York Research Resources is a compilation of online references, books, articles, and useful addresses to assist with research in York Region. Books can be located using your favourite online library catalogue search, borrowed through interlibrary loan, or purchased directly from the publishers.

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• Baptism index to Grace Anglican Church, Markham Village, Markham Township, 1849 - 1862  
  Compiled by Steve Marshall from notes of the late Marion Keffer. This index includes the parents' names, father's occupation, abode and baptism date. Includes primarily families from York County.

• Markham Circuit Primitive Methodist Baptism Registers (1843-1866)
  Transcribed by Steve Marshall. The Markham Circuit included areas of Markham, Scarborough, Whitchurch, Pickering and King Townships (to name a few) - predominately areas of York County and Ontario County, Ontario. The register begins in 1843 and includes the child's name, parents, father's occupation, birthplace and in many cases, the actual birth date. Often, whole families were baptised at one time.

• Markham Circuit Primitive Methodist Baptism Registers (1866-1881)
  This is the companion register to the baptisms listed above and continues where the first register ends in 1866.  Again, entries are predominately for persons in York and Ontario Counties.  This register begins in July 1866 and includes child's name, where and when born, parents' names, father's occupation and baptism date.

• Baptisms for St. Andrews (Maple) Presbyterian Church, Maple, Vaughan Twp., York County, Ontario (Dec.1865- Dec.1871)
  Amongst the collection of the Archives of Ontario (GS 6414) and reproduced here, are baptisms for the “Maple Presbyterian Church” in Vaughan Township that covers the period December 1865 to December 1871.  The baptismal register consists of 12 pages, each headed with the title “St. Andrew’s & St. Paul’s Church, Vaughan”. In December 1829, residents of Maple in Vaughan Township petitioned to build a Presbyterian meeting house.  This was the first recorded existence of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Maple. Description of the congregation and transcription of the register by Steve Marshall.

• Parish Registers of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Beaverton, Ontario
  This parish served the Catholic community in Ontario County, York County and some areas of Simcoe County.  The parishioners were predominately Irish and French Canadian.  This is an on-going project and register pages will be uploaded as they are transcribed.  Thanks to Joan Jackaman who supplied copies of the registers and suggested the project. The register begins with Baptisms in 1858.  You can access the originals at your LDS library, using film number 1305883 St Joseph's Parish Beaverton.

• Baptisms for Erskine Presbyterian Church, Pickering Twp., Ontario County, Ontario (1869-1881)
  Lots of York Region families crossed over into Pickering Twp. Transcribed by Steve Marshall.

• Clergy List, 1858-1869, York County, Canada West (Adobe Reader required)
  Compiled by Pat Jeffs, this is a comprehensive list of clergymen who conducted marriages in York County from 1858-1869 and sent their list to the registrar's office annually to be copied into volumes known as the York County Marriage Registers. The list includes the return and page numbers, the year, the clergyman, his denomination, and where his church was located and is sorted by clergymen as well as chronologically to help track down an individual minister and link him to his religious denomination and to the areas he served.
• Queensville / Sharon-Hope Pastoral Charge Church Families
  Editor: Frank Kernohan (York Region Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, Oct. 2002)
  This is a genealogical study of the families of the Pastoral Charge in East Gwillimbury Twp. and includes information for over 9,000 individuals compiled from the complete church records, family records, and cemeteries.
• Register of Baptisms by the Revd John McMurchy, Minister of the Presbyterian Congregation, West Gwillimbury, Home District, UC, 1842-1844  
  Transcribed by Mary Crandall, and hosted on Bill Martin's Early Ontario Records web site, this transcription includes over 300 baptisms.
• Baptism Register from the Markham Circuit Primitive Methodists - 1843 - 1866  
  Originally printed in "Families", Vol. 28, No. 2, 1989, by Steve Marshall
• Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms   
  A complete transcription of the four reels of Weslyan Methodist Baptisms from before 1850 into the early 1900's. Lot's of entries for York County!
• Canadian Quaker Archives  
• Sources Of Religious Records In Ontario
  The Public Archives of Ontario outlines the religious denominations within the province that have their own hierarchy which must be understood if you want the best chance of finding religious records. Many individual denominations and even dioceses within a particular faith have their own archives.
• York Region OGS Places of Worship Transcriptions
  Available transcriptions include: St. George's Anglican Church (Jackson's Point) and St. James Anglican Church (Sutton West) Registers 1839-1873; Kettleby Cemetery Burial Register, 1891-1987; St. Philips/Bethesda Lutheran Church, Unionville, Registers 1819-1848; Rev. Wm. Jenkins, Richmond Hill Register of Marriages, 1819-1843 (includes marriages performed in the York, Markham, Vaughan, Whitchurch, Pickering and Uxbridge); Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Thornhill, Registers 1831-1863; Zion Evangelical Lutheran, Maple, Registers, 1808-1955; and more in process.
• Churches in York Region
• Genealogical Index to the Records of the Canada Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Volume 1: Yonge Street Monthly Meeting
  (Toronto, Ontario: Canadian Friends Historical Association, 1988). This alphabetical index includes more than 3,000 names from marriage and membership registers, and from Minutes of Meeting.
• Marriages of the Yonge Street Friends Meeting, 1804-1840
  K.W. Totten, The Ontario Register, Vol. 4, p119 (Lambertville, NJ: Thomas B. Wilson, 1971)
• New Member's at Yonge Street Monthly Meeting, 1807-1812
  K.W. Totten, The Ontario Register, Vol. 4, p124 (Lambertville, NJ: Thomas B. Wilson, 1971)
• Father Gordon's Register, 1830-1833
  compiled by Francis V. McDevitt. A fully indexed transcription of the Roman Catholic registers of baptisms, marriages, conversions and burials kept by Rev. Edward John Gordon during his years at York, in Toronto Gore and surrounding areas. The registers include entries from his travels in the Counties of York, Peel, Halton, Durham and Simcoe, and predate the establishment of churches in many areas.
• Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms for Northern York County Ontario, 1842-1896
  compiled by Ruth Burkholder (Stouffville, Ontario: RMB Services). Alphabetical listing includes 893 entries from Georgina, North and East Gwillimbury, and King Twps., and Aurora and Newmarket villages. Extracted from the General Register of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada.
• Roman Catholic Marriage Registers 1828-1870
  compiled and edited by Renie A. Rumple (1966). Early marriage records found in Record Group 80 in the Registrar General's Office materials.
• District Marriage Registers of Upper Canada/Canada West, Home District: Part 1, 1808-1836; Part 2, 1835-1843; Part 3, 1843-1849
  by Dan Walker, Ruth Burkholder & Fawne Stratford-Devai. Transcriptions of marriage returns from clergy, with the exception of Anglican and Roman Catholic ministers, from volumes held by the Archives of Ontario.
• Peel County Marriages in York County Marriage Registers 1858-1869
  by Ruth Burkholder (Stouffville, Ontario: RMB Services). An extraction of 184 marriages involving people who lived in Peel County and "crossed the line" to be married in York. All names except clergy indexed.
• County Marriage Registers of Ontario, Canada 1858-1869: Vol. 6, York County
  compiled by W.E. Britnell (Agincourt, Ontario: Generation Press, 1990). A listing of persons married in York County (excluding the 1869 City of Toronto) from 1859 to 1869 including names of both spouses, place of residence, and register reference number. Includes introductory notes on using the index and maps of York Co. and the counties of southern Ontario.
• Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms in Markham Twp., 1843-1893
  compiled by Ruth Burkholder (Stouffville, Ontario: RMB Services). The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada had a central registry of baptisms from all their churches in Ontario, starting around 1840. This continued after the Methodist Union, and the latest entries are in the 1890's. (437 entries)
• Melville United Church, Markham Township
  compiled by Alex D. Bruce (Markham: Markham Economist and Sun, 1945). Historical sketch of Melville Church and its Presbyterian background from 1801.
• Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms in Vaughan Twp., 1842-1898
  compiled by Ruth Burkholder (Stouffville, Ontario: RMB Services)
  The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada had a central registry of baptisms from all their churches in Ontario, starting around 1840. This continued after the Methodist Union, and the latest entries are in the 1890's. (794 entries)
• Baptism Register of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Vaughan
  Copy is available for reference in the Local History & Genealogy Room at the Richmond Hill Public Library.
• Marriage Register of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Vaughan
  Copy is available for reference in the Local History & Genealogy Room at the Richmond Hill Public Library.
• Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms in Whitchurch Twp., 1843-1899
  compiled by Ruth Burkholder (Stouffville, Ontario: RMB Services). The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada had a central registry of baptisms from all their churches in Ontario, starting around 1840. This continued after the Methodist Union, and the latest entries are in the 1890's. (530 entries)
• Anglican Diocese of Toronto
• Anglican Diocese of Toronto Archives
• Anglican Church of Canada
• Anglican Church of Canada General Synod Archives
• Baptist Archives
• Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto
• Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto
  Catholic Pastoral Centre, 1155 Yonge Street, Suite 505, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 1W2 (416) 934-0606
• Lutheran Church in Canada Eastern Synod Archives
  75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5 (519) 745-3505
• Mennonite Archives of Ontario
  Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G6 (519) 885-0220
• Ontario Bible College/ Ontario Theological Seminary Archives (Evangelical)
  J. Wm. Horsey Library, 25 Ballyconnor Court, North York, Ontario M2M 4B3 (416) 226-6380
• Ontario Jewish Archives
  4600 Bathurst St, Willowdale, Ontario M2R 3V2, (416) 635-2883
• Presbyterian Church in Canada, Archives and Records Office
• Salvation Army Archives
  George Scott Railton Heritage Centre, 2130 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3K6, (416) 481-4441
• United Church of Canada Archives/Victoria University Archives
  Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, and Evangelical records. Includes an excellent section on using the archives for genealogy, and descriptions of all pre-1925 local church records are available on the Local Church Records Index page. These records, and the Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register, are available to researchers on microfilm through the public library interlibrary loan system.
• Church Records at the Public Archives of Ontario
  The Church Records Collection consists of microfilms of original and copied records for more than 60 Ontario churches which existed at some time in our history, that can be viewed at the archives, or borrowed through inter-library loan. Records available for York County include The Anglican Church at Newmarket, Registry of Births and Deaths, Yonge St., 1803-1866 (Hicksite Register; original and typescript), and West Gwillimbury Presbyterian Church.