Genealogical Research

Unfortunately, the Archives of the St. Andrew’s Society have limited genealogical information at its disposal.  The Society has membership lists for its entire history, and lists for the Caledonian Society of Montreal for the period between 1892 and 1970.  These lists merely state the time when the person was member, and for the Caledonian Society an address.  That is all. 
In order to assist you in your genealogical research a list of resources have been listed  below…..
 
Local Resources:

• Mount Royal Family History Centre, 7110 Newman Blvd., La Salle QC H8N 1X2, Canada7110 Newman Blvd., La Salle QC H8N 1X2, Canada- Run by the Church of Latter Day Saints – open somewhat limited hours, and manned by volunteers – access to different databases (including fee based ones – for free).  Also able to loan (with advance notice) church registers and other records which have been microfilmed but not scanned.  This service is being phased out. [email protected].  Please take note that the Family History Center will be closed from December 21st 2018 at 1 pm until January 3rd, 2020, we will reopen on Friday January 4th, 2020 at 9:00 am
• Montreal Public Library– https://nelligan.ville.montreal.qc.ca/search.
• City of Montreal Archives– has land records: https://archivesdemontreal.com/
• Library and Archives Canada  – in Ottawa, has a genealogical room which includes transcripts of church registers from all over the country, and family histories which have been published in Canada, and access to databases for free such as Ancestry
• BANQ - has access to Ancestry on site, along with a number of newspapers from around Quebec – digitally available for free, as well as other documents and publications.  http://www.banq.qc.ca/accueil/

 
Genealogy and Family History Societies in Montreal: 

• Quebec Family History Society:  https://qfhs.ca
• Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal: https://jgs-montreal.org

 
Genealogy Web Sites:

• Ancestry.ca
• Findmypast.co.uk
• Familysearch.org
• Library and Archives Canada Databases:   http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/search/Pages/ancestors-search.aspx
• Scotland’s People: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/welcome.aspx
• Commonwealth War Graves:http://www.cwgc.org/
• Findagrave.com  - over 170 million memorials online –searchable for free

 
Also:

• Canadiana.org (Free starting Jan 1st, 2019)
• Archives of Ontario – online catalogue is awesome
• Royal British Columbia Museum and Archives – online is really good.
• Nova Scotia Archives – online is really good.

 
Birth Marriage and Death Records: 
Canada:Access to all BMD is limited for reasons of privacy legislation.  Most provinces follow a 70-100 year rule for access on documents – so unless you are related and can prove that relationship you will only be able to access documents prior to about 1925.  For example when requesting the death certificates of my parents in Alberta I had to prove with a long-form birth certificate that they were in fact my parents before my request could be fulfilled.  I did this in person, but when going online they often ask for notarized documentation for more recent events.   The links below are for provinces that provide an online database. 
BC
http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy/BasicSearch
SK
http://genealogy.ehealthsask.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx
MB
http://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/query.php
NB
http://archives.gnb.ca/ErrorPage404.aspx?404;http://archives.gnb.ca:80/search/uisse/?culture=en-ca&culture=en-CA
NS
www.novascotiagenealogy.com
PEI (from 1906)
www.gov.pe.ca/archives/parosearch/index/index
 
British BMD certificates:

• England: http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/
• Scotland:   http://www.scottishcertificates.org.uk/
• Northern Ireland: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/general-register-office-for-northern-ireland
• Republic of Ireland:  http://www.gov.ie/services/buy-a-birth-certificate/
• Ancestry has these indexes available for free, and will provide a link to an order form – don’t use it, they charge more than the government does.  Note the index and page numbers and go to a government web site. 

 
Immigration Records – Landing Records
Library and Archives Canada has lists of passengers arriving in Halifax and Quebec up to 1922
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/passenger-lists/passenger-lists-1865-1922/Pages/introduction.aspx
LAC also holds a list for those who were naturalised between 1915 and 1951 – however access to these records is restricted and requests for them must be made to Citizenship and Immigration as an ATIP request – cost $5.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
Access to Information and Privacy Division
Ottawa, ON  K1A 1L1
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/citizenship-naturalization-records/naturalized-records-1915-1951/Pages/search-naturalization-1915-1939.aspx
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/citizenship-naturalization-records/naturalized-records-1915-1951/Pages/search-naturalization-1939-1951.aspx
To obtain the records the person you are requesting information for must have been dead 20 years – and you have to prove this, and also you have to be a Canadian citizen to make the request.  
Findmypast.co.uk holds a collection of ships manifests for those who came to Canada on a British ship up to 1960.  The records reflect the act of leaving, not arriving, but can be helpful.
If the person you are looking for landed in New York, then you can search here for information - https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger?gclid=CjwKCAiArK_fBRABEiwA0gOOcwqdCo3_JVswfdAfIR1S7KiLzw-SccMPBI7w7hrtDzO5VDwKXuFV3BoCrbgQAvD_BwEThere is also similar border crossing information on Ancestry.ca  for New York and other ports, as well as land crossing, and some airport arrivals up to the 1940s.
 
Military records:

• Canada: LAC has a whole section online dedicated to military records which include the now completely scanned records of all the soldiers from the First World War. Second World War records of soldiers who survived the war are not open, but those who died during the war are available online.  The databases available range in date from New France to the Second World War.
  • http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/Pages/military-heritage.aspx
• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is responsible for the care of the graves of all Commonwealth soldiers.  They have an excellent database which provides – for free – information on the dead and missing commemorated worldwide and some simple service information. Excellent source….. https://www.cwgc.org/
• http://www.mapleleaflegacy.ca/wp/?page_id=71 gives you the headstone picture for most (but not quite all) Canadians killed during their service. 
• Ancestry now has all of its military documentation on a different platform called Fold 3, and it is a pay service separate from the regular Ancestry subscription. https://www.fold3.com/
• The Veterans Affairs database is also pretty awesome:  http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial It is mostly metadata captured from CWGC and LAC and conglomerated, but it also includes some digital documents that have been submitted by users/partners. See, for example: 
• http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/464121?Edward%20Cuthbert%20Norsworthy
• Britain:Because the Germans bombed the pension office during the Second World War – most service records for the First World War have been lost.  The exceptions are records for those who died during the First World War because they were housed at a different location.  The medal cards for most servicemen however do survive and can be purchased and downloaded from the National Archives for £3.50 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/?research-category=online&sub-category%5B%5D=medals-and-awards  Some of this material is also available at Fold3 and Findmypast.co.uk .  The Second World War records are not open.
• This website is run by the Imperial War Museum for those who served in the First World War – for the empire. Some parts are free – others are fee based. https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/
• Forces War Records is a subscription based source of British military records - https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/

Newspapers:

• Newspapers are a great source of information – birth, death, marriage notices in the classifieds, general reporting, etc.   Canadian newspapers are not that well represented in the databases available online.
• Newspapers.com – has a number of Canadian newspapers available – see the list here: https://www.newspapers.com/papers/  NOT FREE. Its American papers are quite extensive.

BanQ – Quebec Archives has a number of papers online and searchable by content, date and keywords :http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/resultats

University of Manitoba has a generous selection of local newspapers available online, using keywords or dates:  https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3Amanitobia_newspapers

The Victoria Times Colonist newspaper is available online for free: http://www.britishcolonist.ca/searchable by keywords and dates.

The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star are available online through their self-managed subscription services.  Both are available at LAC for free searches in the 2ndfloor research room. 
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Macleans Magazine is also available online –for free – searchable by keyword and date: www.archive.macleans.ca/issues
Findmypast.co.uk offers British newspapers as a part of its regular subscription.  Irish and American newspapers are a separate cost. 

The British Newspaper Archives has the same collection as findmypast, but includes the Irish in the same subscription fee.   https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/It is a subsidiary of the British National Library and this is their scanned collection.