All Canadian Passenger Lists from 1865 to 1935 to be Digitized and Indexed
OTTAWA, ONTARIO – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Ancestry.ca, the largest Canadian family history website, will announce at the Ontario Genealogical Society’s (OGS) annual seminar, a strategic partnership to make more resources accessible to Canadians interested in online family research.
Initially, Ancestry.ca and LAC will focus on indexing the Quebec City passenger lists from 1870 – 1900, which comprise more than 750,000 names. The digital images of these and other passenger lists are already available on the LAC website. The index for Quebec City will be available free of charge on www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy as well as on Ancestry.ca. LAC and Ancestry.ca will continue to work together to ensure that eventually the entire Canadian passenger list collection from 1865 to 1935, which includes ports in Halifax, St. John, Vancouver, Victoria and North Sydney, is digitized and indexed.
“Family history researchers are important to Library and Archives Canada and the institution is looking to partner with non-profit groups, public institutions and the private sector to offer a better service” said Ian E. Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada. “The announcement represents a new direction for LAC as we embark into public private partnerships. Both organizations are committed to providing Canadians with the tools and resources necessary to find out more about their family histories. This collaboration will allow LAC to provide and improve the resources and services available through LAC’s Canadian Genealogy Centre.”
Canada has a rich heritage of immigration and ethnicities such as French, English, Irish, Scottish, Russian, Italian and Chinese. Passenger list records reveal significant information such as the name, age, country of origin, occupation and destination of each passenger, retelling remarkable stories of sacrifice and success that embody Canada’s immigrant ancestors. The records also account for other travelers such as crew members, vacationers, business people and more.
“We are pleased to be partnering with LAC to provide access to unique historical documents such as the Canadian Passenger Lists,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO, The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.ca. “Passenger lists were the official immigration documents in Canada from 1865 to 1935 and are an important piece of the puzzle for those researching their Canadian genealogy.”
In addition to the Canadian passenger list collection, later this year Ancestry.ca and LAC will also make available border crossings records from the United States to Canada that took place between 1908 and 1935, and other Canadian immigration forms later this year. These additions will add to Ancestry.ca’s already expansive Canadian Border Crossing Collection, which already includes more than 4 million names of individuals who crossed the Canadian-U.S. border between 1895 and 1956.
How do I locate records of scottish ancestors who emigrated from Scotland to Canada in the 1920’s. I’m looking for Andrew Kinniburgh (Kinneburgh) and his 2nd wife Margaret Thomson nee Turnbull who emigrated I believe with a son, Adam from her first marriage to a Robert Thomson. Just to confuse matters Andrew’s first wife was also called Margaret (nee Buchanan) and they had 4 daughters. Margaret Turnbull was illegitimate and her birth name was either McMaster or McAlister and she was adopted by a childless couple Adam and Elizabeth Turnbull. Margaret herself had an illegitimate child, Adam who later took on his stepfather’s name and became Adam Turnbull Thomson. I believe that they emigrate to some of Andew’s relatives in Canada but they seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth, can anyone help?
Regards,
Hazel