First Edition Published
August 17, 2015
Revised March 10,
2016: Fort York
Revised April 6,
2019: ourontario.ca Publications
Copyright by Fred
Blair
How to Find War of 1812 Related Documents
for Your Ancestors
Part 2:
Upper Canada Militia Payroll Documents
This is a series of blogs on how to find Upper Canadian
documents from about the time of the War of 1812, but some of these strategies
could be applied to other British provinces.
This discussion will focus on documents from before, during, and after
the war.
By
law, every able-bodied male from 16 to 60 was required to serve in a local
militia regiment. If you had a male
ancestor living in Upper Canada during the war his name probably appeared on a
militia document. Knowing where he was
living at the time would help you identify which regiments or corps he might
have served in. If you found militia
documents where his name was recorded you might discover more about his life
during the war. This Page may help you
locate those documents or may direct you to other sources.
Some
of us have a family history that our ancestor was at a particular battle. A militia payroll may provide documented
evidence of that event. However, if his
name was not recorded among the combatants he may also have been there in a
supportive roll or as a bystander. A
different type of document such as a diary or war loss claim may support your
family history.
A
number of men had exemptions from service and their names would have been less
likely to have appeared in a militia document.
Quakers, Mennonites, and Tunkers had a religious exemption but could
still be called upon to serve in supportive rolls. Another group exempted were those who mostly
provided an essential service to the community and included judges, clergy,
members and officers of provincial councils, magistrates, sheriffs, coroners,
retired officers, physicians, school masters, ferrymen, and one miller from
each grist mill. Men directly supporting
the military like blacksmiths, carpenters, and teamsters could also receive a
temporary exemption while employed by the British.
There are several collections of militia documents. The largest collection is online at
Collections Canada where they have 14 digital microfilms at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=35&interval=50&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=gt8bg2rht3q1m7nm6vcacotod2
I will write more about this website below.
The
Ontario Archives has a number of sets of documents at http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/1812/index.aspx where you will want to look at the
resources listed in the War of 1812 Research Guide. The Abraham and Robert Nelles Fonds have
documents for the 4th Lincoln Militia. Other fonds have records from other areas.
Lorine
McGinnis Schulze’s website, The Olive Tree Genealogy, has militia documents
online at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/mil/1812/ .
The
Fort York National Historical Site has digitally published Lieutenant-Colonel
William Chewett’s 3rd Regiment of York Militia Orderly Book and the
York Garrison Account Books online at
and
The
Niagara Historical Society and Museum has some militia documents in its
collection and additional material online at www.niagarahistorical.museum. I have
transcripts of the 1st Lincoln Militia documents from this
collection. These records were on
ourontario.ca in 2012, but I could no longer find them there in 2015.
The Wentworth Historical Society, Volume 4,
published in 1905, on pages 111-112, 1812 muster rolls for the commissioning of
Captain James Durand’s Flank Company of the 5th Lincoln Militia and
for Captain Samuel Hatt’s Company of men from the 5th Lincoln and 2nd
York Militias at the Capture of Fort Detroit, online at http://ourroots.ca/toc.aspx?id=3754&qryID=66e1bc61-a91c-4bd5-9c72-9a129660ae4e.
I am always interested in adding to
this list of sources, if you have found some that I have not listed here,
please let me know.
The
Collections Canada website has a table of contents for the militia payroll
documents. Click on the Help link just
above and to the right of the microfilm list on the webpage above. Unfortunately, this table of contents does
not have page numbers.
To
help you with the microfilm search, I have compiled a table of contents with
some page numbers of the material that I have looked at. It has been published in the Militia Payroll
Index Page on this blog site.
I also
have militia indices and transcripts for the
2nd York Militia
3rd York Militia
5th Lincoln Militia and
a history of the Coloured Corps with veteran
biographies.
You
may need help interpreting what you find in a document or putting it in
perspective with what was happening during the war.
The
local militia regiments were generally named after the county or area that they
were recruited from. Lincoln County in
the Niagara District had 5 Lincoln Militia Regiments. There were also payroll related documents for
militia staff officers, the Incorporated Militia, carpenters and artificers,
dispatch riders, killed and wounded, artillery drivers, the Coloured Corps, and
war accounts. Some men served in more
than one regiment or corps and you may want to look at some of the provincial
units, like the Incorporated Militia, as well.
As well as payrolls, the collection includes muster rolls, officer’s
signed pay receipts, quarterly and year end returns, and other interesting documents.
There
is also a similar collection of Lower Canada Militia payroll documents in the
Collection Canada online microform documents.
For
a number of reasons not all payroll documents survived or remained
legible. The British had a template for
writing these documents and most payrolls conformed to that standard. There was a title on each document that
indicated the type of document, the commanding officer, the regiment, and dates
of service. A payroll usually recorded
rank, name, periods of service, number of days served, rate of pay, total pay,
and remarks. At the end of each document
there was usually a certification and the signatures of the commanding officers. Payrolls did not usually indicate what the
men were doing or where they were stationed.
Remarks and other comments on the document will also be of
interest. The term “deserted” appears
frequently and had the same meaning as “absent without leave”. Deserters had to pay a fine if they were
prosecuted and found guilty.
Payroll
periods began on the 25th of the month and concluded on the 24th
of the following month, but the payrolls did not always begin or end on those
dates and may have included 2 or more payroll periods.
A
small number of payrolls omitted required details while others were edited or
certified months or years later.
Additional copies of militia documents were often transcribed at the
time by hand. An effort was usually made
to correct errors on earlier copies, so these transcripts are never identical
to the originals.
Hopefully
this Page has helped you find militia documents for your ancestors. If you did not find your ancestor’s name on
one of these documents, it may have been recorded in one of the additional sets
of documents discussed in my other How To Pages. Questions about the militia documents are
welcome at my email address in the header above.
End
No comments:
Post a Comment