Library and Archives Canada - International Institute

Library and Archive Canada's website provides access to a variety of information resources related to actual archival holdings.

Here, there are a number of databases that you can consult, all relating to records stored at Library and Archives Canada. The following categories of databases are available for use:


 * Directory of Resources
 * Births, Marriages and Deaths including acts of divorce and marriage bonds
 * Census and Enumerations
 * Immigration and Citizenship including home children and passenger lists
 * Land including grants and petitions
 * Military
 * People including directories and post offices and postmasters

Everyone will likely find a different database that has something in it for them. For example, as a reference archivist at the Provincial Archives of Alberta, I used the Western Land Grants database on a daily basis. This is because this database lists the names of people who were given land grants in Western Canada, along with the land description. Because the Provincial Archives of Alberta hold microfilmed copies of the original land records, by knowing where a person lived, a patron could then go to look up the original land grant records.

Another researcher might be able to find references to an ancestor in the Prime Ministers’ Fonds, or the records of the Home Children.

Library and Archive Canada’s website is a great starting point for anyone looking for an ancestor in Canada, and even if you don’t know of any relatives who worked, for example, for a Prime Minister, you might want to try typing your family name in the database anyway.

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