Genealogical and Historical Societies
Genealogical societies can provide expertise about the resources in their area. The Ontario Genealogical Society has 32 branches throughout the province. The society has a large library that is found in the North York Central Library in Toronto. OGS has indexed Ontario records for almost fifty years. Many of these indexes have been published and are available for sale. The list of books the society has for sale can be found on their webpage. One project that should be checked is the Ontario Genealogical Society Provincial Index.
Ontario Genealogical Society Provincial Index (OGSPI)
This project seeks to list all sorts of information about everybody. The major challenge designing the indexing system was making it work even though a person's name is not the same on every piece of paper or source document. There is data from censuses, birth, marriage and death registers, references in books, land records, ship lists, military records and a host of other references. Each entry points to the original source, which you can then look up for the complete reference. It takes a bit of time to learn to use well but it is worth the effort. Currently there are over 2.8 million names.
Ontario Genealogical Society
| OGS Library located at |
| 40 Orchard View Blvd, Suite 102 |
Gladys Allison Canadiana Room |
| Toronto, ON M4R 1B9 |
Sixth Floor, North York Central Library |
| Tel: (416) 489-0737 |
5120 Yonge Street |
| Fax: (416) 489-9803 |
Toronto, Ontario M2N 5N9 |
| E-mail: provoffice@ogs.on.ca |
Tel: 416-395-5623 |
The Ontario Historical Society has published the journal Ontario History since 1899. There is an online index for the issues to 1992. An index for the following years is currently being developed.
Ontario Historical Society
34 Parkview Avenue
Toronto, ON M2N 3Y2
Tel: (416) 226-9011 Fax: (416) 226-2740
E-mail: ohs@ontariohistoricalsociety.ca
The St. Boniface Historical Society is an archival facility designed for the administration, conservation and dissemination of Franco-Manitoban and Métis related culture. This is an important resource because many Métis in Ontario have ancestors who came from the west or went west. One of the important resources is the voyageur database. In addition to brief summary about each voyageur contract there is a transcription of the notary document available in either French or English.
St. Boniface Historical Society
La Sociéte historique de Saint-Boniface
340 Provencher Blvd.
Saint-Boniface, MB R2H 0G7
Tel: (204) 233-4888 Fax: (204) 232-2562
E-mail: shsb@shsb.mb.ca