How to research the newly-digitized Ontario Land Registry Records

If you are researching ancestors in Ontario, Cindi Foreman’s well-researched tutorial containing a four-part series of step-by-step illustrated instructions are a must-read series.

Part I: Historical Books: First Registration Book: Where genealogists can find their ancestors. This post, is about the First Registration books which contain a list of first registrations from registry to land titles (e.g. Crown Patent or Crown plan).

Part II: Historical Books: Abstract/Parcel Register Book: Where genealogists can find all the entries of every transaction on their ancestor’s land from the date the Crown Patent was issued (all instruments recorded) up to January 30, 1981.

Part III: OnLand Records: Historical Books: General Register Index, genealogists learn why their ancestor’s will can be found in the Ontario Land Registry Office, and not in the Court records. The General Register Index contains a Registry System index of all non-land-specific documents maintained by each Land Registry Office, including wills, letters probate, and letters patent. In this part of the tutorial Ms. Foreman demonstrates how she found information for her 4th great-grandfather Matthew Moynahan’s (1770-1860) will.

Part IV: Historical Books: Canada Lands Index is about the Canada Lands Index that contains plans of public lands under the Canada Lands Surveys Act. In this blog post, genealogists learn how to find information about public lands under the Canada Lands Surveys Act, Navigable Waters Protection Act, Transfers of Jurisdiction and Control, Indian Reserves, and National Parks. Ms. Foreman explains that this is an “index of sorts” to the 53 Land Registry Offices in Ontario. She indicates if they even have a Canada Lands Index book online and summarizes all of the historical books that are available online in this new resource.

In addition to the instructions, Ms. Foreman provides a glossary and links to online resources for finding your ancestors’ land records.

Going through these tutorials and using the techniques can be time consuming, but it is well worth the effort to find more information on your ancestors’ lives.

Why Attend a Genealogy Conference

People often think that genealogy conferences are unnecessary because there are so many other learning opportunities available. There are webinars, podcasts, genealogy blogs and, it seems, endless ways to learn just by searching the internet.

Yes, those are excellent learning opportunities, but there are advantages in attending a conference that are unique and not available “on line”.

Develop Your Skills

Do you have a brick wall that you can’t climb or an ancestor that stubbornly remains hidden no matter how hard you look? Do you need to learn more about effectively researching?

Get Inspired

In a conference, you are sitting with the like-minded people. They all are here for a common goal. The conference can take your research to a new level.

Those brick walls and ancestors that are hiding may make you feel as though you can’t get anywhere with your research and you begin to develop that “oh, no, this is impossible” feeling. Listening to experts in their field and networking with other genealogists in person will fire up that research flame again and provide you with opportunities to view your research in a new and exciting way. You will have the “yes I can” feeling again.

Networking

You will not only learn from experienced and knowledgeable educators in their chosen genealogy field but you will also have the opportunity to speak with them in person or join in on a wide-ranging question and answer session.

You will also have the unique opportunity to network with fellow genealogists who are as addicted to genealogy as you are. You may find someone researching in the same area, researching the same general family or find a cousin or other relative. There are more “cousin connections” at a genealogy conference than you can imagine. It is not only networking, that is inspiring! By knowing who will be attending the conference, you can make a plan on what you are going to discuss with them during coffee breaks, for example.

Have I inspired you to attend a genealogy conference? I hope so, because they are an endless source of learning, entertainment and sheer enjoyment. I have attended on-line webinars, listened to podcasts, read blogs, chatted with other genealogists either by e-mail or through social media, but there is nothing that can compare with actually attending a conference. You will go home from it with more knowledge, inspiration and skills as well as new genealogy friends. It is a win-win situation all the way around.

Having said all that, you may want to find a genealogy conference in your nearby area. If you are new to genealogy and have not yet joined a genealogy society, you may want to look into joining a society in your area. Don’t do genealogy in the closet, get out there and attend a conference or join a society, you will never be sorry and will be amazed at how your genealogy horizons will open.

Our Qualicum Beach Family History Society is hosting a conference on April 20^th and 21^st, 2018 in Parksville, British Columbia. We have three dynamic speakers:

Thomas MacEntee, an international speaker from Chicago. His topic is technology and genealogy.

Lesley Anderson, the spokesperson for Ancestry Canada. She will be covering both researching on Ancestry and Ancestry DNA.

Tara Shymansky, a well-known instructor on Canadian genealogy. She will be speaking about researching Canadian records with emphasis on census research.

Then there are the fabulous door prizes, great vendors, chances to network with other genealogists – and the list goes on.

For more information about our conference, please visit our conference website at https://www.qbfhs.ca/workshops/unlocking-the-past-2018-conference/

As if that wasn’t enough, you will be visiting beautiful Vancouver Island, one of the jewels in the world’s crown!

Good luck with your research and I hope to see you at a conference somewhere, some day.

Kathy

Ancestor Hunting through Newspaper Research

Now that a new year has started, you probably have made and broken several genealogy resolutions. At this point you may be feeling at a loss as to where to research for more information on your elusive ancestors.

One important avenue for research is newspapers, and not just one newspaper in the local community. As an example, several years ago I was researching the railway accident that killed my grandfather. Using newspapers.com (a subscription website), I filled in the date of the accident and the name of the nearest newspaper in the area of the accident. There were several articles from two local newspapers. This was in a small town in Ontario but, to my surprise, there was also an article in an upstate New York newspaper giving details of the accident. And the moral of that story is to widen your search criteria and to not stop your research with just one newspaper.

If you have an unusual or uncommon surname, searching for one person by surname only may also provide useful links to other people in your family.

There are several subscription sites for newspaper research, but one free site that has links to several newspapers, both in Canada and the United States is The Ancestor Hunt.

Don’t just stop with researching the newspapers. As is stated on their page, “to research historical newspapers and be successful, it helps to be educated about the characteristics of these important genealogy resources; where to find them, and how to best search for the articles that you are seeking. You will find the lessons page at http://www.theancestorhunt.com/newspapers.html

Good luck with your ancestor hunt!