101 Best Websites for Genealogy 2012: Canadian Genealogy Sites

Automated Genealogy

Beneath this site’s plain exterior, some exciting stuff is going on. You’ll come for the volunteer transcriptions of the 1852 (in progress), 1901, 1906 (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) and 1911 Canadian censuses. But what’s really interesting is the Link Centre, which has already connected 2 million records of individuals between censuses as well as other sources, such as WWI soldiers and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

Canadiana

It’s now even easier to search this site’s 60 million-plus pages from libraries, museums, universities and government agencies: The 12-year-old Early Canadiana Online collection is getting a makeover with improved searching and navigation.

Library and Archives Canada

New at this nexus for Canadian research are browseable images of border entry records from 1908 to 1935. But there were already plenty of reasons to pay a visit, including searchable 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses, vital records, and military, land and immigration records. Other censuses are online here, too, but not searchable by surname.

Our Roots/Nos Racines

This bilingual site puts Canada’s local histories online—some 1.3 million searchable pages in 5,500 digitized sources.

Programme de Recherche en Démographie Historique $

Searching this trio of Quebec databases is free, but you’ll have to pay for full results, starting at about $25 US for 150 hits. Most of the data, organized by vital events, information on couples and families, spans 1621 to 1799.