Getting a Helping Hand on Edward Elliot's Crown Land Petition

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The genealogy community is nothing if not generous. I received a surprising amount of help from Ken McKinlay, a new-to-me Canadian genealogist, who fielded my recent inquiry about how to find a Crown land petition for Edward Elliot, a probably fourth great-grandfather, in Sullivan, Grey Co., Ontario. Not only did Ken dive head first into researching the case for me, but he also wrote a blog post about the case for his own blog, Family Tree Knots.

So, in part, this is a blog about a blog!

Using FamilySearch's Full-Text Search I had discovered Edward Elliot had received a Crown land patent on 10 July 1849 for land in 2nd Division, Lot 3, 1st Concession in Sullivan, Grey, Ontario. I looked for Edward's petition on Library and Archives Canada's collection "Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865," but did not find him. Odd.

Edward Elliot's Crown land patent was registered in Grey County.

Turning to Facebook, I searched on the Ontario Genealogy page for "Crown land" to see if the topic had been written about before. I found Ken had posted about Crown land in the past, found his blog, and reached out for a bit of advice.

Ken answered quickly with a lengthy email chock-full of information. He pointed me to recordings from the a recent "Celebration of OLRI," (Ontario Land Records Index, available on the Internet Archive), sponsored by the Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society. He particularly recommended Jane McNamara's "A Nuts-and-Bolts explanation on how to use the OLRI," and his session, "OLRI to the Rescue," showing how to connect the various land records together, to help me get oriented to this record collection and how to use it.

Ken's initial email to me ended with slight disappointment that he could not find Edward's petition. But disappointment was short-lived. The next day, scrolling through Facebook, I saw Ken's post with a familiar screen shot of Edward's entry in Crown patent registry...that I had sent him the day before. Not to be thwarted, Ken had researched further and eventually found Edward's petition! To say I was gob smacked would be an understatement. I never expected Ken to give me anything but advice, and here he gave me advice—and the whole enchilada! 

The image in Ken's Facebook post caught my eye...it was the same snip I'd sent him the day before.

 

Edward Elliot's land patent.

Ken's blog post, "Using the OLRI in Ontario Land Research," is definitely worth a read. It's part step-by-step and part case study. If you have Ontario ancestors, the resources he mentions may be just what you need to find their records. Definitely acquaint yourself with the OLRI by viewing the free recordings he mentions in his post. I recommend following along on the Internet Archive website in OLRI as you watch. Very helpful.

 

Sometimes, all you need is a little help from a friend. Thanks, Ken, for going above and beyond. You provided a road map for me and others looking for land records in Ontario.

 

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.