The Society

The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) is a not-for-profit corporation with more than 4000 members worldwide.Its aim is to encourage, bring together, and assist all those interested in the pursuit of family history.

Toronto Branch is one of 30 OGS branches and has more 700 members. We serve the dual needs of family historians who live in Toronto and those whose ancestors lived in Toronto. In addition, we help those who use research resources located in Toronto.
 

Our Projects

Places of Worship Records Inventory
This in an ongoing project in which all 30 branches of the Ontario Genealogical Society are participating. The Inventory attempts to list all Places of Worship of any denomination that have existed in Toronto (today's boundaries) up to about 1925—quite a challenge in the most populous part of Ontario. The Inventory also lists surviving records and their locations.

Several publications about the history and organization of denominations and their records have been developed from the extensive research that has been undertaken as part of the project. Many of the records identified by the Inventory have also been transcribed and are available as publications and/or in the Electronic Search.

The Places of Worship Records Inventory committee continues to transcribe records and create guides to make genealogical research easier. The committee would welcome your help. You can contact the Places of Worship Records Inventory committee at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cemetery Transcribing
Family history organizations all over the world are involved in transcribing the information from grave markers—and the Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto Branch is no exception. Most of the small churchyards and community cemeteries in today's Toronto have been completed, as have some large cemeteries.

Once the transcription of a cemetery has been computerized and checked it is available as a publication. The data is also available as part of a Cemetery Search.

There are many large cemeteries yet to do. Although, we don't transcribe gravestones in the winter, the Cemetery Transcribing Committee is still actively computerizing, checking, and producing publications. If you would like to help, please contact the committee at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it


Tax Assessment Rolls Database
The assessment rolls compiled by a municipality are an excellent source for locating ancestors—particularly between census years. For more information about municipal records, see Researching Toronto. The database project will allow these records to be searched by surname.

This project, at present, provides an online index with digital images to the 1853 tax rolls for the City of Toronto, and was undertaken with the enthusiastic support of the City of Toronto Archives. The data has also been used for a book/CD publication. The 1853 database will soon be expanded to cover all Etobicoke and Scarborough.

We are also working on the transcription of some rare assessment records for York Township for the years 1839 and 1842. (Most York Township records were destroyed by fire in 1881). These records are part of the manuscripts collection of the Toronto Reference Library. The resulting data will be added to our online database, and each record will be linked to images in the Toronto Public Library's Digital Collections.

There are also plans to include additional years of assessment and census data. As most of the transcribing is done from digital images, volunteers can work at home—however distant. To find out more, please contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Official Site