Kingston-Area Research

OGS Conference 2012 will be held in Kingston, Ontario at St. Lawrence College 1-3 June 2012

“Borders & Bridges: 1812 – 2012”

Kingston, at the confluence of the Cataraqui River with Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, was first settled by French fur traders in 1673 although there were aboriginal encampments in the vicinity long before that time.  United Empire Loyalists were assigned lots in Kingston after 1784.  Kingston is the home of three post-secondary institutions (Queen’s University, Royal Military College of Canada, and St. Lawrence College) and seven prisons, as well as the finest freshwater sailing port in the country.

Did you know that Kingston is the home of Fort Henry (built 1832-1837) and the southern end of the Rideau Canal: Ontario’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site?

Did you know that Kingston was the first capital of Canada?  – that’s the United Province of Canada, formed after Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) were united into the Province of Canada in 1841.  Kingston was the capital until 1844.  Many of the magnificent homes in the area of downtown, not to mention our outstanding City Hall, were built in expectation of Kingston’s role as the nation’s capital.

Did you know that also in 1841, Queen Victoria issued a Royal Charter establishing Queen’s University? and that one member of the group who obtained the charter for Queen’s University was a young lawyer from Kingston named John Alexander Macdonald?  He later had a notable political career – and Kingston has not only several homes and offices he occupied (including Bellevue House, a National Historic Site) but also the burial place of Sir John, Canada’s first Prime Minister, at Cataraqui Cemetery.

Did you know that Kingston has a fascinating Canadian Penitentiary Museum? – you’ll marvel at the ingenuity of some of Canada’s famous prisoners and con-men.

RESEARCH IN THE KINGSTON AREA:

If you’re planning to extend your stay and do some personal research, you may want to visit:

• Queen’s University Archives (which also acts as City of Kingston Archives), Kathleen Ryan Hall, Queen’s Campus – see http://archives.queensu.ca/index.html.  Here you will find the Burleigh Papers (covering about 1,000 families, many of them United Empire Loyalists); collections of early photographs from Kingston and area; Land Registry copybooks for the area; the Haldimand Papers on microfilm; records of previous Queen’s students; and much more.  Hours in May and June will be: Monday-Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.  Note that the closest public parking is a couple of blocks away — parking on the campus itself is by permit only.
• Anglican Diocese of Ontario Archives, 90 Johnson Street, Kingston – see details here.  Records cover some 50 parishes in the Diocese, with the earliest congregations being established in the late 1700s. The geographical area covered includes the counties of Prince Edward, Hastings, Lennox & Addington, Frontenac, and Leeds & Grenville. A computer database helps to locate the pertinent registers of baptism, confirmation, marriage and burials.  Note that hours of opening are limited; check back to this page for exact times, closer to Conference.
• Stauffer Library, Queen’s University (corner University Avenue and Union Street), has a full set of Canadian census records on microfilm. You’ll find them on the lower level, in the same area as a broad representation of Canadian newspapers on microfilm.  This includes all past newspapers published in the Kingston area, from 1810 onward.
• Central Branch, Kingston-Frontenac Public Library, 130 Johnson Street, also includes old Kingston newspapers on microfilm, as well as city directories.  You can do some on-line preparation through Digital Kingston, which includes a name index to early Kingston newspapers up to 1848 (linked to full text of articles, 1810-1820).  The extensive library of Kingston Branch OGS is housed here — non-circulating.
• Massey Library, Royal Military College of Kingston – holdings heavy in military records.  Want a guided tour of the Library so you know what’s there?  Take Conference Tour #3 on Friday afternoon, which will offer some time for your own research after an introduction to the library.  To search the Massey Library catalogue now, click here.

If you’re driving to Kingston from the east, you might wish to stop at the Brockville Museum, 5 Henry Street, Brockville — which houses the library of Leeds & Grenville Branch OGS.  See http://www.brockvillemuseum.com/museum/index.cfm?ID=576

And you might wish to stop by the Spencerville Bicentennial Fair on your way to Kingston or home: it’s the same weekend as Conference, and will include an 1812 encampment and demonstrations by re-enactors.  See http://www.spencervillemill.ca/

Approaching Kingston from the west?  If you leave Highway 401, you could stop at the Loyalist Cultural Centre at Adolphustown: http://uelarch.aboutyourcommunications.com/ or at the Lennox and Addington County Museum and Archives, 97 Thomas Street East, Napanee – see http://www.lennoxandaddingtonhistoricalsociety.ca/archives.html.

PLEASE NOTE:  Most of these repositories are very small and can accommodate only a handful of researchers at once, particularly when using microfilm readers or computers.  Do NOT expect that you can drop by and be served.   It is better to contact them ahead of time, to check on their holdings and whether they have the materials you seek.  Be sure to check days and times of opening for all repositories you plan to visit, as they may change between now and June 1st.

Photos courtesy of Tourism Kingston