Researching Family History

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

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.

Print

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.