Canada is distinguished from most other countries by the diversity of its population. Our unique cultural, ethnic and linguistic mosaic is reflected in the wide assortment of holdings at Library and Archives Canada associated with the different ethno-cultural groups.
The holdings include: immigration records and guides, travel guides, passenger lists, letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, newspapers (some ethnic titles), maps, art, photographs, music and film.
Immigration resources have been sorted into three categories:
Databases
- Citizenship Registration Records, 1851-1945 - Montreal Circuit Court
- Home Children - Boards of Guardians
- Home Children Records
- Immigrants at Grosse-Île Quarantine Station, 1832-1937
- Immigrants Before 1865
- Immigrants from China, 1885-1949
- Immigrants from the Russian Empire, 1898-1922 (LI-RA-MA Collection)
- Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832
- Immigrants to Canada, Porters and Domestics 1899-1949
- Naturalization Records, 1828-1850 - Upper Canada and Canada West
- Naturalization Records, 1915-1951
- Passenger Lists for the Port of Quebec City and Other Ports, 1865-1922
- Passenger Lists, 1865-1922
- Passenger Lists and Border Entries, 1925-1935 - Nominal Indexes
- Ship Registration, 1787-1966
- Ukrainian Immigrants, 1891-1930
Use Archives Search to search for other archival records, photographs, films, maps, etc.
Research tips:
- Use keywords, e.g. immigr* (for immigrants, immigration) and a place or subject.
- For federal government records, add the record group number to your keyword search, e.g. RG17, RG76, RG26. Those three Record Groups contain records relating to immigration and citizenship policy and administration.
Digitized Microforms
Published Sources
Use Library Search to search for published sources such as books, journals, newspapers, etc. Try Subject Keyword to start your search.
Genealogists might find the following books of interest:
- " Liste des navires venus en Nouvelle France de 1657 à 1665 " by Michel Langlois in L'Ancêtre (Québec), volume 3 (1976), pages 3 à 15. (AMICUS 130178)
- A Dictionary of Immigrants to Nova Scotia by Leonard H. Smith. (AMICUS 5868592)
- A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation by Donald Whyte, Ontario Genealogical Society, 4 volumes. (AMICUS 5499331)
- Canada: immigration and colonization, 1841-1903 by Norman Macdonald. (AMICUS 13031697)
- Canadian border entry lists, 1908-1918: Yukon Territory & British Columbia by Mary Kearns Trace. (AMICUS 16988514)
- Canadian Passengers Inward Bound, 1856 1858 by Mary Kearns Trace. (AMICUS 16581643)
- Catalogue des Immigrants 1632-1662 by Marcel Trudel. (AMICUS 3979071)
- De la Nouvelle-Angleterre à la Nouvelle-France: l'histoire des captifs anglo-américains au Canada entre 1665 et 1760 by Marcel Fournier. (AMICUS 11541010)
- Destination Canada: a genealogical guide to immigration records by Dave Obee. (AMICUS 37375073)
- Dictionnaire Biographique des Ancêtres Québécois 1608-1760 1608 1760 by Michel Langlois, 1998-2001, 4 volumes. (AMICUS 20371155)
- Doukhobor ship passenger lists, 1898-1928 by Steve Lapshinoff and Jonathan Kalmakoff. (AMICUS 25470913)
- Emigrants and Empire: British Settlement in the Dominions Between the Wars edited by Stephen Constantine. (AMICUS 9356932)
- Encyclopedia of Canada's peoples edited by Paul Robert Magocsi. (AMICUS 19650051)
- Index of some Passengers who Emigrated to Canada between 1817 & 1849 by John A. Acton. (AMICUS 28185702)
- La Contribution du Haut-Poitou au Peuplement de la Nouvelle-France by Robert Larin. (AMICUS 14023987)
- Les Européens au Canada des Origines à 1765 by Marcel Fournier. (AMICUS 8830587)
- Les Filles du Roi au XVIIe siècle by Yves Landry. (AMICUS 11402134)
- Les Français au Québec 1765 1865, : un mouvement migratoire méconnu by Marcel Fournier. (AMICUS 13888218)
- Names of emigrants: from the 1845 1847 records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal by the Irish Research Group, Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society. (AMICUS 13440066)
- Nos Ancêtres by Gérard Lebel and Jacques Saintonge, 29 volumes. (AMICUS 2385697)
- Origine des Familles Pionnières du Québec Ancien. Bibliographie et répertoire by Marcel Fournier. (AMICUS 16963738)
- Passengers to New Brunswick: the Custom House Records; 1833, 34, 37 & 1838 by Daniel F. Johnson. (AMICUS 7409292)
- Portraits de Familles Pionnières by Robert Prévost, 1993-1997, 5 volumes. (AMICUS 12609733)
- Strangers at our gates: Canadian immigration and immigration policy, 1540-1990 by Valerie Knowles. (AMICUS 33152793)
- The Lanark Society Settlers: Ships' Lists of the Glasgow Emigration Society, 1821 by Gerald J. Neville. (AMICUS 14173982)
- The McCabe List: Early Irish in the Ottawa Valley by Bruce S. Elliott. (AMICUS 27109555)
- The People's Clearance: Highland Emigration to British North America, 1770-1815 by J. M. Bumsted. (AMICUS 2960069)
- The Silver Chief: Lord Selkirk and the Scottish Pioneers of Belfast, Baldoon and Red River by Lucille H. Campey. (AMICUS 28058702)
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