Immigration

• ​Databases
• Digitized Microforms
• Published Sources
• Research Aids
• Virtual Exhibitions
• External Links to Other Institutions

Canada is distinguished from most other countries by the diversity of its population. Our unique cultural, ethnic and linguistic mosaic is reflected in the wide assortment of holdings at Library and Archives Canada associated with the different ethno-cultural groups.

The holdings include: immigration records and guides, travel guides, passenger lists, letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, newspapers (some ethnic titles), maps, art, photographs, music and film.

Immigration resources have been sorted into three categories:

• Immigration Records
• Citizenship and Naturalization Records
• Immigration History: Ethno-Cultural Groups

Databases

• Citizenship Registration Records, 1851-1945 - Montreal Circuit Court
• Home Children - Boards of Guardians
• Home Children Records
• Immigrants at Grosse-Île Quarantine Station, 1832-1937
• Immigrants Before 1865
• Immigrants from China, 1885-1949
• Immigrants from the Russian Empire, 1898-1922 (LI-RA-MA Collection)
• Immigrants Sponsored by the Montreal Emigrant Society, 1832
• Immigrants to Canada, Porters and Domestics 1899-1949
• Naturalization Records, 1828-1850 - Upper Canada and Canada West
• Naturalization Records, 1915-1951
• Passenger Lists for the Port of Quebec City and Other Ports, 1865-1922
• Passenger Lists, 1865-1922
• Passenger Lists and Border Entries, 1925-1935 - Nominal Indexes
• Ship Registration, 1787-1966
• Ukrainian Immigrants, 1891-1930

Use Collection Search to search for other archival records, photographs, films, maps, etc.

Research tips:

• Use keywords, e.g. immigr* (for immigrants, immigration) and a place or subject.
  
  
• For federal government records, add the record group number to your keyword search, e.g. RG17, RG76, RG26. Those three Record Groups contain records relating to immigration and citizenship policy and administration.

Digitized Microforms

• Border Entry, 1908-1918 (Archived)
• Border Entry, Form 30, 1919-1924(Archived)
• Border Entry, 1925-1935(Archived)
• Ocean Arrivals, Form 30A, 1919-1924
• Passenger Lists: Eastern U.S. Ports (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: Halifax (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: Montreal (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: New York (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: North Sydney (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: Quebec City (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: Saint John (1925-1935)(Archived)
• Passenger Lists: Vancouver and Victoria (1925-1935)(Archived)

Published Sources

Use Aurora to search for published sources such as books, journals, newspapers, etc. Try Subject Keyword to start your search.

Genealogists might find the following books of interest:

• " Liste des navires venus en Nouvelle France de 1657 à 1665 " by Michel Langlois in L'Ancêtre (Québec), volume 3 (1976), pages 3 à 15. (OCLC 2247396 )
• A Dictionary of Immigrants to Nova Scotia by Leonard H. Smith. (OCLC 85736990 )
• A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation by Donald Whyte, Ontario Genealogical Society, 4 volumes. (OCLC 13585948 )
• Canada: immigration and colonization, 1841-1903 by Norman Macdonald. (OCLC 639845589 )
• Canadian border entry lists, 1908-1918: Yukon Territory & British Columbia by Mary Kearns Trace. (OCLC 38105503 )
• Canadian Passengers Inward Bound, 1856 1858 by Mary Kearns Trace. (OCLC 37533338 )
• Catalogue des Immigrants 1632-1662 by Marcel Trudel. (OCLC 1019200650 )
• De la Nouvelle-Angleterre à la Nouvelle-France: l'histoire des captifs anglo-américains au Canada entre 1665 et 1760 by Marcel Fournier. (OCLC 26263857 )
• Destination Canada: a genealogical guide to immigration records by Dave Obee. (OCLC 501387667 )
• Dictionnaire Biographique des Ancêtres Québécois 1608-1760 1608 1760 by Michel Langlois, 1998-2001, 4 volumes. (OCLC 72981735 )
• Doukhobor ship passenger lists, 1898-1928 by Steve Lapshinoff and Jonathan Kalmakoff. (OCLC 47365479 )
• Emigrants and Empire: British Settlement in the Dominions Between the Wars edited by Stephen Constantine. (OCLC 20853326 )
• Encyclopedia of Canada's peoples edited by Paul Robert Magocsi. (OCLC 41991562)
• Index of some Passengers who Emigrated to Canada between 1817 & 1849 by John A. Acton. (OCLC 77525069 )
• La Contribution du Haut-Poitou au Peuplement de la Nouvelle-France by Robert Larin. (OCLC 31778125 )
• Les Européens au Canada des Origines à 1765 by Marcel Fournier. (OCLC 20522362 )
• Les Filles du Roi au XVIIe siècle by Yves Landry. (OCLC 26259617 )
• Les Français au Québec 1765 1865, : un mouvement migratoire méconnu by Marcel Fournier. (OCLC 31518294 )
• Names of emigrants: from the 1845 1847 records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal by the Irish Research Group, Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society. (OCLC 30076664 )
• Nos Ancêtres by Gérard Lebel and Jacques Saintonge, 29 volumes. (OCLC 15904330 )
• Origine des Familles Pionnières du Québec Ancien. Bibliographie et répertoire by Marcel Fournier. (OCLC 85832080 )
• Passengers to New Brunswick: the Custom House Records; 1833, 34, 37 & 1838 by Daniel F. Johnson. (OCLC 24468008 )
• Portraits de Familles Pionnières by Robert Prévost, 1993-1997, 5 volumes. (OCLC 28024143 )
• Strangers at our gates: Canadian immigration and immigration policy, 1540-1990 by Valerie Knowles. (OCLC 77525179 )
• Forging our legacy : Canadian citizenship and immigration, 1900-1977 by Valerie Knowles. (OCLC 45437107)
• The Lanark Society Settlers: Ships' Lists of the Glasgow Emigration Society, 1821 by Gerald J. Neville. (OCLC 37043751 )
• The McCabe List: Early Irish in the Ottawa Valley by Bruce S. Elliott. (OCLC 49727305 )
• The People's Clearance: Highland Emigration to British North America, 1770-1815 by J. M. Bumsted. (OCLC 1019228693 )
• The Silver Chief: Lord Selkirk and the Scottish Pioneers of Belfast, Baldoon and Red River by Lucille H. Campey. (OCLC 51923179 )

Research Aids

• Canadian Immigration Since Confederation and the Department of External Affairs - Thematic Guides
• Deportation from Canada, 1893-1977 - Thematic Guides
• Grosse-Île Quarantine Station (Québec) - Thematic Guides
• Immigration Instructions: A Chart of Circulars, Directives and Operations Memoranda, 1909-1978 - Thematic Guides
• Immigration of Farm Labourers to Canada, 1918-1945 - Thematic Guides
• Immigration Records, Most Frequently Used - Thematic Guides
• Internment Camps in Canada during the First and Second World Wars - Thematic Guides
• Organized Crime in Canada After 1945 and Immigration Records - Thematic Guides
• Records on the Immigration of Domestics - Thematic Guides

Virtual Exhibitions

• Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada
• New France New Horizons: On French Soil in America
• Under a Northern Star

External Links to Other Institutions

• Ancestry.ca (subscription required)
• Archives of Ontario (Records of the Department of Immigration, Hawke Papers, 1831-1892)
• Archives of Ontario: Toronto Emigrant Office Assisted Immigration Registers Database 1865 and 1883
• Passenger Lists Leaving UK, 1890-1960 (subscription required)
• Canadian Immigration Acts and Legislation
• Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
• Doukhobor Genealogy Website
• Family Search
• The Hamburg Passenger Departure Lists 1850-1934
• Immigrant Ancestors Project
• Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
• Nanaimo Family History Society Passenger List Indexing Project
• The New Brunswick Irish Portal
• Odessa, A German-Russian Genealogical Library, Ship and Immigration Records
• Order in Council Lists, 1930-1952
• Scottish Emigration Database
• The ShipsList