Family Historian User Group

I'm trying to trace a relative from Canada. All I have is his seamans book which states he was born in TORONTO in 1850. One problem is that he could not write and his surname in the book is 'Birdwisa' so this could be phonetic! Any help would be great.

ID:3399

I am in the same boat (no pun intended) since one of my husband' relatives was born in Toronto.

Library and Archives Canada says:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gene ... 6-e.html#f

In Ontario, civil registration dates from July 1, 1869.

LAC says that religious information was recorded in the census, so if you can find him in the census, that might give clues as to where you can find him in church records.

To get ideas for surname variations, I found this article on the Legacy (software) blog:

http://legacynews.typepad.com/legacy_ne ... d-sur.html

Hope this helps.

Jan

'Birdwisa' could sound like Budweiser - did he have a German or Eastern European background?

Thanks I will give that a try.