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Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society

An organization of family historians, some with Toronto roots, others who live in Toronto, we have ancestors around the world.

Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society

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Sandy cliffs of the Scarborough Bluffs with Lake Ontario in the foreground
Houses on brow of hill overlooking Withrow Park.
Roofline of the south St. Lawrence Market building
Gothic arches of the main door of the yellow brick Cathedral Church of St. James.
Light filtering through mature trees on a wide variety of grave markers in St. James Cemetery and Crematorium.
Skyline of downtown Toronto from Riverdale Park in evening light. Shows CN Tower and skyscrapers.
Red and white streetcar passing under the steel superstructure of the bridge at Queen Street and the Don River. The superstructure has a big clock and a sign that says: This river I step in is not the river I stand in.

The first monthly Toronto Branch meeting of 2023 took place on Monday January 23. Our main January speaker Rick Hill made a wonderfully fruitful discovery when building out his family tree. He came across a 3rd great-grandmother with not just one, but three grandparents who were United Empire Loyalists. What’s more, she had a Loyalist great-grandfather as well! Rick’s newfound UEL ancestors all fled Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War, and three of them […]

January 2023 meeting

Watercolour sketch of a settler's cabin with partially cleared field of stumps in the foreground.

Our first Toronto Branch event of 2023 is a series of online talks about one of the key areas for early Ontario family history research—land! Over three Thursday evenings in January, three in-demand speakers will explore some of the lesser-known but richest sources of land and family information—many of which are now digitized and available for free: January 12—7:30 pm (Eastern): THE BEGINNING: FROM INDIGENOUS TO LOYALIST HANDSLinda Corupe will explain how land formerly […]

Land in Upper Canada

The number of Toronto schools in our For King and Country project has grown to 121, with the addition of one of the city’s oldest secondary schools, Harbord Collegiate Institute. Some 1,400 names from Harbord are now in our war memorials database, which has almost reached the 50,000 mark! Affectionately known as “the big old school”, Harbord bears the name of the street it’s on, south of Bloor between Spadina and Bathurst. It opened […]

For King and Country—new names!

Silhouettes of people jumping

We were delighted to be able to host our annual celebration of Great Moments in Genealogy both online and in person! On Monday November 28, eight Branch members entertained us with moments of success, surprise and serendipity in their family history research in our traditional series of short and inspiring presentations. Here’s a quick list of this year’s speakers and presentation topics: Janice Nickerson—Barking up the Wrong TreeDebi Eatherly—My Great Grandfather, the Imposter, a.k.a. […]

November 2022 meeting – Great Moments

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Toronto research sources

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Related organizations

  • Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto
  • Ontario Genealogical Society (parent society)
  • United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada

Toronto Branch Meetings

Feb
27
Mon
7:30 pm City of Toronto Archives: Resour...
City of Toronto Archives: Resour...
Feb 27 @ 7:30 pm
City of Toronto Archives: Resources for the Genealogist @ Attend in person or register for online webinar | Toronto | Ontario | Canada
Do you have family tree roots in Toronto? You can discover a lot about a person by researching where they lived. Jessica Algie, from the City of Toronto Archives, will demonstrate, step-by-step, how to find[...]
Mar
27
Mon
7:30 pm Writing Family History—Shaping G...
Writing Family History—Shaping G...
Mar 27 @ 7:30 pm
Writing Family History—Shaping Genealogy into Shareable Stories @ Attend in person or register for online webinar | Toronto | Ontario | Canada
Here’s the problem; your family, they don’t want your stuff. No one is stepping forward to say I’ll take your endless boxes of genealogy files. There’s a couple of reasons for that. First, it appears[...]
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Courses starting and Workshops

Feb
8
Wed
7:30 pm Members-Only Pop-up
Members-Only Pop-up
Feb 8 @ 7:30 pm
Members-Only Pop-up @ ONLINE WEBINAR | Toronto | Ontario | Canada
This year’s second members-only pop-up presentation with a guest speaker is tentatively scheduled for February 8. Toronto Branch members will be sent more information and registration details by email. To be eligible for this and[...]
View Calendar
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Recent posts

  • January 2023 meeting
  • Land in Upper Canada
  • For King and Country—new names!
  • November 2022 meeting – Great Moments
  • Fall learning: Land records and Ukraine
  • October 2022 meeting — online and in person!
  • Fall learning: Images and the Irish

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Toronto is situated on Indigenous land. This is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This land is also part of the Dish with One Spoon territory, a treaty between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (aka Six Nations Confederacy), the Anishinaabek and allied nations, to peaceably share and care for this land, its waters, and all of the biodiversity in the Great Lakes region. We are all responsible for honouring this treaty in the spirit of peace, friendship, and respect.

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