— Project News

A demonstration of using the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources ‘Topographic Map’ utility to plot an historical Lot on a modern map.

Canada’s first strawberry plantings occurred in the 1860’s along a road that would later become the Queen Elizabeth Way highway. We are specifically looking for the farm of John Cross Jun. in Trafalgar South Township, HALTON Co.

The 1877 Walker & Miles Atlas of HALTON Co. indicates Concession 2S, Lot 12. Being unsure of the meaning of ‘2S’, we can look at a list of historical Concession names and plot the lot using the TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS. [See Maps Showing Land Parcels Tutorial].

THE STRAWBERRY STORY

The ‘Concession 2S’ location turns out to be the 2nd Concession South of Dundas Street.

SOURCES

Oakville Strawberry Pickers 29 Jul 1876
Sketch by William Cruickshank
Canadian Illustrated News Vol. XIV, No. 5, pg. 69
http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_06230_352/6?r=0&s=1

FAMILYSEARCH.ORG Assessment Records 1820’s-1880

Freeholders=Owners, Householders=Tenants

Go Straight to Start Pages, by Township and Year!

The Township pages here at Ontario.HeritagePIN, contain links to the start pages of Tax Roll images for the years before 1880 **yet the full collections sometimes extend into the 20th century.

At any Township page, top right, use the tab ‘Tax Rolls’.

Availability of Microfilmed Records, free online, at 2021

The Film numbers coloured red, indicate records that can be viewed from an LDS Family History Center. Other links can be accessed online once logged into FamilySearch.org from home. The records highlighted gray are Collector’s Rolls, whereas plain background are Tax Assessment Rolls.

 
 
 

Instructions to Assessors, 1849, Talbot District

UNIVERSITY HOLDINGS of SAME MAP EDITION, WITH DIFFERENCES

My photographs of the 1862 Co. of Middlesex wall map, snapped on location at the map collections of McMaster University (Hamilton, ON), were made for my own personal genealogy research.

At this time (2011), the University of Toronto’s online Ontario Historical County Map Project did not yet exist.

TREMAINES’ / MAP / OF THE / COUNTY of MIDDLESEX. / CANADA WEST. / COMPILED & DRAWN FROM ACTUAL-SURVEYS / BY THE PUBLISHERS / Geo R. & G. M. Tremaine. / 1862 / St Lawrence Buildings. / TORONTO. C.W.

Since McMaster’s Tremaine map was laid out on the large table, I was able to take snaps of the intact parts of the map, leaving the fragile portions rolled.

My images were affected by the glare off the shellacked paper (warped and peeling off its linen backing); any effort to transcribe names would be incomplete.

The U of T’s images – of a separate map of the same date and publisher – are the source of my transcriptions for the HeritagePIN project. Yet, to resolve the obscured parts of the U of T’s images, I consulted my McMaster images and discovered some differences!

Updates had been made to McMaster’s version of the Tremaine map – additional labels were applied to roads and rail, and the names of property owners had been inserted into previously blank lots.

Changes were found in the townships of Westminster, London, Ekfrid, North Dorchester and Delaware.

SECTION OF WESTMINSTER TOWNSHIP EAST at the GORE CONCESSION and LAMBETH – U of T greyscale

 

Univ. of Toronto – Fortin, Marcel, Cheryl Woods, and Lorraine Dubreuil. “Ontario Historical County Maps.” Web Mapping Application. Ontario Historical County Maps Project, 2005- https://utoronto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8cc6be34f6b54992b27da17467492d2f Images from the U of T project (Sec.4 image 0003.jpg or the _merge.jpg)

SAME AS ABOVE, WITH CHANGES – McMaster colour

 

McMaster University – Tremaine’s Map of the County of Middlesex (1862), Accession #107731 https://library.mcmaster.ca/php/raremaps.php?f=more&num=107731 Photo: ©Lisa-Ann M. Rance, 2011

SECTION OF WESTMINSTER TOWNSHIP near LONDON – CON 1 and BROKEN FRONT – U of T greyscale

 

Univ. of Toronto – Fortin, Marcel, Cheryl Woods, and Lorraine Dubreuil. “Ontario Historical County Maps.” Web Mapping Application. Ontario Historical County Maps Project, 2005- https://utoronto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=8cc6be34f6b54992b27da17467492d2f Images from the U of T project (Sec.4 image 0003.jpg or the _merge.jpg)

SAME AS ABOVE, WITH CHANGES – McMaster colour

(Your turn) Check out the changes south of the river.

McMaster University – Tremaine’s Map of the County of Middlesex (1862), Accession #107731 https://library.mcmaster.ca/php/raremaps.php?f=more&num=107731 Photo: ©Lisa-Ann M. Rance, 2011

Many of the updates are incorporated in the surname databases at the township pages.

This is the # 1 Frequently Asked Question.

This website *points to* scans of early wall maps and printed atlases held at various repositories (universities and government archives). Prints cannot be ordered, here.

A curator at the Maps Collection of a major university stated that while the maps dated 1850’s to 1880’s are not copyright-protected, any scans, prints or images of the maps are copyrighted to their producers.

Let me know of any officially-produced (book) atlases, posters or wall maps for sale. Here’s a start:

BRANT COUNTY

The Brant Co. Museum & Archives in Brantford, ON had some poster-sized old maps. Their website is compromised at present. Will check back.

NIAGARA | LINCOLN & WELLAND COUNTIES

The Mayholme Foundation of St. Catharines, ON, offers in book format, the Atlas of Early Pioneers of Niagara Peninsula. Published 2002, 8.5 x 11 in, cerlox-bound, b&w, 72 pages. ISBN 0-9897467-3-3

The publication itself is not indexed, yet the HeritagePIN surname-indexes do include my transcriptions of the names (pre-1871).

ELGIN COUNTY

The Elgin County Library in St. Thomas, ON, offers a Reprint of Geo. Tremaine’s 1864 (wall) map, in book format – Tremaine’s Map of County of Elgin Co. Ontario: Commemorative Edition in Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the County of Elgin 1852-2002.
Published 2002, 17.5 x 11.5 in, cloth hard covers, colour, 80 pages. ISBN 0-920339-25-5