Guide to Canadian Jewish Genealogical Research

Canada Background

Canada has the world’s fourth-largest Jewish population.  According to the Canada 2001 Census, there were 348,605 Jews currently living in Canada.

Canada consists of 10 provinces and 3 northern territories.

Jewish immigration primarily occurred between 1850–1939.  It was the beginning of the pogroms of Russia in the 1880s, and continuing through the growing anti-Semitism of the early 20th century, that millions of Jews began to flee the Pale of Settlement and other areas of Eastern Europe for the West.  Although the United States received the overwhelming majority of these immigrants, Canada was also a destination of choice due to enticement for free land and less stringent immigration requirements.  Even for immigrants whose final destination was the United States, steamship companies advertised passage through Canada as a more desirable route for immigrants who wished to avoid tougher U.S. inspectors upon arrival.

The primary ports of Canadian immigration and years of available records are:

• Quebec City and Montreal (Quebec), 1865-1935;
• Halifax (Nova Scotia), 1881-1935;
• Saint John (New Brunswick), 1900-1935;
• North Sydney (Nova Scotia), 1906-1935 (these include mostly ferry arrivals from Newfoundland and St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, with a few passengers in transit from other countries);
• Vancouver (British Columbia), 1905-1935;
• Victoria (British Columbia), 1905-1935;
• Via New York, 1906-1931; and other eastern United States ports, 1905-1928 (these lists include only the names of passengers who stated that they intended to proceed directly to Canada).

The Library and Archives Canada has an online page for Jewish research.

Researching immigrants to and through Canada

It was not too long ago that the only way to perform Canadian genealogy was by manually slogging through microfilms ordered through the Mormon Church Family History Center (and usually taking two weeks to arrive.)  Things have really changed.  Thanks to lots of volunteer work, more and more records are being computer indexed allowing us to perform Canadian research on our home computer that’s easier, faster, and more productive.

The sections categorized in this document detail the many specific internet locations and organizations to help you find information about your family.  As a minimum in your research, there are three main data sources you will want to know about and have access/contact:

1. Ancestry.com($) or Ancestry.ca($): Containing many different types of records, this is a subscription service that requires payment, but you should be able to get free access at many local libraries. Ancestry has the broadest selection of computer-indexed material searchable by surname and generally provides the most productive results of any data source. www.ancestry.com or www.ancestry.ca. Frankly, a subscription to Ancestry.com is a must for any serious Canadian researcher.

2. FamilySearch is free and keeps expanding their collection. Their Canadian holdings are extensive. Canada Online Genealogy Records

3. Findmypast($) also has a robust Canadian collection. Findmypast

4. MyHeritage($) also has a growing Canadian collection. MyHeritage.com

5. The Library and Archives of Canada has a web site called the Genealogy and Family History site that has an index to nearly three million records in a variety of categories. It generally does not provide as productive searches as Ancestry.com but is free. A list of the databases is available and a master search capability is also available online at no cost.

   The National Archives of Canada
   395 Wellington St.
   Ottawa, ON K1A 0N3
   Canada
   613-996-7458
   

6. Jewish Genealogical Organizations, Museums and Archives: These groups are organized by city and are a wonderful way to get data such as cemetery records, and newspaper articles such as obits and wedding announcements. Their service is free but they welcome donations. A list of these organizations is provided in a separate section in this document. You can find records generally not available through Ancestry.com.

If you are researching ancestors who settled in Canada, then the following types of documents and records should be of interest to you:

1. Canadian Census Records; provides the immigration date to help locate the passenger manifest
2. Passenger Manifests into Canadian and Selected US Ports; includes the major ports of Montreal and Halifax
3. Border Crossing Records; both from U.S. to Canada and Canada to U.S. Canadian citizens would sometimes visit or eventually immigrate to the U.S. These border records provide useful genealogic information.
4. Naturalization; the actual naturalization approval form is not much value but the application contains useful data.
5. Birth, Marriage and Death Records — the Vital Records
6. Cemetery records and photographs; provides the age, Hebrew name, and father’s name
7. Newspaper Articles; includes both city and local Jewish papers
8. City Directories provide the profession and prove residency in the directory year
9. Voters Lists provide name, address, and profession
10. National Registration of 1940 provides year of arrival of immigrants
11. Passport Applications and Identity Documents typically provide age and town of residence
12. Land Records reveal the date the ancestor was in Canada, sometimes immediately after immigration
13. Military Records provide age, rank, and location/date of service
14. Jewish Genealogical Societies, Museums, & Libraries help you find all the above
15. Ask A Librarian via telephone to request data in a library archive
16. Meta Search — a search through several search tools simultaneously
17. Other Archives & Online Search Sites — additional sites to try if none others work
18. Phonebook Listings if you need to find a living person in Canada
19. Miscellaneous Sites — other places to go for specialized research projects

If you are researching ancestors who immigrated to the United States via a Canadian Port, the following documents should be of interest:

1. Passenger Manifests into Canadian and Selected US Ports; includes the major ports of Montreal and Halifax. For passengers heading directly to U.S. cities, there also will be a separate U.S. Passenger Manifest, containing more useful information than on the Canadian manifest. This type of manifest is typically found in Ancestry.com as a border crossing record.

2. Border Crossing Records; both from U.S. to Canada and Canada to U.S. United States citizens would sometimes visit relatives in Canada or travel there on vacations. These border records provide family names and addresses.

U.S census records will provide the year of immigration that is useful for the Canadian passenger manifest and border crossing searches.

The following sections will provide details on methods and locations to provide the above information.

Canadian Census Records

A hyperlinked table to all available census records is provided below.

All census returns from 1825 to 1916 have been digitized and are currently available on multiple websites. All digital images and indexes to those census returns are available on Library and Archives Canada website. A searchable database for years 1851 to 1921 is available at Ancestry.ca. Steve Morse has a excellent Canadian Census search tool that allows searches on an expanded set of parameters such as address.

Passenger Manifests

Steve Morse also has developed a web-based search tool that is connected to the Ancestry.com databases covering the years 1865 to 1935.  It offers the ability to filter results by additional parameters, including age.  It is located at SteveMorse.org: Searching the Passenger Lists in One Step.

Note that search terms for the Canadian Ancestry.com database, as well as the Steve Morse front-end, require a minimum 3-letters for either the first or last name.

To view Canadian manifest microfilm reels directly, it is no longer necessary to order them through the Mormon Church LDS Family History Centers.  The manifests can now be viewed at Ancestry.com: Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935($).  On the right side of the screen, under “Browse this Collection” select Port, Year, Month and Ship.  The manifest reels are also accessible online at CollectionsCanada.gc.ca: Passenger Lists, 1865-1922.

Records of immigrants arriving at Canadian land and seaports after January 1, 1936 are in the custody of Citizenship and Immigration Canada.  To request a copy of another person’s immigration record, mail your request to:

Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Public Rights Administration
360 Laurier Avenue West
10th Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 1L1 Canada

Please note that:

• The request should include the full name at time of entry into Canada, date of birth and year of entry. Additional information is helpful, such as country of birth, port of entry and names of accompanying family members.

• Applications for copies of documents must be submitted on an Access to Information Request Form (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat) by a Canadian citizen or an individual residing in Canada. Fee: $5.00, payable to the Receiver General for Canada.

• The request must be accompanied by a signed consent from the person concerned or proof that he/she has been deceased 20 years. Proof of death can be a copy of a death record, a newspaper obituary or a photograph of the gravestone showing name and death date. Proof of death is not required if the person would be over 110 years of age.

Border Crossing Records

An overall explanation of the border crossing records is provided in the article by Smith, Marian L.: “By Way of Canada: U.S. Records of Immigration Across the U.S.-Canadian Border,” 1895-1954 (St. Albans Lists) (National Archives and Records Administration, Prologue Magazine, Fall 2000, Vol. 32, No. 3).

• Ancestry.com: Border Crossings, From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956($)

• FamilySearch:New York Northern Arrival Manifests, 1902-1956; Soundex searchable

• Ancestry.com: Detroit Border Crossings and Passenger and Crew Lists, 1905-1957($)

• Ancestry.com: Border Crossings, From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935($)

Steve Morse has developed a web-based search tool that is connected to the Ancestry databases covering the years 1895 to 1956. It offers some additional ability to filter results to include age of the immigrant. It is located at SteveMorse.org: Searching the Canadian Border Crossings Lists in One Step.

Some border crossings may not have been accurately indexed so it may be useful to go directly to the index card microfilms at familysearch.org.

With the passage of order-in-council PC 695 on 21 March 1931, the government of Prime Minister R.B. Bennett implemented the tightest immigration admissions policy in Canadian history. Further restrictions were deemed necessary after the onset of the Great Depression in order to combat soaring unemployment and further economic decline.

Naturalization

The Canadian Naturalization Database is available at CollectionsCanada.gc.ca: Canadian Naturalization 1915-1951. The database provides access to two sets of records. The first set covers the years 1915 to 1939 and is searchable by name. The second set covers the years 1939 to 1951 and is searchable only by month and year.

Library and Archives Canada gratefully acknowledged the contribution of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal and its volunteers, without which this project would not have been possible. Additionally, the support of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa is acknowledged in the original digitization of the lists from 1915 to 1932.

The detailed naturalization records contain a wealth of information; they usually give the port and exact date of arrival in Canada. If arrival was through the US, they usually also list the US arrival details. In many cases, a wife and children were naturalized along with the father. If the naturalization was prior to 1915, there are no original records, but if the wife or a child later applied for a naturalization certificate in their own name (quite common), many details of the original application (including arrival information) are often replicated in this later application.

These naturalization records can only be requested by Canadian citizens or residents. They are available under the Canadian Access to Information laws, which grant access only to those categories of people. However, there is no requirement that the requestor be directly related to the person naturalized. Any friend or colleague who is Canadian or lives in Canada can make the request. Specific instructions for ordering the Naturalization record are at CollectionsCanada.gc.ca: Canadian Naturalization 1915-1951.

Births, Marriages and Death Records (also known as the Vital Records)

Many free vital records for all provinces are available at FamilySearch.org.

Ancestry.ca’s vital record database($) also accesses a wide variety of records.

The National Archives of Canada does not hold vital records as civil registration is not a federal jurisdiction. Thus Library and Archives Canada does not hold copies of birth, marriage and death registrations and cannot issue certificates. However, the National Archives does provide pointers to the provincial offices that may have the records, as detailed at CollectionCanada.gc.ca: Provincial and Territorial Archives.

A list of online death indexes for Canada is also available.

• Montreal & Quebec Records: The web site of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal has a number of research guides for Montreal and Canadian research and is a good place to start for research such as this. The JGS-Montreal also holds a large number of birth, marriage, death records as well as tombstone photos, and provides a guide for Jewish vital records research in Quebec.

• Quebec: The Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection)($) has approximately 72,000 records of Jewish congregation members for the towns of Montreal, Quebec, Lachine, Outremont, and Sherbrooke. Free records for selected Montreal and Quebec synagogues are available at Familysearch.org and at Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec (BAnQ). Serving as a supplement to the Drouin records is the MyHeritage collection of Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997 ($).

• Quebec: Obituaries of Genealogy Quebec

• Indexed birth and death notices for the Montreal Star for only the years 1977 to 1979 are also available. Requests for name searches during that time span may be e-mailed to montrealstar@sbcglobal.net.

• History, photographs, cemetery records, names, and stories are available for Sherbrooke Quebec, having a rich Jewish history dating back to 1860.

• Ontario: The Ontario government provides a birth certificate service for births registered in Ontario. Death certificates are also available, via a long-form request for $22 Canadian. Request an order form from the Registrar-General, PO Box 4600, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 6L8, (800) 461-2156 in Ontario, (807) 343-7420 elsewhere; say that you are next of kin and allow 6–8 weeks.

• Ontario Births 1869-1913, Deaths 1869-1948, and Marriages 1826-1938 are available at Ancestry.com($).

• Ontario Births 1869-1912 are available at MyHeritage.com($).

• Ontario: Search for people, places and events.

• Ontario: Name Index of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

• Toronto: Vital records from 1929 to present are available from the Ontario Office of the Registrar General, P.O. Box 4600, 189 Red River Road, Thunder Bay, On P7B 6L8. Note: Births: 1869–1902, Marriages: 1801–1917, and Deaths: 1869–1927 are held by the Archives of Ontario; additional death records can also be found at the University of Toronto Library’s necrology database.

• Toronto: An index to Toronto births, marriages and deaths can be found at Bill Gladstone's web site: Bill Gladstone Genealogy; The index of some 6,000 birth records ranges from 1906 to 1917, the last year for which the records are not subject to privacy restrictions. The marriage records range from 1905 to 1936, the death records from 1939 to 1942. There is no charge to access the index. The marriage index also contains some 400 records from the registers of Rabbi Y. L. Graubart, who led the city's main Polish-Jewish congregation in the 1920s and 1930s. The Graubart records are especially significant because they give the specific birthplaces of both bride and groom. .

• Saskatchewan: Vital records are can be ordered at eHealth

• A variety of databases can be found at the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society:

• British Columbia:  Vital records are available from at the Royal BC Museum Genealogy Archives.

• British Columbia: Marriage Registrations, 1859-1932.

• British Columbia: Death Registrations, 1872-1986; 1992-1993

• Manitoba: Vital records for Manitoba are available online for births (>100 years), marriages (>80 years) and deaths (>70 years).

• History, photographs, names, and stories are available for The Wapella Farm Settlement.

• New Brunswick: Database of over 3 million names are available online.

• New Brunswick: Births and Baptisms, 1819-1899 at MyHeritage.com ($).

• Nova Scotia: Database of over 1 million names are available online.

For other areas of Canada, check with the appropriate Jewish Genealogical Societies listed in a separate section below.

Facebook Discussion Groups

• Jewish Genealogy from Ontario

Jewish Cemeteries

• Memorial photographs can be found at Billion Graves, Find A Grave, and JewishData ($) Free access to JewishData is a membership benefit to some genealogical societies (e.g., NYJGS, JGSLA, JGS Illinois) and some public libraries with a library card (e.g., Los Angeles Public Library)

• JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR)

• International Jewish Cemetery Project

• GenWeb Cemetery Project

• Jewish Genealogical Society of Southern Alberta: Calgary Cemetery Project 2000 and Alberta Family Histories Society

• Locating a Jewish Burial in Montreal (Alan Greenberg)

• Cemetery records for Sherbrooke Quebec

• Toronto Benjamin's Park Cemetery

• British Colombia Cemetery Finding Aid (BCCFA)

• Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid (OCFA)

• There are many small websites where Canadian cemetery headstones have been digitized, and located through a Google search.

• Military:
  • The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
  • Canadian Jewish Casualties in the Canadian Armed Forces, including servicemen who died while serving in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War can be found at Canadian Jewish Heritage Network
  • See Military Records listed in a separate section below.

• Name index of Canadian Headstones at FamilySearch

Newspapers & Obituaries

The various heritage centers, listed in a separate section, are excellent resources to obtain the city and local Jewish newspapers containing birth, wedding, special event and death announcements.

• Newspapers.com ($) has an expanding collection of Canadian newspapers including the Montreal Gazette, Toronto National Post, Winnipeg Tribune, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, and Regina Leader-Post

• A large collection of links to Canadian historical newspapers

• The Ancestor Hunt web site has emerged as the go-to place for up-to-date world-wide newspaper links Canadian Online Historical Newspaper Links

• The Official Newspaper of the Canadian Government (Some divorce and naturalizations listed)

• Obituaries in a variety of newspapers across Canada since 1999 (various cities)

• Relatively recent obituaries across Canada may be found at Obit Tree and DignityMemorial.com.

• The Canadian Jewish Review documents Jewish social life during the 1920s to 1960s in Montreal and Toronto (along with several other Canadian cities) are also digitized and searchable.test

• The Canadian Jewish News Canadian Jewish News from 1960 to 1993, covering Toronto and Montreal, is also searchable

• The Montreal Gazette, from 1878 to 1986, is at Google Archives

• On-line Quebec death notices can be found at the Quebec Genealogy Society web site.

• Access to the Almanach de Quebec, 1780-1841 is provided by the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

• Canada Obituary Collection is available at Ancestry.com ($)

• Canadian Obituaries, 1997-2017 and Canadian Headstones is available at MyHeritage.com ($)

• A paid subscription source for Toronto Star articles dating back to the 1894 is available at Pages of the Past: Toronto Star. A method to get free information from the Star is to register for the Toronto Rootsweb Message board and make a request to have someone search the Star for you. People are very generous with their time.

• The Ottawa Journal 1885-1980 is available at Ancestry.com. The pages can be browsed like reading a newspaper but it is not searchable by name or keyword. The Newspaper Archives of Ottawa Herald includes back issues from 1955–2009 and 1941.

• Obituaries back to September 1999 are available for no charge at the Winnipeg Free Press.

• Dating back to 1925, articles from The Winnipeg Jewish Post & News are available for free.

• Although the Winnipeg Free Press archive($) requires payment, a short-term subscription can be obtained. A method to get free information from the Free Press is to register for the Winnipeg Rootsweb Message board and make a request to have someone search the Free Press for you.

• For Victoria and British Coumbia, covering 1858 to 1950, The British Colonist is available online from The University of Victoria.

• ProQuest (and other) historical newspapers particular to a geographical area may be accessed from home to cardholders at some public library websites. If you don't live there, you can always ask a genealogy friend who does.

City Directories

Historic city directories provide addresses and types of business engaged by ancestors. The directories also confirm residency in a particular year.

• A compendium of city directories is is found at Genealogy a la Carte.

• The Lovell’s Montreal City Directory covers the years from 1842-1977. The site is in French, although many of the directories are in English, particularly the older ones. They are searchable by name as well as street. In upper right corner select “Translate” for English.

• For Montreal, Steve Morse has provided a convenient search facility for Lovell’s Montreal City Directory.

• Toronto Jewish City Directories for 1925 and 1931 can be found at Ontario Jewish Archives in Toronto

• Toronto City and Ottawa Directories Various Years

• Winnipeg; Henderson’s Directory 1922 at Ancestry.com

• Henderson Directories for Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan are at Peel's Prarie Provinces Collection.

• A list of Saskatoon directories is at Saskatoon Public Library linking to digital images at Peel's Prairie Provinces. .

Voters Lists

Canada Voters lists($) cover the years 1935 to 1980 and typically include name, address, profession or marital status.

National Registration of 1940

The National Registration File of 1940 resulted from the compulsory registration of all persons, 16 years of age or older, in the period from 1940 to 1946. The information collected includes name, address, age, date of birth, conjugal status, dependents, country of birth, nationality, racial origin, languages, education, general health, class of occupation, occupation or craft, employment status, work experience by type, mechanical or other abilities, latent skills, wartime circumstances, previous military service. A search can be undertaken by Statistics Canada for an individual after the following information or documentation has been provided:

• Proof that the individual has been deceased for more than 20 years. A death certificate is preferable. However, any document that indicates the date of death, for example an obituary notice, is acceptable.
• The individual’s place of residence during the registration period.

The charge is $45.00 Canadian for each record.

For more information and to order the records, go to Statistic Canada’: Searches of the National Registration File of 1940.

Passport Applications and Identity Documents

An overall discussion of Canadian Passports can be found at Passport Records.

The largest collection of passports is in the Likacheff-Ragosine-Mathers (LI-RA-MA) collection, created 1898-1922 by the consular offices of the Tsarist Russian Empire in Canada; 11,400 files pertain to Jewish, Ukrainian and Finnish immigrants who came to Canada from Russian Empire. The files include passport applications, identity papers and questionnaires containing general information. Released 10/06, 55,000 images are available. Click the “Search” link on the left to search the database.

All other online passport sources have relatively insignificant numbers of holdings.

Land & Estate Records

• Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia Land Records are available at Ancestry.com: Canada Tax, Criminal, Land & Wills

• Western Land Grants: There are records for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the railway belt of British Columbia, c. 1870-1930, accessible at CollectionsCanada.gc.ca: Western Land Grants (1870-1930)

• Jewish Colonization Association individual farm settler reports from Western Canada and Quebec (1906–1951) are found at the Canadian Jewish Heritage Network site

• Winnipeg Property Assessments and Maps

• Winnipeg Estate Records Index These are the listing of available probate records containing the estate assets and liabilities. Its is a two-step process to find the document number. The actual document must be ordered. It is searched first by knowing the date probate was filed, then an alphabetical list of names will appear in a table.

• Manitoba Probate Records

• Nova Scotia Probate Records 1760-1993

• This rather intrusive web site allows you to search people by mail code or address. Locate Family

Military Records

• The Canadian Genealogy Centre Military Web pages are part of Library and Archives Canada (LAC). These pages link to both online resources (internal and external) and to information on LAC holdings of use for tracing ancestors who were active in the Canadian and other military forces. The links and advice for family historians are divided into topics that include: the French Regime; British forces; Loyalists; First World War; Canadian forces after 1918; military medals; war diaries; and war graves. LAC holds many varied resources for genealogists, such as: officer lists; letters; Canadian military personnel records; and medal registers. The information includes: how to access the material; how to read the various types of document; and samples of each type of document. This is a good, comprehensive guide to the types of information available to family or military historians looking at Canada.

• You can also request WW II Canadian service records (there is a written request form) from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) with some restrictions. If the person has been deceased at least 20 years, all that is required is proof of death, which can be as simple as a gravestone photo or obituary.

• Canadian Military Records at Ancestry.com ($) contain primarily soldiers of the first World War 1914-1918 and militia and defense forces 1863-1939. Records for first World War Canadian soldiers are also found at the Library and Archives Canada. The Canadian Virtual War Memorial commemorates those killed in action and can provide photographs and artifacts.

• Soldiers of the First World War, 1914-1918 at MyHeritage.com ($)

• Canadian Jewish Casualties in the Canadian Armed Forces, including servicemen who died while serving in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War can be found at Canadian Jewish Heritage Network

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

• Personnel Records of the First World War

• Royal Canadian Legion Members

• Canadian Great War Project

• Canadian Military Heritage Project

• McGill University War Records 1939-1945

School Yearbooks

• Selected School Yearbooks ($) at Ancestry.ca

• Ashbury College, Ottawa, Ontario ($) at MyHeritage.com

Jewish Genealogical Societies, Museums, & Libraries

These organizations provide valuable genealogical information and should be a priority as you do your research.

• Genealogical Institute of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada Inc.
  Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada
  MANITOBA (WINNIPEG):
  Suite C140 - 123 Doncaster St.
  Winnipeg, MB R3N 2B2
  Tel:(204) 477-7460, Fax: (204)477-7465
  Email: jhc@jhcwc.org

• The Jewish Genealogical Society—Hamilton & Area (JGS—H & A)
  13-120 Beddoe Drive
  Hamilton, ON L8P 4Z4
  Tel: (905) 524-3345
  Email: president@jgsh.org

• Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto
  P.O. Box 91006
  2901 Bayview Avenue
  Toronto, ON M2K 2Y6
  Email: info@jgstoronto.ca

• Ontario Jewish Archives
  UJA Federation of Greater Toronto
  Sherman Campus
  4600 Bathurst St.
  Toronto, ON M2R 3V2
  Tel: 416-635-2883
  Email: oja1@ujafed.org

• Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa
  Ottawa Jewish Archives
  21 Nadolny Sachs Private
  Ottawa, ON K2A 1R9
  Tel: 613-829-5620
  Email: archives@jewishottawa.com, Reichstein@magma.ca

• Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal / Jewish Public Library
  6500 Mackle Road, Apt. 201
  Montreal, QC H4W 3G7
  Tel: 514-484-0100
  Email: SMSDiamond@aol.com

• JAHSENA (Jewish Archives & Historical Society of Edmonton & Northern Alberta) / Archives Society of Alberta
  7200-156 St.
  Edmonton, AB T5R 1X3
  Tel: (780) 489-2809, Fax: (780) 481-1854
  Email: jahsena@shaw.ca

• Jewish Historical Sciety of Southern Alberta
  1607 - 90th Avenue S.W.
  Calgary, AB T2V 4V7
  Tel: (403) 444-3171, Fax: (403) 253-7915
  Email: jhssa@shaw.ca

• Jewish Genealogical Institute of British Columbia
  225 39th Ave W.
  Vancouver, BC V5Y 2P4
  E-mail: jewishgenbc@gmail.com

• The Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia
  6184 Ash Street
  Vancouver, BC V5Z 3G9
  Tel: (604) 257-5199
  Email: info@jewishmuseum.ca

• Saint John Jewish Historical Museum
  91 Leinster Street
  Saint John, NB E2L 1J2
  Tel: (506) 633-1833
  Email: sjjhm@nbnet.nb.ca

Ask a Librarian

Many large Canadian libraries have significant genealogical holdings and can provide answers to specific questions, sometimes over the telephone and sometimes over an internet messaging chat capability. These libraries may be found at Genealogy Links: Libraries.

Meta Search

These are sites that perform searches at several other search sites simultaneously.

• The search site GenealogyInTime is based in Ottawa and contains many informative articles about genealogy. 

• The Infospace one-stop search site ties together general search engines including Google and Bing.

• The Ancestors Search site is a one-stop search site for the National Archives of Canada.

Other Archives & Online Search Sites:

• Peel's Prairie Provinces is a resource dedicated to assisting scholars, students, and researchers of all types in their exploration of western Canadian history and the culture of the Canadian prairies. This website contains both an online bibliography of books, pamphlets, and other materials related to the development of the Prairies, as well as a searchable full-text collection of many of these items.

• Canada-wide Blog Site with reference links and how-to information at Finding Your Canadian Story.

• A directory of selected genealogical resources may be found at ArchivesCanada.ca.

• A world-wide compendium of Jewish genealogy at Blood and Frogs.

• An impressive number of online books at Early Canadiana Online. Searching on "Jewish" yeilds 7,780 results; "Hebrew" produces 6,229 results.

• Editions of the Canada Year Book are available for the years from 1867 to 1967

• Try searching for a name in the top right box at the Government of Canada Web Site. It has links to a wide variety of documents and data bases.

• A Directory of Canadian Genealogical Resources, enables you to access databases, catalogues and Web sites regarding genealogical fonds and collections all over Canada. As an example, using the keyword “Jewish” it provided links to the various Jewish genealogical societies in Canada as well as the site of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. All told, there are 25 topics covered under the category “Jewish”.

• The JewishGen Discussion Group Archives

• Avotaynu Magazine

• Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s-1900s, from the Ancestry.ca site: “This database contains over two million records referencing individuals from all regions of Canada, as well as early Alaska. The vast majority of the records fall between 1600 and the mid-to-late 1900s, although some records date before the 1500s. Gleaned during twenty years of research from over one thousand different sources — including city directories, marriage records, land records, census records, and more &#mdash; this collection of names represent one of the most complete indexes to historical Canadian records available.”

• A blog site of latest Canadian genealogy news, links and data bases is at Genealogy a la carte.

• A large number of links can be found at the blog site Climbing My Family Tree.

• Ten Free Canadian Genealogy Sites

Canadian Phonebook Listings (current)

• WhitePages.ca

• Canada411.ca

• Canada Phone and Address Listings ($) at MyHeritage.com

Miscellaneous (Non-Online Search) Sites

• Center for Jewish History

  In addition to general histories of the Jews in Canada, both the American Jewish Historical Society and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research have library and archival resources containing genealogical information about Jews in Canada. Additional resources are available in the Genealogy Institute.

• United HIAS Service, Main Office, N.Y

  Collection includes materials on Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, Canada. Consult the finding aid, which will help locate correspondence and some immigrant lists from specific European countries to Canada for the period of 1944-1962. YIVO Record Group 245.7.

• National Jewish Welfare Board, Bureau of War Records. Include data cards on individuals in the service, 1940-1969, ordered alphabetically.

Making Your Searches More Productive

Even having ready access to all of the online databases, it is easy to miss ancestor records due to variations in the spelling of their first and last names. Spelling errors typically occur because:

• As a matter of convenience, the ancestor deliberately changed the spelling over the years, but we emphasize that name changes did not occur at the Port of Entry.

• Names were altered due to the disparity in pronunciation of certain letters between English and other languages.

• Census takers and other government employees collecting and recording data made spelling errors on their forms due to a variety of reasons.

• The person who did the computer indexing misinterpreted the spelling due to the agent’s bad handwriting or poor image quality and entered the names incorrectly into the database.

Recognizing that inconsistent spellings may be more the rule than the exception, it is useful to have a search strategy to deal with the challenges of locating records without knowing the exact spelling.  Around 1920, a phonetic indexing technique "SOUNDEX" was developed to deal with spelling variations.  In 1985, the method was further refined by Randy Daitch and Gary Mokotoff to better accommodate eastern European names.  But in many instances we may want to perform an “Exact” spelling search to reasonably limit the numbers of responses to search queries.  For exact searches, the proper use of the asterisk (*) and question-mark (?) wildcards as letter substitutes is critical.  An asterisk is used to replace one or more letters, while a question mark substitutes for only one letter.

There are two general strategies for determining how to use these wildcards.  The strategy also has to take into account that for Canadian Manifest queries, the first or last name must have at least three letters.

The first strategy is to make a list of all known name variations from records already collected.  Here is an example of such a list:

ZELBOVITCH
ZELBOVITZ
ZELL

The common search term to include these names but open the door for new possibilities would simply be ZEL* . A variation of the search, excluding ZELL, could also have been ZELBOV* or even Z?LB?V* if we had doubts about the vowels. This search ultimately found the correct manifest for ZELBOVICIUS.

A second strategy is in cases where we don’t have the luxury of owning records showing possible name variations. Take SANOFSKY. The first step is to go to a listing of known Jewish name variations such as the “Searching Ashkenazic Reference Books for Jewish Surnames in One Step” and the Avotaynu Surname Database. Here is an excerpt:

Looking at the surnames that may be close to SANOFSKY, we can experiment with various search term alternatives. Assume the first letter is an S, but we are not sure if the second letter is an A or O. And we will assume an “SK” sound, but not sure if a Y or I ends the name. We can construct a universal search term to accommodate all these assumptions: S*SK? In fact, this search term came up with the successful search for SANOWSKY. In most instances, many variations of the search terms, using the wildcards, will be required.

APPENDICES

Appendix A: The Jewish Community in Canada

The earliest Jewish community in Canada was established in 1759, when Jews were first officially permitted to reside in the country.  The first congregation was founded in 1768 in Montreal.  Jewish settlement was mainly confined to Montreal until the 1840’s, when Jewish settlers slowly began to spread throughout the country.  Jewish immigration increased around the turn of the 20th century, as it did in the United States.  Today, Jews make up approximately 1.2% of Canada’s population.

Other sources of information include:

• Wikipedia: History of the Jews in Canada
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; includes external links.

• The Virtual Tour of Jews in Canada
  Has addresses of tourist sites, links and contacts.

Appendix B: Books and Periodicals

University of Calgary has many online books available at their Our Roots website. You don't need to log on in order to use the site. You can search by book title or content. Of particular interest are the following titles:

• Creating community - images of Vancouver's Jewish history - 25th anniversary of the Jewish Historical Society of British Columbia

• Heritage & history - the Saskatoon Jewish community

• Land of promise - the Jewish experience in Southern Alberta

• Pioneers, pedlars and prayer shawls - the Jewish communities in British Columbia and the Yukon

• The architecture of Jewish settlements in the prairies - a pictorial history

• Peaceful Invasion (book about immigrants to Manitoba)

• Wapella farm settlement - (the first successful Jewish farm settlement in Canada) - a pictorial history

The following list are "hard copy" books available from a wide variety of sources:

• Arnold, Abraham. The Life and Times of Jewish Pioneers in Western Canada. (Jewish Historical Society of Western Canada) 1969.

• Canadian Jewish Year Book 1939/40, edited by Vladimir Grossman. Includes articles and statistics about the Jews of Canada and the world. Lists Jewish organizations, histories of the organizations (including some discussion of individuals), and books published that year.

• Dor L’Dor. Journal of the Jewish Genealogy Society of British Columbia.

• Eker, Glen and Deborah Pekilis. Jewish Residents of the Maritimes in the 1901 Census of Canada. (1993). Lists name, date of birth, place of birth, year of immigration, occupation and place of residence.

• Gottesman, Eli. Who’s Who in Canadian Jewry. (Jewish Institute of Higher Research, 1965).

• Israelite Daily Press: the 100th Anniversary Souvenir of Jewish Emancipation in Canada and the 50th Anniversary of the Jews in the West. (Israelite Daily Press, 1932). English and Hebrew.

• Jewish Residents in the Canadian Census. Montreal & Quebec City (1871-1901); Toronto (1861-1901); Western Canada (1861-1901); Canadian Maritime Provinces (1901); Greater Quebec Province (1871-1901). Alphabetical listings within districts.

• Montreal Forum. Quarterly publication of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal.

• Prominent Jews of Canada: A History of Canadian Jewry Especially of the Present Time through Reviews and Biographical Sketches, edited by Zvi Cohen (Canadian Jewish Historical Publ. Co., 1933).

• Rosenberg, Louis. Jewish Mutual Benefit and Friendly Societies in Toronto, 1896-1944. (Canadian Jewish Congress, 1946). Does not mention individual names, but provides a demographic overview of Jews in Canada and the societies in Toronto. AJHS F 1059.5 .T68 R5.

• Shem Tov. Journal of the Toronto Jewish Genealogy Society. Genealogy Institute.

• “The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue,” from John Borthwick, Historical and Biographical Sketches from Borthwick’s Gazetteer of Montreal. (n.d., 1890’s). Accomplishments of Montreal’s Sephardim.

• Tapper, Lawrence F. Archival Sources for the Study of Canadian Jewry. (National Archives of Canada, 1987). English and French.

• Tapper, Lawrence F. Biographical Dictionary of Canadian Jewry, 1909-1914: From the Canadian Jewish Times. (Avotaynu, 1992).

Books Online

• Who’s Who in Canada — Excerpt from Google Books

• History of Winnipeg 1912 — first few chapters; this is a Google sampler

• INDEX TO CANADIAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL, VOLUMES 1 - 10 (1977-1988)