2025 Wrapped! Canadiana Edition
By: Percy Miller, Heritage Services Specialist
https://doi.org/10.82389/wfcn-5g12
What has Canadiana been up to this year?
From historians and genealogists to students, community researchers, and lifelong learners, hundreds of thousands of people turned to our digital heritage collections in 2025. To better understand this activity and celebrate the impact of these community-owned resources, we dug into our usage data to see what people explored most.
The results are in... welcome to your 2025 Canadiana Wrapped!
📰 Canadiana's Top 5 Titles
With thousands of books, newspapers, magazines, maps, and more covering five centuries of history, Canadiana has something for every researcher. Here’s what you were reading this year:
#1 — 大漢公報 : Chinese Times
Totaling 86,523 pageviews, this title was the resounding favourite of Canadiana users this year. With the migration of this title from Simon Fraser University to Canadiana, we have seen a variety of user groups accessing the Chinese Times for genealogical, personal, and academic research. This title is extremely rich in community history, and its run length provides key insights into Chinese Canadian history.
#2 — The Canadian Grocer
With 73,784 pageviews, who knew that an 1891 trade publication could be so popular! We suspect The Canadian Grocer was accessed for the variety of advertisements for new products, commentary on industry changes, and takeaways for business and retail research.
#3 — Annual reports (Zion Congregational Church, Toronto)
Coming in at 10,378 pageviews, this is a small but mighty title! The reports cover a variety of year end updates from the Congregation’s Treasurer, Pastor, Deacons, Young People’s Association, and Ladies’ Aid Society.
#4 — The Toronto World
With a modest 2,537 pageviews, The Toronto World takes our number four spot. Newspapers like this one are perennial favourites for our users as they provide an excellent source of “slice of life” reporting from the turn of the twentieth century.
#5 —Hutchinson's New Brunswick directory for 1865-66
Taking our number five spot, with 2,434 pageviews, is this rather niche pick! It’s a true “deep cut” within our collection. Like The Canadian Grocer, the Hutchinson’s New Brunswick Directory provides historical business insights for the province of New Brunswick, with many advertisements for goods and services. Think of this as a form of 1860’s Sears catalog!
📰 Héritage's Top 5 Titles
Serious research calls for serious resources. Here are the top five collections accessed by researchers in the Héritage collection, containing millions of pages of critical archival documents from Library and Archives Canada.
#1 — Department of Indian Affairs: Departmental letterbooks
In our top spot with 18,132 pageviews are the Departmental letterbooks. This collection is a set of indexed letterbooks containing copies of outgoing correspondence relating to the administration of Indian Affairs in both eastern and western Canada from 1871 to 1920. These files are imperative for genealogists, historical academic research, and legal proceedings.
This series of records, as well as #2 and #5 on this list help researchers gain the necessary information and context needed to support Indigenous land claims, apply for Status, and help trace the stories of Indigenous communities and families across the country.
#2 — Department of Indian Affairs, Headquarters central registry system: red series
With 17,847 pageviews, this collection consists of Red Series files dealing with almost all aspects of the administration of Indian Affairs in eastern Canada from 1872 to 1964. Like the Departmental letterbooks, these records provide vital information for understanding the actions of the Canadian government and their impacts upon Indigenous Peoples.
#3 — Chinese Immigration Records: C.I.44 Forms and Indexes
In our number three spot, with 12,730 pageviews, are the C.I. 44 forms and corresponding index cards. The C.I. 44 is a one-page form that documents each person of Chinese origin or descent in Canada, who were required to register under section 18 of the Chinese Immigration (Exclusion) Act of 1923. Each form includes a photograph of the registered individual and information such as name, alias, address, occupation, age, gender, marital status, as well as other key pieces of identifying information that are immensely helpful for researchers in a variety of contexts.
#4 — War Diaries, 1939–1945
Coming in at 11,002 pageviews, is the War Diaries, 1939-1945 collection. This collection consists of war diaries for Canadian units during the Second World War which describe the daily activities of a unit or formation on active service. While these generally do not describe the actions of individual servicemen, they are immensely useful for tracing the movements of military units. We are regularly contacted about files within this collection, and assist researchers looking into their family members, as well as organizations doing broader historical research that have implications for work being done today.
#5 — Indian Affairs, Annuity Paylists
In fifth place with 10,261 pageviews are the headquarters copies of treaty annuity paylists. These records are often consulted as a genealogical tool. Paylists contain very valuable comments about family relationships and childrens’ absences from the family home due to their attendance at residential schools. They can also indicate file numbers for correspondence about transactions that affect an individual's inclusion, or not, on a paylist (e.g., band transfers, commutations, loss of status by marriage, admissions of new adherents to treaty, etc.).
🔍 Thanks for a Year of Digging, Discovering, and Downloading
We would like to thank all our users for their continued support of these collections, and we hope that you have enjoyed some insights about what the Canadiana community has been researching this year. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing what titles may appear on this list next December!
Percy Miller (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5092-930X)
Percy Miller is the Heritage Services Specialist at CRKN. She holds a BA from Mount Allison University, as well as a Master of Information from the University of Toronto. Percy is passionate about providing excellent service to research communities.