Immigrants to Canada

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Courtesy of Greg Cochkanoff and Zack Jennings

Emigration Information of the Nineteenth Century

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE PAGES ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

The information on these pages has been extracted from various government records, as well as the odd shipping record (mostly from the Allan Line). It contains, voyage accounts, emigration information, lists of ships sailing to Canada, information on the ports, and on the people. Many of these lists give the name of the ship, Master, Port of Departure, Port of Arrival and other such information. Some list the organization which sponsored the emigrants. Since passenger lists are rarely available for the early ships which came to Canada there are few of those, but other sources are being sought. The Immigration reports of the government sometimes contain names, but only rarely. The Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) has passenger lists for arrivals after 1865 and they can be obtained on microfilm while some are now online but there is no index into these records. An indexed database of arrivals for 1925-35 is online at the LAC. Post 1935 records are available. Also, check out the Grosse Isle and the Montreal Emigrant Society databases at LAC. Also note that many passenger list indexes are now available at Ancestry.com or Ancestry.ca and findmypast.co.uk which might help in your research.

TheShipsList

TheShipsList - Sue Swiggum and I have cooperated on this web site. It contains information about where to get passenger lists, photos, passenger lists from other sources, ship arrivals at the port of Quebec, and more! This site is intended to be international. The major project underway is the St. Lawrence Steamboat Company passenger records which date from 1819-1836.

You can check out:
Quebec ship arrivals of 1793
Ships 1868 - 1875 - Ships 1876 - 1893 - Ships 1894 - 1904 - Ships 1905 - 1930s - Ships 1870 - mostly those with assisted passengers on board
Allan Line Information
Passengers from John McKenzie who were on the Montreal at time of fire, 1857
Extracts From The Annals of the Port of Quebec 1535-1900
Arrivals at Grosse Isle in 1866
Harbors of Quebec, Montreal and Liverpool circa 1878
Since the first thing many immigrants did was buy land - here are early land patents (missing but available soon part B, H, K, L, M, P, Q, S, T)
Numidian - outbound Cabin Passengers 1892
S.S. Prussian 1875 and a Bill of Fare
Stray Ships - voyages found in various publications most from 1800-1864

Quebec, c1840 - NAC C-002671
New!

Mail Packets, Montreal Ocean Steamship Line (Allan Line) and Vessels From The Immigration Reports

Mail Packet ships were regular passenger vessels. Companies would bid for the mail contract and, sometimes it was the Allan Line which carried the mail, and others it was the Inman Line. The following ships lists were extracted from the Postmaster General's Reports contained in the Sessional Papers of the Government of Canada. These vessels sailed between Liverpool and Quebec in the summer and Liverpool and Portland in the winter. Later the route was changed to Halifax and Queenstown.

Some of these records are the sailing schedules for the ships of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Line, better known as the Allan Line, extracted from the Sessional Papers of the Government of Canada. (The Sessional Papers start in 1860.) Some of the records are for the Dempster and Domionion line when they carried the mail. Although dates are given by year, sometimes the records over lapped years. For this reason, you should check the lists on either side of the year of interest.

Since no passenger lists were archived pre-1865 for Quebec, lists of vessels have been extracted from the Immigration Reports of the British Government but, please note, this does not include all of the vessels which entered these ports. Reports have been found for the ports of Quebec and St. John, New Brunswick (sometimes a few other ports in NB are included). Although Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and British Columbia are sometimes mentioned, rarely are any vessels named. Ships are mentioned by year. Sometimes you will see the year followed by a "q" which will list ships in quarantine or an "a" which will list ships carrying assisted immigrants.

1818 1820 1835 1837 1838 1843 1848 1851 1859 1860 1861 1861q 1862 1863 1863q 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 and 1869
1870 1870a 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1883

Voyage Accounts

Information for the Emigrant of the Nineteenth Century

Extracts From Government Immigration Reports of the Nineteenth Century

1825 1834 1837 1838 1843 1846 1847 1848 1849-50 1851 1853 1855 1858 1859
1862 1863 1866 1868 1868C 1869 1870 1883 1887w

Other Ship Sources

  • America
  • Australia, New Zealand
  • Belgium
  • Canada
  • China
  • Croatia
  • Czechs
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Finland
  • General
  • Germanic
  • Hungarian
  • Huguenot
  • Iceland
  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Museums/Archives
  • Norway, Sweden
  • Photographs (some of these are supplied for a fee)
  • Portuguese
  • Scotland
  • Slovaks
  • Swiss
  • Ukrainian
  • United Kingdom - England and Scotland

    Lists you can join.

    TheShipsList

    TheShipsList is a mailing list to help those seeking information on which vessel brought their ancestors to their new home. This is an international list. To subscribe, send a message to TheShipsList-L-request@rootsweb.com with the one word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.

    Mariners

    If you are researching a mariner then you may want to join this list. To subscribe, send a message to mariners-L-request@rootsweb.com with the one word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.

    Great Lakes Ships

    The GLSHIPS is a mailing list to help those seeking information about vessels sailing the Great Lakes. To subscribe, send a message to GLSHIPS-L-request@rootsweb.com with the one word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.

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    © Marjorie P. Kohli, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 1997-2010
    Last updated: December 21, 2010 and maintained by Marj Kohli