Ontario Archives and Libraries

Repositories
The following archives, libraries, and societies have collections or services helpful to genealogical researchers:

Library and Archives Canada 395 Wellington Street Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 CANADA Telephone: 613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll free in Canada and the US) Fax: 613-995-6274 TTY: 613-992-6969 or 1-866-299-1699 (toll free in Canada) Internet: Canada Collections Genealogy and Family History

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives Records of this fur trading company are some of Canada’s most important. Until 1870, the company controlled almost four-fifths of the territory of present-day Canada, including northern Quebec and Ontario and most of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA), home to the archival records of Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), is part of the Archives of Manitoba operating under The Archives and Recordkeeping Act and 1994 gift agreement between HBC and the Government of Manitoba. HBCA operations are supported in part through the ongoing financial support of the Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation. A very helpful source is:
 * Hudson's Bay Company Archives
 * Resources
 * Name Indexes
 * Biographical Sheets
 * Finding Aid to the Hudson Bay Company Archives. . WorldCat.

Archives of Ontario
Archives of Ontario 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd. Toronto, ON M7A 2C5 CANADA Phone: 416-327-1552 Fax: 416-327-1999 Internet: Archives


 * Many records for the old pre-1867 "Province of Canada" (which combined present Ontario and Quebec) are at the National Archives of Canada. Other records for the province and counties of Ontario are at the Archives of Ontario. Many records from both archives are available on microfilm at the FamilySearch Library.


 * Both the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives of Canada lend copies of many of their microfilmed records to public libraries through the interlibrary loan service.


 * If you plan to visit either of these archives, contact the organization and ask for information about their collection, hours, services, and fees.

Toronto Reference Library
Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street Toronto, ON M4W 2G8 CANADA Phone: 416-393-7131 TTY: 416-393-7030 Internet: Toronto Reference Library


 * The Toronto Reference Library houses and extensive genealogical research collection. While the strength of this collection is it's Canadian content, it also includes numerous resources for the U. K., Ireland and northeastern United States, as well as some international coverage.

University of Western Ontario D. B. Weldon Library
D. B. Weldon Library The University of Western Ontario 1151 Richmond Street North London, ON N6A 3K7 CANADA Phone: 519 661-2111 x81111 Fax: 519 850-2979 Internet: Weldon Library web page


 * Major church archives are discussed in Ontario Church Records. To learn about Ontario municipal archives, see sources cited in Canada Archives and Libraries.

Inventories, Registers, and Catalogs
A directory of addresses, telephone numbers, hours, and brief description of collections is:


 * Taylor, Ryan. Important Genealogical Collections in Ontario Libraries and Archives: A Directory. Toronto, Ontario: Ontario Genealogical Society, 1994. (FamilySearch Library .)

See Ontario Societies for a directory of Heritage Organization repositories.

A few localities have published inventories of sources relating to their area; these are at archives throughout the province. An excellent example is:


 * Bloomfield, Elizabeth, ed. Inventory of Primary and Archival Sources: Guelph and Wellington County to 1940. Guelph, Ontario: University of Guelph, 1989. (FamilySearch Library .)

Canada GenWeb

 * CanadaGenWeb

A cooperative effort by many volunteers to list genealogical databases, libraries, bulletin boards, and other resources available on the Internet for each county and province.

Roots-L

 * http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/canada.html

A useful list of sites and resources. Includes a large, regularly updated research coordination list.

FamilySearch™

 * www.familysearch.org

The FamilySearch Library and some FamilySearch Centers have computers with FamilySearch™. Familysearch is a collection of computer files containing several million names. This is a good place to begin your research. Some of the records come from compiled sources; some have been automated from original sources.