Ontario Military Records

Many useful military records are at the National Archives of Canada and the War Office in Great Britain; some are on microfilm at the Family History Library. The Wiki article Canada Military Records provides more information about Loyalist and British military sources.

Research Guide

 * Militia and Military Records Archives of Ontario.

Online Canada Military Records

 * For online military records covering all of Canada, see Canada Online Genealogy Records.
 * Military Heritage
 * Canadian Military

Loyalists
Many of the Loyalists who arrived in Ontario beginning in 1784 had served in militia units attached to the British army. See, Loyalists

Militia
During the 19th century, Ontario men between 16 and 60 years of age served in reserve units of local militia organized by county. Men reporting for militia duty were listed on annual muster rolls. Militia units were organized on a county basis. This system was replaced in 1855 with an active volunteer militia. It became the basis for the Canadian army. Militia members fought in military actions such as the War of 1812, the 1837 Rebellion, and the Fenian Raid of 1867, but records are few.
 * Men of Upper Canada: militia nominal rolls, 1828-1829 (Toronto: Ontario Genealogical Society, 1995) Family History Library, WorldCat: This volume reproduces the province-wide 1828-1829 muster roll — the most complete that was undertaken (the original records are held by Library and Archives Canada as RG 9, Series 1-B-2, vols. 29-31).
 * The Archives of Ontario has some muster rolls and militia records and published transcripts of muster rolls.
 * Some have been published in periodicals and books such as:
 * Bull, Stewart H. ''The Queen's York Rangers: An Historic Regiment', Erin, Ontario: The Boston Mills Press, 1984.  . WorldCat  Includes lists of officers of the York County militia in 1798, 1812, and 1837.
 * Additional militia returns are in the periodical articles listed in Brenda Dougall Merriman's Genealogy in Ontario, pages 184-85.(, WorldCat

World War I (1914-1918)
Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) service records are available through the Personnel Records Unit of the National Archives of Canada. These service records contain detailed information from enlistment to discharge. Information may include each person's date and pace of birth, address at time of enlistment, name and address of next of kin, marital status, occupation, personal description (eye and hair color, height, weight, distinctive marks or scars), and religion.
 * Personnel Records of the First World War, digital online.

World War II

 * Service Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947
 * Ontario statistics overseas--deaths, 1939-1947 index and images. Death certificates of Ontario military personnel (all branches) who died while on overseas duty. In order by year only. Certificate numbers begin over with each year.
 * Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1948, index and images ($). These registrations document the deaths of Ontario residents overseas (mostly during military operations) during and immediately after World War II.