All Surrey Libraries branches will be closed Friday, April 18 for Good Friday and Monday, April 21 for Easter Monday. All branches are open Saturday, April 19, and all branches, except Port Kells, are open on Sunday, April 20.
Newspapers and Magazines - Ontario
The department holds a collection of popular family history magazines such as Internet Genealogy and Family Tree. Articles within these magazines may include information specific to Canada and Canadian provinces.
The department also holds the newsletters of the Ontario Genealogical Society, Families.
Newsletters and magazines can be borrowed with a Surrey Libraries card.
Online
- Canadian Genealogy Historic Newspapers
- Library & Archives Canada - List of newspapers available on microfilm.
- The Toronto Public Library has the Toronto Star with over 110 years of historical newspaper digitized. However, it is not searchable unless you have a Toronto library card, but enquiries are welcome. Details are in the article.
- Ancestry Library Edition and FamilySearch.org also have a collection of historical newspapers.
- TheAncestorHunt.com provides a comprehensive list of links to historical newspaper sites for all provinces (scroll down to the Canada section).
- Canadiana.ca provides a searchable collection of digitized historical newspapers for all provinces.
- Library and Archives Canada provides a geographical list newspapers by province and then by city/town names. Some of the titles have links to digitized copies of the newspapers.
- Google News Archive
This resource requires that the newspaper name is known. If you are unsure of the newspaper name, please see our print resources section below.
- Archives of Ontario provides an online index of newspapers that are mostly available through microfilm interlibrary loan (via Surrey Libraries Family History Department):
- The Ontario Community Newspapers portal offers a searchable database index of their large collection, which then provides contact information to assist researchers in accessing the full article.
An excellent, although fee-based, site is Newspapers.com, which has good coverage of many smaller newspapers in Canada. Sometimes free short trials of this paid subscription database are available.
Other good resources for finding digitized copies of historical newspapers would be found by contacting the local public library, archive, or genealogy association closest to the area of interest. Please ask a staff member if assistance is needed.
While the Family History Department does not hold any print copies of historical newspapers, we do have some print resources to assist you if you do not know the name of the newspapers that were in publication in the period and place of your research area. Please ask staff for assistance.
The Family History department carries the Ontario Genealogical Society’s newsletter, Families, available to browse or borrow.
Microfilm
The Archives of Ontario offers a collection of historical newspapers on microfilm, many of which are available through inter-library loan through our Family History Department. See the following links for searching and access information.
- Newspaper holdings at the Archives of Ontario
- Index to original and microfilmed newspaper collections at the Archives of Ontario