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Migration

People leave their home country or area for many reasons. When they go they go in a group - group migration - or they go, more or less, individually, and others follow - chain migration. Once the migrants get to where they are going, they can also move on - internal migration or forward migration.

It is called emigration when a person leaves one country and immigration when they go to another country. Once they arrive, immigrants may wish to become a citizen of the country to which they have migrated. This is called naturalization.

Migration could have been assisted by the government or by a landlord or by an emigration company. But migration could have been done with no assistance.

Transportation methods used in migration vary. One could take a ship from Europe or Asia to North America. Then transfer to a horse, carriage, coach, or wagon for further movement. Smaller ships capable of navigating rivers could also be taken. And, finally, one could walk.

Passenger lists for ships and train transportation exist. But only for certain periods of time.

Individuals and families travelled to North America. So did Home Children sent from Britain. So did female domestic servants sponsored by individuals or government agencies.

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The following is a listing of articles, books, and web sites concerning migration, passengers, Home Children, domestics, etc.

Abbreviations
CIHM/ICMH = Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
ISBN = International Standard Book Number
McOdrum = McOdrum Library, Carleton University, Ottawa
OB = Ottawa Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society publication
OBL = Ottawa Branch (OGS) Library
OFHC = Ottawa Family History Centre
OGSL = Ontario Genealogical Society Library
PCMA = Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives

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Domestics and other workers

Articles and books

Immigrant Domestic Servants in Canada (1991)
Marilyn Barber
Canadian Historical Association, Ottawa
ISBN 0887981224
Consult at: McOdrum

Laboring Children - British Immigrant Apprentices to Canada 1869-1924 (1980; reprinted 2000)
Joy Parr

The Skilled Emigrant and Her Kin: gender, culture, and labour recruitment (2001)
Joy Parr

Sunny Ontario for British Girls, 1900-1930 in Looking into My Sister�s Eyes: An Exploration in Women�s History (1986), pp. 55-73
Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Toronto
Marilyn Barber, author; Jean Burnet, editor
ISBN 0919045278
Consult at: McOdrum

The Women Ontario Welcomed: Immigrant Domestics for Ontario Homes, 1870-1930 in Ontario History, Vol. LXXII, No. 3, September 1980, pp. 148-172
Marilyn Barber
Consult at: McOdrum, OFHC

Web sites
  • Bulletin: January-February 2001, Vol. 33, No. 1

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  • Emigration Societies, etc.

    Some of the societies and agencies involved in emigration and settlement of migrants included:

  • British Women's Emigration Association (1885-1919)
  • Canadian Pacific Railway
  • Colonial Intelligence League (1910-1919) (for women)
  • Cow Cross Canadian Emigration Society
  • Female Middle Class Emigration Society (1901-1922)
  • The Self-Help Emigration Society
  • Society for Overseas Settlement of British Women (1917-1964)

    Articles and books
    Here and there: being the first report on the work of the Self-Help Emigration Society [microform] (1886)
    The Self-Help Emigration Society, London
    CIHM/ICMH Microfiche series: No. 17675
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Web sites

  • Emigration Societies
  • Index of British Emigration to North America; projects and opinions in the early Victorian period

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  • Guides and information on migration and settlement

    Articles and books
    Emigrant's Guide to North America (1998)
    Roberta MacDougall; Elizabeth Thompson, editor
    Translation of the original Gaelic of 1841; intended for Highland Scots heading for Canada
    ISBN 1-896219-43-8
    Consult at: OGSL

    Emigration: the British farmer's and farm labourer's guide to Ontario: the premier province of the Dominion of Canada (2001)
    Issued by authority of the Government of Ontario
    Global Heritage Press, Milton, Ont.
    Reprint. Originally published by C. Blackett Robinson, Toronto, 1880
    ISBN 1-894378-43-1
    Consult at:

    Emigration to Canada and the United States: report of the Cow Cross Canadian Emigration Society. My journey of ten thousand miles, advice and information to intending emigrants, routes, distances, and rates of passage from Quebec, names and addresses of friends of the working man in 320 cities and towns, hints on economic house building, correspondence etc. [microform] (1871)
    William Catlin
    Cow Cross Canadian Emigration Society, London [?]
    CIHM/ICMH Microfiche series: No. 05871
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Web sites

  • Scottish Emigration special collection (Especially to North America and Ontario) at the University of Guelph

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  • Home Children and orphans

    Articles and books

    Barnarado children in Canada (date unknown)
    Gail Corbett

    Canadian homes for London wanderers [microform] (c. 1870)
    Annie Macpherson
    CIHM/ICMH Microfiche series: No. 04639
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Empty Cradles (1995)
    Margaret Humphreys
    ISBN 0-552-14164-X
    Consult at: McOdrum

    The Golden Bridge: Young Immigrants to Canada, 1833�1939 (2003)
    Marjorie Kohli
    ISBN 1-869219-90-X
    Consult at: OGSL

    The Home Children: their personal stories (1979)
    Phyllis Harrison, editor
    Watson & Dwyer, Winnipeg
    ISBN 0920486029 (hardcover); ISBN 09020486045 (paperback)
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Nation Builders: Barnardo Children in Canada (2002)
    Gail H. Corbett
    ISBN 1-55002-394-2
    Consult at: OGSL

    Neither waif nor stray: the search for a stolen identity (2000)
    Perry Snow
    ISBN 1-58112-758-8
    Consult at:

    Poor, ignorant children: Irish famine orphans in Saint John, New Brunswick (1999)
    Peter D. Murphy
    D'Arcy McGee Chair of Irish Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
    Includes bibliographical references
    ISBN 0-9696252-1-9

    Mailing List and Message Board
  • British Home Children Mailing List
  • British Home Children Message Board

  • Web sites
  • Home Children (1869-1930) database
  • Middlemore's Home Children in Canada
  • Young Immigrants to Canada
  • Young Immigrants to Canada - The Children's Names

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  • Immigration and Quarantine Stations

    Articles and books
    1847 Grosse �sle: a Record of Daily Events (1997)
    Andr� Charbonneau and Andr� S�vigny
    Canadian Heritage and Parks Canada
    ISBN 0-660-16878-2
    Consult at: OGSL

    Eyewitness - Grosse Ile - 1847 (1995) [Monograph]
    Carraig Books
    available in French as Les t�moins parlent - Grosse �le 1847
    Consult at:

    Grosse Ile - Gateway to Canada - 1832-1937 (1984)
    Marianna O'Gallagher
    Carraig Books,
    ISBN
    Consult at:

    Middle Island: Before and After the Tragedy (2002)
    Caroline Daley and Anne Springer
    Middle Island Irish Historical Park, Miramichi, N.B.
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    ISBN 0-9730702-0-X
    Consult at:

    Pier 21: the gateway that changed Canada (1988)
    Trudy Duivenvoorden Mitic and J.P. LeBlanc
    Lancelot Press, Hantsport, Nova Scotia
    ISBN 0-88999-406-4
    Consult at:

    A Register of Deceased Persons at Sea and on Grosse �sle in 1847 (1997)
    Andr� Charbonneau and Doris Drolet-Dub� with Robert Grace and Sylvie Tremblay
    Canadian Heritage and Parks Canada
    ISBN 0-660-16877-4
    Consult at: OGSL

    Web sites

  • DOUKHOBORS QUARANTINED AT GROSSE ISLE, 1899
  • Ellis Island Immigration Museum
  • Grosse �le and the Irish Memorial
  • OUT OF IRELAND - Islands of Death
  • Partridge Island - Gateway to Canada
  • Pier 21

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  • Immigration records

    Migrants came to Canada directly or by way of another country - usually, but not always, the United States.

    Articles and books
    Destination Canada: a guide to 20th century immigration records (2001, new edition)
    Dave Obee, compiler
    D. Obee, Victoria, B.C.
    Previously published as: Naturalization and citizenship indexes in the Canada Gazette, 1915-1951
    Includes bibliographical references
    ISBN 0-9685026-5-2

    Web sites

  • American Family Immigration History Center
  • Hawke Papers (or Toronto Emigration Office Records)
  • Immigration Records (1925-1935)
  • Searching the Ellis Island Database in One Step
  • Swenson Swedish Immigraton Research Center
  • Toronto Emigration Office Assisted Immigration Registers Database

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  • Letters and stories of immigrants

    Articles and books
    Across the Waters: Ontario Immigrants' Experiences, 1820 - 1850 (1999)
    Frances Hoffmann and Ryan Taylor
    Consult at:

    Brass buttons and silver horseshoes: stories from Canada's British war brides (2002)
    Linda Granfield
    McClelland & Stewart, Toronto
    ISBN 0-7710-3535-7 (paper); ISBN 0-7710-3536-5 (hardcover)
    Consult at:

    English immigrant voices: labourers' letters from Upper Canada in the 1830s (2000)
    Wendy Cameron, Sheila Haines, and Mary McDougall Maude, editors
    McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal
    Includes bibliographical references and index
    ISBN 0-7735-2035-X

    Fifty Years: In Search of the Immigrant Experience (January 2001)
    in Swedish American Historical Quarterly, Vol. LII, No.1
    On the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Swedish Pioneer Historical Society/Swedish-American Historical Society
    Nils Hasselmo

    Irish emigration and Canadian settlement: patterns, links, and letters (c. 1990)
    Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth
    University of Toronto Press, Toronto, and Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast
    ISBN 0901905453
    Consult at: McOdrum

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    Migration and migrants

    Articles and books
    Arrivals: stories from the history of Ontario (2002)
    John Bentley Mays
    Penguin, Toronto
    ISBN 0-14-301340-8
    Consult at:

    British Emigrant Gentlewomen in the Canadian West, 1880-1914 (1982)
    Susan Jackel, editor
    ISBN: 0774801492 Hardcover; ISBN: 0774801808 Paperback
    Consult at:

    Cornish Emigrants to Ontario (1998)
    Toronto Cornish Association, compiler
    Contains nominal index
    ISBN 0-9684119-0-8
    Consult at: OGSL

    Defiant sisters: a social history of Finnish immigrant women in Canada (1988)
    Varpu Lindstr�m-Best
    Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Toronto
    ISBN 0919045383 (paper); ISBN 0919045367 (hardcover)
    Consult at: McOdrum

    A Dictionary of Scottish emigrants to Canada before Confederation
    Donald Whyte
    Volume 1 (1986) - ISBN 0-920036-090-0
    Volume 2 (1995) - ISBN 07779-0191-9
    Volume 3 (2001) - ISBN 0-7779-2119-7
    Consult at: OGSL

    Directory of Scottish settlers in North America 1625 - 1825 (1986)
    David Dobson
    Genealogical Pub., Baltimore, Maryland
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Emigrants and Immigrants in Swedish History, 1846-1996: Celebrating the Sesquicentennial: Part I (1996)
    in Swedish American Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47 , pages 40-48
    Raymond Jarvi
    Consult at:

    Emigrants and Immigrants in Swedish History, 1846-1996: Celebrating the Sesquicentennial: Part II (1996)
    in Swedish American Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, pages 112-118
    Raymond Jarvi
    Consult at:

    Fast sailing and copper-bottomed: Aberdeen sailing ships and the emigrant Scots they carried to Canada, 1774-1855 ( 2002)
    Lucille H. Campey
    Natural Heritage/Natural History, Toronto
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    ISBN 1-896219-31-4
    Consult at:

    Here be Dragons! Navigating the Hazards Found in Canadian Family Research (1996)
    Althea Douglas
    OGS, Toronto
    Consult at: OGSL

    Here be Dragons, Too! Navigating the Hazards Found in Canadian Family Research (2000)
    Althea Douglas
    OGS, Toronto
    Consult at: OGSL

    Index of some passengers who emigrated to Canada between 1817 & 1849 (2003; reprint)
    John A. Acton, compiler and editor
    Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
    First published in 1999.
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    ISBN 0-7779-2131-6
    Consult at:

    Kashubia to Canada: crossing on the Agda: an emigration story (2003)
    Shirley Mask Connolly
    S.M. Connolly, Ottawa
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    ISBN 0-9699969-8-5
    Consult at:

    Ottawa Germania: a history of the 19th century immigration and settlement of Ottawa's German community (2002)
    Thomas W. Carkner
    T.W. Carkner, North Bay, Ont.
    Includes bibliographical references.
    ISBN 0-9696253-1-6
    Consult at:

    Passage to the New World: Packet Ships and Irish Famine Emigrants 1845 - 1851 (1995)
    David Hollett
    Consult at OBL

    Peter Robinson's settlers (ca. 1987)
    Carol Bennett
    Juniper Books, Renfrew, Ontario
    Includes bibliography
    ISBN 0919137164
    Consult at: McOdrum

    The Pre-Dawn of the Swedish Migration: Before 1846 (1997)
    in Swedish American Historical Quarterly, Vol. 48, pages 117-129
    H. Arnold Barton
    Consult at:

    'The Right Sort of Woman': female emigrators and emigration to the British Empire, 1890-1910 (1994)
    in Women's History Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 385-409
    Julia Bush
    Consult at:

    Scandinavian Immigrants in Canada (1998)
    in Canada and the Nordic Countries in Times of Reorientation: culture and politics
    University of Aarhus, Denmark
    Consult at:

    Tools of the Trade for Canadian Genealogy
    Althea Douglas
    OGS, Toronto
    Consult at: OGSL

    Ulster protestant emigration to Lower Canada (2003)
    Gwen Barry
    Evans Books, Lower Sackville, N.S.
    Includes bibliographical references.
    ISBN 0-9685518-5-8
    Consult at:

    Web sites

  • Icelanders in North America (bibliography)
  • WANTED: Settlers

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  • Naturalization

    Articles and books
    Upper Canada naturalization records, 1828 - 1850 (1991)
    Donald A. McKenzie
    Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
    ISBN 1-55075-050-X
    Consult at: OGSL

    Upper Canada naturalization registers, 1828-1850 (1999)
    Norman K. Crowder and Sharon Bowman
    Publication OB 99-05
    ISBN 0-7779-1472-7
    Consult at: OBL

    Naturalization and citizenship indexes in the Canada Gazette, 1915-1951: a finding aid (1999)
    Dave Obee, compiler
    ISBN 0-9685026-1-X

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    Passenger lists and indexes

    Articles and books
    The Caroline and her passengers: March-May, 1832 Glenn Wright
    Wellington County Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, Guelph, Ont.
    Includes index and bibliographical references.
    ISBN 0-7779-1942-7

    Doukhobor ship passenger lists, 1898-1928 (2001, 2nd edition)
    Steve Lapshinoff and Jonathan Kalmakoff
    Crescent Valley, B.C.
    Previous published as: Names of Doukhobor immigrants to Canada in 1899
    Includes index
    ISBN 0-9689266-2-2

    Index to passengers who emigrated to Canada between 1817 and 1849 (1999)
    John A. Acton, compiler and editor
    OGS, Toronto
    Includes index
    ISBN 0-7779-0207-9
    Consult at: OGSL

    Peter Robinson Emigration, 1823 - 1825 (1987; 3rd printing 1999)
    Carol Bennett
    ISBN 0 919137 16 4
    Consult at: PCMA

    Web sites

  • Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild
  • Immigration Records at Library & Archives Canada
  • Peter Robinson Irish Emigration to Canada (1823, 1825)
  • Emigrantregistret/Kinship Center - Swedish emigration archive

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  • Societies with an interest in immigration

    Web sites

  • The Canadian Immigration Historical Society
  • Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants

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  • Strays

    Articles and books
    Strays!: an index to British Strays in Canada resulting from the OGS Strays Project
    Shirley E. Lancaster, project co-ordinator; David J. Browne, indexer
    Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
    Volume 1 (1999) ISBN 0-7779-0222-2
    Volume 2 (2002) ISBN 0-7779-2120-0
    Consult at: OGSL

    Strays!: an index to the OGS Strays Project
    Shirley E. Lancaster, project co-ordinator; David J. Browne, indexer
    Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto
    Volume 1 (1996) ISBN 0-7779-0201-X
    Volume 2 (1997) ISBN 0-7779-0210-9
    Volume 3 (1998) ISBN 0-7779-0214-1
    Volume 4 (1998) ISBN 0-7779-0216-8
    Volume 5 (1999) ISBN 0-7779-0220-6
    Volume 6 (2001) ISBN 0-7779-0228-1
    Volume 7 (2001) ISBN 0-7779-0201-X
    Volume 8 (2002) ISBN 0-7779-2122-7
    Consult at: OGSL

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    Where did they come from?

    Articles and books
    Canadian steel, Chinese grit: a tribute to the Chinese who worked on Canada's railroads more than a century ago / F�ng ku Chung-hua hun : Chi nien pai nien chan(2000)
    Julia Ningyu Li / Li Ning Y� p'ien chu, compiler and editor
    Paxlink Communications Inc., Toronto
    Text is in English and Chinese and includes bibliographical references
    ISBN 0-9687319-0-2

    Flight from famine: the coming of the Irish to Canada(c. 1990)
    Donald MacKay
    McClelland & Stewart, Toronto
    ISBN 0771054432
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Peter Robinson Emigration, 1823 - 1825 (1987; 3rd printing 1999)
    Carol Bennett
    ISBN 0 919137 16 4
    Available from
    Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives or Global Genealogy

    Robert Whyte's 1847 famine ship diary: the journey of an Irish coffin ship (c. 1994)
    James J. Mangan, editor
    Mercier Press, Dublin
    Previously published as The ocean plague, or, A voyage to Quebec in an Irish emigrant vessel
    ISBN 1856350916
    Consult at: McOdrum

    Russian roots and Canadian wings: Russian archival documents on the Doukhobor emigration to Canada (1999)
    John Woodsworth, compiler, translator and annotater; foreword by Vladimir Tolstoy
    Penumbra Press, Manotick, Ontario
    ISBN 092125489X
    Consult at: McOdrum

    The Swedish Experience in Canada: a preliminary annotated bibliography of selected English languages books and articles (1991)
    Elinor Berglund Barr
    Emigrant Institute, Sweden

    Web sites

  • Border Entry Records
  • Emigration From Cork Ireland to Upper Canada, 1823
  • Immigrants to Canada
  • Massachusetts Genealogy - US GenWeb
  • Emigration Records
  • The Peopling of Canada: 1891 - 1921 (bibliography)
  • Peter Robinson Irish Emigration to Canada (1823, 1825)
  • Swenson Swedish Immigraton Research Center

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  • Where did they go?

    Some of the reasons for moving on to somewhere else include free or inexpensive land, gold, and jobs. There may also be others. Then there is the question of what happened to those who were not accepted as immigrants.

    Articles and books
    The Franco-Americans of New England: dreams and realities (2004)
    Yves Roby
    McGill-Queen's University Press
    ISBN 2-89448-391-0

    Obligation and Opportunity: single Maritime women in Boston, 1870 - 1930
    Betsy Beattie
    ISBN 0-7735-2019-8 (hardcover); 0-7735-2018-X (paper)

    Web sites

  • Emigration Records
  • St. Albans Lists FAQ
    (Immigration from Canada into the U.S.) Government Records
    Deportation is the method used to return migrants who were not accepted by Canada to their home country. Deportation records can be found at the Library and Archives Canada in RG 76. Go to the Government of Canada Files and enter the word "deportation" in the Keywords box and "76" in Record Group Number box.

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