A Guide To Historic Places in Ontario

Profile manager: Amy Gilpin [send private message]

WikiTree’s Location Field Style Guide requires the use of place names used at whatever time period is covered by the profile ("use their conventions instead of ours" using the “names that people at the time used, even if they now no longer exist”). Here are a few tips regarding Ontario place names:

• Today’s Ontario was Province of Quebec from 1763-1791, Upper Canada from 1791-1841 and Canada West from 1841 until Confederation in 1867.
• Our Ontario ancestors were often unimaginative. A county, township and town can all carry the same name; for example, Waterloo (town), Waterloo (township), Waterloo (county). This is why it’s important to check census data to find out if the person profiled lived in a town or a township.
• In the 1990s and early 2000s, politicians decided to amalgamate various townships and towns and attached new names that many Ontarians don’t use. Unfortunately, FindAGrave uses these new designations and you’ll find many Ontario profiles with 19th-century folk living in Minden Hills, for example, rather than plain old Minden.

Resources

• A comprehensive and official guide circa 1990 to counties, townships and municipalities in Ontario can be found at Territorial Division Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. T.5
• The Government of Ontario has also produced a historical perspective on the changing province at The Changing Shape of Ontario
• National Research Council's Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGNDB) provides everything Family Search needs eg. type of feature, latitude and longitude to create a place. It supports both Current and Historical searches.