Ontario Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

=== People ===

'''Europeans'''. The original European settlers came in the early 18th century from France or from French Canada. They first settled the area surrounding the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, which now separate Ontario from Michigan. Ontario has continued to receive significant numbers of overseas settlers from that time to the present day.  

'''Americans, Loyalists'''. Beginning in 1784, large numbers of American Loyalists came from the United States to settle along the St. Lawrence River.  

Most of the earliest settlers of Upper Canada (Ontario) were natives of the United States. By 1810, eighty percent of the white population of the province was estimated to have been born in the U.S., but only 25 percent of them were Loyalists (who had arrived by 1796) or their descendants. The rest were Americans who had recently come to Canada for land or other economic opportunities. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were listed as states of origin of many of these "late Loyalists," as they were sometimes called.  

'''British'''. The British Isles soon replaced the United States as the main source of immigration to Ontario. Many Irish settlers came beginning about 1820. About sixty percent of the Canadian Irish were Protestant.  

'''Eastern Europeans'''. Large numbers of immigrants came into Ontario from Britain and from eastern Europe during the pre-World War I period, 1891-1914. Jews, Slavs, and Italians contributed to the ethnic diversity of large cities such as Toronto.  

'''Canadian Emigrants'''. A favorite 19th-century destination of Canadians leaving Ontario was Michigan. About one out of every four Michigan families finds a direct connection to Ontario.  

"Emigrant Returns of early settlers, 1815-1834"in''Land records, ca. 1792-1876''. (Family History Library films [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=283269&disp=Land+records++ 1319966 items 1-5 and 1319967 items 6-11].) These are mainly for Lanark, Leeds, and Perth counties. The Archives of Ontario has filmed copies.  

Records of ethnic groups, including Mennonites, Scots, Germans, and Blacks are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under ONTARIO - MINORITIES.  

Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956 at [http://www.ancestry.com www.ancestry.com] which is a subscription website.<br>