Top Ten Canadian Genealogy Websites

Recently FamilyTreeMagazine published a list of their Top 100 Genealogy sites. Included was a category for Top Canadian Genealogy with only 4 sites named. That was disappointing considering all the great Canadian Genealogy websites out there, so several of us bloggers decided to publish own list of the Top 10 Canadian Genealogy websites.

Here is my list, in no particular order. I have included both free and pay-to-view sites simply because my criteria is quality. And often quality costs money. We genealogists are lucky to have so many quality sites that are also free. 

I wanted this list to be as generic as possible, that is, to cover all or most of Canada if possible. There are excellent websites for specific provinces and territories but they are not included here as they do not hold record sets for all of Canada.

* Library & Archives Canada (free) - dozens of free online databases for anyone with ancestors who lived in Canada. It is not always easy to use but if you can struggle through it is well worth it.

* Olive Tree Genealogy (free) Yes I know it's my site. But it has many terrific databases such as ships' passenger lists to Canada, Loyalist information and land records in Ontario.

* The Ancestor Hunt (free) I use Kenneth R. Marks'  blog for a comprehensive list of links for online Canadian Newspapers.

* TheShipsList (free) Sue Swiggum's amazing site is chock full of early ship passages up the St. Lawrence River.

* Ancestry.ca/Ancestry.com (fee-based) - So many terrific Canadian records I can't possibly list them all. They range from Canadian census records, voter's lists, vital statistics and more. Both locales (.ca and .com) have identical record sets.

* Our Roots (free) Specializes in Canadian local histories in French and English

* Canada GenWeb Project (free) The Canada GenWeb provides an easy way for genealogists to choose their province or territory of interest. Each specific site's value is dependent on the host's knowledge and interest, but it is well worth checking out.

* Canadiana Online (free) Even though this site is frustrating to use due to incorrect content listings of its digitized microfilm, it has digitized Canadian records that are not available elsewhere. For anyone using this site, please be aware that I have begun publishing my corrected content listings and partial indexes for their online microfilms at Finding  Aid for Heir & Devisee Commission Online Films

* FamilySearch Canadian Collection (free) FamilySearch currently has 81 databases for Canada online. Some are indexed, others are not but it is worth your time to take a look at what is available.

* The Canadian Military Heritage Project  (free) There are several excellent sites for specific Canadian military records such as War Dead, but not many that provide an overall perspective of all military wars and skirmishes Canada was part of. CMHP does just that plus it provides links to online databases for each war. It also provides  several biographies of soldiers and other interesting data.