Links to Online Resources 

Charts, forms and templates for a wide range of family history research needs

Links to articles, videos and other resources from “getting started” to more specialized topics; also links to the Family Search Wiki

Sound advice on how to begin researching your family history

A wide range of sources and tips for getting started in researching your family history and workshops that are free with a library card

by Mark Cullen

by Elizabeth Kipp

by Ken McKinlay

by Patty McGregor

by Bill Arthurs

A daily blog by John Reid about family history resources and developments seen from an Ottawa perspective

The daily newsletter for genealogy consumers, packed with straight talk

Ken McKinlay's research challenges and the challenges where he has helped other people

A good resource with updates and useful tips for getting started

Gail Dever's daily news blog, primarily about Canadian and French Canadian genealogy and issues facing societies -- all from a Montreal point de vue

Regular news about Irish genealogy research from Claire Santry

Top news stories and features concerning ancestral research in Scotland, Ireland, the rest of the UK, and their diasporas, from genealogist and family historian Chris Paton

this is a list of resources owned/accessed by over 1,200 volunteers willing to look up genealogical information and provide it to others on request. It is a free service, although volunteers may ask for reimbursement of costs for mailings. The project, started in 1996, is now hosted on RootsWeb. Resources are listed by counties in Great Britain and by province or state in North America. Also check the Other Resources tab for other sources of digitized books and other look-up projects.

Affiliated with the UK's Family History Federation, this is an online portal for the purchase of family history books by a range of commercial and family history society publishers.

This source offers printed and digital books, genealogy, vital records and history, charts for family history.

You can create your own library of digitized books and texts using Google Books.

Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items (books and journals). HathiTrust offers reading access to the fullest extent allowable by U.S. copyright law, computational access to the entire corpus for scholarly research, and other emerging services based on the combined collection. While the full extent of the HathiTrust holdings is available to member institutions (including Carleton University and the University of Ottawa), members of the public can access most materials through a guest account.

This site offers tips for using Google Books.

JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. It is a great source for history, including social and institutional history, to support family history research.

This is the online shop for the member societies of the UK's Family History Federation and affiliated suppliers, for the sale of memberships and society publications. It is well indexed.

The Archive is a growing non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and more. It is also the home of the Wayback Machine, allowing searches of previously cached websites and webpages.

This library catalogue helps you find the location of over 2 billion items, mainly books, in over 10,000 libraries worldwide. It includes print and e-books, in various editions and languages, which are held by national libraries, public, private and academic libraries, and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Conservation information, webinars and training courses

GIMP, a FREE software package that provides extensive photo editing features similar to Photoshop Elements

BMD and census indexes for England & Wales

The Workhouse Peter Higginbotham’s website: an encyclopedic guide to British workhouses by location, life, staff and administration, rules, buildings, children, emigration, records, and resources Interment.net A cemetery transcription library as provided by volunteers (worldwide)

The federation is an educational charity supporting over 160 member organizations throughout the world. While its members are family history societies rather than individuals, you can click on News & Events, Find a Society to find a society in your area of interest in the British Isles, explore the federation’s projects and resources, and check out the on-line bookshop.

This U.S.-based society was started to help genealogists tracing the origins of their British Isles emigrant ancestors. It runs a monthly webinar series and organizes an annual week-long British Institute of courses and research.

The national U.S. genealogy organization, NGS aims to serve and grow the genealogical community by providing education and training, fostering increased quality and standards, and promoting access to and preservation of genealogical records. Individuals or societies may join.

The provincial genealogical society has 34 branches and special interest groups across the province. There are many resources on the website including The Ontario Name Index (TONI).

The member organizations of the SAFHS include all established family history societies in Scotland and others abroad. The site offers links to over 30 Scottish regional and county family history societies via the membership page as well as links to comprehensive listings of pre-1841 populations and of burial grounds.

An article that provides an overview of why published genealogies can be helpful, along with some of the pitfalls.

When linked to the FamilySearch unified family tree with your FamilySearch account, you can discover your connections to those famous and possibly infamous relatives.

WeRelate is a free, open-access unified family tree with genealogical data and the evidence that supports that data. Any deceased person can have an entry (and only one) with the entry linked to entries of known relatives

WikiTree is a free online one-world family tree allowing individuals to research and contribute in a collaborative manner. Providing sources for the facts is strongly encouraged to ensure accuracy and to resolve conflicting information.

The WorldConnect Project, hosted on RootsWeb, allows users to upload, modify, link, and display their family trees as a means to share their genealogy with other researchers.

The Maritime History Archive at Memorial University of Newfoundland explores the historical circumstances that made merchant seafarers some of the best documented of nineteenth and early twentieth century workers in Britain and its colonies. Its holdings richly repay investigation. Learn about the history of crew lists, how to read them, and how to access them.

The Maritime History Archive provides the Mercantile Navy List, compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. It was first published from 1849 to 1855, and annually thereafter from 1857 until 1976 (with supplements up to the end of 1977), but excluding 1941 to 1946, during the Second World War. Monthly supplements were issued under various titles from 1886. Use these lists to find the official registration number of a particular ship.

The Maritime History Archive maintains a searchable crew list Index. It searches by official number only. The databases accessed by this search will inform the visitor whether a particular archive has the crew agreement. They will not provide any information on the agreement's contents; that data is available from the appropriate institution.

This site provides a comprehensive portal and guide to online sources of records about immigration to the US. FamilySearch now holds the complete passenger lists for Ellis Island and Castle Garden, two major entry points for immigrants to the US, as well as many other databases.

This resource includes sites to research emigration, immigration and naturalization, 100+ passenger list sites, ethnic research, libraries and archives, passenger ship types, descriptions and images, and additional worldwide maritime information available both online and offline.

The guide provides background on the arriving and departing passenger lists held by the National Archives, which are available through Ancestry (arrivals to the UK) and Findmypast (departures from the UK).

More than 1,500 ships passenger lists are included here. Search for immigrant passengers on ships lists by country of arrival, by state of arrival, or by ethnic group. The site also includes Family History Center immigrant ships passenger lists, Library and Archives Canada ships passenger lists to Canada, Mayflower and Titanic passenger lists, and lists for Columbus' ships the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria.

This site provides Immigration reports, newspaper records, shipwreck information, ship pictures, ship descriptions, shipping-line fleet lists, as well as hundreds of passenger lists to Canada, the US, Australia, and South Africa.

Combines the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language, from the 12th century to 1700, and from 1700 onwards, including archaic Scots legal terms

An online Irish-English dictionary

Latin translations for baptism, marriage, and burial entries, provided by Canadian genealogist Alison U. Ring.

An online Scots Gaelic-English dictionary

A good source for archaic legal terms

A tutorial to help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800

A dictionary with about 39,000 entries that helps in simple translations for a beginning Latin student or amateur

The site includes old and interesting maps of England, Wales and Scotland.

This website aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland.

For England and Wales, you can search by name or click on the 1851 jurisdictions map. For each county, it provides a list of parishes, contiguous counties, and links to the FamilySearch Family History Research Wiki and catalogue for that county.

The National Library of Scotland has an online collection of more than 200,000 high-resolution, colour, zoomable maps, dating between 1560 and 1964 and related primarily to Scotland. In this collection, they also have maps of areas beyond Scotland, including maps of England and Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, and Jamaica.

This collection includes historic maps covering England, Wales, and Scotland.

The site is a gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world.

This site offers various New Zealand digital images; one collection focuses on army service records.

These files, provided by The National Archives (UK), contain WW II combat reports of squadrons, wings and groups in Fighter, Bomber, Coastal Command and Fleet Air Arm squadrons.

The site helps those researching Australian military service (mainly First and Second World Wars); it includes written records of war, both published and unpublished, that can be researched by individual, unit or event.

Covering 1850 to 1947, this website has over 12M records, which have been collated from many sources, most with links to the service records available on Findmypast and The National Archives. The photographic archive has over 100,000 British Army photographs.

During the Second World War, the staff of the century-old Hamilton Spectator newspaper kept its own monumental record of the war. This collection of more than 140,000 newspaper articles, manually clipped, stamped with the date, and arranged by subject, includes news stories and editorials from newspapers, mostly Canadian, documenting every aspect of the war. The collection, and other donated WW II newspaper collections, are held by the Canadian War Museum.

This registry honours and remembers the sacrifices of the more than 118,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who, since Confederation, have given their lives serving in uniform. The names of fallen soldiers found in the CVWM are also inscribed in the seven Books of Remembrance in Parliament Hill's Visitor Welcome Centre.

Established in 1873 on land that was then outside Ottawa, Beechwood is informally known as Canada’s National Cemetery. It is also home to the National Military Cemetery and the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery.

The Commission's database includes the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other locations worldwide where they are commemorated.

Records of Australian servicemen and women from WW I are provided.

This is a history of the war: how it began, key battles and a "Who's Who" of the major protagonists.

LAC’s military records relate to United Empire Loyalists, the War of 1812, the Rebellions, the South African War, the First World War and the Second World War. They provides information on available databases, research guides and virtual exhibitions, along with records, including muster rolls, military service files, unit war diaries, medal registers, photographic collections, documentary art and posters, and published sources.

This is a portal to the wide range of research guides on the website of The National Archives for researching military and maritime history, including both online and offline sources. It also includes a guide to the resources that can be found in other archives.

The site focuses on the British Army in WW I and includes information on the order of battle, help with researching a soldier, descriptions of battles and battlefields, and the Great War Forum to connect with other researchers. 

With so many British military databases available online, it's a challenge to know how to find the one you want. From the Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections blog, this is a very useful post that identifies the databases available from Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast and The National Archives (UK), ordered by the first year of data available.

Copies of The Guardian (1821-2003 and The Observer (1791-2003) can be found on newspapers.com. A paid subscription is required.

This monthly digital magazine is dedicated to helping you trace your Irish ancestors.

Affiliated with Ancestry, newspapers.com describes itself as the largest online newspaper archive, with 20,400+ newspapers from the 1700s to the 2000s. A paid subscription is required.

This site comes from the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington. The collection includes newspapers, magazines and journals, letters and diaries and parliamentary papers.

This subscription-based website has over 41 million pages from the 1700s to 2021, with new pages added weekly. It has the same database as the "British and Irish Newspapers" collection on Findmypast, with different search engine features.

Search every issue of The Scotsman published between 1817 and 1950. If your ancestor appears in the births, marriages and deaths notices, or even in a news story, you may find their name. It is free to register for an account, with options for subscriptions from two days up to a year.

More than 500 million Australian online resources, including historic newspapers, maps, and books are included. Trove is a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of partner organizations around Australia.

Explore the largest collection of historical newspapers from around the world. A paid subscription is required.

Being a national library, national archives and public library of a major metropolitan city, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) brings together, preserves and promotes heritage materials from or related to Québec. One of its 12 facilities is located in Gatineau, Québec.

Research your house and family, or explore more than three million photographs. The City of Ottawa Archives are the caretakers of Ottawa’s history, with both local government and community records in its collections. The City Archives Reference Room also hosts the reference library collections of its partner organizations.

The extensive book, microfilm and microfiche holdings of this collection are listed in an Excel spreadsheet available from the home page, as well as links to past presentations. When open, the Center’s computers provide access to the full resources of FamilySearch as well as a number of subscription-based data providers.

A digital history of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec, Canada, Including the Cities of Ottawa and Hull/Gatineau. Historical content continues to be added regularly. 

As both national library and archives, LAC has a host of resources for the family historian; census records, passenger lists, military records, as well as its library collection. While some of its resources are digitized, either on its own site or through websites such as Ancestry or FamilySearch, the detailed notes on the underlying record sets are useful to understanding the records.

This is the gateway to free Carleton County genealogy

Originally part of Russell County, Gloucester became part of Carleton County in 1838.

The Historical Society of Ottawa was founded in 1898 as the Women's Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa. Its objective is to increase public knowledge of the history of Ottawa through its publications, meetings, tours, outreach programs and participation in local heritage events and also by its co-operation with the Bytown Museum. The former library of the Historical Society of Ottawa is now part of the City of Ottawa Reference Collection at 100 Tallwood Drive.

Originally part of Carleton County.

The network is the result of the union of the Franco-Ontarian History and Genealogy Society and the Regroupement des patrimoine franco-ontarien.

The Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society covers the historic counties of Carleton, Lanark, Renfrew, Prescott and Russell.

The capital region is home to 29 museums, from local and regional museums to 12 national museums and institutions.

The site contains a broad listing of Ottawa area repositories that may be of use to family historians.

The Ottawa Public Library’s (OPL) Genealogy resources and services can help you start your family tree or overcome research roadblocks. Borrow how-to guides, browse the extensive research collections, use online resources, consult their specialized genealogy booklists and getting started guides. A weekly virtual genealogy drop-in over Zoom with experts from the Ontario Genealogy Society on Tuesday afternoons provides advice. The Main Branch and Nepean Centrepointe Branch are two of the major hubs for genealogy within the OPL system, both with extensive reference collections.

Research trips to Scotland and a Learning Zone with on-line conferences and webinars are available.

The National Library of Scotland has an online collection of more than 200,000 high-resolution, colour, zoomable maps, dating between 1560 and 1964 and related primarily to Scotland. The site also has maps of areas beyond Scotland, including England and Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, and Jamaica.

The Mitchell Library houses the Glasgow City Archives, a major hub for research into the west of Scotland. The "Explore Our Records" tab on the top ribbon provides a wide range of useful finding aids.

This is the world's leading centre for the study of Scotland and the Scots. Many collections are available online, including directories and maps.

The site holds historical records created by businesses, landed estates, families, churches, and other corporate bodies.

The website consists of searchable online indices containing names, ages, dates of death and places of burial in many locations in Central Scotland, including pre-1855 gravestones. Searches are free, but photos must be purchased.

This is the official site for Scottish resources, with images for church and civil registration BMD records and census records. It is free to search but uses a credit system to view and download images.

The National Records of Scotland, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, and the National Library of Scotland are the partners in ScotlandsPlaces. This site combines maps, plans, photos, monument records, register house plans, and many other records.

Here you can search every issue of The Scotsman newspaper published between 1817 and 1950. If your ancestor appears in the births, marriages and deaths notices, or even in a news story, you may find the person's name. A free subscription is required to view articles.

This network aims to revolutionize access to Scotland's archives by providing a single electronic catalogue to the holdings of more than 50 Scottish archives. It is an essential resource.

The association promotes the study of Scottish family history. Its membership includes all established family history societies in Scotland and others abroad. There are links to 31 Scottish regional and county family history societies via the "Membership" page and also links to comprehensive listings of pre-1841 population lists and of burial grounds.

This University of Aberdeen database contains the records of more than 21,000 passengers who embarked at Glasgow and Greenock for non-European ports between 1 January and 30 April 1923, and at other Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960.

This Edinburgh-based society helps with Scottish family and local history research.

This website offers online tuition in palaeography to assist in reading manuscript historical records written in Scotland in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The emphasis is on practical help.

The National Library of Scotland has digitized more than 700 post office directories, spanning 1773 to 1911. They are much like city directories and can be searched by name, place or year.

"The most frequently quoted of all Scottish historical sources." Based on detailed parish reports, the accounts enumerate and describe such topics as agriculture, antiquities, industrial productions, population and natural history at crucial periods in Scotland’s past. The Old Statistical Accounts provide a snapshot of each parish in the 1790s, while the New Statistical Accounts reflect each parish in 1834-1845.

The University of Strathclyde offers a range of beginner, intermediate and advanced online courses in genealogy, with an emphasis on the British Isles.

Scottish Legal Terms This is a useful resource when reading Scottish wills, testaments and deeds.

This institution collects, preserves and makes available for research the official records of the Archdiocese of Toronto and those ancillary records that reflect the work of the Church within the Archdiocese.

Located in Toronto, on the campus of York University, the Archives of Ontario is the second-largest archival facility in Canada, with provincial vital records from 1869, many church records prior to 1869, land and property records, as well as wills and estates.

This collection includes local church records for congregations affiliated with Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec, which was formerly known as the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec.

The city archives hold historical records that include records created by the City of Toronto government, records created by municipal governments that existed before the 1998 amalgamation, papers of people, families, organizations and businesses, photographs, maps, plans and architectural drawings.

The Toronto Branch of Ontario Ancestors has a program of online presentations and workshops.

The Presbyterian Archives offer a wide range of resources useful to the family historian. See the Finding Aids under “Research” and Genealogy under “Resources."

The library holds a very significant genealogical collection useful for those researching Ontario, other provinces and the British Isles, with journals, books and maps from across Canada and the British Isles, housed on the second floor in the Local History and Genealogy section of the Humanities and Social Sciences Collection. The Special Collections (on the fifth floor) hold an extensive collection of primary source material on the history of Canada, useful for genealogists. The Toronto Reference Library also houses the library collection of the Ontario Genealogical Society; materials from that collection can be requested and retrieved from the TRL stacks.

The archives hold the records in a variety of formats of the General Council Office and those of the regions, communities of faith, former conferences and presbyteries of the Central Ontario region. A specific Research Guide to Genealogy under the "Research" heading provides an introduction for family historians. Fax: 416-231-3103 attn: Archives