Friday, October 30, 2020

The Essex Land Registry Office

In October 2020, the Ontario government ended counter services at all 54 Land Registry Offices (LROs). That means that access to valuable genealogical material (Crown patents, deeds, wills, etc.) can no longer be achieved in person and must be done online through the new OnLand / ONtario Land Registry Access portal.

SWODA (1905) Image: Essex County Registry Office, Sandwich, Ont.; The Township of Sandwich: Past and Present (1909) by Frederick Neal. Page 89
This nostalgic blog post looks back at the old days when three Askins (Col. James Askin, John Alex Askin and J. Wallace Askin) served successively for a total of eighty-three years as Essex county registrars. It is possible, in searching for your ancestors Essex county records, you have come across their names.

The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 12 Sep 1925, Sat  •  Page 24

In 1801, "on the third of June at 10 o,clock in the forenoon, a rider drew up before a tiny building in Sandwich, Ontario, dismounted and walking inside, laid a paper on the table."To be registered please", he said.

He had come over the trails from the British fort at Amherstburg and the paper he bore with him was one of the world's little known treaties - one of the numerous land exchanges between the British Crown and the Indian nations..."

Between worn calfskin bindings, on paper yellowed with age, the ink of June 3, 1801 was still fresh and black in 1925 when the author R.V. Sharp visited the vaults of the Essex County Registry Office at Sandwich (the successor to the tiny 10 x 9 building of 1801).

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 30 Aug 1924, Sat  •  Page 11

The first registry documents were written "in fine hand with a quill pen" and later (1912) they were typed on typewriters.

R.V. Sharp wondered, "One hundred and twenty-five years from this present date, investigators will be able to decide whether the typewriter impressions of today stand the passage of time as well as the black ink of the 1800s."

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 30 Aug 1924, Sat  •  Page 11

In 1912 when copies were still being made by hand, the average registration per day was only one-quarter what it was in 1925 when the "clicking of the typewriter was incessant".

The Very Beginning

But let's go even farther back to the year "1793 when Richard Pollard brought the records from Detroit and inaugurated the little registry Office in Sandwich"

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 23 May 1914, Sat  •  Page 8

William Hands succeeded Pollard as registrar taking office in 1825 until 1831 when he was succeeded by Col. James Askin.

Col. James Askin  from Neal, Frederick. "The Township of Sandwich, Past and Present" Record Printing: Windsor, Ont. 1909. 1
Col James Askin worked in a tiny 10 x 9 office  amidst "boxes and piles upon piles of trunks filled with old papers. When opened up in the morning they smelled decidedly musty ... the ink was made in large stone bottles from recipe and when freshly written was sprinkled over with black oxide of iron, which looked like gun powder."

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 23 May 1914, Sat  •  Page 8

"The crown patents were mostly on parchment..."

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 23 May 1914, Sat  •  Page 8

The Last Askin Registrar Dies At His Desk

The three Askins who served as registrars for the county of Essex were:

  1. 1831-1858 Col. James Askin (1786-1862)
  2. 1859-1875 John Alex Askin (1817-1904) (see obituary at end)
  3. 1876-1913 J. Wallace Askin (1848-1914)


Clipped from Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan 20 Nov 1892, Sun  •  Page 6

J. Wallace Askin's " heart was in his work and he often called the old registry office in Sandwich his second home. He had held the position for a term of years and, stricken at last, died among his papers and documents, the welfare of which was always of paramount interest to him."

Clipped from The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 05 Jan 1914, Mon  •  Page 1

 Registrars of Essex County 1796-1959

  • Richard Pollard who had come from England and settled at Detroit in 1782. He served as Registrar from 1796-1824
  • John Hands (1825-1830)
  • James Askin (1831-1858)
  • John A. Askin (1859-1875)
  • J. Wallace Askin (1876-1913)
  • Hon. Dr. J.O. Reaume (1914-1933) 
  • Thomas Edward Green (1934-1944) 
  • Dr. Paul Poisson (1944-1959).
Clipped: The Windsor Star Windsor, Ontario, Canada 30 Dec 1904, Fri  •  Page 1

Finding Records For Your Essex County Ancestors

Although the ability to walk into a Land Registry Office in Ontario has come to an end, these important records CAN still be accessed in a number of ways.

I have created some tutorials on how to use the OnLand portal and I plan to update these in November, but, the OnLand portal is NOT the only source of records for your Essex county ancestors. FamilySearch, The Talbot Fonds, and the Canadiana Sundries are a few of the other places to look.

Step One: Where Did Your Ancestor Live?

In order to search these land registry records, you must know details about where your ancestor lived. But what if you are uncertain?

Four Ways To Get Your Ancestor's Property Details  

(1) If you are not sure when/how your ancestor acquired property

(2) If you know the street address but NOT the details (i.e. Lot, Plan, Parcel etc) Chris Ryan had blogged about a work round. The blog post is no longer online (but is archived here: http://www.historynerd.ca/2018/01/11/onland-a-wonderful-new-tool/ ) but essentially Chris demonstrated that:

  1. by registering for a FREE account at Teranet-Express (the group building this OnLand interface for the Ontario government) https://www.teranetexpress.ca/csp/
  2. then typing in the street address of the Property (I.e. “50 Smith”) 
  3. you receive the legal description of the Property with details such as Lot, Plan, Parcel You can then use these details to search the Historical Books: Abstract/Parcel Register Book on OnLand https://www.onland.ca/ui/

Teranet may have incorporated this search into their interface below where you have options to search by PIN, Address, Instrument or Map. I will investigate these search fields during business hours and post my findings in a separate blog post


(3) If you don't know ANY details other than township, you can use online Historical Directories to determine LOT, Concession, Parcel information (see below) to locate your ancestor.

(4) If you don't know ANY details other than township, you can use online Historical Maps to get Lot, Concession numbers to locate your ancestor. 

How does looking for your ancestor on a historical map help? Do you remember the case of my 3rd great-grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860)?  The only item that I entered on the OnLand interface (after selecting Essex County LRO) was "296" which is the number appearing on this early township map (below) that I located at  Archives of Ontario Digitized Patent Plans http://ao.minisisinc.com/FS_IMAGES/I0050834.jpg (Source: AO RG 1-100-0-0-1368)


Step Two: What Records Are Available?

The OnLand Portal is one of several options for research. Below, I have linked to a number of tutorials that I have created to assist your resaerch.
 

 

  1. OnLand Part I: Historical Books: First Registration Book: In my tutorial, (LINK: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/part-iv-onland-records-historical-books.html) I explain what records can be found (list of first registrations from registry to land titles (e.g. Crown Patent or Crown plan) and I demonstrate a walk-through of how I found the records for my 4th great-grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860) who lived in Maidstone (known originally as Sandwich), Ontario.
  2. OnLand Part II: Historical Books: Abstract / Parcel Register Book : In my tutorial, (LINK: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/part-i-onland-records-historical-books.html)  I describe what you can expect to find in the historical books  and how I searched the records for my 4th great-grandfather Matthew Moynahan (1770-1860) 
  3. OnLand Part III: Historical Books: General Register Index: In my tutorial, (LINK: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/part-iii-onland-records-historical.html) I explain what records can be found in the Genetal Register (non-land-specific documents maintained by each Land Registry Office, including wills, letters probate, letters patent, etc.) and how I located I found information for my 4th great-grandfather Matthew Moynahan's (1770-1860) Will (which I had attained at the Essex LRO in person previously)
  4. Family Search: Digitization of Essex County Land Records 1779-1955: In my tutorial (LINK: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/family-search-digitization-of-essex.html) I demonstrate how I navigated through the 229 microfilm reels to find my 3rd great-grandfather Denis Moynahan (who was located by Col. Talbot at 6 South Middle Road (S.M.R.), Maidstone, Ontario) to see if there was anything about him there.
  5. Talbot Settlement and Survey Maps 1793-1849: In my tutorial (LINK: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/01/talbot-settlement-and-survey-maps-1793.html) I demonstrate how I found my Moynahan ancestors who were settled by Thomas Talbot in the early 1800s
  6. Upper Canada Sundries, 1766-1841  (RG 5 A1) is part of the Civil Secretary’s Correspondence for Upper Canada and Canada West. It consists of letters, petitions, reports, returns and schedules, certificates, accounts, warrants, legal opinions, instructions and regulations, proclamations and other documents received by the Civil Secretary of Upper Canada, 1791-1841, together with copies of some documents of 1766-1809, made for reference purposes. It is now available for free at Canadiana https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_125539 .A Reference Guide for these records has been digitized https://www.crkn-rcdr.ca/en/reference-guide-upper-canada-sundries-1766-1841
The Upper Canada Sundries are a gold mine of untapped information for Upper Canada ancestors. Also known as the correspondence of the civil secretary (Library and Archives Canada RG 5 A1), they include petitions for land, requests for government jobs, military communications, requests for compensation due to war losses (when the militia destroyed farm property, etc.), lists of people wanting to settle in Upper Canada, testimonies regarding traitors in the war of 1812 and the rebellion of 1837/8, complaints about unfulfilled promises of assistance, petitions for clemency for neighbours convicted of treason and murder, and many other matters.(Source: http://www.uppercanadagenealogy.com/sundriesS.html)

In closing, I would like to express my gratitude for the Ontario Genealogical Society and APOLROD (Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents) for their ongoing advocacy to ensure that these registry records, some  dating back to the days of the Askin registrars with their quill pens, are kept available to the public ... students, historians, genealogists, etc ... for years to come.

South Western Ontario & Sandwich, Ontario History Videos

The Settlement of South Western Ontario(Part VI) https://youtu.be/EgsaMZgkCTU
 
Inspired by Simcoe's dream to create a British colony, flamboyant Colonel Tom Talbot obtained a land grant in South Western Ontario and offered new immigrants the opportunity to settle the land. For settlers, it was a tough but rewarding life clearing the land, planting and harvesting crops, and building homes, barns and roads. As part of the deal, all male members of the family had to join the militia. No problem -- until war broke out! 

The Settlement of South Western Ontario (Part VII) https://youtu.be/C3EOOI_T44Y 

Prior to the War of 1812 navigation between Lake Erie and the Upper Great Lakes was forced to pass through a narrow channel on the lower Detroit River. It was here in 1796 that the British built Fort Malden. During the War, both the British and the Americans were anxious to gain control of Lake Erie. When the American squadron moved into Put-in-Bay in the late summer of 1813, potentially cutting off the supply routes to the forts and their native allies, the British fleet was forced to leave Amherstburg and engage in battle.

Historic Walking Tour of Sandwich Town https://youtu.be/oJjtzlrlFQc 

with the Land Registry Office at 10:18 

For the map of the tour please go to: http://bit.ly/1l5TnoQ

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