Ancestry Library Edition Now Available from Home (For a Limited Time)

March 26, 2020 | David

Your library card now gives you free access to Ancestry Library Edition — from anywhere!

Remote access to Ancestry Library Edition ends as of December 31, 2021. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to offer at-home access as an option for this service.

As of January 1, 2022, access to Ancestry Library Edition will continue to be available through library computers at all 100 branches, as it was prior to March 2020. For genealogical research, both the HeritageQuest and Fold3 databases can be accessed from home.

How to access

Get free access: Ancestry Library Edition via Toronto Public Library

New to Ancestry?

Watch our video tutorial below or check out 5 Tips for Using Ancestry Library Edition from Halifax Public Libraries.

What can I find on Ancestry?

Ancestry is an online tool for discovering more about your family’s history.

You can search census, birth, marriage, death, immigration, military records and more. It focuses on Canada and the United States, though it also includes some European, Australian and New Zealand records.

Some record sets that may be helpful for Torontonians are listed below.

Birth, marriage and death records

Ontario Birth Registrations (1869 to 1913)
Ontario Marriage Registrations (1801 to 1928; 1933 to 1934)
Ontario Death Registrations (1869 to 1938; 1943 to 1944)
Deaths Overseas (1939 to 1947)
Ontario Roman Catholic Marriages, for six counties (1827 to 1870)
Quebec Vital and Church Records, for all religious denominations (1621 to 1967)
Ontario French Catholic Church Records (1747 to 1967)
Acadia French Catholic Church Records (1670 to 1946)
BMD [Birth, Marriage, Death records] Index England and Wales
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry

Immigration and enslaved persons records

Immigration and Settlement Correspondence and Lists, British Colonial Office records (1817 to 1896)
St. Lawrence Steamboat Company Passenger Lists (1819 to 1838)
Ships' Passenger Lists (1865 to 1935)
Border Crossings: Canada to United States (1895 to 1956)
Border Crossings: United States to Canada (1908 to 1935)
Immigration Form 30A – Ocean Entries (1919 to 1924)
Slave registers of former British colonial dependencies (1813 to 1834)

Related resources

If you’re interested in genealogical research, you may also want to check out these other online resources from the library:

Toronto Star Historical Newspaper Archive
Globe and Mail Historical Newspaper Archive
Digitized city directories of Toronto
Digitized fire insurance maps
Digital Archive (historical photos, maps and books from our collections)

Edit: At-home availability updated to May 31 on April 9, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to June 30 on May 20, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to August 31 on July 21, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to September 30 on August 17, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to December 31 on September 23, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to March 31, 2021 on December 15, 2020

Edit: At-home availability updated to June 31, 2021 on March 3, 2021

Edit: At-home availability updated to September 30, 2021 on May 25, 2021

Edit: At-home availability updated to December 31, 2021 on July 27, 2021

Edit: Added a link to 100 locations to the at-home availability update and included alternate databases available from home on December 13, 2021.

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