Immigration before 1865 at Library and Archives Canada Part 3

The last couple of posts I’ve been highlighting pre 1865 Immigration records at Library and Archives Canada. For Part 3, I’m going to look at some of the post immigration records in the LAC’s database Immigrants before 1865.

German settlers from New York in Markham Township, Upper Canada (1793 to 1808)

This collection is digitized on Hertitage. Be warned, it will test your paleography skills a bit. The writing itself is fairly clear, but the handwriting on the other side of the pages has bled through. William Von Moll Berczy brought a group of German settlers from New York state to Upper Canada in 1793. The documents in this collection pertain to the first years of the settlement. It would be best to look at the first few images on the roll, which gives a table of contents to the images.

How great would it be to have a signature of your ancestor from this time period?

Declarations of aliens in Lower Canada (mostly from the United States) 1794 to 1811

A great collection, but another one that may be a challenge for your paleography skills. The handwriting quality in these documents can vary. The documents are also in French or English, sometimes both languages on the same document. Some of the declarations don’t contain a lot of information, but others not only list the birthplace, but where they last resided before coming to Lower Canada. Here’s a great find: The 1794 declaration of George Lewis, a Black man who came from Vermont.

Documents concerning mostly the Red River Settlement and the conflict with the Hudson’s Bay Company, with some records relating to the Baldoon and Grand River Settlements and Prince Edward Island (1811 to 1823)

If your ancestor’s immigration involved Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk, then you’ll want to check out this section. Digitized on Heritage, there are 20 reels in the Selkirk Collection. You are going to concentrating on rolls C-2 to C-9, and C-12 to C-20

The collection gives great insight into the problems the settlers of the Red River Colony had. Here is part of a deposition of Phillip Laydon. In it he details the attacks on the Red River settlers from men of the North West Company, in particular George Campbell.

Archibald McNab Papers: Correspondence and lists of settlers in McNab Township, Renfrew County, Ontario (1825 to 1842)

Those of you who had ancestors who settled in McNab Township will want to look at this collection. This is another one that you’ll want to look at the index at the start of the microfilm.

The articles of agreement are particularly interesting. This agreement clearly laid out what were the responsibilities of both Archibald McNab and the settlers he brought over. Just look at all the signatures on this one alone!

Next post, I’ll look at what I think are some of the most interesting record sets in the collection.