Canada Maps, Atlases, and Gazetteers - International Institute

Boundary Chnges
With relatively stable borders in North America in recent years, we Canadians (and Americans as well) tend to forget that over time, borders change. The border between Germany and France has moved, so a person who on one census listed themselves as French may on another census be listed as German. Land that once belonged to Germany or Russia is now Poland.

Even in Canada, county borders have changed over the past 200 years and, most recently, in Ontario municipal boundaries were reorganized in 2001. So, finding old maps can help to pinpoint what area an ancestor lived in. Township maps often have the names of landowners written on the maps, so not only can you find where your ancestor lived, you can figure out who all their neighbours were too–important information if you’re looking at diaries or letters from a township.

Maps
So, why should a genealogist care about maps? Knowing where a family lived can lead you to a number of other resources that can yield a great deal of genealogical information. If your family lived in a large city, and you are searching through census microfilms, wading through returns for the entire city in hopes of finding your one family can be very time consuming. If you can determine what ward they lived in, you can narrow down the quantity of microfilm you’ll have to search through.

As well, if you have a map of the area where your family lived, you can look for the closest church, cemetery, post office, and homes of known friends and relatives. Eventually, you’ll be able to build a picture of the small community that was part of their daily lives. The closest store was likely where they did their business. If the accounts of the store still exist in an archive, you might just be able to find a page of your family’s accounts, and from that, learn a great deal about their way of life.

You’ll also likely find related families living close by. In early times, people tended to intermarry with neighbours. Maps can also show you travel routes. Before roads were built, rivers and the railway had a great influence on travel. Many times couples would elope by going into the next town by train. If you’re having trouble finding a marriage, try checking railway routes for the next town, then try searching through the church records in that town for the marriage. Apparently this was quite a common practice if the couple wanted to get married quickly, or did not have the money to spend on a lavish wedding.

That being said, where can you find old maps? The following are a few ways to find out more about the area your family lived in:

Atlases
County atlases tend to have more information in them than just maps. Between 1874 and 1881, approximately forty county atlases were published in Canada, covering counties in the Maritimes, Ontario and Quebec. Thirty-two of these atlases were produced for Ontario, and they covered 40 counties. Each of the county atlases consisted of a historical text, township and town maps, and portraits. Fortunately for genealogists, names of residents were marked on the lots of the township maps in these county atlases. Prominent county residents paid an additional sum to have biographical sketches, portraits and views of their residences or businesses included in the atlases. These atlases have been reproduced, and it is still possible to purchase these atlases at specialty bookstores. While most genealogists are not up to paying almost $100 to own their own copy of an atlas, they are also available at many municipal libraries and archives.

To see what atlases are available, check out the book County Atlases of Canada: A descriptive Catalogue, which lists most of the 19th century county atlases. There is also a book entitled Canada Maps: Land Ownership Maps of Canada, which lists all of the 1870-1880 period huge wall maps available at the Library and Archives Canada. These maps can be consulted on microfiche. With either the wall maps or the county atlases, you can usually locate farm lots and read the names of the owners. Not only can you determine where your family lived, but you can figure out who all their neighbors were as well.

Luckily for anyone with Internet access, McGill University’s Rare Books Division has copies of many of the original atlases, and in 1998 began digitizing these atlases for everyone to use. The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project is a searchable database of the property owners’ names that appear on the township maps in the county atlases. Township maps, portraits and properties have been scanned, with links from the property owners’ names in the database. You can search these atlases at their website.

Gazetteers
A gazetteer is defined as a geographic dictionary or index. There have been a great number of gazetteers published for Canada, and they are widely used by genealogists. Want to know the population of Woody’s Point, NFLD? Not too sure about the difference between Perth, Ontario and Perth County, Ontario? Trying to figure out what ever happened to Berlin, Ontario (it was renamed Kitchener)?

A gazetteer can answer all these questions. Many older gazetteers also contain information about the place, including how a town got its name, what year the town was incorporated, the number of businesses, the name of the mayor and postmaster, etc. Most libraries have gazetteers available for patrons’ use.

An example of a gazetteer entry looks like this:

Kugluktuk, N.W.T.

''Situated on Coronation Gulf at the mouth of the Coppermine River, is Coppermine at 67° 49' 36"-115° 05' 36". On January 1, 1996, the community’s name will become Kugluktuk, which means, literally, “place of rapids”. It probably refers to Bloody Fall, where the Chipewyan Dene, who accompanied Hearne on his historic trip to this area, massacred a group of Inuit.''

But, who wants to spend the time going to a library, when all you really want is to quickly find out a piece of information, such as how far Camper, Manitoba is from Kamsack, Saskatchewan? What if you’ve searched through all the maps, but just can’t find Tulita, NWT (that’s because until 1996 it was known as Fort Norman)? Now this information is as close as the nearest computer. Natural Resources Canada has a website that can answer all of these questions.

It’s the Canadian Geographical Names Database (from the records of the Geographical Names Board of Canada) website. This website allows you to find places in Canada, including places whose names have been changed. More than 350,000 official geographical names, including places, water features, and terrain features are included and maintained daily.

You can also see a map of the area you are searching for, so you get an idea of where in Canada you are searching. This service is much faster than using an atlas or gazetteer, and gives a great deal more information.

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