Place:Newcastle, Durham, Ontario, Canada

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

the following is based on an article in Wikipedia

Newcastle was incorporated as a village in 1856. It was located in Clarke Township in Durham County, Ontario. Its population dropped from 1200 in 1870, to 800 in 1895, and to 625 by 1910. It remained a small place through the 20th century.

In 1974 municipal reorganization of Durham County brought about the merger of Clarke Township with its neighbour Darlington Township and the amalgamation into the new municipality of all the incorporated towns and villages within them. In the beginning it was decided to call the new municipality the City of Newcastle, but the local inhabitants did not take to this idea and in 1993 the municipality was renamed Clarington (combining the names of the forming townships).

In the past Newcastle has been surrounded by agriculture: farms raising cattle, pigs and growing apples, grain, corn and cash crops. A lot of this farmland has been sold off for housing developments.

Early settlers using sticks and spears could catch as many as 100000 salmon in one night from streams running into Lake Ontario. One man who had a great influence on the village was Samuel Wilmot. He became interested in the salmon as early as 1860 and built a "fish hatchery" at Newcastle - one of the world's first. Wilmot would eventually become head of fisheries for Canada, and in the 1890s he was running a small generating station which supplied Newcastle with its first electrical power.

Other notable inhabitants were Daniel Massey (1798-1856), whose farm implement business, established in 1847 in Newcastle, eventually formed the Massey-Ferguson farm implement business; and Joseph E. Atkinson (1865-1948) whose newspaper career ended as publisher of the Toronto Star, one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada.

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 Durham County

• Durham GenWeb provides a number of resources. The editor lives in the area and knows a great deal about tracing family histories in her area. She has traced the archive collections of the six original townships to their "new homes" in Durham Region and in the other counties to which the townships were transferred. There is not much material online, but she does tell you what there is and where to find it.
• Durham Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Their website includes tabs titled Publications and Resources which may contain useful references.
• Durham County Genealogy and History is a large website with a lot of historical data on the area.
• Clarington's Lost Villages. There's quite a long list.
• The Village of Newcastle, the centre of Clarington, has a history website
• History of Bowmanville by James B Fairbairn, postmaster (Part 1 of 2)
• List of first settlers of Manvers Township, part of Durham County Genealogy and History listed above
• The Millbrook and Cavan Historical Society provide some old pictures
• Hope Township and Port Hope data. This is a very large website of transcriptions of all sorts of lists from the township and the town.

source: Family History Library Catalog