Building an UEL Toolkit, Part II

In my last post, I talked about building a toolkit for researching my United Empire Loyalist (UEL) ancestors. Find it here. I started by listing three books I consider invaluable resources for searching for Loyalist ancestors. Today I want to list some of my favorite websites. My Loyalists were primarily from New York State so I have not paid any attention to the large amount of information on Loyalist who settled in New Brunswick and Newfoundland. I know that ships took Loyalists from along the eastern seaboard from Charleston to Boston on to New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Most of these Loyalists stayed in these eastern provinces.

The UEL Association of Canada has a website with a lot of good information. This is usually my first stop to find my Loyalist ancestor. First, they maintain a list of all know Loyalists. They tell you if your ancestor is on the list, was on the list and was removed, or removed and reinstated. For a lot of the entries there is very little information. If a Loyalist has been proven, that means a descendant has proved his lines of descent and is a member of the UEL Association. For some entries there is a gold mine of information. For instance, if you happen to be descended from Peter Van Camp, like I am, his wife and children are listed, his military service is there, his death date and place are given and one of his proven descendant’s line back to Peter is also given. So a lot of information. But this site has more than just a list of Loyalists. It has lists of Loyalist Regiments with links to several web pages and resources you can use in researching your ancestor’s involvement in the War of American Independence. There are also links to websites where modern military units have encampments and reenactment of battles. The UEL Association has a good overview history of each Loyalist unit and has links for further research. Find the UEL Association web page here.

No Loyalist research can be complete without looking at Upper Canada Land Petitions. Fortunately, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has placed the digital images of all these petitions on line. Ken McKinlay, in his blog Family Tree Knots, has written an excellent description of how to locate these petitions. You can read his blog here. He gives you links to the LAC finding aid and the actual petitions. These have been archived by LAC and can be difficult to find. Read Ken’s blog and bookmark his links and you will never have to struggle with the question, “How did I do this, anyway”. Spellings of names in the finding aid may not be what you are expecting so be prepared to get out your list of alternate spellings; you will need it. Also daughters of Loyalists are listed with both their maiden names and married names. This can be helpful especially if you have a last name with a lot of alternate spellings. I have used this to my advantage on more than one occasion.

Another website that has a lot of information is Olive Tree Genealogy, developed and maintained by Lorine McGinnis Schulze. She has information on Loyalists, as well as Native Americans, Palatines, New Netherlands, Ships Passenger Lists and American and Canadian Military. I use this site for New Netherlands, Palatines and Loyalists. Lorine provides links to other sites. If you are looking for early New York church records, this is a good place to start.

I hope these links help you in your search for your Loyalist ancestors.