Ottawa Public Library Genealogy Collection

Circulating collection

A wide selection of genealogy books, e-books, and DVDs can be borrowed. These include:

• General guides, e.g.
  • Genealogy Guides for Beginners
• Geographic guides, e.g.
  • Canadian Genealogy Guides
  • Guides for Other Countries
• Subject guides, e.g.:
  • Evaluating Evidence
  • Photographs in Genealogy
  • Genetic Genealogy

Reference collection

• Located at Main, Nepean Centrepointe, and Cumberland branches
• Includes:
  • census indexes
  • indexes to civil registration
  • cemetery and church record transcriptions
  • indexes to land records
  • newspaper indexes
  • historical Ottawa newspapers
  • city and county directories
  • family histories
  • local and county histories
  • historical atlases and maps
• Our collection concentrates most heavily on the Ottawa Valley, southeastern Ontario, and southwestern Quebec, but the rest of Ontario and other provinces are also covered

Finding library materials

Look for material in the library’s online catalogue. Searching tips:

• To find all genealogy materials for a geographic area:
  • use the keyword genealogy and the place name
    e.g. Osgoode genealogy ; Northumberland Ontario genealogy

• To find church records
  • use the place name and keyword phrase “church registers”;“registers of births” or cemeteries
    e.g. renfrew church registers ; grenville cemeteries
  • search by parish name – try both short and long form of “saint”, i.e. St., Saint, Ste., Sainte
    e.g. Saint - Joseph Orleans ; St Joseph Orleans

• To find the genealogy of a specific family
  • use the family name as a keyword
    e.g. Wright family

• To browse our recommended titles and websites:
  • Genealogy Services lists of recommended materials