are very important pieces of information.

RS555 Provincial Secretary: Immigration Administration Records

This interesting section gives insight into immigration through new Brunswick's ports as a whole. Click on the finding aid, and then scroll to the table of contents to access individual documents of interest. These are digitized images. Though the majority is correspondence, there are some other gems. Here's a page from the 35 page set of documents called  List of Patients at Emigrants Hospital in Saint John; 1847-1849 (includes name of patient, age, county of birth, date of death or discharge, name of ship, point of sailing, when arrived)

Immigrant Letters

I think this might be my favourite section. In here are digitized letters from and to immigrants here and their family and friends all over the world. Along with the images are transcriptions. They are indexed by subject, place, and by the fonds these letters come from. You can also do a full text search. here is a snippet of a letter from John Jackson of Monaghan, Ireland to Lawrence Hughes of Saint John, New Brunswick

  "...Sir I received your letter of the 12th of December which gives us a great comfort to hear that you and

your wife and children are all in Good Health. Thank God we are all in the same. Tho this country is somuch afflicted with Disorders, thank God we all got free yet if God was pleased to visit the Old Man and

Michael Armstrong with sickness we had the pleasure of our neighbors about us. Michael Armstrong

died by alcoholic in 2 days illness. A sore leg with age was the Old Man’s complaint. You may let Rosey

know that her sister Catron husband is dead. That is Patt [Conoley]. Indeed she will not be very sorry for

that. Nor neather are we for her and her 4 children is far better wanting him but you may guess my

situation with the Old Woman and Margaret and her 3 children, Catron and her 4 children all depending

on me for to give them [seporte] you may guess yourself how I am ins there is no one I feel for so much

as the Olde Woman for at the Old Man’s death the(y) prompt him up to leave but very little in her

power. She is the one iye think of moste and will do all I can for her...."

Newspapers

This section runs a close second for being my favourite. It gives a great insight into the attitudes of the day regarding the big influx of immigrants in the province. You can search by subject, or by newspaper. You can also do a full text search. Along with the digital images are transcriptions of the articles. Here's an article about the 1847 quarantine of the passengers of the Eliza Liddell in Shippegan, where many generations of my maternal line lived, and still live.

Passenger Lists

This section is the bread and butter part of research into your immigrant ancestor. Even with over 10,000 entries, it is still only a fraction of the immigration numbers into the province. Look at this table they've included of the immigration numbers as a whole

You can search by vessel or by name. Each result give you an extract of the passenger, as well as the image of the passenger list they appeared on. I found ships that sailed from England among the list, as well as Ireland.

Teachers Petition Database

There's a good chance there's a teacher among your Irish immigrants. This section has images of the petitions, licenses, and/or certificates of these teachers. There are 509 records in the index. It comes up alphabetically by surname, but you can also sort the index in various ways by clicking on the headers. Here's part of the 1840 petition for Mr. Daniel O'Keefe. He taught in Caraquet, Gloucester.

Irish Immigrants in the New Brunswick Census of 1851 and 1861

This last section has extracted those of Irish birth from the 1851 and 1861 Census. If you search by name, you will get extracted information from both Census. If you click on other indexes, you also have the ability to search either Census by

• County
• Religion
• Where from
• Year Landed

Now keep in mind this information is only as good as what is available. It has been a source of frustration for me for over a decade that the 1851 Census for Gloucester County no longer survives. Anything pre 1861 for me has to rely on parish records.

As a final note, don't forget to look at the brief historical overviews in some of the sections. They give you a good basic understanding of the overall history. They are a good read by themselves, so I've included the individual links here:

• Social Welfare in New Brunswick, 1784-1900 - St John Almshouse Records
  

• The Surplus People - Fitzwilliam Estate Emigration Records 1947-1856
  

• New Brunswick as a Home for Immigrants - RS555 Provincial Secretary: Immigration Administration Records 

• The Impact of the Irish on New Brunswick Schools - Teachers Petition Database
  

• The Irish of New Brunswick at Mid Century: The 1851 Census -  Irish Immigrants in the New Brunswick Census of 1851 and 1861

British Columbia Ancestors: Naturalization Records on Family Search

Naturalization records can be a valuable brick wall buster. These records often tell country of origin and immigration details that may not be found in other records. The naturalization process applied to immigrants that did not come from the UK. Our UK ancestors were automatically considered Canadian citizens. Some of the details found in naturalization records can be:

• Residence
• Place of origin
• Date of arrival in Canada
• Residence
• Years residing in Canada
• Occupation
• Residence
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Date of immigration
• Name of ship

If your ancestor applied for Naturalization in British Columbia between 1859 and 1926, then you'll want to check out Family Search's browse only collection British Columbia Naturalization Records, 1859-1926. This collection of over 23,000 images focuses on naturalization records from Victoria and Cranbrook. The records contain any or all of the following forms:

• Application
• Oath of Allegiance
• Oath of Residence
• Naturalization Certificate

https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2001101

To narrow your browsing, first you'll want to pick either Victoria or Cranbrook. 

Cranbrook

The records in this collection consists of 9 boxes covering from 1905 to 1923. This section also includes a handy index. You'll want to first go to the index to find your ancestor. These are not listed alphabetically. They are arranged by box and file number. The boxes are arranged by immigration year. Also take note of the Folio number to the right of the applicant's name. This will come in handy when you're looking for the file.

Once you find your ancestor, just go to the box and file number to get the file. I decided to take a look at Fetsuya Yamaguchi, who applied for Naturalization in 1907. His records are in Box 1 File 9, and he is Folio 39/1907. I then went to the subset Naturalization records Box 1 to Box 6, 1905-1919 and bounced forward through the images. At the bottom of each image is a tag showing the Folio number. I found the start of Fetsuya's documents in image 120

Subsequent documents let me know that there was a transcription error on the index. Looking at the handwritten word February alerted me to the fact that his name was actually Tetsuya Yamaguchi. He came to Canada from Yokamaha Japan about 3 years earlier. He was a merchant in Japan, and a labourer in Cranbrook. The documents relating to him included his application, his oaths of allegiance, and his Naturalization Certificate.

Victoria

Unfortunately there is no index for this section. Covering 1859 to 1917, and then also 1926. It is divided into 6 subsections

• Naturalization records Box 1, file 1, no 1 to Box 10, file 9, no 843, 1859-1896
• Naturalization records Box 10, file 9, no 844 to Box 18, file 9, no 1585, 1896-1899
• Naturalization records Box 18, file 9, no 1586 to Box 26, file 6, no 2288, 1899-1902
• Naturalization records Box 26, file 6, no 2289 to Box 32, file none, no 2938, 1902-1906
• Naturalization records Box 33, file 1, no 2939 to Box 38, file 10, no 3523, 1906-1909
• Naturalization records Box 39, file 1, no 3524 to Box 44, file 11, 4119, 1909-1917, 1926

Since BC did not join Confederation until 1871, the records pre 1871 look different. Before joining Confederation, the Naturalization process was handled by the Colonial Governors. As such, you are going to see more handwritten entries, as opposed to the forms in later years. The earliest years are oaths of allegiance only. Here's one from 1859 for William Henry MacNeil 

In the years after joining Confederation, you will see the paperwork getting more standardized. First it was still all handwritten, as with Peter Bordot in 1871

Later as the years go on, the forms become very standardized.

As with anything with Family Search, you have the option to zoom in and out on the digital images. As well, you can print or download to your computer. If you want to find out a little more about the collection, you can read Family Search's wiki page on the collection.

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 48 - Deportation Records at the LAC

The prompt for Week 48 of 52 ancestors if "thief". Not all of our ancestors were upstanding citizens. Genealogists and Family Historians tend to be thrilled finding these ancestors, because they make for interesting stories for others. Let's face it, our relatives who haven't been bit by the genealogy bug tend to get all glassy eyed when we talk about our passion. If we have an interesting ancestor though, they have more interest in what we're saying. This post I decided to look at records relating to the deportation records. Do you have an ancestor who came to Canada, but mysteriously vanished from records? Or maybe they somehow ended back in their country of birth and you can't figure out why. You might want to look at the deportation records through Library and Archives Canada then.

Library and Archives Canada has a great overview on what you can find on their web page Thematic Guide - Deportation from Canada, 1893-1977. What I'm going to focus on is the files belonging to the record group Records of the Immigration Branch (RG76). This group of records is by no means complete, as not all records have survived. They have three groupings of records:

• Files that relate to an individual deportee
• Files that include lists of names or correspondence about particular deportees
• Files that do not contain names of deportees

Before you get started, you'll want to open a new window on your computer and have Heritage open and ready to go. The microfilms have been digitized, but you can't view them on LAC's website. You can only view them on Heritage. What you're going to do is note the microfilm details and then put that microfilm number into Heritage's search box. 

Files on Individual Deportees

Click on the heading. This will reveal a list of names that do not appear to be in any particular order. Once you find a name that interests you, take note of the file information. I scrolled through and found this rather interesting entry

As you can see, this is for an entire family. So, we want to look at microfilm C-10430, file 774753. Next we'll go to Heritage and enter C-10430 in the search box.

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/?usrlang=en

In the results, the top result is the microfilm we want. Now we're going to click on that and find the file we need. Because there is not search capability, we're going to jump back and forth through the images until we find the file. This can be done by jumping head on images by using the image tab on the left

And then looking at the bottom of the digitized document for the file number. 

So I found the first page of the file. It is quite a few pages. Apparently it started with a letter from a local citizen complaining about the recent immigrants from England. 

Long story short, the Department of Immigration investigated, and decided to deport the family in 1908. John, his wife Eliza and five children were sent by train to Montreal, then to Maine. Once there they were boarded on a ship to Liverpool. They were deemed undesirable because "...Mortimer is a drunkard, abusive to his wife and family and the neighbours speak against him...". The file also includes

• Names and ages of each family member
• John's occupation and some work history
• Ship name and dates of immigration
• How they arrived in Chatham
• Ship name and date of departure back to England
• Residence of John Mortimer's mother in England
• Their trip to Canada was paid for by the Central (Unemployed) Body in England
• A letter from Eliza Mortimer's father inquiring as to why the family was deported, and the response from the Department of Immigration

A sad end to this file is a letter written by John's wife Eliza in 1923. Apparently John deserted the family and boarded ship under an assumed name back to Canada. She is writing in hopes the Immigration Department can find him. One of their children has died, and another has been hospitalized. The letter gives her address in London. The Department wrote back asking for information, but that's where the file ends.

Lists and Correspondence of Individual Deportees

You open the entries the same as for the group above. In this group I found this entry

When I switched over to Heritage, I looked at microfilm C-10634, and looked for file 805792. This huge file involves the following Scottish men"

• Ross Fraser
• Horatio Dunlop
• Donald Tough
• David Moffat
• William McBride
• David Anderson
• Robert Hill
• James Quinn
• Peter Tierney
• Charles Miller
• Donald/W McLean
• John Ferguson
• James Hughes
• James Hutchison

As the below states, these men were brought over from Glasgow as strike breakers, and then let go once the strike was over

This was the rail company's response

As with the previous section, you can find a ton of little details about the men. Within the first 25 or so pages I found:

• Immigration details
• Work history and pay
• Family and friends names back in Scotland, some with addresses
• Current address

There was also deportation details on some additional men in the same file:

• Alfred Black
• John Skinner
• Malcolm McLean
• Joseph Healey
• William Robertson
• John Phillips
• Patrick Rawdon

Files Not Containing Individual Names of Deportees

This section deals with documents generated within the Government and their agencies themselves. The only names mentioned are those employed within the Government, rail companies, and steam ship companies. It also includes some governmental policies and procedures. When I looked through the entries, I found this

Now when I looked at this file, part 7 has letters from various agencies asking for the Alien registration of 1917/18. Its the section two after that that is interesting

In this section is correspondence with various immigration agencies, providing samples of the Enemy Alien Registration Exeat form. These were used when the person wished to leave Canada. However, in this section are also completed forms. Here's one that even includes a picture

Now, for any of these sections, you can save the documents to your computer by right clicking on the image, and choosing save image. This will be better than just a screen shot, because as you can see above, it also includes the source information at the bottom.

52 Ancestors: Week 42 - Finding Early Immigration Records at the LAC

Week 42's prompt is "adventure". I can think of no bigger adventure for someone than starting a new life in another country. So for this post I decided to look at one of the immigration databases on Library and Archives Canada's website, Immigrants Before 1865. There was no regulated system of recording immigration to Canada before 1865, and today there is only a hodge podge of surviving records. The LAC has put what they have together into one database on their website.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/introduction.aspx

By clicking on List of Records it will expand out showing a chart. The records making up the database are:

1. List of the persons transported from Rotterdam to Nova Scotia on the ANN 1750
2. Lists of emigrants transported from Rotterdam to Nova Scotia on the SPEEDWELL, GALE, MURDOCK and PEARL 1751
3. List of Swiss embarked in Rotterdam for Nova Scotia aboard the GALE 1751
4. Lists of persons leaving various ports in the United Kingdom bound for various ports in North America 1774-1775
5. List of Loyalists bound for Halifax on board the CLINTON 1784
6. German settlers from New York in Markham Township, Upper Canada 1793-1808
7. Declarations of aliens in Lower Canada (mostly from the United States) 1794-1811
8. Emigrants leaving Fort William, Scotland, for Pictou, Nova Scotia, on board the ships SARAH and DOVE 1801
9. List of passengers forwarded from Lachine to Selkirk’s Baldoon Settlement in Kent County, Ontario 1804
10. List of the crew and passengers on board the ship CLARENDON of Hull, England, bound for Charlottetown 1808
11. Documents concerning mostly the Red River Settlement and the conflict with the Hudson’s Bay Company, with some records relating to the Baldoon and Grand River Settlements and Prince Edward Island 1811-1823
12. List of settlers in the Island of Cape Breton 1813
13. List of settlers enrolled for Canada, sailing aboard the ATLAS, DOROTHY, BALTIC MERCHANT and ELIZA 1815
14. Settlers arrived at Quebec from England aboard the ATLAS, DOROTHY and BALTIC MERCHANT 1815
15. List of inhabitants of the Island of Guernsey who wish to emigrate to British North America 1816
16. Lists of persons who emigrated from the British Isles to Canada 1817-1831, 1849
17. Immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland proceeding to Canada via New York, whose passes were signed by the British Consul 1817-1819
18. Petition of John Banfield requesting land in Simcoe County, Ontario, for intended immigrants from the Scilly Islands 1819
19. Lists of persons leaving Scotland bound for Upper Canada on board the GEORGE CANNING, DAVID, EARL OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE and COMMERCE 1821
20. State of Swiss settlers in the Red River 1822
21. ecords relating to Peter Robinson settlers in Eastern Ontario. Lists of Irish passengers on board the ALBION, AMITY, BRUNSWICK, ELIZABETH, FORTITUDE, JOHN BARRY, REGULUS, RESOLUTION, STAR and STAKESBY 1823-1844
22. Archibald McNab Papers: Correspondence and lists of settlers in McNab Township, Renfrew County, Ontario 1825-1842
23. Lists of passengers aboard ships BRITANNIA, WARRIOR, LIVELY, HARMONY and DANIEL O’CONNELL bound for Quebec after clearing customs 1832, 1840, 1842
24. Lists of immigrants from Londonderry County, Ireland, that were contained in the original Ordnance Survey records. From various parishes to ports in Canada and the United States. 1833-1836
25. Lists of emigrants on board the KINGSTON from Liverpool to settle in Hull Township, Lower Canada 1834
26. Returns of destitute at Prescott, Ontario 1835
27. Lists of emigrants from Kettlestone and Heacham parishes, Norfolk County, England 1836
28. List of immigrants with capital who arrived at Kingston, Ontario 1840
29. Lists of settlers in the records of James Allison, emigrant agent at Montreal 1842, 1847
30. Naturalization certificates 1846-1849
31. Lists of emigrant orphans in Montreal and Quebec City 1847
32. Agricultural questionnaires answered in 1853 by some immigrants in Canada West (Ontario) who had arrived between 1791 and 1848. Only 41 questionnaires survived. 1853
33. Most of the documents are accounts submitted by teamsters and boat captains who provided inland transportation by wagon or boat to indigent immigrants. The person providing the transportation would submit the account to the government emigrant agent for reimbursement. There are also a few vouchers and receipts for other services provided, such as the delivery of provisions or the burial of deceased indigent immigrants. 1843-1854

The first thing you are going to do is to search the database to find if your ancestor is listed. Because you'll need to go back and forth from the main information screen, you'll want to open the search screen in a new window. Just right click on Search:Database, and select "open link in a new tab".

In the search screen, you have the option of searching by any or all of

• Surname
• Given Name(s)
• Year of Immigration
• Keyword

I decided to look for one of my more common surnames, Douglas. I received several results, as I suspected I would. The very first entry is for a "Widow Douglass" 

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/list.aspx?Surname=douglas&

I decided to look at her. I clicked on the Item Number on the left of her name and this came up

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=3096&

Since no PDF image is attached, I will have to check the main page's chart. Using the information from here, I then went back to the main page and looked on the chart for the record set that is part of the Department of Finance fonds. It turns out it is the last record set. Luckily this set is digitized.

According to the information for the Widow Douglass, she went from Toronto to Bondhead. Her passage was paid by the Emigration Service Fund. Her record is on page 315. I clicked on pages 291 to 343 on the main page above. A PDF opened in a new window. Document 315 is an account of payment to teamster Arthur Clifton for delivering indigent immigrants between July 3 and 10, 1845

According to the document, she traveled with several other people on July 7 1845 to Bondhead. She has five family members traveling with her.

Some results have images right in the search results file. Here is one for a J. Douglas:

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=17201&

This is a letter of thanks written to James Allison. The owner of the vessel Boiver of Stratham was charging a Poll Tax to the passengers. James Allison seems to have paid the tax for them. As you can see, there are two PDF files attached. The first I could open no problem, but there's no J. Douglas written there. The second link, however, came up not available. So I went back to the main page and found the Neilson Collection, Records of James Allison fonds. I clicked on the microfilm number and it took me to the Heritage site. I scanned through the images to find 146A/147. That page was the same as shown above. So I went to the next page and found where J. Douglas fit into the letter. There's actually 2 men signing the letter named J. Douglas, a Junior and a Senior:

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c15773/795?r=0&s=4

Though it looks like digital images can be accessed for most of the records, there are a few that no images are available online. You have to the option of visiting onsite, or you can order a copy of the record. Scroll to the bottom of the database's main information page for the link to order copies. The LAC also gives these research tips on their site:

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/introduction.aspx

Ancestors in Service: Porters and Domestics Records through the LAC

My apologies for the absence of late. It's an awful thing when the daily demands of your non genealogy life gets in the way of doing what you love. I've been on holidays this week, and I've made it a genealogy stay-cation. Though I haven't broken through any brick walls in my personal family research, I've been able to catch up on some of my side projects.

As part of one of my side projects, I came across an interesting database on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website. If your immigrant ancestors went into "service" as a porter or domestic, then you'll want to look at LAC's database Immigrants to Canada, Porters and Domestics, 1899-1949.

During the 1800's and the first half of the 1900's, there was a great demand for domestic help in Canada. The demand was so great that an immigration policy was enacted to bring young single women (and some men) over to Canada to settle and work. The LAC has put together a database of the thousands that came over, using several different record sets to build it. Most of the women are from the UK, but there are some from other countries as well. If your ancestor was a black man who worked as a porter, he my be in here as well. A complete description of the database can be seen in the link above.

The Search Screen allows you to search by surname, given name and/or by keyword.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/porters-domestics-1899-1949/Pages/search.aspx

I decided to use MURPHY in the surname box. It's a surname from my own tree, and not as common as my usual go-to UK surname MCDONALD. This database starts after where my Mildred MURPHY enters my family tree, so I know I won't find her.

My result was 12 MURPHYs.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/porters-domestics-1899-1949/Pages/list.aspx?Surname=murphy&

I clicked on the number beside the first entry, Mary MURPHY, age 28. This is the information that came up:

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/porters-domestics-1899-1949/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=898&

    So, according to this, Mary departed the UK 28 Jan 1910, and arrived in Canada 4 Feb 1910 on the Empress of Britain. She came through Mrs. Helen Sanford's Girls Home of Welcome. Her final destination was Winnipeg, where Mrs. Sanford's receiving home was located. Now, what we want to especially take note of is the File number (22787 part 3) and Volume (119), where we will find Mary's Emigrant's Application for Ticket. The digitized file is NOT on the LAC, but don't groan just yet. You'll notice that the microfilm number at the bottom is underlined and highlighted. If you press and hold the Ctrl key and click on that microfilm number, it will open a new window on the Heritage site. This site has many digitized microfilms from the LAC.

What you'll see in this new window is a listing of the Headquarters Central Registry Files. Go through the list to find your microfilm number. There are listed numerically, so it won't take long to find the one you need. I found the one for Mary (C-4782) on page 13.

Those who've used Heritage before know that the downside to this site is that the microfilms are not indexed. This means you're going to have to go "old school" and go through page by page. This particular microfilm has 1469 images. This is where that file number 22787, part 3 comes into play.

I clicked through the first few images to see how the microfilm is set up. This particular microfilm starts with File 22787 part 3 Volume 18. So I know Mary is probably going to be pretty far into the microfilm, as she is in Volume 19. This may seem like a monumental task to find where Volume 19 starts, but look at the image below:

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4782/6?r=0&s=1

Where I've put the red arrow has the File and Volume written sideways. I jumped forward and back through the images until I found the start of Volume 19. But then confusion struck, because Volume 119 belongs to File 22787 part 4, and deals with domestics who came in 1911. So I went back to the beginning of the roll. The first images deal with women who sailed in June of 1910. Mary's entry said she departed 28 January 1910. So obviously there's been an indexing error. Since this roll starts with departures in June 1910 and carries until at least 1911, we can reason that the files are in sequential order of sailing date.

I then went back to the main list of microfilm numbers on the Heritage page and selected the roll before this one: C-4781. This time I started at the last image and worked my way backwards. The last emigration tickets on this roll also stated departure was in June 1910. I kept jumping backwards until I finally found Mary in image 1676.

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c4781/1676?r=0&s=1

Now I know this is the Mary I'm looking for because she's 28. Of the other two Mary's on the list, one is 22. The other Mary doesn't show an age, but when I click on her information, it says she sailed in 1924. As well, our Mary's ship name and sailing date match. So what do we know from her application?

• She lived at 16 Riddrie Terrace, Riddrie, Glasgow
• She has worked as a domestic servant for 12 years in the Lanarkshire area\
• The last year she worked as a general servant
• She is a British subject by birth
• Her final destination is Manitoba, and she intends to work as a domestic servant
• She is not travelling with any family members, and traveled in steerage
• The application was received by Immigration 9 Feb 1910
• She applied 18 Nov 1909
• She signed with a different surname, it was crossed out, and she signed Mary Murphy above it

Now let's look at further research options for Mary:

• She came before the 1911 and 1916 censuses in Canada. 
• She came after the 1901 Scotland census. We know she worked in the Lanarkshire area for 12 years, so we should be able to find her as a domestic in 1901.
• What about that crossed out surname? 

Now, as you can see with my example above, don't totally trust the index. Mary was actually located on Roll C-4781, in File 22787 Part 2, Volume 118. If you've been researching awhile, you know that human error is inevitable with indexes. So if you can't find your ancestor where they say it's located in the index, look at the sets before and after it. But look at what we found when we did find her. We know where her last address was, and have an area in Scotland to research. We know what her occupation for the previous decade has been. We also have an area to fan out from for researching forward after 1910 in Canada. We can also do some research on the Agency that brought her, to find out more about her life. Not bad for a single page application.