Canadian Land Records online for FREE

Canadiana.org is a Canadian company in Ottawa which is preserving Canada's published history and is making it available online to everyone – free!

The part of Canadiana.org which is the Heritage Project. 

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/support/heir_and_devisee

The Heritage Project is going to take some of Canada’s most popular archival collections, such as 60-million pages of FREE primary-source microfilm images from the 1600s to the mid-1900s.

One of the first projects that they have done is the Heir and Devisee Commission of the Upper Canada (Ontario) Land Records.

The second commission met in York, and they were restricted to claims to land made by heirs, devisees, or assignees, not by the original nominees themselves

This commission was established by provincial statute in 1797, to clarify the titles to lands in Upper Canada.

There were actually two distinct periods which the commission covered. In the first commission, they heard from people who had originally received the land, their heirs, devisees, and assignees.

 Records can include (although not always) affidavits, bonds, location certificates, powers of attorney, orders-in-council, copies of wills, mortgages, deeds of sale, and testimonial letters.

The digitized copies of the microfilm reels onsite appear in the same order as on the microfilm reels themselves. Remember, unfortunately, there is NO index by name.

Alternatively, the records are arranged by district, then by type of document, then in chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order.

 

The list of microfilm rolls are on  http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_205142, just click on the reel you want to view, and it is there for you to research.