Place:Upper Canada, Canada

NameUpper Canada
Alt namesUCsource: abbreviation
U.C.source: abbreviation
TypeFormer province
Located inCanada     (1791 - 1841)
See alsoCanada West, Canadarenamed following political reorganization of 1841
Ontario, Canadarenamed again following the confederation of Canada in 1867
Contained Places
Administrative region
Bathurst District ( 1822 - 1841 )
Brock District ( 1839 - 1841 )
Colbourne District ( 1837 - 1841 )
Dalhousie District ( 1838 - 1841 )
Eastern District ( 1792 - 1841 )
Gore District ( 1816 - 1841 )
Home District ( 1792 - 1841 )
Huron District ( 1838 - 1841 )
Johnstown District ( 1798 - 1841 )
London District ( 1800 - 1841 )
Midland District ( 1792 - 1841 )
Newcastle District ( 1802 - 1841 )
Niagara District ( 1798 - 1841 )
Ottawa District ( 1816 - 1841 )
Prince Edward District ( 1831 - 1841 )
Simcoe District ( 1837 - 1841 )
Talbot District ( 1838 - 1841 )
Victoria District ( 1837 - 1841 )
Wellington District ( 1837 - 1841 )
Western District ( 1792 - 1841 )
County
Brant ( 1792 - 1841 )
Carleton ( 1792 - 1841 )
Dundas ( 1792 - 1841 )
Durham ( 1792 - 1841 )
Elgin ( 1792 - 1841 )
Essex ( 1792 - 1841 )
Frontenac ( 1792 - 1841 )
Glengarry ( 1792 - 1841 )
Grey ( 1792 - 1841 )
Haldimand ( 1792 - 1841 )
Halton ( 1792 - 1841 )
Hastings ( 1792 - 1841 )
Huron ( 1792 - 1841 )
Kent ( 1792 - 1841 )
Lambton ( 1792 - 1841 )
Lanark ( 1792 - 1841 )
Leeds and Grenville ( 1792 - 1841 )
Lennox and Addington ( 1792 - 1841 )
Lincoln ( 1792 - 1841 )
Middlesex ( 1792 - 1841 )
Norfolk ( 1792 - 1841 )
Northumberland and Durham ( 1792 - 1841 )
Northumberland ( 1792 - 1841 )
Ontario ( 1792 - 1841 )
Oxford ( 1792 - 1841 )
Peel ( 1792 - 1841 )
Perth ( 1792 - 1841 )
Peterborough ( 1792 - 1841 )
Prescott and Russell ( 1792 - 1841 )
Prescott ( 1792 - 1841 )
Prince Edward ( 1792 - 1841 )
Renfrew ( 1792 - 1841 )
Russell ( 1792 - 1841 )
Simcoe ( 1792 - 1841 )
Stormont Dundas and Glengarry ( 1792 - 1841 )
Stormont ( 1792 - 1841 )
Victoria ( 1792 - 1841 )
Waterloo ( 1792 - 1841 )
Welland ( 1792 - 1841 )
Wellington ( 1792 - 1841 )
Wentworth ( 1792 - 1841 )
York ( 1792 - 1841 )
Former county
Addington ( 1792 - 1841 )
Grenville ( 1792 - 1841 )
Leeds ( 1792 - 1841 )
Lennox ( 1792 - 1841 )
Peterborough and Victoria ( 1792 - 1841 )
Inhabited place
Amherstburg ( - 1841 )

Upper Canada was carved out of the western part of Quebec in 1791 when the area began to be settled. The remaining part of Quebec was named Lower Canada.

The Archives of Ontario has an online exhibit of the evolution of the original Canada (i.e. Ontario and Quebec) into the provinces they became. The map dated 1792 illustrates the arrangement at that date. Further maps in the series illustrate the development of the District system as Upper Canada grew into Canada West (1841) and Ontario (1867).

Ontario Districts: an Explanation

When Upper Canada was formed in 1788 it was immediately divided into four districts: Hesse, Nassau, Mecklenburg and Lunenburg. In 1792 these names were changed to Western, Home, Midland and Eastern respectively. The expansion in population of the province, and in the area settled, obliged the number of Districts to increase. By 1849 there were twenty individual districts, each with a number of counties under its jurisdiction.
After 1841, when the government of Upper Canada was reorganized and the province became known as Canada West, some of the responsibilities of the districts were transferred to local municipal councils in cities and towns (e.g. property tax collecting), although the districts still retained complete control over judicial matters.
From 1788 until 1849 in the area which is now Ontario, the District was the layer of government responsible for all judicial and administrative functions that could be carried out at a level below that of the province itself. Counties existed in the province from 1792, but they were little more than electoral and census divisions.
In 1849 the Districts were abolished and their functions were taken over by the individual counties or by united counties working within one municipal administration.

Most of the government documents the genealogist may require—those dealing with land, the registration of marriages, and minor criminal proceedings--will have been produced by the District before 1849 and by the Counties after that date. Serious land conflicts, or those concerning more than one District, will have found their way into Provincial Records. The same will have been true of criminal matters. Divorce was not even a provincial matter, but a federal one, until 1930.

NOTE: Links to "The Archives of Ontario" and sub-pages no longer work. This applies to many other Ontario pages.