Directories - Indigenous & Métis
City directories are a good resource to use to fill in the gaps from Census records. They are generally published annually, and contain information such as address, occupation, marital status.
Unless your Indigenous ancestor was involved in a business or lived in a town, it is quite rare they would be listed. However, if they were in a “mixed” marriage, particularly where the man was Caucasian, a record may have been included, so directories are worth checking.
Accessibility varies by province. For directories that are not included in the collections noted below, or for more recent directories that may assist in locating living relatives, it is recommended that researchers contact the public library, archives, or genealogy society closest to their location of interest and inquire about the availability of local directories.
Online
Directories are increasingly becoming digitized and available online on the databases noted on page 4 above.
Library and Archives Canada has a collection of historical directories for some locations across Canada, searchable here:
Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch.org also have collections of directories for most provinces, and TheAncestorHunt.com provides links to directories for all provinces.
Below are additional resources for each province.
British Columbia:
Vancouver Public library has digitized the BC directories collection from 1860-1955 and made it available online.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba:
Peel’s Prairie Provinces has directories for select towns and cities in Alberta, Saskatechwan, and Manitoba going back as early as 1905.
Ontario:
A project is underway to digitize the entire collection of Vernon directories for Ontario. These will be available to search on FamilySearch.org (free) once the project is complete.
OnGenealogy.com also provides links to many Ontario directories.
Quebec:
The Quebec Archives provides a collection of Lovell’s directories for Montreal and suburbs/region, as well as for Quebec City.
New Brunswick:
The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick provides access to the following:
Here are some additional links from the Toronto Public Library:
Also:
Newfoundland and Labrador:
Newfoundland's Grand Banks provides a number of links for Newfoundland and Labrador directories.
The Memorial University of Newfoundland’s website also provides a number of links.
Prince Edward Island:
The Island Register provides the following:
- The Hutchison directory of surnames by area
- The McAlpine’s Directory 1880-81 and the following telephone directories:
Microfilm
The Family History Department has the entire collection of BC Directories on microfilm from 1860-1995.
For BC, directories from approximately 1980 to the present for the Fraser Valley and Vancouver area, as well as a few from other parts of BC, can be found in our Family History Department’s print collection. The Surrey Archives also has a collection of Surrey-specific print directories. Some of the formats are criss-cross (address and phone number indexes), regular directories, and phone books. There are a small number of miscellaneous directories from the 1960’s and 1970’s as well.
For other provinces, our Family History Department has a small collection of directories or guides to directories in print. Some examples below. Note that local libraries and archives generally keep historical directories for their location/region.
Lovell, John. 2000. Montreal Directory 1868-69: containing an Alphabetical Directory of the Citizens and a Street Directory. Milton, Ontario: Global Heritage Press. Library call number -- GEN 917.1428 MON
Elliott, Noel J. ed. 1994. The Atlantic Canadians, 1600-1900; an alphabetized directory of people, places and vital dates. Toronto: Genealogical Research Library. 1994. [3 Volumes- please ask for assistance to interpret the codes following each entry] Library call number -- GEN 929.3715 ATL