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Genealogy

Genealogy and the library

Genealogy is the study of a person’s family history. Here at the Belleville Public Library we strive to assist family researchers, from beginner to advanced, in their quest to learn more about their ancestors.

Below you will find a list of the resources that the library has that may assist genealogists in their research. You will also find a list of local community organizations and online resources that may be of use as well. If you cannot find what you need, you can also try our Inter-Library loan service and order microfilm from the Archives of Ontario.

If you are unable to visit our library in person, you may request library staff to do some research for you. For more information about this service, please refer to our Fee Based Research page. Note, for in person assistance visit us Monday - Saturday. There is limited availability for family research resources on Sundays so please call ahead before your visit.

What resources does the library have?

  • Ancestry Library Edition - FREE access (in-library use only)
  • Belleville History Alive (digitization project - local history collection)
    • 18 March 2024 - Ongoing Service Outage

      Since February 25, our systems have been part of a network-wide shut down due to a cyber incident at the City of Hamilton. This means that the OurDigitalWorld servers are offline and all sites are down. The City of Hamilton is investigating and providing updates here: https://www.hamilton.ca/cyberincident.

      To ensure the security of all content in our system, the ODW servers will remain offline until the incident is resolved.

  • Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes (from local newspapers)
  • City Directories (including some 19th century plus 1901-2007)
  • Family Histories A-Z
  • FIND-IT - This is a finding aid for the Quinte Branch Research Library
  • Flikr - photos of people and places in Hastings County from the Community Archives
  • Historical County Atlases
  • Internet Archive - scanned images of the Belleville Intelligencer (c.1900-c.1970)
  • Local Author and Local History Books
  • Maps - courtesy of the Community Archives
  • Microfilm:
  • Local Newspapers (c.1846-Present)
  • Pre-1900 Newspapers on Microfilm
  • Belleville and Hastings County Directories (1851-1911)
  • Telephone Directories (1883-1979)
  • UEL Papers and Military Records
  • Surrogate Court Records (c.1793-c.1966)
  • Marchmont Home Records
  • District Marriage Registers (1780-1858)
  • Census Records (c.1842-1911)
  • Ontario Birth Indexes (c.1869-1912)
  • Ontario Marriage Indexes (c.1869-1927)
  • Ontario Death Indexes (c.1869-1937)
  • Telephone Books (1938-2010)
  • Yearbooks (BCI - Belleville Collegiate Institute c.1918-1990)
  • Vertical Files (local history clippings)

Local organizations of interest:

Online resources of interest:
 
Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes of the Belleville Intelligencer
 
 
 
 
If you have any questions regarding our genealogy resources please contact our Information Services department at 613-968-6731 x 2037 or infoserv@bellevillelibrary.ca.