Researching your Canadian ancestor? (UPDATED)

With the recent changes to Canadian Ancestry, we are experiencing a high volume of requests and research visits. Please be patient as our facility is only open two days a week and our volunteers do their best to reply in a timely manner. If you are corresponding by email, please check your spam or junk folder – sometimes our emails land there (look for emails from seventhtownresearch.com).

We’re happy to help those researching their Canadian ancestor and here are some tips about using our resources that may help.

We generally only search our in-house collections. We assume that you have already searched websites like Ancestry and FamilySearch and are looking for additional supporting evidence that is not online. If you need assistance using online genealogy sites, we recommend you come in person or visit a local library or genealogy centre.

There are two ways to access our resources:

In person visits – everyone is welcome, but sometimes unexpected arrivals limit how much attention we can give you.

• Please book ahead of time – at least a week or two before your visit preferably via our online booking form.
• Do a preliminary search using our online databases (Names and Land Records) and send us the search results.
• When booking your visit, please provide a detailed description of your research objective with as much supporting information as possible to help us locate materials that can be set aside in advance of your visit.  
• We don’t charge for assistance for on-site visits except for photocopies, scans or other purchases. As a non-profit charity, donations are always appreciated and go towards our operating expenses.

Research requests by email:

• To initiate your request, please send a $30 deposit (see PAYMENT OPTIONS below)
• Once your deposit is received, a research volunteer will be assigned to your request and you will receive an email*. Please know that the deposit includes the first hour of research only. If we think more time is needed (at $20/hour), we’ll let you know before proceeding.
• In your request, be as specific as possible describing who you are looking for and provide anything you know that will help us narrow down the results. Only providing a name without dates, locations or names of close relatives greatly reduces the accuracy of the results we send you.
• You can reduce research time by doing a preliminary search using our online databases (Names and Land Records) and including the relevant search results in your request.
• Search results and documents will be sent to you via an online link that we provide via email. Please note that we hold very few original documents. Our research is intended to help you collect corroborating information and identify the primary source for documents you may be seeking.

*Again, please know that we handle research requests in the order we receive them. As our facility is only open two days a week, you may not receive a personalized response until our next open day.  We appreciate your patience and wish all the best to all ‘lost Canadians’ who are preparing their application for a citizenship certificate.