Canadian Legal History Blog

For anyone interested in Canada's legal history from a family historian point of view, The Osgood Society for Legal History is a website that you should look at www.osgoodesociety.ca

The society was founded in 1979, and now they have a blog on which they present the "News and Views" at http://osgoodesocietycanadianlegalhistory.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

In the blog, they have obituaries online e.g. they have put on the obituary of John T. Saywell (1921-2011); they give a short history of the Chinese-Canadian Legal History; they write about Native History in the Court; and offer Links to Western Legal History – all interesting subjects for the family historian.

They have also published books, two of which are The Persons Case: The Origins and Legacy of the Fight for Legal Personhood, and The Law of the Land: The advent of the Torrens System in Canada.

They also have done a number of oral histories which are listed by name at www.osgoodesociety.ca/oral_history/oral_history_a.html. Some of the people that have been interviewed are The Hon. Lincoln Alexander, The Hon. John Arnup, and The Hon. George Addy.

Although the oral histories are not online, you can contact them at mmacfarl@lsuc.on.ca for membership, or to ask a question.