Ontario Land Records - Using the CLRI

The CLRI (Ontario Land Records Index) cateogorizes entries as:
Name of Locatee
Residence
Township/Town/City
Lot/ Conc/Date I.D.
Issue Date
Transaction Type
Type FG (Free Grant)
Type of Lease/Sale
Archival Reference (RG, Series,Volume, Page #)

This is very helpful as the Date ID can lead you to other sources - for eg. a Date ID of 8 means that an OC (Order in Council) was given and this means a petition or petitions are on file for the individual. These petitions are often a wealth of information!

The Archival Reference leads you to the original entry from which the CLRI was made - sometimes this has a great deal more information, often it does not.

Type of FG (Free Grant) can be helpful - was it M (Military), or UE (Loyalist) or SE (Scotch Emigrant) or ..... There are many types of Free Grants, each has its own avenue of research.

Read more about land and about the CLRI

To give an example, let's look at Reuben Bisbee in London.

Here is the actual CLRI entry (under the categories I listed above):

Reuben Bisbee; London; London; N 1/2 1; 14/ 8; 1848/02/09;FG; FF; 01 C13 0350 92

I'll translate :-)

Reuben Bisbee of London, received a Free Grant (paying Full fees) for north half of Lot 1, Conc. 14 in London Twp on 1848/02/09. An OC was issued (this means there's a petition on file in the Upper Canada Land Petitions) Archival Ref is 01 C13 volume 350 p. 92

I have conversion tables online to convert the Archival Reference to a Microfilm Reel. To see the petitions you will have to get the UCLP indexes (Upper Canada Land Petition indexes) first then convert to the microfilm reel for the details and the petition itself.

Full fees means Reuben qualified for a free grant of land under some condition (probably listed on his petition envelope) but had to pay administration fees.

Armed with the lot and conc # you can now check the Abstract Indexes to Deeds for that piece of property and find out who owned the land AFTER Reuben! The CLRI only
shows the first land owner who got the land from the Crown - - so any succeeding landowners are not given.

You can also check Township Papers. Please see Olive Tree Genealogy Ontario Land Records for details!
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© Lorine McGinnis Schulze
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

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