Facilities and Services

A popular database for genealogical research. Includes census, baptism, marriage and military records.

British Columbia city directories from 1860 to 1955. Directories include detailed historical information about British Columbian communities.

Search and view community newspapers from around BC published between 1865 and 1994. This collection makes many of BC's earliest newspapers freely available in digital format

Digitized newspaper archives covering The Province (1898 - present), The Vancouver Sun (1912 - present) and The Times Colonist (1884 - present).

Issues from most recent 3 months not available in this collection. See Canadian Newsstream for current issues.

Finding tool for historical information about BC in books, magazines and newspapers in the Vancouver Public Library collection.

Explore Canada’s history through the lens of historical newspapers. Fully digitized issues of many major Canadian newspapers back to their first issues. For more recent issues of these newspapers, please see Canadian Newsstream.

Brings together historical holdings from the Canadian Knowledge Research Network, Canadiana.org and The Canadiana Héritage Project.

Brief biographies of notable Canadians from the years 1000 to 1930.

Access the full image of the Globe and Mail newspaper from 1844 to 2018.

A selection of historical images of Vancouver and British Columbia from the 1880s to the 1980s.

Searchable primary source material dating from as early as the 16th century to modern times. Excellent for historical research. *Also suitable for research at the elementary, high school and post-secondary levels.