Educational Directories

Educational Directories have listings of the schools, colleges and other educational institutions for an area. They may list the officials and/or teachers or masters, and the system of education. 

Upper and Lower Canada Schools 1857, pg 29

With these directories you may find where your ancestors attended school. This directory for Canada also has some suggested plans for school buildings...

School house plans, pg 122

I notice that many school house teachers are the reverend of the church. My ancestor had left the town of Ellon, Aberdeenshire before 1873, so his children went to school in Canada. But I imagine some of his friends went here. Oddly they don't seem to be in any kind of order.

Schools in Scotland 1873, Aberdeenshire pg 34

There are other Educational Directories at HathiTrust. Also use keywords "school board directory", "educational yearbook", "public school directory", etc and various combinations with place of interest.

You will also find names of schools in many City Directories and almanacs.


Relevant Links

New Educational Directory of The World c1955

Steiger's educational directory for 1878

The School-Board almanac and educational year-book 1873 Scotland

Educational Directory for Canada 1857-58

Educational Directory, US Bureau of Education

Educational Directory for Montana

Educational Directory for Delaware

Educational Directory for Arizona

Educational Directory for Colorado

Educational Directory for North Carolina

Educational Directory for Illinois

Educational Directory for New Mexico

Educational Directory for China

Related posts

Label: School

Canada 150 - McGill Normal School

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

McGill Normal School 

McGill Normal School

The Normal School was designed to train teachers, and set teaching standards. The Montreal school was open from 1857-1907 when it merged into the School for Teachers at Macdonald College.  One of the conditions of entrance into the school, was to teach for at least three years after graduating. For more information, read the pdf about the History of the McGill Normal School. Records are held at the archives of McGill University. The school was located in Montreal on Belmont Street. 

"From 1857-1907 the McGill Normal School trained 2,989 teachers, to whom were issued 4,118 diplomas - 300 of academy grade, 1,452 of model school grade, 33 kindergarten and 2,333 elementary school diplomas."

Mary Ann (Annie) Lyons was my 1st cousin 2x removed (daughter of my 2x great grandfather's sister) and she graduated from the McGill Normal School. She received an Elementary Diploma in 1903, then went on to get a Model Diploma in 1906. In 1907 Annie enrolled at the Alberta College in Edmonton. 

On the webpage for the list of graduates, click to open and/or download the excel file. Also check other links on right column.

The McGill University Prospectus covering the years the Normal School was open, has a list of staff, instructors and professors for the Normal School.  Further back are names of graduates, but not for the Normal School... drat!

1904-1905  Calendar: The McGill University Prospectus, pg 302

The McGill University yearbooks only start at 1898, so if you have an ancestor that graduated before then, you will most likely find his name in one of these calendars, that seem to start about 1861. 

Relevant Links

List of Graduates of McGill Normal School 

History of the McGill Normal School (click pdf)

Students enrolled at Albert College in Edmonton, 1907

McGill University Prospectus

McGill Normal School: guide to work in the model school for teachers-in-training

Canada 150 - Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction 

for the Province of Quebec

Volume 1, Names of teachers who rec'd bonuses 1850

As part of the Sessional Papers of the Province of Quebec, there was printed a Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Many of the reports contain names of teachers, inspectors and even graduates, but not all reports contain the same information.  

1890 v23, no1 – Civil Engineer Graduates, pg 138

Relevant Links 

Names of teachers who obtained bonuses for success in teaching, vol 1 1850-51

Students graduated at Montreal Polytechnic as Civil Engineer, 1888-89, pg 138

List of Teachers who have received a pension from the government, and amount, 1888-89

Names of teachers who obtained bonuses for success in teaching, 1903-04

Report of the Superintendent of Education of the Province of Quebec

Canada 150 - Back to School

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Back to School

The School Magazine, 1915

Although the magazine is published in Toronto, it is a magazine about education in all of Canada. There are names throughout.

I have listed some school calendars below. To find more, go to archive.org and use keywords: school, college, university, etc. To look in a specific place add AND with name of the place. Eg:  school AND kingston. Also look in local library.

Relevant Links

The School

Mémorial de l'éducation du Bas-Canada, étant un exposé des principaux faits qui ont ue lieu relativement àl'éducation, depuis 1615 jusqu'à 1855

Report of the Quebec British and Canadian School, for the year 1831

Sarnia Collegiate Institute Attendance Register

Students that attended College du Montreal in 1790

Prize lists of students of College Montreal 1791-1806

Collège Saint-Raphaël, Montreal

Eleves du Collège de Saint-Raphaël 1773-1790, prize lists

Eleves du Collège de Saint-Raphaël 1791-1806, prize lists

Calendar of the School of Mining, Kingston

Canada 150 - Séminaire de Québec

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Séminaire de Québec

The Grand Séminaire de Québec was founded in 1663 to prepare young men for ordination and ministry in parishes and missions as far away as Louisiana.

Old Séminaire de Québec

The Petit Séminaire de Québec was founded in 1668 and serves as a secondary school, preparing students to enter the grand seminaire.

Names of students who finished their studies at 

Petit Seminaire de Quebec from founding of school to 1848

Relevant Links

Catalogue des officiers et les élèves du Séminaire de Québec

1848 à 1853

1875 à 1895

1896 à 1905

1905 à 1915

1915 à 1928 

Canada 150 - Royal Roads College, BC

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Royal Roads Yearbooks

For 55 years Royal Roads was a Military College in Victoria BC, from 1940 to 1995 when it became a public university. You can read about it's history here.

Relevant Links

Royal Roads Military College Log books 

Royal Roads Annual Photograph Albums 1963-1988

Canada 150 - Ecole de Medecine / Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

École de médecine et de chirurgie de Montréal

The Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery. These circulars are in French and have names of students, and where they are from.

for the year 1858

Relevant Links


Ecole de medecine et de chirurgie de Montreal, various 1858-1895 w/list of students

(Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery)

Education in Ireland

Trinity College Dublin (University of Dublin) was founded in 1592 as a protestant college. Catholics could ask for permission from their church to attend in 1793. Women were admitted as full members in 1904.

Queen's Colleges at Belfast, Cork and Galway were established in 1845. The names soon changed to Queen's University of Ireland at Cork, Belfast and Galway and were for both catholic and presbyterian students.

The Royal University of Ireland was successor to the Queen's University of Ireland, dissolved in 1882. After the 1880 reforms the catholic colleges came under the Catholic University. The 1908 reforms created the National University of Ireland and a separate Queen's University of Belfast.

Did your Irish ancestor attend one of these colleges?


Relevant links

Names of Matriculated Students who entered Queen's Colleges in Ireland, 1849-60

Report of President of Queen's College Cork, various years

Report of President of Queen's College Belfast, various years

Report of President of Queen's College Galway, various years

Royal University of Ireland - report and list of successful candidates for degrees

Catholic University of Ireland, C1857

National University of Ireland, 1910

Calendar: Trinity College, Dublin

The Dublin University Calendar

Reports of the Inspector of Reformatory Schools of Ireland (only staff names)

Number of Pupils on Rolls, Managers, Teachers and Workmistresses in Irish National Schools 1857-58; Names of Officers and Commissioners

Return of names of Commissioners of National Education in Ireland 1884

Return giving names, appointment and attendances, 1890-1900, of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland

Return of Names of Fellows and Examiners of Royal University of Ireland, 1881

Names of President, Vice-President and Professors of Queen's Colleges at Cork, Galway and Belfast, 1865

Canada 150 - Old Macdonald Had a Farm

During our country's 150th anniversary celebration of confederation I will write posts titled Canada 150 with a link to a publication or website I find that may help you tell the story of your Canadian ancestors.
Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the posts.

Today I have for you...

Old Macdonald had  a farm.... 

Under construction in 1906

...Old William Christopher Macdonald that is, who planned and funded Macdonald College on the west island of Montreal.

William Christopher Macdonald

When it opened its doors in 1907, 110 years ago, Macdonald College was one of the most modern agricultural colleges in the world, and the largest in Canada.

Macdonald Campus today

It was not just a teaching farm, but was often opened to the community.  I remember my Mom going there in the fall to pick a bushel of fresh apples to make her famous, prize-winning apple pies.  The Girl Guides and Boy Scouts did orienteering on the grounds of the college.  The public can have a guided tour of the farm during the summer. 

With spring hopefully looming in the not too distant future, mosey on down to the Morgan Arboretum for their annual sugaring off. I remember the first time my parents took us for maple taffy on snow and when we got home we had our Dad tap the only sugar maple on our property.  Of course it takes more than one tree to get enough sap to make maple syrup hahaha. 

Maple taffy on snow

William Macdonald didn't stop with the college, he also funded an elementary and a high school, both of which I attended. I also worked at the college coffee shop for a time when I was in high school. 

Relevant Links

The Macdonald Farm Journal, 1952-1968

Clan Macdonald Yearbooks, 1932-2000

Macdonald College Magazine, 1910-1932

The Macdonald Journal, 1940-1952

The Dram (Macdonald College Newspaper)

What's in the Archives

Correspondence Schools+

As another year of school begins, it reminds us that not all school work takes place in the classroom.  I have taken many courses online through the university. I know kids of friends who are home schooled, which is easy today with computers and networks.

I have heard of educators taking school outside the classroom like this one in BC.
Or.... how about this school?

Nautical School Ship "Sobraon" - regulations in the Supplement to the New South Wales Government Gazette, 7 June 1894 (at Trove).  Look for "Entrance Books" for the Vernon and the Sobraon for names of ancestors.


I remember flipping through magazines and seeing ads for Correspondence School.  I always looked through the list, wondering what I would take if I ever decided to go that route.

Did your ancestor take courses from a Correspondence School?


Relevant Links

Register of International Correspondence Schools, containing names and addresses of 107,239 students, USA & Canada,1908




Related Posts: (9)  School

The Graduate

It was usually mid to end of May when the newspapers would start publishing lists of high school, college or university graduates.

Like this list of Graduates from Sir George Williams University in Montreal published in the Montreal Gazette 21 May 1966.

Thomas Ray Edward Seale received a Bachelor of Science by attending university at night while working at Bell Telephone during the day. His last name ending in S, it was way down near the bottom of the right column.

Check newspaper listings for the year your ancestor may have graduated.

You may also find a program for the Graduation Ceremony (or Commencement) for the school your ancestor attended.

West Hill High School Graduation 1938

click to open pdf

Relevant Links

The History of caps and gowns 1956

Shrimpton's series of the costumes of the members of the University of Oxford 1800

List of Southern Graduates of the University of Pennsylvania from 1757-1783

List of Graduates of the Margaret Eaton School, Toronto 1901-1942

List of Graduates, their occupations and addresses, University of Florida 1889-1917

Alumni Directory, graduates of University of Nebraska,1869-1923

Alumni Bulletin: list of graduates of Colorado College to June 1909

List of graduates & undergraduates: Alma Mater Society's dinner, Montreal 1886

List of graduates; their degrees and post-office addresses or the date of death with the reference to the obituary record, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster PA 1900 

Commencement program, Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, various

Acadia College, Halifax, NS - list of annual prizes and list of graduates, 1876

List of Graduates of the Cincinnati Law School, 1833-1904

Roseworthy Agricultural College Graduates, Univ Adelaide, AU; 1886-2995 (pdf)

Graduates of University of Dublin, from earliest records to 1866; + to Dec 1868

Graduates who have proceeded to degrees in the University of Dublin Vol 2, 1869

Catalogue of graduates of the Public Latin School in Boston, 1816-1917

Commencement; Alfred University, Alfred NY, various years

Schools for Deaf & Blind

I can't imagine being deaf or blind from birth. Never seeing the look of joy or sadness on the face of a loved one, or rainbows or imagined shapes in fluffy clouds.  Never hearing the laughter of a baby or a child's first words, the sounds of nature or a big bustling city. Many people learned to live with deafness or blindness by attending a special school.

No one in our family was born deaf, but slowly became deaf with age. I remember as a child when visiting my great grandmother we had to yell in her ear for her to hear us. Then her daughter, my grandmother, became deaf. She also developed glaucoma and became blind. Her daughter, my mother, got her first hearing aid in her 60's. My Dad also went deaf due to his time in the military and my kids and I used to laugh at the two of them carrying on two separate conversations. Her hearing gradually went from bad to worse and she now has only 10% hearing in one ear. She doesn't bother with a phone, we just email or text each other. And... you guessed it, I am going deaf also.

Granny on the horn - 1980

In the village where I grew up there was a man who was blind.  His wife would take him and his wagon full of wares around town as he sold brooms and mops. His wife also would drop him at our house to tune our piano.  It amazed me that he could do that just by feeling the many wires, hammers and tuning pins and listening to the tones. 

If you have an ancestor who was deaf or blind they may have attended a specialized school.

Relevant links

Report of the Utah School for the Deaf and Blind 1896

Souvenir of the Wisconsin School for the Deaf: 1852-1902

North Carolina School for the Blind and Deaf

South Carolina Institution for the Deaf and Blind

Report of the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind, 1909-1910

Columbia Institute for the instruction of the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind

Annual reports of Montana School for the Deaf and Blind

Annual report of the Montana schools for the deaf, blind,and backward children

Report of the Michigan Institution for the Deaf-Mutes and the Blind, 1857+

Annual Report of the Alabama Institution for the Deaf and Blind

Annual Report the American Asylum, at Hartford, for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb

Annual Report of the Clarke School for the Deaf, North Hampton, Massachusetts

Report of the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind

Annual Report of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf & Dumb

Premier rapport annuel sur l'Institution catholique dessourds-muets pour la province de Québec, incorporée en 1874: dirigée par lesclercs de St. Viateur, Côteau St. Louis (près Montréal), 1875

Annual Report of the Ontario Institution for the blind

Annual Report of the Oregon Institute for the Blind

Biannual Report of the Nebraska Institute for the Blind

Annual and Biennial Report of the Connecticut Institute for the Blind

Report of Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind

Annual report and abstracts of Treasurer's accounts of the South Australian Institution for the Blind & Deaf & Dumb, 1884-1885

Annual report and abstracts of Treasurer's accounts of the South Australian Institution for the Blind & Deaf & Dumb, 1889+

Annual and Biennial Report of the Maryland School for the Colored Blind

Serendipity Sunday - Private Schools

This week I came across this book when I was looking for information on the school my grandmother went to -

A Handbook Of The Best Private Schools Of The United States And Canada 1915

You can see by this second page of Contents that besides girls and boys schools, they also list summer camps, and compare the different kinds of schools.  There is a directory at the back of different companies or industries to do with schools, finishing up with an alphabetical list of all private schools and camps.

Relevant Links

A Handbook Of The Best Private Schools Of The United States And Canada 1915

School's Out

School is out and kids and parents are waiting for end of year report cards. At one time schools put the names of graduates and/or prize and award winners' names in the newspapers.

This newspaper from Sydney Australia posted on different pages of this January 14th paper and some the next day.

 

 

 

The Hartlepool Mail listed names of girl graduate prize winners at Darlington in 1886.

 

 

Not only elementary, high school, college and university promotions or graduates were posted, but there are posts also for music schools.  When I passed my Grade One Theory in Conservatory Music my name was among those that passed, in the Montreal Star June 25, 1963.

 

 

One of my Carter ancestors also had her name in the paper for music, for passing her senior grade in Lancashire, England, 1917. 

You can search newspapers using keywords: school graduates, school promotions, dean's list, school exams, etc.. also try with the city name in front. Following are a few I found on the free google newspapers archives.


Relevant Links:

Ottawa Normal School 1916

Three Rivers 1945

Daniel O'Connell High School Montreal 1945

Protestant Schools of City of Quebec 1899

Sydney Herald (AU) 1969

The Afro- American 1937

Farmer's Advocate, Charles Town, W Virginia 1938

Sir George Williams Montreal 1957

Spokane, Washington 1922



Related Post: 
School Days (with lists of yearbooks)