Library and Archives Canada

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Contact Information
Address:


 * 395 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4 CANADA

E-mail:


 * Ask a Question Genealogy Inquiry Form
 * Ask Us a Question Form
 * Request for Retrieval of Documents
 * User Card Registration Form
 * Reproduction Requests

Telephone:   613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll-free in Canada and the US)    TTY: 613-992-6969 or 1-866-299-1699 (toll-free in Canada) Fax: 613-995-6274

Hours and holidays:


 * Registration Desk (Ground floor)   Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.    Closed on Statutory Holidays


 * Canadian Genealogy Centre (3rd floor)   Monday  8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.    Tuesday  8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.    Wednesday  8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.    Thursday  8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.    Friday  8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.    Saturday/Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Map, parking, and public transportation:


 * Map. Online map.
 * Parking. There are paid parking spaces for Library and Archives Canada visitors on the west side of the building. Also, there are public parking lots and some metered street parking nearby.
 * Public Transit.


 * Ottawa's OC Transpo take any bus travelling on Wellington, Albert, Slater, Queen or Bank streets.
 * Gatineau's STO take any bus travelling on Wellington Street in Ottawa.

Internet sites and databases:


 * LAC Internet Site discover the collection, genealogy and family history, censuses, military records, research by topics, copies and visiting, services and programs, forum, news, photo gallery.
 * Genealogy and Family Hisory how-to-begin, birth, marriages, deaths, census, immigration, military, land, and employment records.


 * Search all of LAC's collections at once.
 * Ancestor search - by name.
 * Library search - digital books, journals, and theses.
 * Archives search - fonds, photos, maps, and art.

Collection Description
Canadian national (or regional) databases and collections which include millions of books, newspapers, and periodicals, 21.3 million photos, 343,000 works of art about topics like genealogy and family history, portraits, aboriginal peoples, biographies, censuses, citizenship, disasters, ethno-cultural groups, educational resources, exploration, film and broadcasting, immigration, literature, land records, maps, military, music and performing arts, Canadian national identity, philately and postal history, politics and government, roads, canals, and railroads, settlement, sports, births, marriages, deaths, and divorces.

Tips

 * Preparing for a visit to the LAC.

Guides

 * Genealogy and Family History how-to-begin, vital records (see following bullet entry), census, immigration, military, land, and employment records
 * Births, Marriages and Deaths in church/civil records, adoptions, cemeteries, divorces, and wills

The LAC has dozens of research aids. For example, some of interest to genealogists include:


 * Aboriginal Peoples—Guide to the Records of the Government of Canada
 * Canada's Digital Collections archived at Library and Archives Canada
 * Canadian Immigration Since Confederation and the Department of External Affairs
 * Grosse-Île Quarantine Station (Québec) (immigration)
 * Guide to Sources Relating to Units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1918
 * Immigration of Farm Labourers to Canada, 1918-1945
 * Most Frequently Used Immigration Records
 * Jacob M Lowy Collection (Hebraica and Judaica collection)
 * Newspapers at Library and Archives Canada
 * Rideau Canal

Alternate Repositories
Many Canadian libraries and archives have complementary collections. And some have microfilm copies of records from Library and Archives Canada. If you cannot visit or find a source at , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * Military History Research Centre, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa
 * Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax
 * Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Québec City
 * Cloverdale Branch, Surrey Public Library in BC, including LAC genealogy microfilms and more
 * Archives of Ontario, Toronto
 * Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
 * Hudson's Bay Company Archives, Winnipeg
 * Canadian Pacific Railway Archives, Montreal
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, including many Canadian records.
 * American-Canadian Genealogical Society, Manchester, New Hampshire, USA
 * The National Archives of the United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England British records relating to early Canada and associated territories

Similar Collections


 * various Provincial and Territorial Archives
 * Centre for International Migration and Settlement Studies, Carlton University
 * Centre d'études acadiennes, Université de Moncton
 * Institute of Canadian and Aboriginal Studies, University of Ottawa
 * Programme de recherche en démographie historique, Université de Montréal, over 2 million births, marriages, and burials 1621-1850 mostly from 153 Roman Catholic parishes in Québec.

Neighboring Collections


 * National Archives I, Washington DC, census, pre-WWI military service &amp; pensions, passenger lists, Canadian border crossings, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, prisons, and federal employees.
 * Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room is part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, and collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources.
 * Allen County Public Library (Indiana) has a premier genealogical periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, American Indians, African Americans, and Canadians.
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, national scope, 100 million name databases, 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, 20 million manuscrpt pages, vital records, periodicals for U.S., Canada, and Britsh Isles.
 * Newberry Library, Chicago, a large repository with genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and British Isles.