Canada Genealogy

North America Canada

Guide to Canada ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Getting started with Canadian research
We wish you success in the research of your Canadian ancestors. Good hunting!!

Research Strategies
See the following articles:


 * How to Locate Your Ancestor in Canada
 * How to Recognize your Canadian Ancestor
 * Name Variations in Canadian Indexes and Records

Research Tools

 * Listing of all records collections for Canada available on FamilySearch.org.
 * It is sometimes difficult to locate a place name in Canada. The Geographic Names Board of Canada has a web site which will help you identify place names throughout Canada, and will give you information about the type of geographical feature listed. read more...
 * Join a Canada Genealogy Research Community on Skype or Facebook
 * BYU Canada Research Outline largely duplicates these Wiki pages. Includes some bibliographic lists from BYU Library, 2001.
 * Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee, Ancestry Publishing, 2007.
 * Jonasson, Eric. The Canadian Genealogical Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Finding Your Ancestors in Canada. Winnipeg: Wheatfield Press, 1978.
 * French-Canadian Genealoogy-Sources and Resources. How and where to locate original records or reliable secondary records and further details about the lives of ancestors, in addition to names, dates, and places.
 * Early Canadiana Online is the first large-scale online collection of early Canadian print heritage.
 * The Glenbow Museum has scanned images of diaries, letters, minute books, scrapbooks, and other unpublished archival records for over 3,000 individuals, families, clubs, businesses, schools, and organizations in Calgary, southern Alberta and Western Canada. For example, there are Will Parker's letters to his father in England, in which he tells of getting typhoid fever and joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
 * Tracing Family History: Canada Immigration and Citizenship Genealogy Guide has links to other resources.
 * Canadian Resources and help pages on RootsChat Canadian Resources and help pages. (Free).

Wiki articles describing these collections are found at:


 * British Columbia Birth Registrations (FamilySearch Historical Records
 * British_Columbia_Death_Registrations_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)
 * British_Columbia_Marriage_Registrations_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)
 * Canada Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada Deaths and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada Marriages (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada Census Mortality Schedules (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada Census, 1851 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada, Census 1871 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada, Census 1881 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Canada, Census 1891 (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Lower Canads Census 1831 (FamilySearch Histrorical Records)
 * Nova Scotia, Queens County, Genealogical Notes of Thomas Brenton Smith (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Royal Canadian Mounted Police obituary card index and Notices (FamilySearch Historical Records)


 * Ontario, Toronto Trust Cemeteries (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Did you know?

 * The British Commonwealth of Nations is a voluntary association of Great Britain and its dependencies, certain former British dependencies that are now sovereign states and their dependencies, and the associated states (states with full internal government but whose external relations are governed by Britain). See http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0813057.html
 * Digital images of the Census of Canada are available at Library and Archives Canada.
 * Every five years, the nation sets aside one day to conduct the census—a count of all people and households in Canada. The census is the most complete source of information about the population that we have.
 * Volunteers are available to assist with lookups all across Canada. You can ask a question on Facebook on the FamilySearch Canada Genealogy Research page or you can search or browse by province at the Genealogy Helplist Canada

Help Wanted
In order to make this wiki a better research tool, we need your help! Many tasks need to be done. You can help by:

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