The closure of the physical Land Registry Offices as of October has stimulated a lot of interest in the availability of Ontario land records online.
Last Saturday's BIFHSGO workshop Ontario Land Records Made Easy given by Ken McKinlay was "well-received", I'd go as far as "highly-acclaimed."
For a limited time, the workshop handout and video in three parts are available to all at the BIFHSGO website. Then they will be moved behind the Society firewall — available to members only.
Overview and Part I — https://youtu.be/s4RIs2A9IOI
Part II - The Abstracts — https://youtu.be/CgwqHxdqEY0
Part III - The Instruments / Chat responses — https://youtu.be/MeUD16WXsF4
Chat responses — https://bifhsgo.ca/upload/files/Education/2020_Dec_Chat_-_Ontario_Land_Records_Made_Easier_-_participants_contributions.pdf
On Wednesday evening OGS hosted a webinar ONLAND: Ontario Land Registry Access - A Insiders Guide on how to use it, with two speakers, Dan Petoran and Cat Bufalino from the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. Find it linked in a page with lots of other good land record information at https://ogs.on.ca/land-records/
I attended both of those sessions. I came away from Ken McKinlay's presentation with a great deal of information as well as some terrific notes. I left the other presentation with the distinct feeling that the Government of Ontario has now perpetrated another $$$$$ grab on genealogists. In the past I was able to go to a Land Registry Office and look at documents (many years ago the actual documents, more recently the microfilm/fiche) at no charge. It will not cost me $3.00 each to look at those documents. As an amateur genealogist and a pensioner, I cannot afford that. Thank you Government of Ontario.
ReplyDeleteThere may be a small cost for some documents, although the copies from the Historical books are free. On the other hand, you can work from home with no costs for transport, parking, etc. and probably saving considerable time.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much they collect after credit card fees and administrative expenses.
ReplyDelete