Canada Emigration and Immigration

Canada Online Genealogy Records Ask the Community

General Databases

 * Bef 1865 Immigrants Before 1865 at Library and Archives Canada
 * 1780-1906 Canadian Immigrant Records, Part One at Ancestry ($)
 * 1780-1906 Canadian Immigrant Records, Part Two at Ancestry ($)
 * 1789-1935 Canada, Seafarers of the Atlantic Provinces, 1789-1935 at Ancestry ($), index
 * 1817-1896 Canada, Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, 1817-1896 at Ancestry ($), index/images
 * 1819-1838 Canada, St. Lawrence Steamboat Company Passenger Lists, 1819-1838 at Ancestry ($), index/images
 * 1832-1937 Immigrants at Grosse Île Quarantine Station, 1832-1937 at Library and Archives Canada
 * 1865-1935 Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 at Ancestry ($)
 * 1865-1922 Passenger Lists for the Port of Quebec City and Other Ports, 1865-1922 - at Library and Archives Canada
 * 1881-1922 at FamilySearch - index and images.
 * 1881 Canada, British Vessel Crew Lists, 1881 at Ancestry ($) - index
 * 1899-1949 Immigrants to Canada, Porters and Domestics, 1899-1949 at Library and Archives Canada - index
 * 1904-1954 U.S., Records of Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada, 1904-1954 at Ancestry ($) - index/images
 * 1912-1939 U.S., Passenger and Crew Lists for U.S.-Bound Vessels Arriving in Canada, 1912-1939 and 1953-1962 at Ancestry ($), index/images
 * 1919-1924 Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924 at Ancestry ($) s
 * 1923-1933 at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1823-1849 Irish Canadian Emigration Records, 1823-1849 at Ancestry ($), index and images.
 * 1926 at FamilySearch — index, images available through FindMyPast
 * 1929-1960 Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960 at Ancestry ($), index/some images
 * 1930-1965 Immigrants to Canada 1930-1965, index
 * 1953-1962 U.S., Passenger and Crew Lists for U.S.-Bound Vessels Arriving in Canada, 1912-1939 and 1953-1962 at Ancestry ($), index/images

Border Crossings

 * 1895-1960 U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960 at Ancestry ($), index/images; also at MyHeritage ($)
 * 1908-1935 Border Crossings: From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935 at Ancestry ($), index/images
 * 1937-1961 Canada, Canadian National Railway Immigrant Records, 1937-1961 at Ancestry ($), index/images

Cultural Groups Databases

 * 1823-1849 Irish Canadian Emigration Records, 1823-1849 at Ancestry ($), index/images
 * 1885-1949 Immigrants from China, 1884-1949 at Library and Archives Canada - index
 * 1898-1922 Immigrants from the Russian Empire, 1898-1922, index
 * 1891-1930 Ukrainian Immigrants, 1891-1930, index.
 * 1946-1963 Canada and U.S., Dutch Emigrants, 1946-1963 at Ancestry ($), index/images

Home Children

 * 1869-1930 Home Children, 1869-1930 at Library and Archives Canada - index
 * 1880s-1916 Home Children – Boards of Guardians at Library and Archives Canada - index
 * British Home Children in Canada

Loyalists

 * Old United Empire Loyalists List, ($), index/images

Military

 * War Brides passenger Lists, WWII
 * Canadian War Children born in the UK
 * Canadian War Brides of World War I

Canada Offices to Contact
Records of immigrants arriving at Canadian land and seaports from January 1, 1936 onwards remain in the custody of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. To request a copy of another person's immigration record, you must mail a signed request to the under-noted office:

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Access to Information and Privacy Division Ottawa, ON K1A 1L1 Cana da
 * The request should include the full name at time of entry into Canada, date of birth and year of entry. Additional information is helpful, such as country of birth, port of entry and names of accompanying family members.
 * The application for copies of records should indicate that it is being requested under Access to Information. It must be submitted by a Canadian citizen or an individual residing in Canada. For non-citizens, you can hire a free-lance researcher to make the request on your behalf. The request must be accompanied by a signed consent from the person concerned or proof that he or she has been deceased for 20 years. Please note that IRCC requires proof of death regardless of the person’s year of birth.

Emigration from Canada
The first large emigration from Canada was between 1755 and 1758 when 6,000 French Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia. Some settled temporarily in other American colonies and in France. Many eventually found permanent homes in Louisiana, where they were called "Cajuns." A few returned to the Maritime Provinces.

During the "Michigan Fever" of the 1830s, large numbers of Canadians streamed westward across the border. By the late 1840s, over 20,000 Canadians and newly landed foreign immigrants moved to the United States each year. California gold fever attracted many, beginning in 1849.

After 1850, the tide of migration still flowed from Canada to the United States. Newly landed immigrants tended not to stay in Canada very long. Between 1851 and 1951, there were up to 80 emigrants, both natives of Canada and others, who left Canada for every 100 immigrants who arrived. A few immigrants returned to their native lands or went elsewhere, but many eventually went to the United States after brief periods of settlement in Canada.

Canadians from the Atlantic Provinces often went to the "Boston states" (New England). A favorite 19th-century destination of Canadians leaving Upper Canada (Ontario) was Michigan. About one in four Michigan families finds a direct connection to Ontario. Many also find links to Quebec. At least two million descendants of French Canadians now live in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Many also live in New York and the Midwestern states.

The Canadian government did not keep lists of emigrants. Before 1947 there was no Canadian citizenship separate from British, and Canadians moved freely throughout the British Empire. Before 1895, when the United States government began keeping border-crossing records, Canadians moved to the United States with few restrictions.

Immigration into Canada
Most immigrants have settled along the coasts, the southern frontiers, or the St. Lawrence River valley.

1605:The French first settled at Port Royal, near present Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

1608:The city of Quebec was established by the French. For the next 150 years, the British and the French disputed control of the area.

1749:Halifax, Nova Scotia, was founded by the British as a military garrison.

1753:The British government settled more than 1,400 Germans and Swiss at Lunenburg, southwest of Halifax.

1759–1760: British conquest of old Quebec (New France) occurred. The French remained but were joined by many British immigrants.

1760:Eighteen hundred "planters" from Rhode Island and Connecticut settled lands vacated by Acadians in Nova Scotia. A few thousand more New Englanders and Ulster Irish soon followed.

1783–1784:More than 30,000 Loyalist refugees came to Canada as a result of the American Revolution. They settled in the Maritime Provinces, the Eastern Townships section of Quebec, and in the area between the Ottawa and St. Lawrence river valleys, eventually to be called Upper Canada. The Loyalists were soon followed by other Americans coming for land.

1800:Upper Canada (Ontario) had about 35,000 people, including 23,000 Loyalists and "late Loyalists" and their descendants, mainly from upstate New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They were principally established on farms along the upper St. Lawrence River valley.

1812:Because of the War of 1812, authorities restricted immigration from the United States and encouraged immigration from the British Isles.

1815:After the close of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, many immigrants settled along the St. Lawrence River. Although many immigrants continued on to the United States, soon the "late Loyalists" were joined by many English, Scottish, and Irish settlers.

1815–1850:Greatest immigration was from Scotland and Ireland to Atlantic colonies. A few thousand came each year.

1818:The influx of Protestant Irish to Upper Canada began in earnest.

1830s:The great Irish immigration took place, especially to New Brunswick.

1846–1850s:During the Famine Migration from Ireland, tens of thousands settled farms and towns of Upper and Lower Canada.

1881:A record number of people immigrated; many headed for Manitoba. The best Manitoba farmland was settled by people from Ontario.

1890s:The boom era began in western Canada because much of the best public land in United States had already been homesteaded.

1896–1914:The Canadian government’s aggressive immigration policy encouraged agricultural settlers from Britain, then the United States. Canadian colonization agents at the seaports of Hamburg and Bremen recruited Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Austro-Hungarians.

1900s:The early 1900s were the peak of U.S. immigration to Canada.

1931:The 1931 census showed 1,300,000 U.S.-born residents settled throughout Canada: over 12 percent of the population.

Leeson, Francis. Records of Irish Emigrants to Canada in Sussex Archives 1839-1847. List of names of heads of families or individuals, followed by year of emigration, of Irish Emigrants from North Munster to Canada. Article in The Irish Ancestor, vol.V.no.2.1973. page31-42, Family History Library Ref. 941.5 B2iv.5-6

Passenger Arrival Records before 1865
Passenger arrival records can help you determine when an ancestor arrived and the port of departure. They can also help identify family and community members who arrived together and, usually, the country they came from.

There are very few passenger lists for ships coming into Canada before 1865. Lists were not made or were destroyed. The Library and Archives Canada website has posted an index of some lists that have survived. Some of these indexed names have been gathered from declarations of aliens and names of some Irish orphans.


 * Canada Immigrant databases.
 * Irish Canadian Emigration Records, 1823-1849- Free online database

Other sources of lists for this period include:


 * Filby, P. William. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index. 15+ Volumes. Detroit, Michigan, USA: Gale Research, 1981–. (Family History Library book .) Supplemental volumes have been issued annually. A few scattered volumes are available on microfilm. This source contains nearly three million names from more than 2,500 published sources. This focuses on U.S. arrivals, but also indexes many pre-1865 Canadian passenger lists which have been compiled in genealogical and historical publications. It does not index microfilmed official U.S. or Canadian arrival lists. Also at MyHeritage''; index only ($)


 * Dobson, David. Directory of Scottish Settlers in North America, 1625–1825. Seven Volumes. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1981–93. (Family History Library book .) Volume 5, with more than 3,000 names, especially emphasizes Scottish migration to Canada. It may include the settler’s name, birth date, family members’ names, and date and place of settlement in North America.


 * Whyte, Donald. A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation [1867]. Two Volumes. Toronto, Canada: Ontario Genealogical Society, 1986, 1995. (Family History Library book .) Volume 1 includes about 12,500 names; volume 2 has about 11,000. The volumes may contain the following Information about the immigrant: name, date, place of birth and death, date of arrival in Canada, residence in Canada, occupation, and spouse’s and children’s names. The appendixes give the sources of information.


 * Smith, Leonard H. Nova Scotia Immigrants to 1867. Two Volumes. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1992, 1994. (Family History Library book .) Volume 1 includes about 15,000 entries taken from manuscript sources and Nova Scotia periodicals. Volume 2 has about 6,800 entries from non-Nova Scotia periodicals and from published diaries. The information may include the immigrant’s name, names of family members, name of the ship on which he or she arrived, date of arrival, place of settlement in Nova Scotia, and the source of the information. It covers peninsular Nova Scotia only; it does not cover Cape Breton Island.


 * Mitchell, Brian. Irish Emigration Lists 1833–1839: Lists of Emigrants Extracted from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Counties Londonderry and Antrim. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1989. (Family History Library book .) This and the following book by Mitchell list age, year of departure, destination, and townland or county of origin in northern Ireland for many persons sailing to Saint John, New Brunswick; Quebec; and other North American ports. It contains about 3,000 entries.


 * Mitchell, Brian. Irish Passenger Lists 1847–1871: Lists of Passengers Sailing from Londonderry to America. . . . Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1988. (Family History Library book .) This book contains about 20,000 entries; about half of the people had destinations in Canada.

Passenger Arrival Records Beginning in 1865
Most immigrants to Canada arrived at the ports of Quebec and Halifax, although many came to New York and then traveled to Canada by way of the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and Great Lakes. A few arrived in Portland, Maine, then traveled overland to Canada. Surviving lists for Quebec date from 1865 and for Halifax from 1881.


 * Canadian Passenger Lists 1865-1935 - Free online database

The Family History Library has:


 * Passenger lists for Quebec, 1865–1900. (On 53 Family History Library films beginning with film .)
 * Passenger lists for Halifax, 1881–1899. (On 12 Family History Library films beginning with film .)

The film numbers are in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

Canada - Emigration and Immigration
Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa (formerly the National Archives of Canada) has discontinued much of its interlibrary loan services as of 2013. Passenger lists in electronic format are available on the Library and Archives Canada website, but are not nominally indexed.


 * Ship passenger lists for Quebec, 1865–1919.
 * Ship passenger lists for Halifax, 1881–1919.
 * Ship passenger lists for St. John, 1900–1918.
 * Passenger lists for minor Canadian ports, about 1900–1921.
 * Lists of border crossings from the United States into Canada, 1908–1918.

Find the National Archives’ film numbers in:

Ships’ Passenger Lists and Border Entry Lists in PAC, RG 76, Records of the Immigration Branch. Ottawa, Canada: Federal Archives Division, Public Archives of Canada, 1986. (Family History Library book .)

Passenger lists and border entry lists into Canada for the years up to 1934 have been transferred to Library and Archives Canada.

Acton, John A. Index of Passengers Who Emigrated to Canada Between 1817 and 1849. FHL book 971 W22a WorldCat

Canada, Ocean Arrivals, 1865-1935 - $ Ancestry online database

To obtain post-1934 Canadian passenger lists, a Canadian citizen or resident must submit an Access to Information Request Form, which is available at Canadian post offices. Proof of the immigrant’s death and the approximate date of his or her arrival is required. Send the completed form with the required information and application fee to:

Citizenship and Immigration Canada Public Rights Administration 300 Slater Street 3rd Floor, Section D Ottawa, ON K1A 1L1 Canada Telephone: 888-242-2100 (in Canada only)

The Toronto Emigrant Office Assisted Immigration Registers Database at the Archives of Ontario is an Index to four volumes of assisted immigration registers for the period 1865-1883 (Series RG 11-3). Over 29,000 entries in chronological order, the database is searchable by surname.

Ontario Department of Immigration Records, 1869–1897

Under confederation (1867), both the dominion government and the provincial governments were responsible for immigration. Until about 1902, Ontario had its own department of immigration in competition with the central government. Provincial immigration records are now at the Archives of Ontario in Toronto.

The Family History Library has filmed some of these immigration records. About one in five overseas immigrants to Ontario during the 1870s is named in these records. For film numbers, see the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

The inGeneas Database contains records from a variety of immigration records (other than passenger lists) for the time period of 1748 to 1906. For the most part, these records have been extracted from microfilm of the original records held at several archives and libraries. It also contains passenger list records for immigrants arriving at Canadian ports between 1748 and 1873.

Canada-Home Children
Between 1869 and the late 1930s, over 100,000 juvenile migrants were sent to Canada from the British Isles during the child emigration movement. Library and Archives Canada has passenger lists, Immigration Branch correspondence files and inspection reports, non-government collections such as the Middlemore Home fonds, as well as indexes to some records held in the United Kingdom. The records also include names of older boys and girls who were recruited by immigration agents in the U.K. for farming and domestic work in Canada.

WWII War Brides
During World War II, Canadian soldiers began arriving in Britain as early as 1939. For some it would be six years before they returned home. Many of these young men married and fathered children while they were overseas.


 * “Marriages were often performed as quickly as they could be arranged, given family situations and military requirements. Women borrowed wedding dresses, or made fashionable coats out of dyed army blankets. A spray of flowers garnished their lapel and shiny silver cardboard horseshoes were given and carried for luck. Brief honeymoons were enjoyed before the inevitable separations occurred. Husbands left for battle not knowing their wives were pregnant. Babies were born and not seen by their fathers for years, and sometimes never. Wives became single parents trying to cope with new motherhood when they’d scarcely had time to enjoy married life.” (Granfield p. 2)

In all, nearly 48,000 war brides and 22,000 children arrived in Canada during and after World War II. While the vast majority of these women were British, there were some Europeans as well. The ships that had been used to transport the service men and women to Britain returned with their wives and children. The ships carrying the war brides and their children sailed from England to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Pier 21 became the depot for processing the arriving families. In 2000 a memorial plaque was mounted at Pier 21 to commemorate the war brides’ arrival in Canada.

The Canadian government was aware of the number of marriages taking place between Canadian service men and (mostly) British women. Little could be done about this situation during wartime but once victory was in sight the government began to put a plan together to bring these women and children to Canada from Britain and Europe. Several organizations cooperated in this endeavour, including the Department of National Defence, the Immigration Branch and the Canadian Red Cross Society. Travel costs, (ocean and rail) were paid for by the Canadian government.

The war brides were an interesting immigration group. Unlike many previous immigrants they don’t fit neatly into the “push-pull” factors we have previously discussed. Their motivation to emigrate was not based on persecution or the search for a better way of life but on having married Canadian soldiers. They were young and white, the majority were British; most of them had some first-hand experience with the war, and they were separating themselves from family members and in many cases would never see their parents, siblings and other relatives again.

Once in Canada, many of the women set up war bride clubs to help each other adjust to their new lives. With the aging of this group, the numbers are dwindling. Many have recently celebrated 50th wedding anniversaries. Several books have been published that recount personal experiences of the war brides.

For further information, see Canadian War Brides website. This site contains links to many other useful sites regarding War Brides.

For further reading

 * Brass Buttons and Silver Horseshoes, Stories from Canada’s British War Brides by Linda Granfield. McClelland &amp; Stewart, 2002.


 * If Kisses were Roses, a 50th Anniversary Tribute to War Brides by Helen (Hall) Shewchuk. Privately published, 1996.


 * Promise You’ll Take Care of My Daughter, The Remarkable War Brides of WWII by Ben Wicks. Stoddart Publishing, 1992.


 * Blackouts to Bright Lights, Canadian War Bride Stories by Barbara Ladouceur and Phyllis Spence. Ronsdale Press, 1995.

Ontario - Emigration and Immigration
Russian Empire Consular Records, 1901–1922

During the early 20th century, consular officials of the Russian Empire stationed in Canada and the United States kept files on former empire residents who sought their aid (to help in filling out naturalization and passport applications or to obtain proof of military service in Russia). These are especially helpful for documenting Jewish immigrants. Although this collection is considered a list of Jewish immigrants from Russia, many of the records are for other-ethnic immigrants, including Ukranians and Finns.

Most records in the personal files are in Russian, although there is often a two-page questionnaire in English and Russian asking about the person’s:


 * Age.
 * Birthplace.
 * Religion.
 * Marital status.
 * Relatives still living in the Russian Empire.
 * Prior military service.
 * Date of leaving the Empire or of arriving in Canada or the U.S.
 * Port of entry.
 * Place of residence in North America.

The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa has:

Records kept by Russian Empire consuls stationed in Montreal, Vancouver, and Halifax from 1901 to 1922. These are called the LiRaMa Collection after the initial letters of the three consuls’ names.


 * Library Canada Archives Li-Ra-Ma Collection Indexed online digital images to this collection. The site is a little quirky because hyperlinks to the images just look like underlined words. After completing a search, click on the word View Image. Scroll through any multiple pages in the digital image folder. Be aware of variant spellings of both given and surnames.

The collection has about 11,400 files on Russian and eastern European immigrants. Microfilms are available through interlibrary loan to public libraries. For film numbers, contact the National Archives of Canada (see Canada Archives and Libraries for the address or telephone number). The staff can help you use the surname index to these records, but they cannot provide translation.

The consulate at New York had responsibility for all of North America, so some Canadian residents appear in:

Records of the Russian Consular Offices in the United States, 1862–1928. Suitland, Maryland, USA: National Archives Microfilm Publications, 1986. (On 169 Family History Library films beginning with film .) These records, and the following index are listed in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

United States - Emigration and Immigration
Sack, Sallyann Amdur, and Suzanne Fishl Wynne. The Russian Consular Records Index and Catalog. New York, NY, USA: Garland Publishing Company, 1987. (Family History Library book .)

British Home Children Immigrants 1870-1940
An estimated 80,000 children (only few of whom were orphans) were sent from Britain to Canada by philanthropic organizations during the late 19th and early 20th century. Of the more than 50 agencies, the largest was Dr. Barnardo’s, which sent a few children to Canada beginning in the late 1860s, and over 30,000 more from 1882 to 1939. Click here for more information on the "Barnardo’s children." If your ancestor was one of the "Barnardo children," you may wish to write to:

Dr. Barnardo’s After Care Section Tanners Lane Barkingside, Ilford Essex 1G6 1QG England

Addresses of other agencies still holding information are in:

Harrison, Phyllis. Addresses of UK Foundling Homes for the British Immigrant Children Brought to Canada, Newsleaf. February 1986, 9. This is published by the Ontario Genealogical Society (Family History Library book .)

An Online resource is Young Immigrants to Canada. It includes resources on British Home Children.

The Library and Archives Canada also has an index for Home Children: Home Children 1869-1930

Research suggestions are in:


 * Library Archives Canada Blog: A series of blogs about what is available about the British Home Children on the LAC site and strategies about how to use the records. Published dates: 11/20/2012, 12/6/2012, 2/5/2013, 2/14/2013
 * Lorente, David. Home Children: Digging Up Their Roots, Anglo-Celtic Annals, 1995, 38–41. (Family History Library book .) This periodical is published by the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa.

The Family History Library has few records of these children, but there are some at the National Archives of Canada. Biographies of a few of them are in:


 * Harrison, Phyllis, Editor. The Home Children: Their Personal Stories. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Watson &amp; Dwyer, 1979. (Family History Library book .)
 * Corbett, Gail H. Barnardo Children in Canada. Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Woodland Publishing, 1981. (Family History Library book .) An appendix gives research suggestions.

See Also:


 * Canada, Background and Search Strategies for Home Children (National Institute)
 * Canada Home Children Immigration Records (National Institute)
 * Canada Home Children Inspection Records (National Institute)
 * Canada Home Children Other Sources (National Institute)
 * Canada Home Children British Sources (National Institute)
 * Canada Home Children Bibliography and Suggested Reading (National Institute)

A wiki article describing this collection is found at:

Border Crossings From Canada to the United States - FamilySearch Historical Records

For Further Reading

 * British Home Children, Veterans Affairs
 * Tracing Family History: Canada Immigration and Citizenship Genealogy Guide has links to other resources.
 * Immigration from Hungary to Canada.