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CANADIAN IMMIGRATION RECORDS |
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Canadian immigration records are found at the Canadian Genealogy Centre, created in 2001. This is the result of close collaboration between the Library and Archives of Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The department provided funding for this project as it is in keeping with the federal government’s agenda to communication and share Canadian culture using the power of the Internet. The Canadian Genealogy Centre launched its Web site on March 29, 2003, and it offers a variety of Canadian genealogical sources in both official languages of English and French. If advise on a specific record group is needed they offer help at email [email protected] while their Web site is located at www.collectionscanada.ca/genealogy with excellent online help pages. Physical contact information:
All immigration records are held at Library and Archives Canada. There are no comprehensive nominal lists of immigrants arriving in Canada before 1865. Few such lists have survived. Some passengers list (MG 1 F5B) (1717-1760 and 1786) exist within French colonial records. Form 30A Form 30A asked specific information of passengers between 1919 and 1924 and provided excellent immigration information. Click this link to see a sample of this Canadian immigration form: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/genealogy/022-908.004-e.html and where they might be obtained. The 1923 form is very complete and available on microfilm. Other forms sometimes put the information on the family on the back of the form. Passenger Lists 1865-1935 Between 1865-1935 passenger list (RG [Record Group] 76) were the official record of immigration during this period.. There are no individual immigrant applications or files. The passenger lists contain information such as name, age, county of origin, occupation and intended destination. They are arranged by port and date of arrival, with the exception of some years between 1919 and 1924, when an individual Form 30A was used as indicated above. Departure Lists The Government of Canada did not keep records of people leaving the county so there are no passenger lists for departures for Canadian ports. Border Lists Many immigrants to Canada came from the United States or sailed from Europe to American ports on their way to Canada. Or they came to Canada and then went to the United States. Prior to April 1908, people were able to move freely across the border between the United States and Canada with no record of immigration existing for those individuals. Border entry list (RG 76) were the official record of immigration. There are no individual immigrant application files. These border entry list records contain genealogical information about each immigrant including age, country of birth, last place of residence, occupational and destination in Canada. They are also on microfilm in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. On-line Sources By the end of 2006, millions of names of Canadian individuals will be found online at www.collectionscanada.ca/genealogy through a cooperative agreement with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Canadian government, and genealogical societies within Canada. These records will be indexed and made available online. Another 200,000 Canadian Naturalizations will be made available soon thereafter. They are developing many databases for immigration, land, and military records. Due to rights of privacy, records after 1935 are still in the custody of Citizenship & Immigration Canada. The first of the passenger lists to go online will be the 1885 to 1912 collection. Another database lists each ship name, port of departure, date of departure, and date of arrival. This passenger lists will help to see associates traveling together. Soon will be Special Collections of Immigrants from the Russian Empire and China. Like Castle Garden, and Ellis Island, people might be detained if they were sick or unprepared to care for themselves. In Canada they were sent to Grosse-Ile. The Grosse-Ile database of 33,026 names will soon be available online. |
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