OGS Toronto: House of Industry

Good work by OGS Toronto Branch. Minute books and case recommendations of Toronto’s House of Industry from 1855 to 1882 are being transcribed, about 1000 case entries each year.

The House of Industry provided permanent and temporary lodging as well as food and fuel to the needy in the community, families made vulnerable by illness or injury, an absent parent or spouse, addiction, or simply temporary bad luck. They were often required to do chores in return for help. It assisted abandoned or orphaned children, often placing them as indentured servants in homes and farms in and around Toronto. See this Wikipedia entry.

There is access to these volumes at The Internet Archive:

Minute Book 1855–1859
Minute Book 1860–1862
Minute Book 1863–1866

Each completed volume has high-resolution digital images, a searchable PDF of the transcriptions and supporting notes, and a plain text file of the transcribed content. However, when you follow the link above you will see an annoyingly low-resolution copy. Scroll down several hundred pages to see options for downloading various full-text searchable formats.

A fourth volume, covering 1867–1870, will be published to The Internet Archive in the first quarter of 2020.

via a tweet by Jane MacNamara.