Sarnia Township
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Transcription Progress:
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Sarnia Twp. in historical LAMBTON Co.
Opened 1835. A portion of the township along the St. Clair River front is still occupied as an Indian Reserve. The City of Sarnia, in 1835, was a mere hamlet, called The Rapids, owing to the sharp current from Lake Huron; one of the first settlers was Richard Emeric Vidal, a retired Naval officer.
Jesse E. Middleton, The Province of Ontario: a History: 1615-1927, published 1927
Click the drop-down titles below:
HINT: Before fine-searching the online maps, verify from the database of transcribed names (bottom).
THE ABOVE LINKS ARE BROKEN. These had been off-site links to the Archives of Ontario's RG-100 Patent Plans. In 2023 the A of O replaced the 'Archives Descriptive Database' with the 'AIMS' database. Please direct inquiries to the Archives of Ontario quoting the RG 1-100 collection and urging for restoration of *large-sized* map images. (I'm always happy to hear from you too).
The names on these maps are not transcribed for the HeritagePIN databases.
No pre-Confederation era maps have been found, or are known to have been published. See the hand-drawn Patent Maps.
Maps at McGill University's Digital Atlas Project cover the Post-Confederation period (late for the scope of this project). Names of land-owners are transcribed at McGill's site.
Click the drop-down titles below:
HINT: Before fine-searching the online directories, verify from the database of transcribed names (bottom).
1864-65 Lambton Co. / Sutherland / free online
Links & Transcription Progress
Find Concession/Lot Locations from the Agricultural Schedules of the Canadian national Censuses.
1842 (limited), 1851, 1861 and 1871.
Click the drop-down titles below:
Finding Aid | (enumerated, but lost)
Library and Archives Canada originally had provided this list of LINKS to the 1851 Agricultural Schedule IMAGES. Up until 2024, Names from Agricultural Schedules had been indexed for a District (County-wide) search. Now researchers must manually view the images per Sub-District (Township-wide).
The former LAC search form, above, pre-filtered by Township and set to return the Agricultural Schedule results, cannot be made operational in the 2024 database. I will be watching for a restoration of function. Here is a pre-set search form for the 1851 Census, Ontario-wide. (Then, hit 'Modify Search').
Please view the images as per the link given in the first paragraph. Do back up your files and research, as links and indexes are disappearing without acknowledgement or remedy.
Finding Aid | Search Form – LAC | see table, below
| 1861 District | SubDistrict | Film | PGs: | 49 – | 53 | |
| Lambton | Sarnia | C-1041 | 49 | 50 | 51 | |
| Lambton | Sarnia | C-1041 | 52 | 53 | ||
| Lambton | Chippawa Band | C-1041 | 60 | 61 |
* The LAC search form is had been pre-set to search NAMES in this District, and within Agricultural schedules only. However, these indexes are significantly incomplete (and rendered even more unreliable in 2024). I recommend searching the 1861 Ag Schedule IMAGES by page number, in the chart, above.
In 2024 LAC has moved to a new Census Search utility. Here is a pre-set search form for the 1861 Census, Ontario-wide. (Then, hit 'Modify Search'). I will be adjusting search links at each township's page, but only to the Ag Schedule results by District (county) level.
The 1861 Census Districts | Re: Bothwell, Cardwell & Monck
Contact me with questions, linking errors, solutions you've found, etc. LAC had invited feedback during its transition process; now that it has abandoned the former database without ensuring the integrity and efficacy of their new system, they should be the receiver of complaints.
Index – FamilySearch | Confirm – LAC | see table, below
| 1871 District | SubDistrict | Div.* | Film | Images |
| 04 Lambton | F Sarnia | Div 1 | C-9895 | Link to Start |
| 04 Lambton | F Sarnia | Div 2 | C-9896 | Link to Start |
| 04 Lambton | F Sarnia | Div 3 | C-9896 | Link to Start |
| 04 Lambton | G Sarnia Town | Div 1 | C-9896 | Link to Start |
| 04 Lambton | G Sarnia Town | Div 2 | C-9896 | Link to Start |
In 2024 LAC has moved to a new Census Search utility. Here is a pre-set search form for the 1871 Census, Ontario-wide. (Then, hit 'Modify Search'). I will be adjusting search links at the township level over the coming year.
This census search is essential - you will need to find the farmer's name in the regular schedule of households, then view an image of that census page to catch the Enumeration Division, Page and Line number.
Use the FamilySearch Index and images, instead (free account, login required).
* The Enumeration Division number must match the Division of the corresponding Sched. 1 Personal Census.
Enumerators weren't always consistent in recording District- and Division information at the tops of the pages. To confirm Division number, check previous pages or rely on indexed information at Ancestry or FamilySearch.
The 1871 Census Districts | Maps of City Wards
Contact me with questions, linking errors, etc.
Log In to a free account at FamilySearch.org.
Use the arrows to advance each page, or browse thumbnails of all images.
| Township | Dates | Film | Images | |
| Sarnia | 1850 | 8129021 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1853 | 8129021 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1855-1858 | 8129021 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1860 | 8129021 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1862-1867 | 8129021 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1870 | 8129022 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1872 | 8129022 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1873 | 8129022 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1875 | 8129022 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1877 | 8129022 | Link to Start | |
| Sarnia | 1879 | 8129022 | Link to Start |
NOTE: The above table is for records BEFORE 1880, only!
Films marked in red are viewable at LDS Family History Centers.
FamilySearch has begun to transcribe: (incomplete)
Ontario Tax Assessment Rolls, 1834-1899
Search by Surname and Region
See FamilySearch Wiki about Ontario Taxation.
Both Owners and Tenants were assessed for taxes (i.e. Freeholders and Householders).
See the Instructions to Assessors from 1847 Norfolk Co.
| Surname | Incidence | Township | County | Dates | Source | Available online? | Details | Misc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abraham | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Ackerson | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Adams | 2 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Adamson | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Aikin | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Aitken | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | add'tl surname - McMillan's | ||
| Alexander | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Allair | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Almond | 1 | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | ||
| Anderton | Sarnia | Lambton | 1864 | directory | Link to Source | add'tl surname - McMillan's |
RENFREW Co.
Admaston
Algona North
Algona South
Alice
Allumette Isl.(Qc)
Bagot
Blithfield/Blythfield
Bromley
Brougham
Brudenell
Buchan/Buchanan
Burns
Calumet Isl.(Qc)
Fraser
Grattan
Griffith
Hagarty
Horton
Jones
Lyndoch
Matawatchan
McKay
McNab
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Petawawa
Radcliffe
Raglan
Richards
Rolph
Ross
Sebastopol
Sherwood
Stafford
Westmeath
Wilberforce
Wylie
Abinger
ADDINGTON Co.
Adelaide
Adjala
Admaston
Adolphustown
Airy
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Albion
Aldborough
Alfred
Algona North
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Alice
Allumette Island
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BRUCE Co.
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CARLETON Co.
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Sheffield
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SIMCOE Co.
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STORMONT Co.
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Waterloo
WATERLOO Co.
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
SEARCH LISTS:
heritagePIN PROJECT DATABASES | Project Goals and Progress
Beta
MAPS | project
I had been able to photograph several of the (brittle) Pre-Confederation maps at various universities and archives, and by 2016 the University of Toronto has made images available ONLINE for many more!
The names in these databases have been transcribed by me personally, and include names from the inset town maps, and indexes of subscribers, located in the margins of each map.
DIRECTORIES & GAZETTEERS | project
Likewise, with historical directories, names have been transcribed by eye, not by OCR (conversion to text). They include those entries for individuals living in towns and cities.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Where maps and directories are sparse for a township, or for an early time period, the Databases are supplemented with record-sets * that show names and Concession/Lot locations *. These include early Land Grant/Patents, and Agricultural Census returns.
