Canadian naturalizations: More information

Stanley Diamond, president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, has provided more information on the Canadian Naturalization records (1914-1932), previously reported by Tracing the Tribe.

The new database includes more than 200,000 people who were naturalized during this period. They came from about 80 countries, and we estimate that about 1/3 of them were Jewish.

This new index has taken many years to get to this stage, from the time when we first heard about the printed records, which are very difficult to search and only available in fragile books at a few libraries in Canada. Although a finding-aid was created by our society several years ago, this new search engine makes finding records much easier.

We are grateful to the Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa which funded original scanning of these records, and to the years of work by society members Ruth Diamond, who did the vast bulk of the data entry, and Alan Greenberg, who managed the project and handled the image processing and database creation.

And we are particularly appreciative of the efforts of the Canadian Genealogy Centre (CGC) within Library and Archives Canada for creating such a great home for the naturalization database.

Search the database here.

The work is not yet over, adds Stan.

The JGS of Montreal has scanned a similar collection of records (1932-1952) with some 400,000 additional naturalizations, which will need to be indexed. The group is double-entering the 1914-32 records to ensure no errors and that all individual are properly indexed. This project will soon start.

To order copies of the full naturalization (application) files for your ancestors, see the research guide on the JGS-Montreal site.

According to Stan, naturalization records prior to 1914/16 are generally not available, but there is a major exception - records have been preserved for those naturalized in the Montreal Superior Court and they are also indexed on the CGC. The JGS-Montreal web site also has a research guide for those records.

The site has been redone recently and contains much information for those searching family in Montreal or Canada, in general.

Canada: Naturalization online database (1915-1932)

If your ancestors went to Canada and stayed, the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has posted a resource that may be most helpful to your personal quest: The new version of the Canadian Naturalization 1915-1932 Database.

LAC acknowledged the contributions of both the Jewish Genealogical Societies of Montreal and Ottawa and their volunteers whose support made this database possible.

It includes the names of 206,731 individuals who applied for and received status as naturalized Canadians in that time period, and is one of a few Canadian genealogical resources designed to benefit researchers with roots outside the British Commonwealth.

References in the database can be used to request copies of the actual naturalization records, which are held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

View the database here.

US, Canadian archivists help Israel, Palestinians

US and Canadian archivists have launched a project to help Israel and the Palestinians preserve their archives, according to this JTA newsbrief.

Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and his Canadian counterpart, Ian Wilson, met earlier this year with officials of both the Israel State Archives and the Palestine National Archives.

"The purpose of these meetings was to discuss projects that would assist in the digitization of paper records of both Israel and Palestine that would ultimately document the joint heritage of people in the region," said a statement released Thursday.

"They are also working with both institutions to develop archival training programs for their staff, and have received enthusiastic support from" U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "and the State Department for these projects."

A joint US-Canada exhibit is being launched on the 1783 Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War and dividing North America into the US and those British colonies which would become Canada.