The following is an announcement from Library and Archives Canada.
Ottawa, December 2, 2010 - Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the launch of a new online database, Canadian Families.
Through this online database, researchers can access references to baptisms, marriages and burials inscribed in church records held at Library and Archives Canada. This database will expand slowly over the next few years as more references are added.
The database is available at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/families/index-e.html
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A quick review of search results indicates that the database is populated with information from three sources:
The Kipling collection comprising 19th century baptisms, marriages and burials from St.John's Anglican Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba, St.Andrew's Anglican Church, Lockport, Manitoba, and a few from St.Boniface Roman Catholic Church, St.Boniface, Manitoba.
The W J (Bill) Miller collection from Leeds County, Ontario
The St. Andrew's Church, Williamstown. Ontario, records from the first two decades of the 19th century.
"inscribed in church records" understates the nature of the sources, at least in the case of the Bill Miller collection, which includes gravestone sources and death notices and obituaries from newspapers. It is good that references to these additional sources are now more widely available, although such sources are generally less reliable than church records. Miller accepted gravestone information without question. Because the accurately transcribed death year of a first wife, in error by ten years, was much after the widower's second marriage, to avoid the implication of bigamy, Miller postulated the existence of another husband of exactly the same name, although he was not able to find any record of him. I have not been able to find any way to make all future users of the Miller Collection aware of this error. Novice researchers need to be reminded that the phrase "carved in stone" doesn't mean much.
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