Place:Brockton, York, Ontario, Canada

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

Brockton Village is a former town, and now the name of a neighbourhood, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It comprises a section of the old Town of Brockton which was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1884.

The town encompassed the area from Bloor Street on the north, Dufferin Street on the east, High Park on the west and ranged from Queen Street, along Roncesvalles Avenue, Wright Avenue and Dundas Street to the south. The section south of the rail lines became part of the Village of Parkdale. The section to the west of Lansdowne has become better known as Roncesvalles, around Roncesvalles Avenue.

The maps in Brockton Village help to indicate where Brockton is in relation to the rest of Toronto.

History

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

In March 1812, Lot 30 in York Township, a parcel of land, was granted to James Brock, a cousin of Sir Isaac Brock along with other parcels of land. This lot was a strip of land that stretched from Lot Street, today's Queen Street, north to Bloor Street, west of Dufferin Avenue.

After Brock died, his widow Lucy Brock inherited his estate and she began selling the lands that Brock owned. She commissioned a roadway along the centre-line of the lot parcel, along its whole length. The road, built in 1850, is known today as Brock Avenue. The lands of lot 30 were sub-divided for small land-holders and development occurred. This unincorporated settlement took on the name of Brockton.

The developed area of Brockton grew to border High Park on the west, Dufferin (then the border of Toronto) on the east, Bloor on the north and the rail-lines to the south-west by the time it was incorporated as a village in 1876. It became an incorporated town in 1881. The incorporated town only lasted three years before it was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1884.

From 1907 to 1956, the site was home to horse racing at Dufferin Racetrack. The track was later closed and converted to a shopping plaza. The plaza, Dufferin Mall, is an enclosed shopping centre to the south of Bloor Street, on the west side of Dufferin Avenue, and dominates shopping in the area with a large supermarket, department store, clothing and specialty stores. In the 1970s, the large parking lot was converted to a three-storey parking garage, and the number of stores doubled in conjunction with the enclosure of the pedestrian space. Brock Avenue was also home to an outdoor National Rink (located at baseball field in what is today's McCormick Arena), which was once considered for the new home of the Toronto Hockey Club but turned down as it was an outdoor facility.

Over the last half of the 20th century, the area south of College Street saw the influx of Portuguese immigrants and is also known as part of the Little Portugal neighbourhood. Today's 'Brockton Village' encompasses that section north of the rail lines between Dufferin and Lansdowne, south of Bloor Street.

Today, remnants of the former Brockton still exist, including its former town hall. The hall was converted to commercial usage, and is located at the south-west corner of Dundas Street West and Brock Avenue. Until recently, there was Brockton High School, which hadn't functioned as that high school for years. It was once Ursula Franklin Academy, it was used by the Royal Conservatory of Music's bookstore, and it was used by FoodShare Toronto. In 2019 it was torn down completely. In May 2020 the lot was transformed into Bloordale Beach. It's located at Brock Avenue and Croatia Street, near Bloor Street.

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.
  
  === Websites with more local information on the City of Toronto ===

• Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Serves the current City of Toronto including Etobicoke, York Township, Weston, Long Branch, New Toronto, Mimico, Swansea, Forest Hill, East York, Leaside and North York as well as the original City of Toronto. Contains a table of links to Toronto City Directories to be found online. Many other services and publications.
• History and Genealogy at the Toronto Public Library. Not the easiest website to find one's way around but contains some very useful material. Just looking though the old photographs in the Digital Library can be both interesting and informative.
• Digital Toronto City Directories. Toronto Public Library has digitized all of the Toronto city directories in its collections that were published between 1833 and 1969. Suburbs and separate villages which have now been part of Toronto for a century or so are included. All the directories can be accessed from this website. Some are PDFs published by TPL itself; others are on Internet Archive (and may be more difficult to access). There are no breaks between letters of the alphabet, and the street-by-street listings precede the alphabetical ones so it may take time to find someone with a surname beginning with L or M.
• City of Toronto Archives. It has a vast digital collection of photographs online--many taken when roadworks were being planned and show a street's architecture, but the archive is also well worth a visit when in Toronto--it holds assessment records back to 1853, maps of neighbourhoods, and a library of local reference books.
• Canadiana Library at North York Public Library This library houses a wide collection of local genealogical material, provides microfilm readers for the Canadian census and for local newspapers, and is the home of the Ontario Genealogical Society's own library. This collection has moved to the main Toronto Public Library on Yonge Street north of Bloor Street.
• There may be many other libraries and museums housing information for genealogical searching in Toronto and York Region