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Canada Regional Category Names

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Each Canadian province has a different system of local government which may include upper-tier or rural jurisdiction categories such as counties, municipal districts, regional municipalities, regional districts or regional county municipalities. These categories are then divided into lower-tier or urban jurisdictions such as cities, towns, villages, townships, and parishes. Please see region-specific outlines below:

Contents

Historical Place Names

Note: This is a rough outline of dates. Please do further research to determine the correct place names. Borders changed over time. (This is a work in progress. Your help is appreciated. Contact: Peggy Watkins with your suggestions or comments.)
New France or Nouvelle-France: 1534 - 1763
Province of Quebec: 1763 - 1791
The area that is now part of Ontario:
Upper Canada: 1791 - 1841
Canada West: 1842 - 1867
The area that is now part of Quebec:
Lower Canada: 1791 - 1841
Canada East or Lower Canada: 1841 - 1867
Northwest Canada:
Rupert's Land: 1670 - 1870
British North America
Not really in use from 1783 to 1867, other than for the title of the Governor General.
See British North America www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
See also:
North American Place Names
Politics in Ontario. The Canadian Encyclopedia (includes maps of the Province of Quebec, Upper Canada and Lower Canada and Canada West and Canada East.)
Lower Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia (includes a map of Lower Canada)

Alberta

Historical place names:
Note: Please do further research to determine the correct place names. Borders changed over time.
Rupert's Land: 1670 - 1869
Northwest Territories: 1870 - 1905
Province of Alberta: 1905 - present

British Columbia

Present day British Columbia consists of 29 regional districts established between 1965 and 1968.[1]

Historical Places In 1849, the Colony of Vancouver Island was created. The Colony of British Columbia was established in 1858. The two colonies were later merged in 1866 to form the Colony of British Columbia, until 1871 when the colony joined Canada as the Province of British Columbia.

Historical place names:
Colony of Vancouver Island: 1849-1866
Colony of British Columbia: 1858-1866
Colony of British Columbia (merged with Colony of Vancouver Island) 1866-1871
Province of British Columbia: 1871-present

Manitoba

Historical place names:
Note: Please do further research to determine the correct place names. Borders changed over time.
Rupert's Land: 1670 - 1869
Province of Manitoba: 1870 - present

New Brunswick

Pre 1784 On Friday, 17 August, 1759, by an act of the Legislature, the province of Nova Scotia was divided into five counties, Annapolis, King's, Cumberland, Lunenburg and Halifax. Cumberland County, "to consist of all the lands in the province of Nova Scotia lying north of King's County," thus included the entire area that later became the province of New Brunswick. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick: New Brunswick Counties

Counties Before New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia, (in 1784) it consisted of Cumberland and Sunbury Counties. Counties were at the top of a three-layer local government system Category:New Brunswick, Places

Regional Service Districts The New Regional Services Model New Brunswick communities (PDF)

Historical place names: See: Atlantic Canada History

Newfoundland and Labrador

Present Day Present day Newfoundland has a simple administrative organisation. Town names are unique, and there is no higher municipal or county organisation. Thus, place categories can always default to the present name of the town, followed by "Newfoundland and Labrador", e.g. Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador. These categories are nested under the parent category Places in Newfoundland and Labrador.

For the purposes of historical research, present day categories might not be ideal. A large number of historical towns no longer exist, and those that do exist may have amalgamated, or changed names. To add to the confusion, many names (like Flatrock, Birchy Cove, Salmon Cove, or Trinity) referred to multiple towns, which need to be distinguished by their region.

Historic Names From the 1700s until well into the 1900s, Newfoundland was divided into districts that in part mirrored the major geographical features (bays, peninsulas, coasts) of the island. These were used for administrative purposes (such as censuses) and helped disambiguate towns with the same names. The historical place categorisation scheme for Newfoundland preserves a district structure, as a level above town, and roughly accords with the district scheme used in the censuses of 1921-1935.

We also distinguish between 3 major periods in Newfoundland's history: the colonial period that began in the 1600s, followed by its time as a self governing dominion, in 1907, followed by Confederation in 1949 as the Province of Newfoundland (until 2001). For example, see Trinity, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland Colony, which contains profiles of people living in Trinity, Bonavista, prior to 1907. For a full treatment of categories for Newfoundland, see the discussion on the Newfoundland space page.

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia has a one-tier municipal system that is unlike the approach described in the introduction. Nova Scotia counties are not divided into lower-tier municipalities. Counties and municipalities exist in parallel, each for their own purpose. As a result, some place categories will be associated with a county and a municipality, and others will only have the county.

Counties Counties in Nova Scotia are found in federal (e.g. census) and provincial (e.g. health, education, probate) genealogical records, but are not part of local government. These categories are identified with "County" in the category name (e.g. Category:Annapolis County, Nova Scotia) and given a parent category of Category:Places in Nova Scotia

Municipalities Municipalities are used for local government (e.g. property taxes, municipal services), and also appear in genealogical records. A municipality may take the form of a regional municipality, a rural municipality, or a town.

  • Regional municipalities are identified with "Regional Municipality" in the category name (e.g., Category: Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia), given a parent category of Category:Places in Nova Scotia and a secondary parent of the appropriate provincial county.
  • Rural municipalities can take one of two forms: a county municipality or a district municipality.
    • A rural county municipality is established along the same boundaries as the provincial county, however it does not include any municipal towns (e.g. Muncipality of the County of Cumberland and the Municipality of the Town of Amherst are independent of each other, but both are part of the provincial county). WikiTree uses a simpler approach: the County category for each county municipality (eg: Category: Cumberland County, Nova Scotia refers to the provincial county and to the municipality at the same time).
    • A rural district municipality is not established along the same boundaries as the provincial county (e.g. Municipality of the District of Argyle), and does not include any towns. When it is needed, this category is identified with District in the category name (eg: Argyle District, Nova Scotia), given a parent category of Category:Places in Nova Scotia, and a secondary parent of the appropriate provincial county. It will appear much like a town, however unincorporated places may be categorized in the district, and a town will have no sub-categories.
  • Towns are identified with the place name (eg Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia), given a parent category of Category:Places in Nova Scotia, and a secondary parent of the appropriate provincial county. It would not have any lower level categories.

Places Any other type of place category is identified with the place name, given a parent category of Category:Places in Nova Scotia, and categorized within the appropriate counties and/or municipalities. An unincorporated place would not generally have lower level categories.

Historic places Historic places in Nova Scotia are categories for places that are not in current use (e.g. Category:Cape Breton Colony). They are identified using the same approach described above, as appropriate to each type, and given a parent category of Category: Places in Nova Scotia, Historic.

Historical place names: See: Atlantic Canada History

Duplicate place names Some place names in Nova Scotia are duplicated across counties (e.g. Little Harbour, Nova Scotia may refer to one of four places: in Halifax, Shelburne, Pictou or Richmond Counties. To avoid confusion, the county name will be included in the place name (e.g.Category: Little Harbour, Pictou, Nova Scotia).

Ontario

Counties Counties are identified with "County" in the category name (e.g., Category:Lanark County, Ontario) and given a parent category of Category:Ontario, Places.

Regional Municipalities Regional Municipalities are identified with "Region" in the category name (e.g., Category: Niagara Region, Ontario) and given a parent category of Category: Ontario, Places.

Ontario - Municipalities In Ontario, modern townships are called Municipalities. These locations will simply use the municipality name. (e.g., Category:Lanark Highlands, Ontario) and given the parent category of their appropriate County. In this case the parent category would be Category:Lanark County, Ontario.

Canada West and Upper Canada (Historic Places) Historic locations in Canada West and Upper Canada would include ‘County’ or ‘Township’ in their names (e.g., Renfrew County would be Category:Renfrew County, Canada West and Bathurst Township would be Category:Bathurst Township, Upper Canada).

See also: Politics in Ontario. The Canadian Encyclopedia

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island locations are categorized in a three tiered structure.

  • Counties Counties are identified with the word County in the name. There are three counties, Prince, Queens and Kings.
  • Lots Lots were originally created as lease holdings where a proprietor leased the land. While the lease holding system ended when Prince Edward Island joined Confederation, the Lot names and boundaries still persist. Lots do not cross county lines.
  • Places Places are local place names. The modern names are used but historic name categories are also used and linked using the previous/next mechanism of the CategoryInformationBox (CIB). All Prince Edward Island locations must be created using the CIB. Places should use both the Lot and "Prince Edward Island, Places" as parent categories. Historic locations would have "Prince Edward Island, Historic Places" as parent.

All places use the syntax "Place, Prince Edward Island."

A detailed description is available at Prince Edward Island Locations, which is the document that was approved on G2G.

Historical place names: See: Atlantic Canada History

Québec

See: Category names for Québec over time which includes dates and location nomenclature also. No counties should be used.

Saskatchewan

Historical place names:
Note: Please do further research to determine the correct place names. Borders changed over time.
Rupert's Land: 1670 - 1869
Northwest Territories: 1870 - 1905
Province of Saskatchewan: 1905 - present

Northwest Territories

Nunavut

Previously part of the Northwest Territories, it was separated on April 1st 1999. Wikipedia: Nunavut

Yukon

Sources

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regional_districts_of_British_Columbia




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