Those of us with Toronto ancestors are pretty lucky. This big place provided businesses with all sorts of potential customers—in large enough numbers that made it worthwhile for publishers to compile lists of residents who might be induced to make a purchase. A city directory let the Fuller Brush salesman […]
Categories Toronto Research
33 posts
I researched a fellow named Magnus Shewan way back in 2013. (I’m a sucker for an interesting name.) I wrote a three-part post about old Magnus and his family drama—and his distinctive name shows up from time-to-time while I’m doing other Toronto research. This post takes a look at some […]
I’m extremely happy to be able to say that the surrogate court records filmed by FamilySearch for York County, Ontario—including Toronto—are now digitized and available for viewing from home.[1] You must be signed in at FamilySearch.org to see the images. If you haven’t discovered the wonderfulness of FamilySearch and don’t […]
Much to my surprise, there was a second Thirteen Club in Toronto. As mentioned in part 2 of this series, the 1911 Blue Book linked the Toronto Thirteen Club to the University of Toronto, simply by calling it “The Thirteen Club of Toronto University”. The Blue Book blew it. As […]
In this post, I’ll give you some details of the sources I used in my search for members of the Thirteen Club. Many of the sources were new to me, and some were old standards but viewed through a different filter. I hope you’ll find them useful. Here’s a link […]
Just about 134 years ago, in mid November 1884, a group of eight young men met in Toronto to establish a club to encourage “the development of literary and musical tastes.” (A likely story.) They decided that the club would be limited to thirteen members—and be called the Thirteen Club. […]
Toronto land records are not for the faint of heart. In the city, Upper Canada’s standard 200-acre farm lots were replaced by generous town lots with space for a big garden, a few fruit trees, and a stable for the horse. Times changed and the population grew, the town lots […]
Established in the 1830s and before, societies like St. Andrew’s, St. George’s, St. Patrick’s and many other ethnic-based benevolent organizations provided guidance, financial and social support for their countrymen and women arriving in Canada. The list below was compiled as I was researching a presentation for the Ontario Genealogical Society’s […]