The Kingston Branch OGS Library has over 2900 publications and documents.
These are housed on the second floor of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library (KFPL) Central Branch at
130 Johnson Street
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 5G6
The OGS Kingston Branch’s library holdings are available as non-circulating reference materials that can be consulted whenever the Central Branch is open.
Our collection includes:
- primary and secondary material
- published and unpublished material
- full sets of publications and cemetery transcriptions
- materials published or produced by
– other Ontario genealogical groups
– historical and lineage societies
– individuals
Our collection focuses on local materials, with an emphasis on:
- Kingston
- Frontenac County
- Lennox & Addington County
- Leeds and Grenville County
- Hastings County
- Prince Edward County
- Eastern Ontario
We also have many significant regional, provincial, national, and international titles.
The collection includes several rare and valuable publications, such as the Sir William Johnson Papers. These are locked up to protect them from careless use, but are available for study upon request.
If you had German ancestors who arrived in North America before 1800, they may have been Palatine Germans, who fled the endless religious wars in Europe.
Our library includes the well-known reference books on the Palatines by Hank Z. Jones.
We have an extensive collection of pedigree charts — one-of-a-kind records contributed by local genealogists to document part of their family history.
Local historians and genealogists have recorded family trees and written family histories of many families in the region — often United Empire Loyalists.
The OGS Kingston Branch Library shelves are adjacent to the library holdings of the Kingston & District Branch of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (UELAC). Similar to the OGS holdings, the UELAC reference material can be examined in the reading room by all visitors to the KFPL Central Branch library.
The Kingston Branch OGS collection and microfilm collection are available to the public whenever the library’s Central Branch is open.
The Kingston Frontenac Public Library is a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, so it has access to more of FamilySearch’s digital genealogical resources — a much larger collection than individuals can access from home. This means that visitors to the library can search for genealogical resources from any of its branches — even with their own laptop, through the KFPL wifi.
Ancestry Library Edition can also be accessed from the KFPL’s computer terminals.
As titles and services are added to our library, they’re listed in the next issue of our newsletter, which is sent out to all members.
Our library holdings can be searched using various tools:
- Click here to search the Kingston Branch OGS Library holdings, or
- Click here to search KFPL’s catalog.
If you would like to search for publications held by the OGS beyond Kingston Branch:
- Click here to search for a publication held by any Branch of the OGS in Ontario.
For more information on the OGS Kingston Branch Library, please contact the chair of our library committee.
For library hours, locations and announcements, please visit www.kfpl.ca.
Short video tutorials about Ancestry Library Edition and historical Kingston newspapers are available free of charge on the KFPL YouTube channel.
The KFPL Librarian, Local History and Genealogy, can be reached
• by email by clicking here,
• through the Contact page of the KFPL website,
• or by calling 613-549-8888 ext 3590.