Researchers interested in browsing the newly released 1931 Census of Canada would do well to heed the words in a tweet posted by Ontario Ancestors’ Halton-Peel Branch. The branch wrote, “Looks like @LibraryArchives’ 1931 Canada census release is as popular as a #TaylorSwift concert! Pack your patience – it’ll be accessible soon & enjoy!” To say the least, yesterday was a hugely anticipated day for family historians. That’s when Library and Archives Canada (LAC) released the digitized 1931 Census of Canada, 92 years after it was conducted. Yesterday was the first time LAC had prov ..read more

Woo hoo! That’s what some family historians are shouting after learning the Toronto Public Library and Internet Archives have digitized the remainder of the Toronto city directories, adding the years 1970 to 2001 to the already extensive collection. Now, with very few missing years, we can research almost two centuries of Toronto city directories, from 1833 to 2001. For easy access, the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society has added a link to each of the digitized directories on its website. The directories up to and including 1969 can also be accessed on the Toronto Public Libr ..read more

Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, yesterday announced the designation of the Exclusion of Chinese Immigrants as an event of national historic significance under Parks Canada’s National Program of Historical Commemoration. On July 1, 1923, the Canadian government introduced a new Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, to stop Chinese immigration. This legislation replaced the first Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, which included the various head taxes (entry taxes ..read more

The Oakville Public Library in Ontario will host the free virtual presentation, Finding the Records for “Impossible Genealogy — Lessons Learned from a Chinese Genealogist, delivered by Linda Yip, on Wednesday, May 31, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. When researching your family tree, we are taught to look for resources like birth, marriage and death records, land records and many others. In this session, Linda will explore why family historians exploring their Chinese roots have to turn to different records in order to learn more about their ancestors. While the focus will be on Chinese genealogica ..read more

If you didn’t have a chance to watch the virtual presentations hosted by Ontario Ancestors’ Essex Branch during the past few years, there’s plenty of opportunity to watch about 50 of them on their YouTube channel. The presentation topics include British Home Children, DNA, Irish research, Italian research, breaking down brick walls, the filles du roi, and finding female ancestors. The post Plenty of genealogy learning on Essex Branch’s YouTube channel appeared first on Genealogy à la carte ..read more

Some of the bijoux I discovered this week. Blog posts Release of the 1931 Canadian Census by Jenny Ashcraft on Fishwrap. 1861 Census of Canada West – The Census That Keeps Giving Challenges by Ken McKinlay on Family Tree Knots. Chinese Canadian Genealogy: General Registers and C.I.9 certificates by Valerie Casbourn on Library and Archives Canada Blog. House Styles on University of British Columbia Digitizers’ Blog. Populations Past – Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population by John Reid on Anglo-Celtic Connections. Free Alternatives to Ancestry for Genealogy in the Netherlands&nb ..read more

If you’re a family historian with Canadian ancestors, you’re probably more than a little excited about the public release of the 1931 Canada Census on June 1 — which is only one week from today. For many of us, this will be the first time we’ve seen our parents or grandparents on a census. To create excitement for the big day, Library and Archives Canada has produced a short video about the 1931 Canada Census that is produced like a newsreel our ancestors would have watched in movie theatres during the 1930s. Library and Archives Canada is collaborating with Ancestry and FamilySearch to provi ..read more

Dave Obee, one of Canada’s most popular genealogy speakers, received the University of Victoria Libraries Honorary Library and Archivist Award. During the day, he is editor and publisher of the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper in British Columbia, The university also awarded him with an honorary doctorate of laws for his work as an historian, genealogist, and journalist. Mr. Obee has written a dozen books on genealogy and local history, and has given more than 700 presentations at genealogical conferences and seminars in Canada, the United States, and Australia since 1997. He worked with the ..read more

Next year, Ontario Ancestors will hold its first in-person conference in five years. Hosted by the Toronto Branch, the three-day event will take place in Toronto, from June 14 to 16, 2024, with the theme, An Interactive Experience: Explore, Engage & Enjoy. The Toronto Branch’s goal is to feature topnotch speakers and encourage active engagement with their attendees. For those who won’t be able to attend in person, there’s good news. A hybrid component — in person and virtual — will be part of the conference. In the meantime, the Toronto Branch has issued a call for in-person presenters. T ..read more

There appears to be only one online presentation at Ontario Ancestors this week. Sunday, May 28, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time — Halton-Peel Branch What’s New at the Region of Peel Archives by Kyle Neill Kyle Neill, one of the Region of Peel’s archivists, will speak to what’s new at the archives. Brampton’s location has now re-opened (visits to the archives need to be booked ahead), and Kyle will talk about some recent record donations and highlight some wonderful new materials from Peel’s “unofficial historian” William Perkins Bull. As many of you know, there are amazing records and family history ..read more