Genealogy, Ancestry & Local History
Sign Up for a Family History Course
Barrie FamilySearch Centre is hosting a six week family history course at the Downtown Library starting June 2, 2025. It is designed to help you discover your family, your history, and interesting facts about your ancestors.
During this 6-week session, you will:
- Open a free FamilySearch account and start building your family tree
- Gather personal family history, look for documentation/sources
- Build research skills
- Learn how to merge information
- Discover the steps of genealogical research
- Complete at least a four generation fan chart suitable for printing and framing
Space is limited. Register by visiting our Events Calendar.
Historical Research and Ontario Genealogical Society
We are pleased to hold the research collection of the Simcoe County Branch of Ontario Ancestors: The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) at our Downtown Library. The OGS collection contains books, microfilms, and other documents covering the history, geography, culture, and socio-economic structure of Simcoe County including census data, along with marriage/birth/death records; this collection is available for in-library use only.
View our Digital & Print Research Resources below for a list of recommended websites and databases.
August 2023: Our newspaper microfilm collection is no longer available on-site and is now housed at Simcoe County Archives. We have entered into an agreement with the Archives to digitize this collection. Please check the Barrie Historical Newspaper Archive for older online articles from the local press.
Genealogy Coach
During a one hour Genealogy Coach session, library staff can help you learn how to:
- Find resources to locate census documents or birth, marriage, and death information in local Barrie newspapers
- Access the Simcoe County Branch, OGS, Settlers Database finding tool
- Navigate AncestryLibrary.ca or FamilySearch.org
Reminders:
- Coaching sessions are learning opportunities to introduce patrons to library resources that they may not be familiar with; library staff are not paid genealogy researchers
- For advanced searches, we recommend contacting the Ontario Ancestors - Simcoe County Branch or the County of Simcoe Archives
- Due to the popularity of these sessions, we ask that you book only ONE individual Genealogy Coach session per month