Canada

Using the Auckland City Libraries to Find Images Relating to Canada

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If you are researching images relating to Canada have you tried the Auckland City Libraries?

They have an online database called “Heritage Images” and when using the search criteria of Canada you find there are seventy images to view.

You can choose the type of images you want to view: News & Newspapers; Research papers; Images; Reference sources; Books, and Magazines. Most of the images are late 19th and early 20th century.

There is an image for a grave marker for Samuel Morrin who was born 12 August 1842 in County of Two Mountains, Canada and died in Remuera Auckland on 15 April 1886. The County of Two Mountains is located in Quebec.

You can find an image for St. Paul’s church with the location being Ontario Canada.

There is a Canada Street in Auckland so you get a few images of the street in the search results.

Some references do not have images and this could be because they have not yet been digitized or for other reasons. You can find information on using and ordering images from the database here.

You never know where you might find information on your family. I wonder if someone is researching the Morrin family and do not know where Samuel ended up? If they find the Auckland City Libraries Heritage Images online he would not be a brick wall any more.

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

The Top Five for Canadian Family History Research

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These are my top five lists of books, blogs and websites that can assist you with your family history research in Canada. Do you have any that you feel should be added? If so please leave a comment.

Books

“Lovell’s Gazetteer of British North America 1873” published by Global Heritage Press

“Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records” by Brenda Dougall Merriman; published by The Ontario Genealogical Society

“United Empire Loyalists, a Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada” by Brenda Dougall Merriman; published by Global Heritage Press

“The Canadian Genealogical Sourcebook” by Ryan Taylor; published by the Canadian Library Association

“Finding Your Canadian Ancestors: A beginner’s guide” by Sherry Irvine and Dave Obee; published by Ancestry Publishing

Blogs

Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees

Fur trade Family History

Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society

Prairie History Blog

Veterans of Southwestern Ontario

Websites

Canadian Genealogy Centre

Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid

Automated Genealogy

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives

©2011 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved

Toronto Public Library Virtual Exhibits

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On a recent visit to the Toronto Reference Library to do some research I came across a small bookmark that advertised a virtual exhibit on the library website called “Local Flavour: Eating in Toronto, 1830-1955”

It is a wonderful look at the history of eating in Toronto. The menu consists of an introduction, Cookbooks of the 19th Century, Cookbooks of the 20th Century, Kitchen Appliances, 20th Century Lifestyle, Dining out, Gardening, Toronto in Wartime, Manufacturing/Food Industry, Shopping in Toronto and How to Eat Like a Child in Toronto.

Each section contains digital images and some recipes so you can recreate some of the recipes your ancestors may have cooked. The recipe for Ham Toast includes the reference “a lump of butter the size of half an egg.”

Shopping in Toronto includes photographs and pages from city directories to do with purveyors of fine food within the city. Toronto in Wartime has a ration book among its images. The images of labour saving devices found in the section on Kitchen Appliances is fun to look at. I can not imagine cooking on those appliances today.

The main theme for the advertisement for Shredded Wheat cereal was that it is ready to eat and the children can get their own breakfast. The date of the advertising is 1926.

The Toronto Public Library has many other virtual exhibits. Some that might be of interest to genealogists include:

Canadians on the Guard: The Home Front, 1939-1945

Toronto Sanctuaries Church Designs by Henry Langley

The First Black Doctor in Canada: Anderson Ruffin Abbott

Panorama of the City of Toronto, 1857

Fraternal Societies in Canada

Toronto Orphanages and Day Nurseries

Toronto like many cities these days are struggling to balance their budget. The Toronto Public Library is in danger of having branches closed and services restricted. If you live in Toronto please take a minute to sign the petition to save the public library system in Toronto.