Canadian Records on FamilySearch.org

Do you have Canadians in your family tree?  Check out the resources for Canada at FamilySearch.org. Collections currently include birth, marriage and death; church, census, cemetery, military, land, court, and ship passenger records, and the list is growing. Records for some parts of Canada date to the early 1700's.

While you can search all of those collections simultaneously by entering basic criteria (first name, last name, birth and/or death information) on the main search screen at FamilySearch.org, you will get more useful results by searching collections individually.  To see the list of collections for Canada, go to FamilySearch.org and click on the Search tab.  Scroll down until you see the map of the world, then click on the link for Canada in the list of geographies.  Narrow the list of results to a specific province by clicking on the link (Ontario, for example).  Keep in mind that any Canada-wide collections (like the 1901 Canada census) will not be included in the province-specific list, even though that province was included in that census.

For more information about researching your ancestors from Canada, see the FamilySearch wiki article on Canada, or stop by the Family History Center.

Using a census for family history research

Censuses were not created for family history research but can be an invaluable resource. Find out what censuses exist for the area where your family lived, then learn what information was collected, what instructions the census-takers were given, how dates and ages were recorded, etc.

• Always record information about a woman using her maiden name, but search a census using the name the woman would have been known by at the time of the census.
• A family's name may have been misspelled.  Expect variations from census to census, particularly if the name was complicated and "foreign".
• The census-taker's penmanship may make it difficult to decipher (and index) the name. Keep searching if you can't find someone that should be found. If you can't find the person by last name, search by first name, location and birth year, search for someone else that should be in the household, or by some other combination of criteria.
• The search results you get when you use FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, or any other web site are an index designed to point you to the actual census record.  Don't stop with the index! Look at the image, and learn what every field means.

FamilySearch.org has a variety of census records for the US, Canada, England, Wales, Scotland, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Ivory Coast, Spain, Switzerland, and more.  Click on [Search]. then [Browse All Record Collections] and narrow your search to "Census and Lists."  See the FamilySearch wiki for more information about using census records, or stop by the Family History Center.

Find Your Ancestor's House Using Zillow

Zillow.com is a real estate web site for people looking to buy or sell a house.  The information available there can also help you learn more about your ancestors.  If you already know an ancestor’s address, enter it (including the city and state/province, or county and country) into the “Neighborhood Search” box and click [enter]. If there a house with that address, Zillow takes you directly to information about that property.  If there is no house with that address, Zillow takes you to the neighborhood.

To see the date the house was built, its approximate value today, and when it was bought and sold most recently, select Details. Click on Views to see what the house looks like today (or if a freeway runs through where it used to stand!).  Zillow can also show you nearby parks and schools that may be mentioned in personal journals or appear in family photos.

If you don’t already know where your ancestor lived, you can discover that information through census records, city directories, real estate records, birth and death certificates and other public records.