Maple leaf link keyBarbara Kyle & Peter Bolton ~
Genealogical Optimists!
Updated 27 July 2010
- Amateur theatrical programme -


Note: Would the descendant who provided the CemSearch information on Robert Brodie (1829-1873), one-time operator of the Queen's Hotel, please get in touch? We have a researcher looking for information on him.


This site was originally created in March 2000 with the hope of connecting with hitherto unknown family. Along the way, we discovered a myriad of genealogical resources for Port Hope and Hope Township (now the Municipality of Port Hope), Ontario, Canada, and began transcribing them for on-line searching. If you have any local resources you'd like to share, let us know!East Primary School: 1919 (PHA 995-43-1-193)



(Click on the maple leaf icons below to access the desired pages.)


maple leaf While hoping that the resources listed below will be of use to you, we are also optimistic that presently-unknown relatives with the surname of...
  • Bolton, Gray, Powell, Thomas (Buckinghamshire/Middlesex)
  • Skitch, Peardon, Bailey, Harris (Cornwall/Devon)
  • Nicholas (Yorkshire)
  • Holloway (England)
  • Kyle, Carse, Oliver, White (Northumberland, England)
  • Currie (Argyll, Scotland)
  • Monaghan, Mills, Beatty, McCleary, Campbell (Ireland)
  • Frederick, Rush (Loyalists from New Jersey)
  • Greenleaf (Bergen Co., New Jersey)
  • Marshall, O'Connell (Quebec)
...will browse through our lineages pages, recognize a connection and get in touch. We have now met forty-nine cousins!


maple leafupdated We've set up a page where you can list the local surnames you're researching. Send us your information and hopefully you'll be able to connect with one of your relatives!
(08 Jul with a ROSS/CLUTE researcher)
Note: We are building a local family history section at the Port Hope Public Library and we'll be most pleased to receive any published information you might have on your lineage. Hard copy material will go onto the shelves and electronic files will be entered into the computer resources. We hope to hear from YOU!
maple leaf These are the electronic ones we've received to date. They have been edited to exclude the names of living people. The Port Hope Library has the complete files as submitted.





Note: We are currently at the Port Hope Archives Monday and Friday morning from 10AM to noon indexing the 3,000+ photographs in the collection, should you like to discuss your research. As there will be occasions when we're not there, please contact us before you come.



5th Kresowa Infantry Division badge  We're looking for further information on L/Cpl. (60656) Adam Buraczewski. According to the St. Mary's burial records, he was born in Adamic, Poland on 04 Jan 1910. He served during WWII as a member of the Polish 2nd Corps (5th Kresowa Infantry Division) and was awarded the Monte Cassino Cross. Following the war, he worked on Stan Sochaj's (Sockay) tobacco farm near Osaca, Ontario. He remained there, when Casimer Zuber took over the farm, until his death on 25 Aug 1982. He is buried in the Veterans' plot of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery. To date, no family has been located. Any help is greatly appreciated. L/Cpl. Adam Buraczewski



Port Hope and Hope Township Resource Materials
Speed up your browsing of our 191 pages with this site search engine. As spelling varies considerably on many of the earlier documents, you might still want to do some manual searching. As well, the engine doesn't search the above personal family files (*.pdf, *.doc, etcetera) that people have sent us.
PicoSearch



Census
maple leaf The following census (and related) materials are available for online searching:
  • Crown Deeds of Hope Township
  • Elias Smith's 1799 Hope Township report
  • Augustus Jones' 1799 Hope Township report
  • 1801-1806 Port Hope/Hope Township Oaths of Allegiance
  • 1802-1807 Hope Township tax assessment rolls indices
  • 1803-1851 Hope Township census indices
  • 1842-1847 Hope Township assessment records indices
  • 1847 Port Hope assessment index
  • 1851 Canada East/Canada West/NB/NS census returns
  • 1861 Port Hope/Hope Township census indices
  • 1871 Port Hope/Hope Township census returns
  • 1881 Canada census returns
  • 1891 Port Hope/Hope Township census returns
  • c1898 Port Hope Bell Telephone Directory
  • 1900 Port Hope Bell Telephone Directory
  • 1901 Canada census returns
  • 1911 Canada census returns
  • 1913 Port Hope assessment record
  • 1920 Hope Township voters' list (with a township map)
We have access to the following resources, which we can't put online due to file size and/or copyright constraints, but for which we'll be glad to honour requests for information:
  • The 1856 Port Hope Business Directory, the first directory specifically for Port Hope, containing names and members of local organizations, lists of business owners and dozens of advertisements;
  • The 1902 R.G. Dun Mercantile Agency Reference Book, covering Durham County businesses' value and credit; and
  • Glen C. Phillips' The Ontario Photographers List: Vol. I (1851- 1900) and Vol. 2 (1901-1925), including a list of Port Hope photographers - a helpful aid when trying to date ancestral studio photographs.



Vital Statistics
maple leafupdated An index of some 13,500 births, marriages and deaths as reported in the 1832-1967 Port Hope newspapers. (14 June)
maple leaf A partial list of 133 baptisms (1854-1884), which Laurie Winter transcribed during family research, from the registers of Our Lady of Mercy Roman Catholic Church (Port Hope).
maple leaf The 148 baptisms (1875-1914) recorded in the Garden Hill Presbyterian Church register and transcribed by Walt Sammis, added to our resources with the kind permission of the United Church Minister, Reverend William Service.
maple leaf Bernadine Dodge, Trent University Archivist, has graciously allowed us to list the Port Hope/Hope Township extractions from these four holdings in the Archive's extensive collection, beginning with this listing of 273 births (1869-1872), taken from the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham Vital Statistics fonds (#83-016).
maple leaf A listing of 238 Port Hope/Hope Twp. marriages (1869-1872), extracted from the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham Vital Statistics fonds (#83-016). Also included are several recently-discovered marriage entries in the 1825-1848 range.
maple leaf Extracts from the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham Vital Statistics Additions fonds - 1838-1855 (#84-004), consisting of baptism records, marriage lists and burial lists. The transcription maintains the original spelling - except where known errors have been corrected - so it would be advisable to manually check the database in addition to using the search engine.
maple leaf A listing of 260 Port Hope/Hope Township inquests taken from the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham Court Records fonds - 1832-1914 (#84-020). As this transcription also maintains the original spelling, you should manually search the database.
maple leaf Local "Family Bible" data
maple leaf CemSearch - an ever-enlarging database of interments (372,000 as of 05 Aug 2009). Information is also provided about the local cemeteries.
Simpson Memorials (Port Hope) has a web page showing the location of the area cemeteries.
maple leaf A lot map for Zion United Church Cemetery (1839-1972), located in Hope Township on Con. 3, Lot 31, contributed by Robert Symons
maple leaf 116 death/funeral notices from 1861-1916
maple leaf Local funeral home records - dating from 1864
maple leaf Elizabeth Hancocks, of Generation Press, has graciously given permission to list the Port Hope/Hope Township entries from her book, Surrogate Court Index of Ontario, Canada (1859-1900) Volume 4, Northumberland and Durham Counties.
maple leaf The Port Hope Archives holds a collection of 1,191 probates (1821-1997), mostly of area residents. Copies can be obtained from the Archives.



Military
maple leaf 1st Regiment of the Durham Militia (15 Dec 1837)
maple leaf 1st-6th Durham Battalions of the Militia of Canada (1847)
maple leaf 1st Battalion of the Durham Regiment of Militia (1856)
maple leaf Port Hope Light Infantry Volunteer Company (01 May 1866)
maple leaf Photograph of the 46th Battalion band, taken at the Commons, SE of the viaduct (1869)
maple leaf Photograph of the Fenian Raid veterans of the 46th Battalion of Port Hope (c1870)
maple leaf With the Midland Battn. during the North West Rebellion of 1885 - a personal diary written by William E. Young
maple leaf List of Officers of the 136th Durham Overseas Battalion (15 May 1916)
maple leaf List of Appeals - decisions of the Appeal Tribunal in Port Hope and Hope Township cases (25 Jan 1918)
maple leaf List of Hope Township WWI soldiers (24 Dec 1918)
maple leafupdated Book of Remembrance: Local Participants in the Great War (1914-1918). Only two copies of this 1919 book were made, both now located at the Port Hope Archives. This modified transcription includes photographs, submitted by the families of those who lost their lives, on permanent display at the Town Hall. (13 July: photograph of Mary McNaughton)

Note: In 2007, as a fund-raiser for the Port Hope Archives to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge, Barbara and I had the privilege of working on the re-issue of the Book of Remembrance (500 copies) with updated information, the soldiers' photographs, letters home from the Front as published in the local newspaper, and additional photographs from the Archives' collection. Once these are sold, it's unlikely that there will be a second printing. Please contact the Archives for further information.
On the morning of the second day of the battle of Arras, Harold was instantly killed by bursting shrapnel.
The attestation papers for the Canadian Expeditionary Forces can be found online at Library and Archives Canada.
maple leaf As a companion to the Book of Remembrance, we've indexed 132 letters written home from the WWI front and published in the local newspaper. Many of these were used in the 2007 reprint above.



Miscellaneous Historical
maple leaf Letters, diaries and logs penned by residents of the Port Hope area (dating from 1819), including the 1890 log of Sylvan Glen Camp
maple leafupdated A listing of owners and operators of Port Hope hotels over the years (13 July: an ad for Brodie's Hotel)
maple leaf A description of area travel and its costs in 1825
maple leafupdated Early Council: the Chief Magistrates of Port Hope from 1834 to the present day (a work in progress) (12 July: a photograph of Betty Collins)
maple leaf Members of the Port Hope Board of Police (1843)
maple leaf A photograph of several Great Lakes captains living in Port Hope in 1885
maple leaf Thanks to Marcia, gggggranddaughter of the gentleman in question, we are now certain that the "L. Bertolotto" of 1830s London, England, flea-circus fame is buried in Port Hope's Union Cemetery!
maple leaf A newspaper article (1889) listing 495 local citizens who had emigrated from the area, mostly to the United States
maple leaf A listing of the 1891 Port Hope Fire Brigade members
maple leaf Portions of the Port Hope Model High School Register (1891-'92) and the complete Training Register (1884-1904) for those in teacher training
maple leaf Port Hope High School Commencement Exercises (15 Dec 1899), held at the Opera House
maple leaf Three newspaper articles describing the local I.O.O.F. Decoration Day services (1918, 1923 and 1926)
maple leaf A transcription of the original 1930 programme for a local amateur production of the musical, Page the Prince
maple leafupdated A transcription of the original 1930 programme for the St. John's Anglican Young People's Association amateur production of A Royal Cut-Up



Sources of Information
maple leaf The Port Hope Archives is located in the refurbished former County Registry Office at the foot of Walton Street and is a constantly-enlarging source of information. Donations of local documents and photographs are welcomed.
maple leaf The Port Hope Public Library has a considerable number of resources, including microfilms of the available census returns and newspapers. The Ancestry (Library Edition) databases have been newly-added and can be accessed at the library.
maple leaf The Cobourg and District Historical Society Archives has a number of interesting items relating to Port Hope's past.
maple leaf Garnet Clayton's site features a considerable amount of Port Hope material, much of it gathered by his late father and local historian, Cal Clayton.
maple leaf Sites we've found particularly useful for our own research.



While happy to search out and transcribe local resources for this site, we simply haven't the time to fill requests for photocopies of births, marriages, obituaries and census returns. However, this service is available at the Port Hope Public Library for a nominal cost.

Note: if the page/column indicated is in the latter pages of the newspaper - 4/4 or 8/2 for example - it's likely a typical BMD announcement with little detail beyond that which we've recorded online.)
Please let us know if some link isn't working. Happy searching...and good luck!
UEL flag Barbara Kyle & Peter Bolton, UE
 Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
 hunter@nhb.com





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