Update – The Canada Gazette (1841-1997)

This past Monday (September 26th), the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) commemorated the 170th anniversary of the Canada Gazette by making accessible the digitized back issues of this official publication at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette.

A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette is also available at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/canada-gazette/index-e.html

The press release says that it is often referred to as “the official newspaper of the Government of Canada.”

The database is searchable by keywords (for example – keywords such as divorce, immigration, and naturalization), and not by a person's name.

For example, from 1867 to 1968, the website says that "a person wishing to obtain a divorce was first required to place a notice of intent to petition the government for an Act of Divorce in the Canada Gazette and in two newspapers in the district or county where the petitioner resided. It was to appear for a six-month period".

An explanation of the Divorce Laws in Canada is given at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-906.008-e.html

Here is a sample of the divorce records found in the Canada Gazette -

"NOTICE is hereby given that Dame Beatrice Evelyn Tutill, housewife, of the City and District of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec, wife of Walter Joseph Bobineky, taxi driver, of the City of Montreal and District of Montreal, in the Province of Quebec, will apply to the Parliament of Canada, at the next or following session thereof, for a bill of divorce from her husband, the said Walter Joseph Bobinsky, on the ground of adultery.
Dated at Montreal, in the Province of Quebec, this 9th day of July, 1947.
N.W. JACOBS,
Solicitor for the Applicant"

Source: A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette, Library and Archives Canada. APPLICATIONS FOR DIVORCE Part I (1947-1997), volume 81, number 30, 26 July 1947, p. 7

Information about Immigration and Citizenship at the Library and Archives Canada is at
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-908.011-e.html

An example from the Canada Gazette is -
Vanderveen, Clarence- certificate of naturalisation No. 72000, series A, granted at Ottawa, Ontario, on July 28, 1930.

Source: A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette, Library and Archives. Canada DEPARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF CANADA,THE CANADIAN Citizenship ACT Part I (1947-1997), volume 83, number 29, 16 July 1949, p. 4