Ontario Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

=== Records ===

There are only a few scattered immigration records for Ontario for the period before 1865. There are several incomplete lists of Loyalist settlers in Ontario. For example:  

Crowder, Norman K. ''Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book''. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=632644&disp=Early+Ontario+settlers%20%20&columns=*,0,0 book 971.3 H29c].) Transcribes and indexes various provisioning lists and returns of settlers during 1783-89.  

Fitzgerald, E. Keith. ''Ontario People 1796-1803''. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=619385&disp=Ontario+people%2C+1796%2D1803%20%20&columns=*,0,0 book 971.3 D2f].) Has district Loyalist rolls.  

''Emigrant Returns of early settlers, 1815-1834''. (Family History Library film 1319966-67.) These are mainly for Lanark, Leeds, and Perth counties. The Archives of Ontario also have filmed copies.  

Names and addresses of some later Ontario immigrants and of the relatives they left behind are in:  

Holt, Ruth and Margaret Williams. ''Genealogical Extraction and Index of the Canada Company Remittance Books 1843-1847''. Three Volumes. Weston, Ontario and Oakville, Ontario: Holt and Williams, 1990. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=416621&disp=Genealogical+extraction+and+index+of+the++ book 971.3 W29g; film 2055555 Item 1].)  

Various collections of papers in the Archives of Ontario and the National Archives of Canada list names from British-subsidized emigration programs such as the Irish movement into the Ottawa Valley and near Peterborough, 1823-1825, led by Peter Robinson. Many of those lists have been published in various sources, including those given in Brenda D. Merriman's Genealogy in Ontario.  

Overseas immigrants to Ontario usually landed at Quebec or at ports in the northeastern U.S., then took smaller vessels or came overland into Ontario. Very few lists for Canadian ports exist before 1865, and only a handful for U.S. ports prior to 1820. Some names of early immigrants have been indexed in:  

Filby, P. William. ''Passenger and Immigration Lists Index''. Three Volumes. plus annual supplements. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1981-. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=291926&disp=Passenger+and+immigration+lists+index++ book Ref 973 W32p; also on film and fiche].)  

Passenger lists for ships coming to major Canadian ports after 1865 are described in the [[Canada Emigration and Immigration|Emigration and Immigration]] section of the Canada Research Outline (34545).  

'''Ontario Department of Immigration Records, 1869-1897'''  

Under the confederation of 1867, both the Dominion Government and the Provincial Governments had responsibility for immigration. The Archives of Ontario and the Family History Library have some Ontario Department of Immigration records for 1869-97.  

Much family information is included in two alphabetical series of Six-Dollar Bonus Refunds for 1872-76. About one-fifth of the immigrants into Ontario during that time had such papers. See:  

*Refund bonus applications (Series J). (On five rolls of microfilm, Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=168272&disp=Immigration+records%2C+1862-1897++ films 1405787-88 and 1405910-12].)  

*Refund bonus certificates (Series I). (On six Family History Library[http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=168272&disp=Immigration+records%2C+1862-1897++ films 1412649 and 1405952-56].)

See also this useful record:  

''Applications for Passage Warrants (Series L). 1872-88''. Four Volumes. (Family History Library [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=168272&disp=Immigration+records%2C+1862-1897++ film 1405912].) Lists names and locations in Ontario of immigrants whose passage was paid by sponsors. Family members' names and ages are sometimes given. The 1872 and 1873 lists give some immigrants' exact street addresses in Europe.  

These and other Ontario Department of Immigration records are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under ONTARIO - EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.