Advanced Canadian Records

Note: This course requires compulsory materials to be ordered. These are available at GenealogyStore.com

Douglas, Althea, Genealogy, Geography, and Maps: Using Atlases and Gazetteers to Find Your Family (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society, 2006).

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Geography and Maps

Genealogy, geography and maps are inextricably entwined, particularly in a country like Canada where almost everyone has ancestors who came here from somewhere else. If you are looking for their records you must travel across geographic boundaries as well as across time. Wherever you travel, maps are essential.

Can you read a map? Did you hate geography in school? You know what road maps tell you, but are you aware that topographical maps tell you much more or that geographers and cartographers now use maps to show us all sorts of information both about the here and now and the worlds our ancestors once inhabited.

 While many Canadians look back to Europe or the British Isles, in the multi-cultural society we have become some of us will need maps of every continent except Antarctica. Not just maps of the place as it is today, but older maps that show former political divisions and place names, where old roads, canals or railways once ran, perhaps ownership of land, or city plans that show every building, including the one where the emigrant ancestor was born.

If you plan to be a successful family historian you must learn to look at maps and extract the basic, secondary, and even the third level of information they offer, and then evaluate that information. Is what it shows accurate, up to date or obsolete, misleading or intended to deceive? Maps can be many things and the more you know the fewer traps will catch you.

 The International Institute for Genealogical Studies is extremely pleased to be able to use, as the primary text for this course, an outstanding book on this subject, authored by Althea Douglas, Genealogy, Geography, and Maps: Using Atlases and Gazetteers to Find Your Family (Ontario Genealogical Society: Toronto, 2006).

 Because the course reading material is not proprietary to the International Institute’s course, access to the electronic text of mandatory course reading material will NOT be available online. The course syllabus will  primarily serve as a guide to the content of Douglas’ book. In addition it will present some brief supplemental material, as well as the assignments.

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Archival Centres

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to using archives in genealogical research, to examine the kinds of records which you will encounter, and to see what kinds of archives there are in Canada which can provide venues for genealogical researchers. 

This is a gigantic topic, so some thought was given to a point of view which might help us enter it. As this course is given via the Internet and as websites may be the first and easiest contact which a genealogical researcher will have with an archive, we have used archival websites as a principal point of discussion regarding specific archives and kinds of archives, and as a way of getting to know the institutions involved. The website can be seen as a summary of the personality of the place, and this is how we have used it. We continue to stress that archive websites should not be ignored in research. 

Examples of archives of various categories will be mentioned. It should be emphasized that the examples given are just that, examples. They are not meant to indicate ‘best’ (although they may be) and they cannot be exhaustive in any category, because there are simply too many archives in the country. Take the example given and then use the idea to search for similar archives which will help you. 

Comparing this course to the others in the Canadian series, students may notice a certain amount of overlap. The Saskatchewan Homestead records, for example, may well also show up in a course on Saskatchewan research as well as a land records course. There are useful things to say on such a topic in each course and we can only hope a second or third encounter with a topic will help to imprint it on the student’s memory! 

Many of the archives under discussion in the text have very long names, which may include people after whom the institution is named, the name of the larger institution of which the archives is part, or a government department. Although the full name will be given in the first instance, a shorter or familiar version of the archives’ name will be used for convenience later in the text. 

Course Length: 7 weeks

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Immigration Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

The study and understanding of immigration is more than just dates and ships’ lists. Learning where our ancestors came from, and why, is a major goal for family historians. Canada was a beacon drawing waves of hopeful immigrants, even before it became a country in its own right.

The course will emphasize the “push-pull” principle underlying two centuries of population growth, including significant emigrant groups, travel routes, government policies, sponsored and assisted settlement plans, ports of arrival, ships’ passenger lists, North American border crossings, naturalization and citizenship. Each module will cover at least one immigration group or programme which made a significant contribution to the settlement and growth of Canada.

Attention is given to special collections such as Home Children and Russian Consular records. Students will learn about access to such sources and strategies for making the important connection to the ancestral country of origin.

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Newspaper Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Newspapers are an important source of genealogical information, not only hard date and place information, but also background material which will add to the interest of your family history. This information may also supply hints which will lead to other resources. The purpose of this course is to examine:

•   the historical development of newspapers
  
•   the kinds of information we can find in newspapers
  
•   how to interpret the data we find
  
•   how to find the newspaper we need to research
  
•   other serial publications (journals and newsletters) we can use.

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Military Records

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

Military records constitute a major source of genealogical material in Canada. Emphasis during this course will be on the correlation between personnel records, land transactions and nominal roles from the period of New France to the Korean Conflict.

 At the end of this course, you will be able to search for your ancestor from a nominal role to the land acquisition or pension from various records groups located at Library and Archives Canada or the provincial archives (including records of those who fought against the government of the day). 

 You will be able to use other sources such as medal registers, battalion histories, militia pay lists, etc. to help you build a better genealogy.

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Migration Patterns

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

This course provides an extensive overview of migration in Canada. Canada is a diverse nation, made up of many peoples, all of whom came from somewhere. The study of migration does not just involve one movement but recognizes that for a number of reasons, it is natural for peoples to move and settle from one place to another, be it a new country or a new community.

The history is explored, concepts explained, definitions offered. In the study of migration, it is vital it remember that while we speak in general of peoples, each individual has a story, waiting to be explored.

Optional Print Course Material: Canadian: Local History and Special Collections

*Course material will only be sent to students who are registered in the course.

This course is designed to go beyond the basic genealogical sources of censuses, vital statistic records and church records by introducing the professional to other collections that could enhance their search. Emphasis will be on the variety of sources held at Library and Archives Canada, company and professional archives, and local archives. Among other sources to investigate will be professional and fraternal associations, Dunn and Bradstreet, law reviews, photographic collections, maps, etc. Consideration will also be given to the burgeoning resources now available on the Internet, such as digital libraries. 

This course will inspire you to think about spreading your wings and venturing “outside the box” when you hit your brick wall.