On the left is a photo of a woman looking at a laptop. On the right is a graphic with a collage of 3 black and white photos and the words Connect to a Deeper Family Story. The ancestry library edition logo is on the bottom.

Ancestry Library Edition

Unlock your story with help from sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. Please note that Ancestry is only available in person in the library.

By using this service, you accept this service’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

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Good to Know

 

  • Vast Historical Access: Billions of historical documents, millions of photos, local narratives, oral histories, indexes, and more from over 30,000 databases spanning the 1500s to the 2000s.

  • Multimedia Collections: Includes millions of family and gravestone photos, postcards, and newsreels.

  • Canadian Collections: Nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada and key vital records, including the Drouin Collection (1621-1967) with 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

  • U.S. Collections: Includes federal and U.S. censuses, birth, death, and marriage records (like the Social Security Death Index), and U.S. border crossing and trans-ocean ship records.

  • U.K. Collections: Nearly 200 million records, including censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland. Also includes records like Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London.

  • International Collections: Continually growing, with over 46 million records from German censuses, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, and phone directories. Includes Chinese lineage books in the Jiapu Collection, Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia, and more.

 

 

Getting Started

 

To access Ancestry.ca Library Edition, you will need to use one of the computers at the Library or join the Library's Public WIFI.

 

To get started, you will need to have the following:

 

 

Using the Database

 

How to use:

  • Log in to the database.
  • Start with a general search: Enter a person’s name, birth year, and/or places they may have lived. Provide as much information as you have.
  • Search specific records: From the homepage, you can also search census, vital, military, or immigration records.

 

Additional Tips:

  • Use message boards to connect with other family members or researchers.
  • Utilize charts and forms provided by Ancestry to track your research.

 

 

Searching Hints

 

Spelling mistakes in records are common, so similarly spelled names in the results field may still be relevant to your search. You can also use wildcard symbols to prompt spelling variations.

  • Use “?” to receive spelling variations for one letter. In the name like Nielson, you could use Niels?n to retrieve results for Nielson, Nielsen. 
  • Use “*” to receive spelling variations for more than one letter after the 3rd letter in the name. Using this method, searching "Johns*" could reveal results for Johnson, Johnstone, Johnston etc.

 

 

Need Help?

 

For more information, please visit Ancestry’s support pages.   

 

 

Privacy and Terms of Use

 

Ancestry is a commercial service whose policies concerning privacy and user information differ from that of the London Public Library. For more information, please read Ancestry’s Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

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