The following announcement was written by Library and Archives Canada:
Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the launch of Traces of the Past, a new component of the virtual exhibition Moving Here, Staying Here: the Canadian Immigrant Experience. This site, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage through its Canadian Culture Online initiative, tells the exciting story of immigration to Canada from the early 19th century to the outbreak of the Second World War through documents held at Library and Archives Canada. Not only will you see first hand the trials of immigration through narratives enhanced by manuscripts, publications and visual material, you are encouraged to find your own family's history through the databases of digitized documents that are provided, such as passenger lists, and muster rolls.
In collaboration with the Canadian Genealogy Centre, Library and Archives Canada is pleased to offer the following research tools, which include digitized images of documents:
Passenger Lists
Passenger lists (RG 76) were the official immigration documents from 1865 to 1935. The lists contain information such as the name, age, country of origin, occupation and destination of each passenger. The lists are organized by port and date of arrival. This database provides access to passenger lists for the ports of Québec (1865-1921), Halifax (1881-1912, to 1922 shortly), Saint John (1900-1912), North Sydney (1906-1908), Vancouver (1905-1912) and Victoria (1905 to 1912 shortly).The Ward Chipman Papers
Ward Chipman the Elder, (1754-1824), a Massachusetts lawyer, was also an army administrator in the State of New York between 1777 and 1783. In 1784, he settled in New Brunswick, where he served as solicitor general until 1808.
The Ward Chipman Papers contain muster rolls of Loyalists, and their families, who were members of demobilized regiments and who settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This research tool provides access to nearly 19,000 references to Loyalist families.The Likacheff-Ragosine-Mathers Collection (LI-RA-MA)
The Likacheff-Ragosine-Mathers collection (LI-RA-MA) contains documents created between 1898 and 1922 by the consular offices of the Tsarist Russian Empire in Canada. The series on passports and identity papers is comprised of about 11,400 files on Jewish, Ukrainian and Finnish immigrants who came to Canada from the Russian Empire. The series includes passport applications and questionnaires containing general information. Nearly half the database is now available online, with the rest to be added shortly.You are invited to visit the site at: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/immigrants. The contributions of many LAC staff were instrumental in the success of this project, and their efforts are much appreciated.
