Digitized records

Access digitized copies of analogue records from our archival collection via external websites or have copies made for you.

A collage of historical black and white and colour images of people, buildings and places in Ontario from the Archives of Ontario archival collection

Find records by format

We’ve digitized different types of records in our collection. We host them on external websites that are well known and widely trusted.

Photographs

All our digitized photographic records can be accessed and downloaded for free.

Wikimedia Commons

  • 8,700+ high-resolution images
  • Black and white and colour
  • 1800s-1970s
  • people, places and events across Ontario
  • public domain or Open Government license
  • browse by record creators or photographic subjects.

Flickr

  • 750+ high-resolution images
  • arranged into albums by subject

Film

YouTube

  • 150+ films
  • government-created and independent films
  • playlists by topic

We are continually adding films from our archival collection onto YouTube for free online access.

Textual documents

We provide online access to some of our most sought-after textual documents on external genealogy platforms.

FamilySearch

  • birth, marriage and death registrations
  • church records
  • wills and estate files
  • land records
  • heir and devisee commission records
  • private records

Free to use (requires account sign up). Open both “Archives of Ontario” accordions to find our records.

Ancestry

  • birth, marriage and death registrations

Free at the Archives of Ontario and public libraries or with your paid Ancestry.ca subscription.


Our digitization strategy

To increase the impact of our digitization efforts, our focus is on digitizing high-use record series, including vital statistics registrations, aerial photographs and patent plans.

We regularly upload new photographs and films from our collections on the platforms mentioned above.

You can order digitized copies of textual documents, photos, films or other records from our archival collection, provided you have identified the items you want reproduced.