I spent a tremendous amount of research preparing the manuscript for my latest book, How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2004), and the publisher was insistent on the inclusion of U.S., Canadian, U.K., and Australian resources, to name a few. One of the joys of writing about genealogy for me is that it forces me to continue looking for and at new resources and some that I've missed along the line. Such a resource is ArchiviaNet, online research and consultation tool for the National Archives of Canada.

The Library and Archives Canada website, accessible in both English and French, is a tremendous online resource. If you are researching your Canadian ancestors and family, you will find a wealth of information in both text and digital format to help your quest. This week, I want to introduce you to ArchiviaNet.

What is ArchiviaNet?
ArchiviaNet is a master research access facility into the massive holdings of the National Archives of Canada. I suggest that you start at the ArchiviaNet Web page.

There you will find a list of research tools. However, before you jump right in, please visit the page titled, “What is ArchiviaNet?” because there are descriptions of the types of materials you will find there. The descriptions of fonds, collections, series, files, items, and accessions will help you understand, as you conduct your research, the logical relationships between grouped materials in the collections.

There are a number of resources on that Web page too. If you read French, the PDF file for genealogy under the Research Guides is helpful but can't be translated electronically. The most important link on the page, however, is the one that is labeled “genealogical research” in the Genealogy section. This takes you to the Canadian Genealogy Centre. This is your portal into a wealth of materials. The menu bar at the top of the screen will help you navigate to the various resources...
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