Glengarry County, Ontario Genealogy

Guide to Glengarry County ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records. Ontario Online Genealogy Records Ask the Community

Birth

 * 1869 - 1911 at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1858 - 1913 - Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913 at Ancestry.com--index and images. ($)
 * 1869 - 1912 - Ontario Births, 1869-1912 at --index. ($)

Marriage

 * 1801-1858 at FamilySearch — index and images.
 * 1801-1928, 1933-1934 - Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928, 1933-1934 at Ancestry.com--index and images. ($)
 * 1826 - 1938 Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1826-1938 at Ancestry.com - index and images ($)
 * 1858-1869 at FamilySearch — index and images.

Death

 * 1869-1937, and some 1939-1947 at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1869-1938, 1943-1944, and some 1939-1947 - Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938, 1943-1944, and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 at Ancestry.com--index and images. ($)
 * 1869 - 1948 Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1948 at Ancestry.com - index  and images ($)

Writing for a More Recent Birth, Marriage, or Death Record

 * ServiceOntario, Birth Records is the only government-authorized source for obtaining birth certificates. Go to the section entitled "Order a Birth Search".  This is the most economical, searches the widest time period, and allows searches for people not immediately related. A letter of information is provided rather than a certificate.
 * ServiceOntario, Marriage Records offers a marriage search option and a historical certificate option.
 * ServiceOntario, Death Records offers a death search option and a historical certificate option. Also official death certificates are available to a wider range of relatives than birth and marriage certificates.

FamilySearch Library Microfilmed Records
Some of the church/civil records have been microfilmed by FamilySearch. These microfilms may be available for viewing at various Family History Centers around the world. To find a microfilm:
 * a. Click on records for Canada, Ontario, Glengarry County. You will see a list of available records for the county.
 * b. You will also see above the list the link Places within Canada, Ontario, Glengarry County. This will take you to a list of towns in the counties, which are links to records for the specific town.
 * c. Click on any topic. Click on the blue links to specific record titles.
 * d. Some combination of these icons will appear at the far right of the microfilm listed for the record. FHL icons.png. The magnifying glass indicates that the microfilm is indexed. Clicking on the magnifying glass will take you to the index. Clicking on the camera will take you to an online digital copy of the microfilm.

Church Records
Church records can include baptisms, marriages, burials, membership lists, financial business, and other records for a particular congregation. They may be available online or on microfilm, but frequently they are still with the local church or in centralized archives by religion. The Canadian census records asked for the religion of those listed, so you will be able to narrow down which archives to consult. For help with writing a letter requesting copies of records, see Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy.
 * Link to Anglican church archives
 * Link to Baptist church archives
 * Link to Catholic church archives
 * Link to Lutheran church archives
 * Link to Moravian church archives
 * Link to Presbyterian church archives
 * Link to United Church of Canada (including Methodist) church archives

Online Church Records
These records are incomplete. ($).
 * collection includes indexed Ontario church records.
 * , images only.
 * Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1923, index and images, ($).
 * Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1802-1967
 * Ontario, Canada, Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1802-1967
 * Ontario, Canada, Roman Catholic Marriages, 1827-1870, ($).
 * Various individual church records at Findmypast, ($).

Cemetery Records
See, Ontario Cemeteries for information on cemetery record collections not yet digitized, but available in published sources and on microfilm.

Online Cemetery Records

 * Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid website has a free, searchable database of over 2 million burials in Ontario. It can be searched by name, cemetery, county and town, but its references do not include dates of death.  Although it does not include any gravestone inscriptions, it can be used to locate graves in Ontario.
 * Ontario Cemetery Ancestory Index
 * Ontario Name Index (TONI)
 * The Ontario section of Canada GenWeb Cemetery Project
 * CanadianHeadstones
 * Canada, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current
 * Canada, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

History
The area was originally settled in 1792 as part of the historic Glengarry County in which many Scottish emigrants settled from all over the Scottish Highlands due to the Highland Clearances. Charlottenburgh and Lancaster were two of the original eight "Royal Townships" established along the Saint Lawrence River in Upper Canada. This area was first settled by United Empire Loyalists. Development was encouraged by Sir John Johnson, a weathly landowner loyal to Britian, who was forced to abandon his land holdings in New York State during the American Revolution.

Glengarry is located on the southeastern boundary of the province of Ontario. It stretches for twenty miles along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. Its original two (now four) townships reach twenty-two miles inland, taking in fertile lowlands, gentle hills, and the stone-covered fields seemingly beloved by Highland farmers everywhere.

Highland inheritance has marked the inhabitants of Glengarry from the first years of settlement. County historians Royce MacGillivray and Ewan Ross argue forcefully that Glengarry was a nation "with its own intense sense of cohesion and of separation from the outside world, its own customs and values, its own awareness of having its own heroic past separate from that of the country of which it has been a part, and for a time, even its own language."

The county was originally made up of Scottish emigrants from the Highlands of Scotland. These emigrants created the new Highland community. Between 1773 and 1853, close to 3,500 people emigrated to Glengarry County from a few districts in the Scottish Highlands. The emigrants came from the districts in Scotland of Lochiel, Glengarry, Knoydart and Glenelg. This was a mountainous area of mainland Inverness-shire. Many of these clansmen had been supporters of the Jacobite cause in 1745. They had suffered from military suppression and modernization of agricultural organization. The ordinary clansmen could not amass the capital needed to finance these activities.

The Highlanders emigrated from Scotland to North America. The Glengarry settlement originated in a desire to take advantage of the new opportunities available in Canada. Most emigrated from 1785 to 1802.

The first clansmen to reach Glengarry County came from the new United States during and just after the Revolutionary War; they had actually left Scotland for the colony of New York, mostly in 1773. The largest group of these families was led by three Macdonell brothers, Aberchalder, Collachie, and Leek, originally tacksmen from the Glengarry estate. The American Revolution transformed the emigrants into Loyalist refugees whose Canadian refuge became the nucleus of the new Highland community. No sooner had the Loyalists obtained land in Glengarry Couny in 1784 than they were joined by friends and relatives, who organized five sailings from Scotland within nine years. Military officers such as Alexander McMillan and Miles Macdonell, tacksmen such as Alexander Macdonell of Greenfield and Kenneth McLeod of Glenelg, religios leaders such as Father Alexander McDonell of Scotus, and substantial tenants such as Angus Ban Macdonell of Muniall, led the departures. After a lull, created by the war of 1794, two groups of close to a thousand clansmen emigrated to Glengarry in the brief peace of 1802. In 1815 the last large group of emigrants left western Inverness for Glengarry County. Other smaller groups of Highlanders reached Canada from the same districts or neighboring ones, almost rebuilding the whole of western Inverness communities in Glengarry County.

Places/Localities
Glengarry County was divided historically into four main townships: Kenyon, Lochiel, Charlottenburgh and Lancaster. Kenyon contains: Dunvegan, Athol, St. Elmo, Maxville, Greenfield, Darnie, Dominionville, Alexandria, Loch Garry and Apple Hill.

Lochiel contains: Lochivar, McCrimmon, Bredalbane, Kirkhill, Dalkeith, Laggan, Fassifern, Lochiel, Glen Sandfield, McCormick, and Glen Robertson.

Charlottenburgh contains: Avondale, Glenroy, Munroe Mills, North Branch, Martintown, St. Raphael's, MacGillivray Bridge, Cashionglen, Williamstown, Summerstown, Glenbrook, Glen Donald, Lancaster, Tyotown, Glen Walter and South Lancaster.

Lancaster contains: Glen Norman, Dalhousie Mills, Green Valley, Glen Norman, North Lancaster, Pine Hill, Glennevis, Glen Gordon, Curry Hill and Bainsville.

Populated Places
Alexandria, Dalkeith, Green Valley, Lancaster, Maxville,Summerstown Williamstown.

Neighboring Counties
Glengarry is one of the combined counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. Glengarry County is bordered on the north by Prescott County, on the west by Stormont County and on the east by Soulanges County, Quebec. The southern border is with St. Lawrence River dividing it from the State of New York in the United States.

Cemeteries
Several "Gravestones of Glengarry" cemetery transcriptions are available at: http://glengarrycounty.com/gofg.html

Church Records
Baptist Church located in North Lancaster (Lancaster 6th concession lot 24)

Beech Protestant located in Maxville (Kenyon 17th concession lot 7)

Bredalbane Baptist located in Bredalbane (Lochiel 8th concession lot 6)

Brodie Reformed Covenanter located in Brodie (Lochiel 5th concession lot 7)

Church on the Hill or St. John's Presbyterian United located in Alexandria (Kenyon)

Dalhousie Mills Presbyterian located in Dalhousie Mills (Lancaster 8th concession lot 8-9)

Gordon Presbyterian located in St. Elmo (Indian Lands 19th concession lot 9)

Griindleys Quaker Protestant located in Williamstown (Charlottenburgh 3rd concession lot 10)

Kenyon or Dunvegan Presbyterian located in Dunvegan (Kenyon 9th concession lot 25)

Kirk Hill Protestant located in Kirk Hill (Lochiel 7th concession lot 26)

Kirk Hill United located in Kirk Hill (Lochiel 7th concession lot 27)

McMillan Protestant located in North Lancaster (Lancaster 7th concession lot 24)

Maxville Protestant located in Maxville (Kenyon 17th concession lot 8)

Precious Blood Roman Catholic located in Glen Walter (Charlottenburgh)

St. Alexanders Roman Catholic located in Lochiel (Lochiel 6th concession lot 6)

St. Andrew's Presbyterian United located in Bainsville (Lancaster 2nd concession lot 23)

St Catharine Roman Catholic located in Greenfield (Kenyon 4th concession lot 25)

St. Columbia Presbyterian located in Kirk Hill (Lochiel 6th concession lot 27)

St. Finnan's Roman Catholic located in Alexandria (Lochiel Bishop &amp; Paul Streets)

St. James Roman Catholic located south of Dominionville (Kenyon 16th concession lot 8)

St. John the Evangelist Anglican located in Lancaster (Lancaster 1st concession lot 30)

St. Joseph Roman Catholic located in Lancaster (Lancaster 1st concession lot 36)

St. Margaret's of Scotland Roman Catholic located in Glen Nevis (Lancaster 7th concession lot 17)

St. Martin de Tours Roman Catholic located in Glen Robertson (Lochiel 2st concession lot 7)

St. Mary's Roman Catholic aka Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary located in Williamstown (Charlottenburgh 1st concession lots 6 and 12)

St. Marie de Assumption Roman Catholic located in Green Valley (Lancaster 8th concession lot 38)

St. Paul's Roman Catholic located in Dalkeith (Lochiel 6th concession lot 9)

St. Raphael's Roman Catholic located at St. Raphael's (Charlottenburgh 6th concession lot 8)

St. Williams Roman Catholic Church located in Martintown on Apple Hill Road (Charlottenburgh 7th concession lot 36)

Sacre Coeur Roman Catholic located in Alexandria (Lochiel 2nd concession lot 35)

Salem United Church Presbyterian located in Summerstown (Charlottenburgh 1st concession lot 16)

Microfilms available for most see FHL Film 1598265-7

Land and Property Records
The Glengarry Archives now have their own web site at http://www.glengarryarchives.ca the following is from that site Welcome To Glengarry The Archives are located within the Manor House in the quiet, historic village of Williamstown, Ontario. Some of our records date as far back as the late 1700's. When the land registry offices changed to microfilm records in the 1990's, local history groups acquired the land record abstracts for Glengarry County. The Manor House Committee, a dedicated group of volunteers had these abstracts bound into 30 volumes (actually oversized books). The committee has worked over many years to preserve and share these and other related documents

Click here to go to the official Glengarry Archives Site http://www.glengarryarchives.ca

Maps
Map of the counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott &amp; Russell, Canada West [cartographic material] Shows land owners' names, lots, concessions, buildings and business directory. Also includes population statistics for 1861 and table of distances.

Copyright: expired Credit Library and Archives Canada.

Surveyor: Gray, Ormando Willis. Walling, Henry Francis, 1825-1888. Publisher: Putnam, D.P. Online at
 * Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection at Boston Public Library Digital Collections
 * American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Newspapers &amp; Obituaries
The Glengarry News was founded in 1892 and has published uninterruptedly ever since. For almost the first one hundred years The News had only two editor-publishers, its founder and president Col. A.G.F. Macdonald, a citizen-soldier who raised and led overseas in World War I the 154th Battalion, and his son Eugene Macdonald.

Glengarry County was initially settled in the late 1700s and early 1800s, first by Scottish United Empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution and shortly afterwards by hardy Scottish immigrants from the westernmost part of Scotland from place names that still serve Glengarry County well today.

Glengarry County is the prime keeper of Scottish traditions in Canada. It is the site of the largest Highland Games in the world, the Glengarry Highland Games held each year on the last weekend of July or first weekend of August before the Ontario Civic Holiday at Maxville, where 20,000 or more gather to honour their past at the North American Pipe Band and Highland Games Championships.

But Glengarry County is more than things Scottish. Those early Scottish immigrants were joined by equally hardy French-Canadians from Lower Canada, and immigrants from all over the world, to create a harmonious blend that lives on to this day.

This is the home of The Glengarry News: http://www.glengarrynews.ca/

Websites
The Forebears website will give you an extensive list of websites that could have information for people who lived in this county. Some sites cover just the county, some cover all of Ontario, and some cover all of Canada. Some sites are databases of names and facts about people; other sites cover background information such as maps, history, geography, or genealogy strategies and methods for the region.


 * Forebears, Glengarry County