Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives

Renfrew County Land Records Preserved in Arnprior

A.P.O.L.R.O.D. stands for "Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents". This association is a volunteer movement which arose to meet a grave threat, the imminent loss of vital historical documents in Ontario. The association's membership includes genealogists, archivists and individuals who are interested in local history.

Their goal has been to devise plans for the transfer of Land Registry Instruments to secure locations for their preservation and archival use. The transfer of Renfrew County Records in the fall of 2000 to the Arnprior & District Archives is the latest step in this process.

The Land Registry documents comprise one hundred years of history; that is, documents registered at the Renfrew County Land Registry from 1858 - 1958. It is of great interest to those tracing family histories.

These documents housed in the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives are originals and may be viewed and photocopied. Record of these documents remain in Pembroke Land Registry in microfilm format.

Renfrew County Land Records

This collection contains approximately 150 Abstract Indexes and about 250,000 individual instruments (including wills, deeds, etc.)  Although these documents have not been digitized, there is a wealth of helpful information about them in our database, which you can access by using the term "land records" in the search box. 

The first item (the fonds level to the Renfrew County Land Records) contains a general description, what is available in the Archives, and help to find a property. Attached to this record, is also an excellent 'Finding Aid to Renfrew County Land Records' created by Brian Gilhuly - click here to download a copy.

Besides giving a map for each municipality, there is a Table of Contents on the left hand side to quickly allow you to access each.

Other records in the "land records" search provide:

- Wills found in the land records for Arnprior and McNab and Horton Townships

- Early owners in McNab Township, Sand Point, and Mansfield

- General Register Instruments for Arnprior and McNab Township

- Maps

- Other collections containing some land record information 

There is also a CD called "The 'Township Papers' of McNab Township" for sale. It contains the documents pertaining to McNab Township from the miscellaneous Ontario Crown Land Records – 1825 to 1872.  There are more than 1,700 images.  A fully searchable finding aid of the documents has been created and is included in the CD.  Click here for more information and how to purchase.

For the Town of Renfrew, we also have an additional Renfrew Plan Finding Aid and Map available for researchers, also created by Brian Gilhuly.

List of geographical areas: