A guide to researching your family's inheritance history in Ontario. Whether your ancestor left hundreds of acres of land, money, or a few modest belongings, the records created when those legacies were distributed can provide valuable clues to family connections, relationships, and just how your ancestors lived. Inheritance in Ontario will help you determine whether your relative's will was proved in the Court of Probate, surrogate courts, or another...

Crime and Punishment in Upper Canada provides genealogists and social historians with context and tools to understand the criminal justice system and locate sources on criminal activity and its consequences for the Upper Canada period (17911841) of Ontarios history. Illustrative examples further aid researchers in this era of the provinces past, which is notoriously difficult to investigate due to paucity of records and indexes. An entertaining, educational...

Beginning in Canada's earliest days, our ancestors were required to perform some form of military service, often as militia. The discovery that an ancestor served during one of the major conflicts in our history is exciting. When you find a family name on a Loyalist muster roll, a Canada General Service Medal with an ancestors name engraved on it, a set of First World War attestation papers, or a box of Second World War medals, you realize that one...

Genealogical evidence is the information that allows us to identify an individual, an event in his or her life, or the relationship between individuals. In such a process, we often hear or use words such as evidence, proof, or documentation. Brenda Dougall Merriman takes readers through the genealogical process of research and identification, along the way examining how the genealogical community has developed standards of evidence and documentation,...

Many family researchers with Ontario roots discover they have ancestors who were teachers. Those with no teachers in the family may have ancestors who were part of the Ontario education system as students. Today there are numerous varied resources available to find information on teachers, pupils, schools, textbooks, and curricula in historical Ontario. Education and Ontario Family History outlines the resources available for education from about...

This volume of The Reference Shelf looks at the challenges facing police, from funding and staffing shortages to the influence of political polarization. The changing public perception of police and calls for reform are also examined. The controversial "Defund the Police" and "Black Lives Matter" protests against police brutality are covered, while other articles explore policing and immigration enforcement, mental health and de-escalation training,...