January 2018 has been a
GREAT month for genealogists wanting to access early Ontario Land records.
A
new project to digitize Ontario land records by Family Search and the announcement of the
first phase of the OnLand web portal (in alpha phase) are definitely worth watching as new records will be added throughout 2018.
Genealogists know that land records are a gold mine of information and one of the challenges is locating the property details for our Ontario ancestors.
An Online Ontario Land Records Trifecta!
The good news for folks with ancestors in south-western Ontario is that a third Ontario land record resource is now online!
The
Elgin County Archives (in agreement with the
Archives of Ontario's Digitization Loan Program), has completed a digitization project and published the following important records:
- Archives of Ontario's Thomas Talbot fonds, F 501 (45 maps from 1802 to 1832, displaying early settlement grants
and dates of occupation in the series of townships where Talbot
controlled land allocation.)
- Ministry of
Natural Resources fonds, RG 1-470 (33 maps from 1796 to 1844, displaying early surveying efforts
in approximately the same area, alongside names of settlers)
If your ancestors lived in south-western Ontario between 1796 and 1844, these records would be well worth investigating.
My 3rd Great-Grandfather Denis Moynahan
(1787-1885)
Was A Talbot Settler
My Essex county Moynahan ancestors were settled by Thomas Talbot in the early 1800s and I had learned this from a trip to the archives in the early 1980s.
The document below was one of my greatest finds back in those early days! It shows my 3rd great-grandfather Denis Moynahan land petition (spelled Minehan) dated 1847 but with information that Col. Thomas Talbot located him to 6 South Middle Rd., Maidstone (then known as Sandwich) in the year 1830!
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| One of the very first documents that I found at the Archives of Ontario (c. 1980) |
I had several Moynahan ancestors who were part of the Talbot settlement and you can visit my previous posts here:
From my early research, I mapped out where all of the early Essex county, Ontario Moynahans lived in relation to each other:
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| My hand drawn map of my early Essex county Moynahan ancestors |
The Talbot Fonds
When I explored the
Thomas Talbot fonds, F 501 online, I quickly confirmed my Moynahan ancestors in the Talbot Fonds index:
Once I located these Moynahan ancestors on the indexes, I looked for them on the corresponding maps:
Ministry of Natural Resources Fonds
In the Ministry of Natural Resources fonds for Essex county, there are four maps ranging from 1790 to 1824
I was not able to explore these records at the time of this posting. I attempted to open RG 1-470-0-0-225 several times with no success. I'm not sure if this is an issue at their server or on my computer. If you are successful, I would love to hear what you found.
Other Ontario Land Records Links
Early Irish Settlers - Essex, Ontario
