Genealogical Inquiries
The Ottawa Branch of The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) has an extensive (and expanding) holding of genealogy material at the City of Ottawa Archives. Researchers are encouraged to visit but we are not a lending library, so we ask that everyone come prepared to do their own research in the comfortable facilities provided. Genealogy volunteers are usually available to assist visitors on-site and carry out look-ups by correspondence for those at a distance.
Our holdings are focused on the Ottawa Branch area (the former Carleton, Lanark, Renfrew, Prescott and Russell Counties in Ontario) Our library database listing all of the volumes in our collection can be accessed here for your convenience. These resources are not necessarily complete for all aspects of genealogy. The holdings include census information, voters’ lists, directories, passenger lists, family and area genealogies, community and county records, maps and periodicals. As well, the collection has some births, marriages and deaths in parish registers, newspapers, obituaries, township records and repertoires. We are in the process of indexing the family histories and other resources for TONI.
Inquiries: This a primarily a service for distant genealogists and most responses take 1-2 weeks. When requesting help with your research please identify specifically what you want to find and include your name, address and briefly the pertinent information on the individual being researched.
If the response has been useful, you might consider a donation to help expand the collection.
We invite you to consider submitting a copy of your personal genealogy, to be housed in our library. This could result in useful collaboration with other researchers having interests in common with you.
Cemetery Transcriptions: Our library has an extensive collection of cemetery transcripts, many of which have been indexed in The Ontario Name Index (TONI) found here as well as the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid (OCFA). (The OCFA entries from the Ottawa Branch are identified by references beginning with OT-followed by year of submission.) OGS has published many cemetery transcriptions which are available for you to purchase. Researchers interested in a large number of names from the same cemetery may find it most useful to purchase a specific publication. All Ottawa Branch publications are avaialble from Global Genealogy.
In order to see if the transcripts for the cemetery you are interested in is located in the Ottawa Branch library, click here to search our library database.
Birth, marriage and death records: Some of the newspapers represented in our collection include papers from Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley, Lanark, Carleton Place, Perth, Renfrew, Lindsay, Brockville, Kemptville, Morrisburg, the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Aylmer and Shawville Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. These records may be in transcribed hard copy, on microfilm or microfiche.
Look-ups Inquiries may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected] or to our postal address: Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 8346, Station T, Ottawa, ON K1G 3H8
Please note: If you require research and/or a professional genealogist, Library and Archives Canada [LAC] maintains a list of free-lance researchers. For an LAC contact please click here for Library and Archives Canada
