Local History & Genealogy

Canada Cycle & Motor : the CCM Story - March 21

For decades, Canadians purchased CCM bikes in the summer and CCM skates in the winter, making Canada Cycle & Motor the quintessential Canadian company.

Join author John McKenty for a lively discussion tracing the history of CCM from its formation in 1899 until its eventual demise in 1983.

North York Central Library, Auditorium
5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

Wednesday March 21, 2012, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the North York Historical Society and the North York Central Library Canadiana Department. Free admission, all are welcome!

In addition to John McKenty's book, Canadiana owns these titles on the history of CCM:

• C.C.M. : the story of the first fifty years (1946)
• Bicycle Prices (1921 catalogue)

CCM introduced the first Russell automobile,the Model A, in 1905. Sturdy, powerful and
handsome, it met with instant success.

Check out these related links:  

• Vintage CCM
• The story of CCM: Weston plant created much more than bikes and skates (From: Toronto Star, July 24, 2011)
• The history of CCM Photo Gallery (From: Toronto Star, July 24, 2011)

The Canadiana Department holds a reference collection of Canadian genealogy, Ontario local history, North York history, and materials related to Canada. The Department also houses collections from these genealogical societies:

• Ontario Genealogical Society
• Jewish Genealogical Society (Toronto Branch)
• Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants
• York Pioneer and Historical Society
• Société franco-ontarienne d'histoire et de généalogie

Adoption Records

Getting Started

With recent changes in provincial legislation across Canada, it is now possible for adoptees to often obtain health related information, adoption orders and even their own birth information form.  They can also register that they do, or do not, wish to be contacted by their birth parents.  Similarly, birth parents can register their wishes about being contacted.  If these avenues are insufficient or for more general resources on searching for lost kin, including high school yearbooks, the genealogical collections at North York Central Library, Canadiana Department and the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at Toronto Reference Library, can be of assistance.

 

Searching the library website

Suggested subject and keywords:

• adopted children
• adoptees
• birthmothers [country] e.g. birthmothers Canada
• birthparents [country]  e.g. birthparents Canada
• [place name] Directories e.g. Kingston Ont directories 
• voting registers [place name] e.g. voting registers North York
• student newspapers and periodicals - Ontario   for an overview of school yearbooks and magazines
• [name of school and place] and yearbook e.g. Jarvis Collegiate Toronto yearbook
• [surname] family e.g. Sutherland family  for family histories

  Suggested Titles

                Ontario specific       

• Adoption notices taken from [some Ontario] newpapers. (up to 1994)
• Index of adoption notices published in the Ottawa Journal (1960 - 1980)
• Search manual for adoptees and birth relatives[Ontario]. (published 1997)

                General

• Finding families, finding ourselves: English Canada encounters adoption from the nineteenth century to the 1990s
• Finding anyone, anywhere, anywhen
• Letters to Muriel: a search for kin
• Who is my mother? birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees talk about living with adoption and the search for lost family

 

Using online resources

Recommended websites:

Genealogy - adoption
Genealogy - directories

For digitized early city directories try Internet Archive

For persons born in Ontario, the Service Ontario website, Searching for adoption information in Ontario is especially useful.

Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid

Toronto Star: Pages of the Past  (Toronto Public Library (TPL) card required)

Globe and Mail: Canada's Heritage (TPL library card required)

Guide to birth, marriage and death records  (research guide)

 

In Library resources

Ancestry Library Edition database has Ontario births (to 1913), marriages (to 1928) and deaths (to 1938) as well as some databases for other provinces.

Microfilms of: (may not be  listed in the catalogue)

• city directories
• voters lists
• community newspapers

Additional resources:

• cemetery transcriptions from the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) Collection
• family charts (OGS)

 

For further assistance contact

Canadiana Department, North York Central Library, 416-395-5623

Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Toronto Reference Library, 416-395-5577