Doon and Hespeler Presbyterian Churches: Record of Baptisms 1856-1944

This publication is compiled from data extracted from LDS microfilm 0204132, which contains baptismal records from the Doon and Hespeler Presbyterian Churches, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. At the time of writing, the locations of the marriage and burial records are unknown. Formerly known as New Hope, Hespeler was placed on a two-point charge with Doon. Later, the Presbyterian congregations of these communities became separate entities, each with their own ministers. One might assume that those living at Doon or Hespeler attended their local church, but in the case of people residing in surrounding areas, even Toronto in one case, it is not clear from the register at which of these churches the baptismal ceremony was performed. Fading of the writing has resulted in only two of the first six entries being dated. These two baptisms took place on the 25th February 1856. Starting from entry number 7, dated the 16th of March 1862, the register appear to be complete.

This publication may be purchased from Waterloo Region Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society.

Waterloo County Naturalization Register 1853-1872

Naturalization is the act of admitting an alien (non-British subject) to citizenship, which involves oaths of allegiance, oaths of residence, and certificates that the two oaths have been taken and that the applicant is of good character. In this volume the wording of each entry is pretty much the same. However, the question of occupation, while relevant to a few early entries, was completely disregarded by the authorities after entry number 36.

The original copy of the Waterloo County Naturalization Register, 1853-1872 is at the Archives of Ontario. Their bibliographic citation is as follows: "Archives of Ontario. Series RG 22-5491. Waterloo County clerks of the Peace Naturalization Register, 1853-1872." The Archives of Ontario Series RG 22-5491 consists of applications for naturalization, lists of applicants, oaths of allegiance and residence, and correspondence regarding naturalization. These registers document the names, occupations, addresses, and, in later years, the nationalities of individuals applying
for naturalizaiton. Also noted are procedural particulars associated with
application, hearing, and approval.

This transsciption is produced from an LDS Church microfilm of the register. The LDS citation is as follows: "Waterloo County Allegiance Book 1853-1872. The bibliographic citation is as follows: "Court of General Sessions of the Peace (Waterloo County)." Microfilm number 170048.

Published by Waterloo Region Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society:

c/o Kitchener Public Library
85 Queen Street North,
Kitchener, ON
N2H 2H1
Canada
Price $6.50 Cdn.

In 1987 Mr Donald Pirie of Elmira granted permission for me to transcribe three  

"Register of Baptisms in connection with St. Andrew's Church, Woolwich Transcribed from sheets of paper discovered by Mr. James Hall in the Aulde Kirk Manse.  Names entered by me in this book.  Feb. 13th, 1899." 

Genealogical Information Extracted from the "Elmira Signet" Relevant to the Counties of Waterloo-Wellington and Beyond. Vol. I. 1893-1894, Vol.II. 1900-1902, Vol.III.
 
In order to make this project as useful as possible, any reference considered to be genealogical in nature has been included.  Every page of every issue was thoroughly scanned.  Besides births, marriages and deaths, also included are information from personal columns, social columns, local news, district news, community columns, general news, U.S. news, world news, as well as "items of interest."  It is therefore relevant to genealogists everywhere. These publications include place name and occupation/activities indexes including, amongst other things, bigamists, murderers, military personnel, clergy, smuggler, slaves etc., adding socialogical value to this publication. 

All three volumes, covering 1893-1904 are included on one CD and are available for purchase from Waterloo Region Branch of the OGS. 
 
 

Upper Canada Naturalization Records.  Wellington District 1842-1849 

This publication contains all information documented by the registrar. It provides a significant amount of information regarding the mobility of individuals registered.  The registrant was asked to declare his township of  residence in the year 1841, in addition to his township of residence at the time of registration.  To be eligible for naturalization, the applicant must have lived in Canada for seven consecutive years.  The date upon which his seven year residency requirement in Canada was fulfilled is therefore a vital link in determining approximately when the individual arrived in this country.  It is worth noting, however, that some individuals may have crossed the Canada/U.S. border several times prior to the date used in calculating their eligibility.  However, as a general rule, the year cited is a useful guide to ascertaining the year of immigration.  If a person was under sixteen years of age upon the date of expiration of their residency requirement, they were then asked to supply the date of their sixteenth birthday.  It is clear that one or two people misunderstood this question, supplying information pertaining to their sixteenth birthday unnecessarily. 

Names appearing in this publication are reproduced as they were written by the Registrar.  While some applicants' signatures are illegible, there are a few instances where signatures are at variance with the Registrar's spelling. It is therefore important to remind researchers to consult this collection, available on microfilm from the National Archives of Canada, RG 5 B 47, Vol. 7 & 8, Upper Canada Naturalization Registers.  (Microfilm reel C-15693) 

For a comprehensive index to Upper Canada Naturalization Records for the entire province of Ontario, see Donald s. McKenzie's "Upper Canada Naturalization Records 1828-1850", published by the Ontario Genealogical Society in 1991. 

These publications may be purchased from the Waterloo Region Branch of the OGS 
 

The Hoffman Photo Index, vol. 1, updated April 2002 

This publication provides names of subjects portrayed in photographs  which the owners of the photographs are willing to share with others. The idea being to match photographs up with interested researchers. Also included is a place name list, photographers list, and names of additional subjects in each photograph.  The index is now available on this web site (click here). 
 

 
Births, Marriages and Deaths from the Berlin Daily Telegraph 1856-1864 

The first issue of the Berlin Telegraph and Waterloo County General Intelligencer appeared on January 7th, 1853, the same year in which Waterloo County came into being. The proprietor, Peter Eby, simultaneously published the Berlin German language newspaper Der Deutsche Canadier. These two papers shared a great history. Der Deutsch Canadier had long catered to the German speaking population, providing a significant amount of European news. The Telegraph's mandate was to capture the interests of English speaking people, providing local and British news, in addition to items pertenant to the British colonies. Since both newspapers were published from the same building, it is fair to assume that some exchange of articles took place. On January 11th, 1856, ownership of Der Deutsche Canadier and the Telegraph passed to Elias Eby. In 1857 Patrick Clerihew was employed as publisher and editor of both papers, and in 1859, D. Mcdougall assumed these positions. The Telegraph was a weekly, appearing each Friday. It began with four unpaginated pages, and had grown to six pages by 1856. Since the newspaper did not have page numbers, references provided in this volume reflect the order in which a given newspaper issue appears on microfilm.

Birth, marriage and death columns appear for the most part on the third page, immediately before the advertisments. Where this is not the case, full citations are given. Additional articles extracted from elsewhere in the newspaper also receive complete citations. Endnotes are provided for supplementary details.

The first volume of this newspaper (1853) was deposited in the museum of the Waterloo Historical Society for safekeeping on December 3rd, 1917, by Mr. D. A. Bean. In recent years, the Waterloo Historical Society provided funding for David Hallam Information Graphics Inc., to microfilm this volume. Subsequent volumes of the Berlin Telegraph (1856-1864) were filmed by Recordak Division.

This new and expanded version, published in 2001, supercedes my original transcription of births, marriages and deaths from the Berlin Telegraph 1856-1864, which was compiled in 1984.

It is available from the Waterloo Region Branch of OGS.