Place:Aberdeen, Grey, Ontario, Canada

Aberdeen is a dispersed rural community in the former Township of Bentinck in Grey County in Ontario, Canada. Since the municipal reorganization of 2001 it has been located in the municipality or Township of West Grey.

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Aberdeen is a community in the Municipality of West Grey in Grey County, Ontario, Canada. Aberdeen consists of a series of houses in a historical Canadian village site. The village is located north of both the Durham Interforest factory and the stretch of Grey Road 4 between Durham and Hanover.

The first settlers came to Aberdeen around 1845. Milton C. Schofield built the first mill there on the Rocky Saugeen River in 1851. For a while, the small emerging village was called Scholfield's Mill.

School was first taught in local homes, but a log structure was erected in 1854. S.S. Bentinck 10 was built in 1873. It was a stone building measuring 38 feet by 30 feet and costing $9 to build. Most of the labour and materials were donated. Dr. William J. Dunlop, minister of education in the Leslie Frost cabinet, 1952–60, received his education there. By 1945, the school was closed and any remaining students walked or were driven three miles to nearby Rocky Saugeen School. The school briefly reopened in 1966, but closed for good in 1967, when school amalgamation occurred and students were bussed to nearby Durham.

James W. Crawford bought the mill, use of the water and dam, and 20 surrounding hectares of land for $3400 - an enormous amount of money for the time - in 1879. He updated the mill and named the village after his birthplace in Aberdeen, Scotland. The village got its first post office and blacksmith shop in 1881. Other businesses included a spinning wheel maker, a weaver, and a cooper shop.

The village boomed and expanded until 1896, when wood for the mill and export began to become scarce.

In 1896, the Electric Light Company took out a lease that would provide electricity for Durham residents until the 1940s.

Most of the land, once cleared of its trees, is totally enclosed in trees again.

Research Tips

The primary source for basic documents (vital statistics, land records, wills) for people who lived in the Province of Ontario is the Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian Macdonald Blvd, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M7A 2C5.

Early Records

Civil registration did not begin in the province until 1869. Before then there may be church records of baptisms and burials. For the most part these are still held by the denomination who recorded them. Copies of marriage records made pre-1869 had to be sent by individual clergymen to the registrar of the county in which the marriage took place. These marriage records are available through Ontario Archives, on micorfilm through LDS libraries, and on paid and unpaid websites, but because they were copied at the registrars' offices, they cannot be considered a primary source.

Vital Records after 1869

Birth, marriage and death registrations are not open to the public until a specific number of years after the event occurred. Births to 1915 are now available [October 2014]; dates for marriages and deaths are later. Birth and death registration was not universally carried out in the early years after its adoption. Deaths were more apt to be reported than births for several years. The more rural the area, the less likely it would be that these happenings were reported to the authorities.
Images and indexes of civil registrations for the "viewable" years can be found on paid websites, and indexes only on FamilySearch. The FamilySearch Wiki on Ontario Vital Records explains how these records are organized and their availability.
In September 2014 Ancestry.ca announced that its paid website has been subjected to a "houseclean" of its Ontario BMD database, adding data that had been omitted and making many corrections. Its provision now includes

• Births, with 2,172,124 records covering 1869-1913.
• Marriages, with 3,393,369 records for 1801-1928 including Ontario county, district and Roman Catholic origins as well as province-wide civil registration.
• Deaths, with 2,190,030 records comprising Ontario civil registrations of deaths, 1869-1938 and registrations of Ontario overseas deaths for 1939-1947.

Land Records and Wills

Information on how to access land records and wills is best sought on the Archives of Ontario website. An ancestor's land holding might be found on Canadian County Atlas Digital Project if he was in occupancy circa 1878.

Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents (APOLROD). A list of Land Registry Offices for all Counties of Ontario.

Censuses

The original censuses are in the hands of Library and Archives Canada, known to Canadians as "LAC". Copies of original microfilms are online at the LAC website for all censuses up to 1921. Each census database is preceded with an explanation of the geographical area covered, the amount of material retained (some census division material has been lost), the questions on the census form, and whether there is a name index. Census divisions were redrawn as the population increased and more land was inhabited.
Other websites, some paid and some free, also provide Canadian census originals and/or indexes online. One can also view censuses on microfilm at the LAC, at the Archives of Ontario (see address above), or at large libraries throughout Canada.

Hard-to-Find Places

• National Resources Canada's Index of Geographical Names: Query by Name. This database includes even the smallest places all over Canada and provides geographical co-ordinates and maps which extend out from the "found place". Correct spelling of a place is essential.
• Archives of Ontario have a web page titled "The Changing Face of Ontario" (which is very hard to find without this link). This provides maps of Ontario and its divisions in the 19th century (pre Confederation in 1867) and also includes links to series of historical maps of the individual counties as they were between 1867 and the 1970s when a huge reorganization of municipalities began. The Districts of Northern Ontario and Maps of Southern and Central Ontario circa 1951 show the townships of each county.

E-books, Books and Newspapers

• The Internet Archive, particularly texts from Canadian universities, can contain interesting material
• Our Roots is a Canadian website similar to The Internet Archive
• Global Genealogy is an online bookshop specializing in Ontario material who will ship anywhere in the world.
• The Ancestor Hunt is a blog listing old Ontario newspapers that are available online, both free and pay websites. This is a very extensive list.
  
  

Some websites with more local information on Grey County

• Grey County GenWeb
• Bruce & Grey Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society who explain that this is a temporary website address [Sept 2012]. They have a list of publications available both printed and on CD and a list of links to other organizations.
• Grey County Historical Society provides links to various useful websites for the county as a whole and for individual townships.