Up until January 6, 2025, the only place you could view the 1921 censuses of England, Wales, Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man from home was Findmypast. This census had been released on the Findmypast site in January 2022. However, to access that census from home, one either had to have what Findmypast currently calls their "Everything" subscription or pay either for the transcription or to see the images associated with a household on a per household view. That all changed earlier this year when Ancestry added that 1921 census to their catalogue since Findmypast no longer had the exclusiv ..read more

Up until now, we could only search for folks who lived in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in the Census of the Prairie Provinces that started on June 1st, 1926 on FamilySearch in their "Canada, Prairie Provinces Census, 1926" collection via the "Canada, Prairie Provinces, Census, 1926" collection specific search page or using the Library and Archives Canada's "Census search" system. FamilySearch and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) both provide access to this census for free. The FamilySearch site even has a pretty good search system that also searches for variations of names, something ..read more

In our genealogy and family history research we've all probably come across challenges with finding someone in the records when searching for them by their name. The issue could be a problem with the transcription used to create the index such as what I found for the household of Thomas S. Pattillo inthe 1911 Census of Canada where the surname was originally transcribed as "Pattires" by the folks at Ancestry. 1911 Census of Canada, population schedule, Nova Scotia, Colchester district (41), Truro sub-district (25), p. 13, dwelling 113, family 125, household of Thomas S. Pattires [Thomas ..read more

During my visit to the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre in Ottawa to look at the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, the archivist, Adele Torrance, mentioned that part of a collection held by the Library and Archives at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) in Ottawa had been digitized by Ancestry. Just a note, this is not the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that we often use in our Canadian research. The Harry Creagen Fonds were pulled together by Mr. Creagen between 1938 and the 1990s. Mr. Creagen had a life long interest in aviation and he created a collection mai ..read more

McKinlay, Ken, "Cross of Sacrifice, National Military Cemetery," Photograph, 10 November 2018, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With Remembrance Day rapidly approaching I've updated my two pages under my "Links of Interest" that I use in my own research: First World War: Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served  I am also giving several talks in the next few weeks concerning researching those who served Canada in the First and Second World Wars: Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War - Join me online for an explora ..read more

Recently John Reid, of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog fame, and I paid an in-person visit to the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre located beside the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Please note, this is not the same as Library and Archives Canada, so don't drop by the LAC building on Wellington if you are wanting to look at these actual records.  "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 30 Sep 2024), Miscelanious Records > 1950-1955 > ..read more

Thank you to John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections for the heads up on the addition of Canadian records to the Full-Text Search on FamilySearch in his blog post "***** FamilySearch Experimental Labs Search of Canadian Probate Records" What is really exciting for genealogy and family history researchers researching their kin in Canada is that FamilySearch has now included two virtual collections: "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" and "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020". If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you know that I have a particular interest in Ontario land re ..read more

After a year of writing new talks and updating my existing genealogy talks I finally took sometime this past month to do a bit of diving into the records of folks who married into my various lines in order to see what I was missing. One of those tasks was looking for folks found in the 1921 Census of England and also the 1939 Registration that took place in England.  And that is where this story starts.  I started looking into the life of Vera Beresford, born about 1920 in Manchester, England. I really didn't have much information about her, only what I gleaned from the service file ..read more

A little while back, someone posted a query in one of the Facebook groups that deal in Ontario, Canada genealogy. It was a simple question that was interesting to explore: "I have a tax assessment roll from 1864 and along with it is a militia roll. Can someone explain what that is please." Westmeath Township, Renfrew, Ontario, Canada, "Canada, Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls, 1834-1899,"; database with digital images, FamilySearch, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-F3CV-25P6 : accessed 29 Apr 2024), 1864, p 23, Militia Roll for Westmeath. When a question like ..read more

Back in February 2023 I wrote "Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Death Registrations". Since then, Ancestry has made available the digitized images for deaths registered in Ontario in 1949 and 1950 in their "Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1949" (as I write this post it still states "1949" in the title) collection as a partner of the Archives of Ontario. Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1949," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 Apr 2024), Harry Dempsey, died 27 Dec 1948, Registration o ..read more