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About the Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Subject's Name
Persons have been entered under family name rather than title, married name, pseudonym, stage name, popular name, nickname, or name in religion: Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal; Florence Daly Lucas (Thompson); Louis Gonnet, named Brother Réticius; Marie-Françoise Huot, named Sainte-Gertrude. Where possible the form of the surname is based on the signature, although contemporary usage is taken into account. Common variant spellings are included in parentheses.
Where a signature was not available for a subject whose name begins with Mc or Mac, the form Mac, followed by a capital letter, has been used. Scottish-born immigrants who were entitled under Scottish law to a territorial designation as part of their names appear with that designation included, such as Angus Mackintosh of Mackintosh, 26th Chief of Clan Chattan and 25th Chief of Clan Mackintosh. Scots for whom the designation was used merely as a convenient way of distinguishing one individual from another have the designation in parentheses: Alexander McDonell (Collachie). Individuals are entered under their Gaelic names only when it is clear that they spoke Gaelic and moved in a Gaelic environment: Iain MacGhillEathain (John MacLean).
In the case of French names, La, Le, Du, Des, and sometimes De are considered part of the name and are capitalized. When both parts of the name are capitalized in the signature, French style treats the family name as two words; however, with individuals who were integrated into an anglophone milieu, this rule of style has been applied only when it was confirmed by a signature.
In the case of Spanish names, la, like de, is not considered part of the family name: Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. Early Norse name-entries are under the given name, since the surname changed from generation to generation.
Punjabi, Chinese Canadian, Indo-Canadian, and Japanese Canadian names have been entered under the romanized forms used in Canada. Persons from countries using the Cyrillic alphabet have been presented according to their signatures in the Roman alphabet when available, or according to the romanized form of their names most commonly used in Canada. In some cases, a transliteration based on the Library of Congress system as modified by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies has been substituted or included.
Names of aboriginal people have presented a particular problem, since a person might be known by his/her own name (written in a variety of ways by people unfamiliar with aboriginal languages) and by a nickname or baptismal name. Moreover, some aboriginal families, such as the Copes [see John Noel Cope], adopted family surnames. Aboriginal names have been used when they could be found, and, because it is impossible to establish original spellings, the form generally chosen is the one found in standard sources at the time of original publication; variants are included in parentheses: Ahchuchwahauhhatohapit (Ahchacoosacootacoopits, Star Blanket). Métis, unless they remained wholly within aboriginal cultures, are entered under their "European" name: Louis Guiboche. To assist readers who go back to contemporary documents, the names of aboriginal bands have been given in a form likely to be found in those documents.
Within the Text of the Biographies
Cross-references
Large and small capitals and asterisks were adopted for the print volumes in order to indicate those individuals who had a biography in the same volume (Sir Wilfrid LAURIER) or those who had biographies in other published volumes or who were expected to receive a biography in an upcoming volume (William Lyon Mackenzie King*). These conventions have not been retained in the online version.
Place-names
Place names are generally given in the form used at the time of reference, and the spelling most often encountered in the documents and maps of the period has been employed. Where necessary, the modern name has been included in parentheses: Prince Arthur's Landing (Thunder Bay, Ont.), Prince Albert (Sask.), Biebrusk (Babruysk, Belarus).
Places are identified by the present-day name of the province, territory, state, or country in which they are located. Cities considered to be easily recognizable, such as Paris, Dublin, and Boston, have not been identified by country; however, London, England, has been specified to prevent confusion with London, Ontario. Within Canada, provincial capitals and several well-known cities such as Montreal and Vancouver are not identified by province. The English edition cites well-known place names in their present-day English forms: St Lawrence River, Montreal, Quebec, Geneva, Rome.
Names of Institutions
Care has been taken to reproduce institutional names accurately. The titles of educational establishments, businesses, hospitals, philanthropical organizations, and government bodies have in many instances been confirmed in the statutes and other official records. In cases where institutions located in Quebec were incorporated under English names in the English-language statutes, the English form has been used. The names of institutions outside Canada that are in languages other than French or English have been translated into English.
Quotations
Quotations have been translated when the language of the original passage is different from that of the text of the biography. Researchers may wish to consult the French language version of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online for the original French of quotations that have been translated into English. When a passage is quoted from a work that has appeared in both languages, the published English version is generally used. The wording, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of original quotations are not usually altered, nor is [sic] employed; adjustments are made only when it is necessary to do so for meaning, in which case the changes are placed within square brackets. A name appearing within square brackets has been substituted for the original in order to identify the person more precisely or to indicate that he/she has a biography within the same volume or in another volume.
Direct quotations correspond to the originals, except in one particular. The "expanded method" has been used in the transcriptions of quotations from early documents and printed works; i is changed to j and v to u (ivin becomes juin); and some u's are changed to v's (liue becomes live). The original accents have been retained.
Dates
The discrepancy between Old Style and New Style dates affects some biographies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian one in the 18th century, and its new year began on 25 March. France and Spain had adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Scotland had moved the date of its new year in 1600. England and its American colonies used the Julian calendar until 1752. In the earlier biographies an individual who was, for example, born in England or the Thirteen Colonies on 16 Feb. 1739, Old Style, has his/her birth date presented as 16 Feb. 1739/40. Except for such indications of the difference in year for the period between 1 January and 25 March, no attempt has been made to adjust Old Style dates.
If it is impossible to uncover a subject's birth and death dates, only the dates of his/her active career are documented. In the introductory paragraphs and in the various indexes the outside dates of activity are presented as floruit (fl.) dates.
Titles of Newspapers
Newspaper titles appearing in biographies are generally cited under the title in effect at the time of reference. Wherever possible, titles are determined from the issues themselves, but secondary reference works are also frequently used for this purpose. Because their titles frequently vary, newspapers cited in individual bibliographies are placed under standardized uniform titles.
Bibliographies
Each biography is followed by a bibliography. The individual bibliographies are generally arranged alphabetically within sections, such as archival sources, newspapers, and printed works. These are preceded by details concerning the publications authored by the individual or any other annotation that may be applicable. Any special bibliographical comments by contributors appear within square brackets. Wherever possible, archival material is cited under the location of the original documents; the location of copies used by contributors or editors is included in the citation. In general, the items in individual bibliographies are the sources listed by the contributors, but these items have often been supplemented by bibliographic investigation in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography/Dictionnaire biographique du Canada offices. Care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of bibliographic citations. Original documents and title pages of printed works have been examined where possible, or confirmed through enquiries to the archives or libraries in which they are held. Numerous secondary reference works have also been used for bibliographic verification; those most frequently used appear in the general bibliographies. Additional information concerning Canadian reference sources is available in Guide to reference materials for Canadian libraries, ed. Kirsti Nilsen et al. (8th ed., [Toronto], 1992) and Guide du chercheur en histoire canadienne, sous la direction de Jean Hamelin (Québec, 1986).
Search Screens and Syntax
Five different search types are provided for research: Full-Text Search; Advanced Search; Alphabetical Name Browse; Browse by Identification; and Browse by Geographical Location.
Full-Text Search
You can do a full-text search of the entire text of the biographies. By default your search will always return pages that match ALL your search terms. The search engine also supports Boolean operators and phrase searching.
Alphabetical Name Browse
Select the first letter of the last name that you are interested in. The search tool will return all biographies that start with that letter.
Advanced Search
The Advanced Search provides Boolean and phrase search capability by Subject's Name, but the researcher can also use Geographical Location and Identification terms, or select a Date Range of Death (Volume), or select a Gender. Please note that the indexing terms have not been applied across all volumes. For maximum results, it is recommended that the researcher use top-level identification and geographical location terms.
- Date Range of Death (Volume): This database is based on the CD-ROM version of 14 volumes, originally printed between 1966 and 1998, and Volume XV, printed in 2005 and newly added biographies from unprinted volumes. Each volume corresponds with a particular date range and features biographies of individuals whose date of death or last activity occurred within this range. You may select from the drop down list the desired date range of death.
The date ranges covered in the volumes are:
- 1000-1700: Volume I
- 1701-1740: Volume II
- 1741-1770: Volume III
- 1771-1800: Volume IV
- 1801-1820: Volume V
- 1821-1835: Volume VI
- 1836-1850: Volume VII
- 1851-1860: Volume VIII
- 1861-1870: Volume IX
- 1871-1880: Volume X
- 1881-1890: Volume XI
- 1891-1900: Volume XII
- 1901-1910: Volume XIII
- 1911-1920: Volume XIV
- 1921-1930: Volume XV
- 1931-1940: Volume XVI
- 1941-1950: Volume XVII
- 1951-1960: Volume XVIII
- 1971-1980: Volume XX
- 1981-1990: Volume XXI
- 1991-2000: Volume XXII
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Include Close Matches and Include Partial Matches: If "Include Close Matches" is chosen, then biographies with words that contain the root word of the search term, including nouns and verbs, will be included in the search results. For example, a search for "judging" will return all biographies that contain words with the root word "judge,” such as “judge,” “judges,” “judging,” and “judged.” If "Include Close Matches" is not chosen, only those biographies with the word "judging" will be returned in the results.
If "Include Partial Matches" is chosen, then biographies with words that start with the search term will be returned. For example, a search for "judge" will return all biographies that contain “judge,” “judges,” “judged,” and “judgement” (U.K. spelling), but not biographies that contain “judging” and “judgment” (U.S. spelling). A search for "judg", however, will return all biographies that contain words beginning with "judg". Biographies with partial matches are returned by default. If you do not want biographies that contain words that are partial matches, then click the box to remove the “X.” Biographies with close matches will not be returned unless an “X” is placed in the checkbox. For example, a search for “sand” that includes partial matches but does not include close matches will return “sands,” “sanding,” “sanded,” “Sandham,” and “Sanderson.” But a search for “sands” that includes partial matches but does not include close matches will find none of the words listed above except “sands.” If you place an “X” in the “Include Close Matches” box and search for “sands,” then all the words listed above will be included.
Browse by Identification
Browse by Identification is designed to assist researchers in following their interests through the volumes. Most of the groupings are by occupation carried on by persons within Canada, but some non-occupational categories have been added to help researchers who approach the past from particular perspectives.
You can limit your search to any one Identification value by selecting it by name. These Identifications are broken down into sub-categories where relevant.
Not all biographies have been indexed by profession or other identifiers. Biographies found in the following volumes have not yet been indexed:
1000-1700 (Volume I)
1741-1770 (Volume III)
1861-1870 (Volume IX)
1871-1880 (Volume X)
Browse by Geographical Location
Browse by Geographical Location provides a regional breakdown of biographies according to the subject's place of birth and career. Places of education, retirement, and death have not been considered. Persons whose functions gave them jurisdiction over several regions are listed according to their seat of office, but their activities as described in the biographies have also been taken into consideration.
For the purposes of this browse feature, Canada is subdivided according to contemporary provincial and territorial names. International geographical names are based as far as possible on modern political divisions. The Geographical location names used in this search function reflect the usage at the time of original publication.
You can limit your search to any one Geographical area by selecting it by name. These Geographical areas are organized by continent, country, region, and sub-region.
Not all biographies have been indexed by Geographical region. Biographies found in the following volumes have not yet been indexed:
1000-1700 (Volume I)
1741-1770 (Volume III)
1771-1800 Volume IV)
1861-1870 (Volume IX)
1871-1880 (Volume X)
Gender Index
All of the biographies in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online have been indexed by gender, allowing you to restrict your search to males or females.
Results Screen
This screen shows all matching results for your search.
A search in the Subject's Name field will show results for only the names of individuals whose biographies are on the site. A search for a name in the Full-Text field will show results for all individuals with that name who have biographies or who are mentioned in biographies. The Full-Text field can also be used to search for place names, events, dates, and so on. Results for searches in these two fields are sorted from the closest or most relevant match to the most distant or least relevant match. If several biographies have approximately the same match score, results are sorted alphabetically according to the names of subjects. For searches in all other fields, results are sorted alphabetically according to subjects’ names.
You may re-sort the results list alphabetically by last name or by the volume number by selecting the "Ascending" or "Descending" links at the top of the result list columns.
To view a biography, click on the subject's name.
In the list of results, a red bar next to the subject’s name indicates how close the result is to the search term: the longer the bar, the closer or more relevant the match. Exact matches to a subject's name that is used as a search term are given priority. For example, a biography whose subject is named “Macdonald” is usually considered more relevant than a biography that contains the name “Macdonald.” Match calculation considers the number of matches to a search term within the chosen field, how many other words in a biography do not match the search term, and, occasionally, factors such as the popularity of a biography and the number of links it has to other biographies. For example, if there are two biographies that each contain 10,000 words and one has 10 references to “Macdonald” and the other has 5 references, then the former biography is likely to be considered a closer match to the search term than the latter. However, if a biography has only 500 words but 5 of them are “Macdonald,” then the shorter biography might be considered equally relevant or more relevant because the search term occurs proportionately more often. Not all combinations of search options will return results, and indexing is not yet complete for all volumes. The following volumes have not yet been indexed: When viewing a biography, you can: Select the “Previous” link to return to the list of matching results or to the biography from which you followed a hyperlink. Wherever possible, biographies that contain subjects’ names in small caps and subjects’ names with * are hyperlinked to the relevant biographies. If the search results include two or more possible biographies (for examples, “Smith, John”), you can select from the results list. If no possible biographies are found (if, for instance, the biography has not yet been placed online), there is no hyperlink to the subject’s name. Search term highlighting appears in a biography that you choose from the results list. A search for land dispute without quotes highlights all instances of "land" and "dispute" in a biography. A search for “land dispute” in quotes highlights only exact matches to that phrase. If you choose to include results with partial matches or close matches, then any term that uses a root word in the search term (such as “lands,” “landing,” “disputed”) is highlighted. If you click the button labelled "Remove highlighting" at the top of each biography, the biography reappears without highlighting. You can also search for specific text within a biography. The steps outlined below relate to the most common browsers – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Netscape: Your search criteria has no matching biographies
Biography Display Screen
Boolean Operators and Phrase Searching
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online supports the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. For example:
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online supports searching for exact phrases by using quotation marks. This can be combined with Boolean searching. For example:
