September of 2023, due to the rerouting of what seemed like every public transit vehicle in Toronto, I found myself waiting for a bus across the street from this row of houses. Unloved and untended for at least the past few years, they still had a sort of solid dignity. […]
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If you wanted to acquire land in Upper Canada, there was a process or path to follow. The essential steps were the same, but depending on who you were, your particular circumstances, and where the land was situated, the path and the settler’s experience could be quite different. The key […]
This is the second of a series of posts about Township Papers—an important set of early Ontario land records—arranged alphabetically by township and sometimes town. You’ll find the first post here. This record group, RG 1-58 from the Archives of Ontario, is big—72 metres of paper records, microfilmed on 541 […]
This is the first in a series of posts about an important set of records for Crown Land research, Township Papers. Think of it as a conveniently organized gateway into the massive collection of Crown Land records at the Archives of Ontario. It may be a gateway, but it is […]
This is part 2 of a post written to accompany a presentation to the Durham Region Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. It will make more sense if you read part 1, in which I explain how to find young Edward Donovan’s estate file using the digitized records on FamilySearch.org. […]
I’ve written this post (the first of two) to accompany a presentation to the Durham Region Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I’m very pleased to say that the digitized records on FamilySearch for Ontario County, Durham County and Northumberland County were unlocked for viewing at home over this past […]
I’ve written this post to accompany a presentation to the Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. I’ll be concentrating on records from Prince Edward and Hastings Counties, although much of what I have to say will apply across the province. If you have ancestors from Hastings or Prince Edward, […]
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 […]