Place:Brant, Ontario, Canada

The map of Brant County circa 1951 from Ontario Archives locates the communities and physical features of the county. (Click at the bottom of the page to see the map enlarged.)

A sketchmap from Ontario GenWeb gives a more visible outline of the townships.

Brant County is located in southwestern Ontario. It was established as a county in 1851, originally from townships in Wentworth, and Oxford Counties. South Dumfries Township was taken from Waterloo County within a year or two. The county town is Brantford.

The county was named for Joseph Brant, a Mohawk Chief who fought for the British during the American Revolution. In 1784 he led his people from New York State to the valley of the Grand River where they had been granted land for their loyalty during the war. The land grant covered six miles on each side of the river. This grant covered the Grand River not only in its course through Brant County but also through Haldimand, Oxford and Wellington Counties as well.

Immediately prior to being established, the lands which made up Brant County were under the administration of the Gore District of Upper Canada and Canada West. Its townships had previously been located in Wentworth, Oxford and Waterloo Counties. The six townships of Brant County are

• Brantford Township from Waterloo County.
• Burford Township from Oxford County.
• Oakland Township from Oxford County.
• Onondaga Township from Wentworth County.
• South Dumfries Township from Waterloo County.
• Tuscarora Township (which is a First Nation reserve) from Wentworth County.

The town of Brantford was separately incorporated in 1877, the year after Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone call there. The Town of Paris was incorporated in 1998.

In 1999, the county was reorganized and all its individual municipalities, except Brantford and Paris, were amalgamated into a single-tier municipality with city status. The City of Brantford and the Town of Paris remain independently incorporated municipalities outside of the government of the county.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Brant, Ontario.

This includes further descriptions of the original townships.

Research Tips

NOTE: Prior to 1850 Canada West and Upper Canada, the predecessors to Ontario, were divided up into Districts. The counties did exist but they had no place in the administrative structure. Brant was put together immediately after the District system ended. The townships that made it came from different counties in different districts.

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.
  
  

Brant County additional sources

• Brant County GenWeb has a great many resources online, including biographical sketches and township histories from the History of Brant County, 1883; lists from city and town directories of 1851 for Brantford, Paris, Ayers, Mount Pleasant, and Oakland; maps, photograph collections, etc. It has a very useful overall search engine for all its online offerings.

• Brant Public Library Digital Archive provides a lot of material online taken from the library's collection.

source: Family History Library Catalog