Land records are very useful. If you are looking for your ancestor’s year of immigration, land records are important as settlers very often purchased land soon after arrival.
Originally all land in Ontario belonged to the Crown. Although there were small areas of settlement in 1763 after the British took over, major settlement of Upper Canada began in 1783 and utilized Crown Grants. Many early settlers, both military and civilian, submitted land petitions to the Governor in order to obtain Crown land.
Search billions of historical records and family trees on Ancestry, including immigration records, passenger lists, naturalization records, census records, and other documents that can help trace your ancestors' journey.
Start your Ancestry free trialCLRI (Computerized Land Record Index)
The Computerized Land Record Index (CLRI) aka Ontario Land Record Index summarizes land grants of Crown Land, sales of land from Canada Company sales or leases and from Peter Robinson settlers’ grants. If your ancestor settled anywhere in Ontario and he was the first time owner of Crown Land, he should be on these lists.
The information from the lists includes date of purchase, type of purchase, residence of purchaser, land location (lot, concession, township), type of purchase (very important to knowing whether or not there are more records available!), archival reference (where full record can be found) and often more info such as date of land ticket, or date of petition for land, etc.
Abstract Indexes to Deeds
It’s important to realize that the CLRI only shows the very first transaction on any piece of land – for subsequent transactions you need to consult the Abstract Indexes to Deeds. Contrary to their title, these records are NOT indexed by name, only by county.
Lookup service for the clri
I now offer a lookup service for this important CLRI database. For $15.00 US I will check for your ancestor’s name in the CLRI. I also include a written explanation of the codes, how you can use the information found in the CLRI to search further in other records. Your results will be sent to you by email