• RG 1 - 54, Petitions relating to land received by the Crown Land Department. Here you will find petitions from veterans of the war that may provide some details about military service.
• RG 1 - 100, Patent Plans. The material found in this file may be useful in locating the land granted to your 1812 ancestor.
• RG 1 - 52, Registers of Militia Grants. Gives reference to acreage granted to men of the militia, provincial dragoons, or provincial marine. Name, rank, and unit are provided.
NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES
Military Land Grant Map. Nova Scotia Archives, Map Collection, V7/239-1785 Pictou.
• RG 1, Great Britain — Army — Volume 376, 1784, Muster Rolls of Loyalists and military settlers at Annapolis, Digby, and adjacent places in that county, also on the island of St. John (Prince Edward Island) and other settlements on Gulf Shore of Nova Scotia, 28 May to 28 September 1784 (transcribed in 1880 from the muster rolls in possession of J.W. Lawrence of Saint John, NB, formerly among the papers of the late Honourable Ward Chipman, chief justice of New Brunswick). These records contain names with class, numbers in family, and remarks as to where they settled, as well as names of the disbanded corps to which many of them had belonged.
• MG 12 — Headquarters office papers, vol., nos.0-236, 1783–1907, record of regiments and corps that have served in the Nova Scotian Command since October 1783 when the troops arrived from New York after the American Revolutionary War.
If you visit the Nova Scotia Archives in person, these are two useful finding aids:
Marion Gilroy, comp., Halifax, 1937, Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova Scotia, is a transcribed list of Loyalist land grants providing name, date, situation, acres, and origin or rank for the nine counties of Nova Scotia. Included are grants, warrants, and escheats. Often the name of the loyalist corps, rank, and status are provided on each individual.
Jean Peterson, assisted by Lynn Murphy and Heather MacDonald, A Detailed List of Archival Resources Available to Researchers, Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Page 85 lists books related to the military in Nova Scotia and available at the archives. Page 239, Chapter 15, Military — offers general correspondence, regiments and “soldiers,” which includes uniforms etc., providing reference numbers for research purposes.
NOVA SCOTIA WEBSITES
The following websites list either original or transcribed nominal rolls of members of the Provincial Corps who settled in one of the eastern provinces.
• The Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/GANS.
• At Genealogy Links www.genealogylinks.net/canada/nova_scotia/nova_scotia_military.htm, Loyalist records and lists of British regiments stationed in Nova Scotia.
• The Nova Scotia Genealogical Network Association. Go to nsgna.ednet.ns.ca, and check Military.
• The Nova Scotia Museum has a surname search function for Black Loyalists at museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/names/default.htm.
• At Mary’s Genealogy Treasures (Nova Scotia) www3.telus.net/public/mtoll, check Military.
• On Roots Web freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/gatnc.htm, you can trace your Hessian ancestors.
NEW BRUNSWICK
At the New Brunswick Archives, www.archives.gnb.ca, you can access all the records of the 1839 Act, “An Act for the Relief of Old Soldiers of the Revolutionary War,” granting financial assistance to soldiers or their widows who had fallen on hard times and were applying for government assistance. The petitions and the schedules of payment are available. The petition often includes the number of years the applicant has lived in the colony, his or her economic condition, information about military service, and in the case of widows when and where the couple was married. The payment schedules contain lists of names and in some cases information about the recipient. All the records have been digitized and are available online. At the archives website, check Search then Other to access the records. If you view these records online, check the Help option, especially the “Guidelines for Performing an Effective Search.”If you visit the archives in person, look at the following record sources:
• Record Source (RS) 566 — Provincial Secretary: Old Soldiers and Widower Pension Admin. Records.
• RS 146/148/153/154/157 — County records: Albert, Charlotte, Northumberland, Queens, Sunbury for record of payments.
• RS 9 — Executive Council Meeting Files, contain lists of soldiers and widows, and sometimes include information about individual soldiers.
• RS 24 — Sessional Records of the Legislative Assembly.
• MG 24 8-1, Ref. # 6886-0-2-E, a transcript of a “List of Veterans of 1812–1815” of Upper Canada to whom medals have been granted.
• Similar but not identical to records found 8, vol. 1202, reels C-3519.
Websites
University of New Brunswick Library, www.lib.unb.ca, allows you to browse the collection of military/loyalist records.
Ancestry.com, search.ancestry.ca/search/. Available on this site are a list of volunteers who served with Major Willcocks and a nominal roll of the men belonging to the Corps of Canadian Volunteers in the service of the United States during the war. There are also Loyalist muster rolls online.
Canadian Military Heritage Project, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canmil.
Cyndi’s List, www.cyndislist.com/milcan.htm, select Military Resources Worldwide then Canadian.
Early Canadiana Online Project, www.canadiana.org/ECO. At this site you can access the books listing the militiamen of the 1812 war wounded or killed in action and entitled to a government pension/gratuity.
Families in British India Society, www.fibis.org, if you suspect your ancestors may have served in India during the Raj.
Family Search, www.familysearch.org, this site will give you access to the records of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). The Library Search tab will provide you with a list of the records held at Salt Lake City. Once you know the microfilm number, the film can be borrowed on inter-centre loan. You do not have to be a member of the church to use the research facilities.
Friends of Fort York, www.fortyork.ca, check the links to re-enactor groups. Many of these groups have done extensive research related to the personnel who served during the war.
General Society of the War of 1812, www.societyofthewarof1812.org/links.html, this is an American site but does provide some good links to Canadian information.
Google Books, www.googlebooks.com. Here I found A Narrative of the Affair at Queenston Heights: in the War of 1812 with a review, published 1836, Van Renssaelaer, John Armstrong. Van Renssaelaer was the American commander at the battle of Queenston Heights who was removed from command following the American defeat. He spent years trying to clear his name.
Imperial War Museum, U.K. www.iwm.org.uk.
Library and Archives Canada, www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet, access the list of research tools, then general inventory, for government of Canada files, land grants, and other archival resources across Canada.
McGill Library, digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas. The university has scanned county atlases and provided an index so you can search for ancestors who may have owned land in Canada. The site is titled; “In Search of Your Past: The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project.” Here, I found the Turcott farm in an 1878 atlas of Frontenac County.
National Archives U.K., www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Olive Tree Genealogy, www.olivetreegenealogy.com/mil/1812, focus on Canadian genealogy, then military.
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