Among the key sources for Toronto research—especially between census years—are city directories. Bound hard-copy Toronto directories from 1833 to 2001 are available in the Local History and Genealogy Collection on the 2nd floor of the Toronto Reference Library. And now, with the completion of a major digitization project by the Toronto Public Library and Internet Archive, that entire run of directories is available to browse and search online free of charge. By 1861, Toronto […]
Research News
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Have you run into a roadblock with your Ontario research? Interested in the records held by a Toronto repository but can’t get there in person? The Toronto Branch Research Services team can help! Over the past year alone, our volunteers have answered dozens of enquiries, from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Asia as well as Canada. We’ve provided advice on a mysterious great-grandfather who seemed to have disappeared without a trace, […]
As family historians, we often mark Remembrance Day by discovering and sharing pictures and stories of men and women who went to war—whether they are our own relatives or other individuals who have touched us in some way. And there are some wonderful tools available to help us research and commemorate those who served. Key free Canadian research sources include the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and the Canadian Great War Project. Many commercial databases […]
We’re pleased to share some very welcome news for genealogy researchers in Toronto, thanks to an agreement between the non-profit family history organization FamilySearch and the Toronto Public Library. FamilySearch, which has a vast collection of billions of genealogical records, is in the process of digitizing all of its microfilms and publishing the digital versions online. About 1.5 billion images have been digitized to date, and many of those are now freely available on […]