Which genealogy websites do you most value for Canadian content? Rather than trust the judgement of self-proclaimed experts in other countries let's follow the model used for Rockstar Genealogist and conduct a survey.
Posted below is a list of Canadian genealogy websites, national and provincial, pre-nominated, if there is such a term. Sites with an asterisk are international but with a substantial Canadian component and widely used by Canadian family historians. Local society and municipal sites, and sites that are primarily blogs, including my own, are excluded.
To start things off here's an updated list of sites that I intend including:
Alberta Family Histories Society
Alberta Genealogical Society
Ancestry.ca*
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
Archive CD Books Canada
Archives of Manitoba (includes Hudson's Bay Archives)
Archives of Ontario
Automated Genealogy
BC Archives
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Bill Martin's Genealogy Website
British Columbia Genealogical Society
British Home Children & Child Migrants in Canada
BMS2000
Canada GenWeb
Canadian County Atlas
Canadian Gravemaker Gallery
Canadian Headstone Photo Project
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
Canadiana
CanGenealogy
Commonwealth War Graves Commission*
FamilySearch.org*
Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador
Fichier Origine
Findmypast.ca*
Généalogie du Québec et d'Amérique française
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia
Glenbow Museum
Global Genealogy
Immigrants to Canada
Institut généalogique Drouin
Internet Archive*
Island Newspapers
Library and Archives Canada
Manitoba Genealogical Society
Métis National Council (MNC) Historical Online Database
National Institute for Genealogical Studies*
New Brunswick Genealogical Society
Newfoundland's Grand Banks
Nova Scotia Archives
Olive Tree Genealogy*
Ontario Genealogical Society
OurOntario.ca
Our Roots
Peel's Prairie Provinces
PRDH-IDG
Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society
Prince Edward Island Public Archives and Records Office
Programme de Recherche sur l'Émigration des Français en Nouvelle-France
Provincial Archives of Alberta
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
Quebec Family History Society
Rootsweb*
Saskatchewan Archives
Saskatchewan Genealogical Society
The Island Register (Prince Edward Island)
The Regimental Rogue
The Rooms (Newfoundland and Labrador)
The Ships List*
United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada
Yukon Genealogy
Please leave a comment with any additional nominations remembering that local society and municipal sites, and blog sites, are excluded. If you run one of the above sites and would prefer it be excluded also let me know via a comment, which will not be posted if requested.
Nominations will be open for a week and voting will follow shortly thereafter.
I nominate The Island Register (Prince Edward Island) - http://www.islandregister.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks John for undertaking this poll -- the results will undoubtedly be informative and instructive! Would you consider adding: Internet Archive; Bytown or Bust; and Veterans Affairs Canada for the Canadian Virtual War Memorial (has Canadian content not on Commonwealth War Graves Commission website).
ReplyDeleteI nominate Norfolklore (Eva Brook Donly Museum & Archives, operated by the Norfolk Historical Society) www.norfolklore.com
ReplyDeleteSorry I just realized local societies are excluded so you can ignore my above request, if you wish. However, I'm not sure why. Norfolk Historical Society has been operating for 115 years in one of the oldest areas settled in Canada, it goes without saying they have some great Canadian content on their website.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I nominate Manitobia http://manitobia.ca/ and Peel's Prairie Provinces http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/index.html. Also PRDH http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/en/home
ReplyDeleteI nominate Fichier Origine, the database for genealogists who are researching their French Canadian roots and want to know where their earliest ancestor in Quebec came from, date of birth and marriage, parents' names, spouse's name, occupation, and possibly the date of death. http://www.fichierorigine.com/index.htm
ReplyDeleteI nominate "Programme de Recherche sur l'Émigration des Français en Nouvelle-France" from Université de Caen - Not only gives names and origin of New France ancestors, but gives family and sibling information and supplies marriage and baptism records if available. Doing research about the Maupetit family I found 10 pages of family history and records! (Click on Notices Complementaire)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/prefen/formPion.php
I nominate Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home by Lucie LeBlanc Consentino http://www.acadian-home.org/frames. This is a premier site for Acadian research.
ReplyDeleteI nominate Canadian County Atlas http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas - atlases from 1874 to 1881 show property owners throughout Ontario, with a searchable database of names
ReplyDeleteThank you for undertaking this project.
I've thought of another one - Island Newspapers (http://islandnewspapers.ca/) - a fully-searchable online archive of PEI's main newspaper of record, The Guardian, from 1890 to 1957.
ReplyDeleteGreat initiative. I've already discovered some sites I didn't know about, just from the nomination list :)
Good question John, and difficult to answer without repeating one you have already listed. (You already had my "first reaction" choice.)
ReplyDeleteI would like to nominate the "Canadian Gravemarker Gallery" I know it looks like another piece of Ancestry but it is simply hosted on their Rootsweb network, and is the "child" of Murray Pletsch who has devoted years to it.
If I'm allowed a second choice I'd like to also nominate the "Ontario Locator" website which is another "single handed" effort although I'm not sure if it wouldn't be excluded on your "local" rule, being particular to Ontario only.
I'd also "second" the nomination of "Bytown or Bust" as a toure de force of a "one subject" website.
I think PRDH -- Programme de recherche en démographie historique (Research Programme in Historical Demography)-- should be added to the list of nominations. This database provides all Catholic certificates of baptism, marriage and burial in Quebec and Protestant marriages, from 1621-1849. http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/en/home
ReplyDeleteI do know that Genealogy In Time is run by a Canadian, but its reach is international, but it is just such a good site, when it is not on vacation, and I nominate it. As well, the Mayholme Foundation in St. Catharines is a charity foundation focussing on Niagara (very very Canadian, as we were involved in the War of 1812, had the first Parliament etc) and Mayholme is run by wonderful volunteers. I nominate them both.
ReplyDeleteThanks for undertaking this, John.
Gail B in St. C.
Please consider Sue Swiggum's THE SHIPS LIST at http://theshipslist.com It is international but Sue has substantial databases of ships arriving in Canada and the St. Lawrence Steamship Company records on her site.
ReplyDeleteI would like to nominate Waterloo Region Generations (http://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca/) - great site for sourced family trees in Waterloo County. Its hosted by the Region of Waterloo, but is administered and run by a volunteer.
ReplyDeleteHow about OurOntario.ca?
ReplyDeleteWe seem to do this every once in a while.
ReplyDeleteBritish Home Child Advocacy & Research Association http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/
Some of the provincial archives sites are on the list here, but not all. I have a guide to Canadian provincial archives' sites. But you could still use Archives Canada website http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/search/BasicSearch.asp
Then there are -
Glenbow Museum http://www.glenbow.org/
Hudson’s Bay Archives, Manitoba Archives: http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/
Métis National Council (MNC) Historical Online Database http://metisnationdatabase.ualberta.ca/MNC/
Bill Martin's Genealogy Website -- http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/index.htm
ReplyDeleteI nominate "Programme de Recherche sur l'Émigration des Français en Nouvelle-France" from Université de Caen - Not only gives names and origin of New France ancestors, but gives family and sibling information and supplies marriage and baptism records if available. Doing research about the Maupetit family I found 10 pages of family history and records!
ReplyDelete