Canadian Immigrant Records, Part One

Historically, Canada has been the destination for millions of immigrants from around the world seeking a better life in North America. Compiled from a variety of sources, this database is a collection of over 193,000 records between 1780 and 1906 relating to immigrants to Canada. This update adds the names of over 46,200 persons. Researchers will find the name of the immigrant and year and source of the original record. The entries in this database are not complete transcriptions of the original records; an e-mail link is provided at the bottom of each results page for those who would like to purchase a more detailed electronic transcript for a particular entry. This database can be immensely helpful for researchers with Canadian ancestors. We will periodically be adding more Canadian immigration data to our online library, so return to the Ancestry site often.

Researchers throughout North America will appreciate the value of this database that has been compiled from a variety of sources to represent the movement of immigrants to Canada. Historically, there have been frequent periods of migration between the United States and Canada, creating an interesting research problem for the genealogist. Neither Canadian nor American researchers can afford to be ignorant of records in the other nation. Passage to Canada was often less expensive than travelling to ports in the United States, so immigrants might travel to Canada and then complete their journey to the United States on land. Economic and social pressures have also played important roles in migration patterns.

The entries in this database are extracted from original records. They have been compiled to represent only those individuals for whom immigration information was available in the original records. The entries in this database are not complete transcriptions of the original records; an email link is provided at the bottom of each results page for those who would like to purchase a more detailed electronic transcript for a particular entry.

The information in this database comes from a variety of original documents. A large majority of the entries have been extracted from the 1901 census records for parts of Ontario and Quebec and represent those individuals who indicated a year of immigration and a place of birth outside of Canada. Other records represented include: historical atlases of Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island; biographical extracts from Quebec's Eastern Townships; War Office records listing Loyalist regiments in Lower Canada (Quebec); the 1851 census of Quebec City (for those who indicated a place of birth outside of Canada); early Irish immigrants in Eastern Ontario; groups of Scottish immigrants to Upper Canada (Ontario); and, Crown land grants in Kent County, Ontario.

The original records from which this database has been prepared are housed in a number of archives and libraries across Canada. The source information for each record will guide you to the relevant collection. Should you wish to visit the repositories, further information about each archive may be found at the following web-sites:

National Archives of Canada: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index.html

National Library of Canada: www.nlc-bnc.ca/ehome.htm

Prince Edward Island Public Archives and Records Office: http://www.edu.pe.ca/paro/about.asp

Public Archives of Nova Scotia: http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick: http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/Default.aspx?L=EN

Archives nationales du Quebec (French-language site): www.anq.gouv.qc.ca/