06 May 2011

Do you know TONI?

One of the Ontario Genealogical Society 50th anniversary projects is The Ontario Name Index, TONI for short.

With just 79,621 records available at present it's just getting started. Only records contributed by Wellington (the majority) and Kawartha Branches are now online. There is a promise that it will "quickly become large – perhaps as many as fifty million entries."

Here's a sample of a search on everyone's favourite surname.


As indicated by the t in the sources column, most of the data at present is from tombstones, likely a duplication of the data from the Ontario Cemetery Ancestor Index but with pay per view access to a more complete record. 

Other sources to be added are birth, christening/baptism, death, funeral card, family history, marriage, newspaper article, obit, township papers and Tweedsmuir history.

Even with the starter database it's easy to anticipate problems with common names not being well enough distinguished to make a pay per view purchase attractive. 

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1 comment:

  1. Julie06 May, 2011 09:27

    I know that most genealogists are cheap, I mean frugal, but at a dollar per PPV, a few erroneous purchases should not casue any major financial difficulties. It's still cheaper than the "wrong" UK BMDs that i have ordewrd and probably cheaper than making a vist to the site. Besides, it's for a good cause: "Most of the money (typically 60 to 80%) goes to the Ontario Heritage Organization which owns the data or its copyright. By using this data you are helping these organizations survive! OGS takes 20% to pay for the operating cost of this site; credit card charges come from this 20%."

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