How to Find War Documents, Part 6

First Edition Published September 7, 2015

Last Revised on November 17, 2022

Copyright by Fred Blair

 

How to Find War of 1812 Related Documents for Your Ancestors

Part 6:  Other Sources

            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.

 

            There are other resources that can provide details about an ancestor’s military service or life in Upper Canada during the war.  I have accessed a number of these and have a list of others that I would someday like to find.  I have noted which documents I have copies of below.  Enquires are welcome but I may charge a fee if a large number of look-ups are requested.

 

Library and Archives Canada War of 1812 Document Search Engine

 

            This search engine is online at http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/war-of-1812/Pages/search.aspx

            Unfortunately, many of the documents in this collection have not been indexed and are therefore not accessed by this search engine.  If you are lucky, you may find a document of interest to you.

 

Upper Canada Land Board Records

 

            The Land Board Records may help you with ancestors who settled between 1789 and 1794.  They are available online in digital microfilm at

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_205141

            The Ontario Genealogical Society published The Index to the Upper Canada Land Books in 2001.

 

Ontario Land Records

 

            The Ontario Land Records included requests for land, land leases, land patents granted, and other land transactions.  The Ontario Archives has a name index and a township index to these records.  Their Research Guide is online at

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/access/documents/research_guide_205_land_records.pdf

 

            The Land Book Abstracts and related documents can now be found online at

https://www.onland.ca/ui/

If you know the Concession and Lot number where your ancestor lived or even the area, you can find when they held title to the land in these books.

            For the York County books, enter “York” in the search engine window.  From the choices select “YORK REGION (LRO 65)”.  In the next window click on “Historical Books.”  There are 2 options in the next window, select “Browse Books”.  Next click on “Browse Abstact/Parcel Register Book”.  You now only have to select from 3299 results.  If you know the Township or Municipality you can select it in the box in the top right-hand corner.  If I click on “York” Township, I get down to 155 results.  You can now select the Concession and Lot numbers for the land record you want to look at.  This will take you to a digital copy of the book which you can search by page number until you find the Concession and Lot number you are looking for.

            I found the lot that my house was built on but before I got to 1895 the pages ended and there was a note to look at the Plan with a plan number.  You now have to go back to the page where you found “Browse Books” and click on “Search Books”.  At “Property Description” select “Plan” and enter the plan number.

            All those other options looked interesting as well, particularly “Wills”.  You may want to explore them further.

 

Upper Canada Sundries

 

            The Sundries were the correspondence of the Civil Secretary of Upper Canada, and later Canada West, from 1766 to 1841.  There is a variety of documents in this collection including letters, petitions, reports, and certificates.  Some of Upper Canada Land Petitions, character references, family histories, and war losses also ended up here.  These documents were filed by date.  The collection of digital microfilms is online at

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_125539

 

A name index is online at

http://uppercanadagenealogy.com/sundriesS.html

 

Prize Money Lists

 

            Men who took part in an engagement with the American’s and captured items of value for the British were entitled to a share of the value of those goods.  The Extracts from the Prize List and other Honours Awarded for the Capture of Detroit, August 16, 1812, Particularly Relating to the 41st Regiment of Foot transcribed and annotated by Jim Yaworsky was online on May 20, 2019 at

 

http://www.fortyfirst.org/transcripts-12-detroit-prize-list.html

 

There are no doubt other prize money lists that I have not found yet.

 

Prisoners of War and Parolees

 

In 1819 the British sent an agent to Washington D.C. to prepare a registry of British prisoners captured by the Americans and British citizens granted paroles by the Americans.  The register was online in 2019 but was inactive in 2021

 

https://www.1812privateers.org/Great_Britain/prisoners.html

 

There are alphabetical links on the home page.  There is an appendix of additional names starting with the letters A-C at the end of this register.

 

Does anyone have a link to this register?

 

It has been my experience that some prisoners were not recorded in this registry or were recorded with a variation of their surnames and that there were discrepancies between the dates in the registry and in other sources.  Another problem with the registry was that militia rank and file were identified by name but not usually by the regiment in which they served.  If your ancestor served as a private and had a common name, it may be difficult to prove that he was the prisoner named in registry.

 

Another good source with indices is David F. Hemmings & Joshua J. Lichty, Captured in the War of 1812, Prisoner of War Camps in America, Niagara Historical Society & David F. Hemmings, 2012.

 

Orphan’s Pensions

 

The Ontario Archives has a copy of a poster of a list of orphans and their guardians who received a pension in 1817.  The poster columns were the rank, name, regiment or corps, action where they were killed or how they died, the date, the name of the guardian, the period of the pension, and the amount.  Unfortunately, it did not name the orphaned children.  I have a copy of this poster.  I have published as transcript of this poster, without the last two columns, at

http://images.ourontario.ca/TrafalgarTownship/3571896/data?dis=dm

 

1816 & 1818 Widow’s Pensions

 

There are lists of widows who received pensions at

http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/kfpl/KFPL000096967p0004f.pdf

http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/mil/1812/data_widows.shtml

           

1816 & 1817 Disabled Veteran’s Pensions

 

The Ontario Archives also has a copy of a poster of a list of disabled veterans who received a pension in 1817.  The poster columns were the rank, name, regiment or corps, action and date of the wound, the period of the pension, and the amount.  Unfortunately, it did not record what part of the veteran’s body was wounded.  I have a copy of this poster.  I have published as transcript of this poster, without the last two columns, at

http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/kfpl/KFPL000096967p0004f.pdf

 

http://images.ourontario.ca/TrafalgarTownship/3571955/data?dis=dm

 

The Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada

 

            During the war a number of aid societies were formed to assist people left destitute by the war.  The Loyal and Patriotic Society was one of the more prominent groups.  In 1817, they published a report on the workings of the society and who they had assisted.  There were many reports on the problems individual families were encountering, the plight of wounded men, and the losses that resulted from a number of American attacks.  This book of over 400 pages is available online at

 

https://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/4754

 

            In 2019, I completed a name index for this book which has also been published by Brock University as a research aid on the same webpage.

 

War Casualty Lists

 

I have been asked for a list of war casualties a few times but have not seen a complete list.  I have seen some lists for specific battles.  There are a number of problems with these lists.  Sometimes the reports of the number of dead compiled by officers do not agree and even if the total number was accurate there may not be a complete list of names.

 

The Lists of Traitors

 

There is a list of traitors online at

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/1812/loyalty.aspx

 

            Colonel E.A. Cruikshank’s A Study of Disaffection in Upper Canada in 1812-15 contains some lists of traitors in the London and Western Districts beginning on page 60 of Section II in The Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society in Canada – Third Series, Volume 6 online at

https://archive.org/stream/proceedingstrans36roya#page/n0/mode/2up

The Assize Court Records of Upper Canada

            Linda Corupe, UE, published her transcriptions and index to the Early Assize Court Records (Court of Oyer and Terminer) of Ontario, Volume 2, 1810-1818 in 2008.  As well as the names of those tried in the courts, there are the names of jurors, witnesses, and members of the justice system.  You may also find the Appendices and End Notes helpful.

            Linda has other publications available on her website at http://www.lindacorupe.com/pubs.html.

Local Sources

 

            If you know the community in which your war veteran was living about the time of the war it is sometimes helpful to look at local sources such as family history and historical societies, libraries, museums, and archives, historical plaques, and histories and surviving documents.  You can read more about post war township assessments below.

            Some of the Kingston Gazette newspapers survived the war and can be found online.  I used http://vitacollections.ca/digital-kingston/96757/issues/1812 for the 1812 and one 1814 issues.

            The Toronto Globe & Mail also has an online archive that is available by subscription.  I can access it for free through membership in a local library.  I have found some stories about veterans, obituaries, and the 1875 Veteran Pensions there.

 

Post War Township Assessments

 

In 1816 a number of townships in Upper Canada began to assess property holders.  These assessments often include the names of people who were living in the same township during the war.  A number of families also relocated during the war and may not appear in the township assessments where you expected to find them.  The Ontario Archives has copies of these assessments on microfilm which can be accessed there or through inter-library loan in Ontario.

I have transcribed a few early assessments for different organizations but only a limited amount of information was included in the transcriptions.  It is always best to look at a copy of the original rather than a transcript.

 

The 1847 General Service Medal List for Upper & Lower Canada

 

            In 1847, the British awarded this medal for exceptional service to Upper Canadians who served at the Capture of Fort Detroit in 1812 and the Battle of Chrysler’s Farm in 1814 and who were still alive in 1847.  Lower Canadians received the medal for service at the Battle of Chateauguay.

This was a silver medal with the recipient’s name engraved around the rim.  I have heard that Britain was severely in debt after the Napoleonic Wars and that they could not afford to issue medals for the other battles in Upper and Lower Canada. 

            Here are some related links:

Rolls of Officers and men Colonial corps who received medal for War of 1812 - Col. Secy. [Colonial Secretary] 1897/03/04 No. 60 asks for - (bac-lac.gc.ca)

 

http://www.fortyfirst.org/transcripts-12-detroit-prize-list.html

 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:War_of_1812_Military_Decorations

 

https://www.warmuseum.ca/war-of-1812/content_assets/military-general-service-medal-1793-1814/

 

 

The 1860 Veteran Address

 

            In 1860 the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, visited Upper Canada.  One of his duties was to lay the cornerstone for Brock’s Monument in Queenston on September 18th.  The Globe and Mail published a number of reports about the visit and the preparations for it.  On June 29th, there was a report of a meeting of survivors of the war in the town hall in St. Catharines.  They decided that veterans of each county were to send representatives to a meeting in Toronto on July 7th.  The July 9th Globe reported that a committee had been chosen to prepare an address to the Prince.  The address was to be circulated throughout the counties for veterans to sign before September 18th.  The September 19th Globe reported that a number of veterans had been present and listed the names of twenty-nine men who were known to have been there.  The event was somewhat disorganized.  The Globe also contained a copy of the address and the Princes reply.  The September 20th Globe lamented that the veterans had marched up the hill and back down again after the address but had had no reception with the Prince.  On September 26th, there was a report that 1,193 veterans had signed the address.  The average age of the men was seventy with some as old as ninety-five.  The number of men per county was also listed.  A later report declared that forty veterans had been present at the address.

            Has a copy of this address with the veteran’s names survived?

 

1875 Veteran Pensions

 

In 1875, the Canadian government decided to offer a pension to the surviving veterans of the war.  An amount was budgeted for the grant but the number of applications exceeded expectations and the value of each pension was reduced to $20.00.  The grant generated a lot of reports about particular veterans in local newspapers.  I have seen the report in the Hamilton Spectator but the copy I had was poorly photocopied and difficult to read.  The Toronto Globe & Mail also has reports on veterans.

The Statement Showing the Name, Age and Residence of Militiamen of 1812-1815, Ottawa, 1875 is online at

https://archive.org/stream/cihm_93576#page/n5/mode/2up

 

I believe the commission interviews were never microfilmed and are on file in Ottawa.  They may reveal a veteran’s recollections of the war.  Does anyone know the collection number and how to access the applications?

 

Other Sources

 

            I have had several years to find and read histories of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada.  If you know which community your veteran ancestor was living in check out local histories and local history and family history societies.  Search online book collections for relevant history.

 

Most of the sources that I have used will be published in the Stories Bibliography Page on this website.  Enquiries are welcome about other sources I have not published there yet.  Sometimes I just do not remember a source until someone else jogs my memory.

 

            I also have a list of books that I have found listed in bibliographies but that I have not been able to find a copy of to read.

 

            I do not expect that this list of sources will ever be complete.  If you have found something interesting that you would like to share please email me at the address in the header above.

 

End

            

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