The latest updates to the Canadiana Online collection, 45 items, range from local newspapers to British parliamentary papers, each offering unique insights into different aspects of Canadian life and governance.
The Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers is particularly extensive. Published in the late 1960s, it includes selected documents relevant to Canada, most for the mid-19th century. Find correspondence and reports on immigration, the clergy reserves, the Hudson’s Bay Company, and boundary issues between British North America and the United States.
For example, papers from 1847-48 and 1850-51 detail immigration policies, urgent as Canada was flooded with those escaping the famine, and railway developments, reflecting the significant socio-economic changes of that era. Sadly, they are not full text searchable. There is a table of contents at the start of each volume.
Publications that might contain mentions of individuals or provide context for their lives are newspapers like “L’étincelle” from November 2, 1909, “Les cloches de Saint-Boniface” from 1923 to 1933.“The Montreal Tattler” captures a brief snapshot of Montreal’s society in 1844 through its eight issues. There’s also “Comet (Québec, Québec),” with issues from November 17, 1866, and February 29, 1868.