From the Toronto Star Weekly, September 1913 ◊ Note: This article describes the very diligent efforts that went into producing Toronto’s city directories of a century ago. This is good news for genealogists because it assures us of the reliability of the directory information. However, individuals of Chinese, Macedonian and other “foreign” ancestry were not always…
From the Toronto Star, April 29, 1931 Jews and Gentiles will have their automobile insurance risks underwritten on exactly the same terms by 85 per cent of the automobile insurance companies in Ontario, it was announced last night by E. Fred Singer, K.C., M.P.P. (St Andrews). The information came as a result of a questionnaire…
From The Toronto Star Weekly, July 1913 Zeth Slavin had to flee the Czar’s domains because his customers were massacred — Now he sells papers at corner of Yonge & Adelaide — Sorry he did not come sooner By Gregory Clark Zeth Slavin’s face is well known to most people whose work brings them to…
From Tales of North Toronto II, ca 1950 by Lyman B. Jackes North Toronto is, geologically speaking, very different from the remainder of the city. Some eight or nine thousand years ago, what is now North Toronto was the beach land of a great lake. The level of the water is clearly marked today in…
Sixty Years’ Changes, As Hotelman Has Seen Them — The Queen’s Has Been “An Institution” of Toronto, Like the Parliament Buildings or St. James’ Cathedral — Glimpses of ‘60s & ‘70s — View of Bay Fetched Topnotch Price for Rooms — Nickel-plated Self-feeder Supplied Luxury of Heating — Tin Bath When Asked — First Phone and First Elevator By…
“Picturing Immigrants in the Ward,” a recently installed exhibit at the City of Toronto Archives, offers many tantalizing glimpses of Jewish, Italian and other recently arrived immigrants in the congested “Ward” neighbourhood of downtown Toronto as it existed from about 1905 to 1930, focusing mostly on the era before the First World War. The Ward…
From The Toronto Star Weekly, November 18, 1926 ◊ Profile of the remarkable Toronto-born entrepreneur Lawrence “Lol” Solman (1866-1931), who was managing director of the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Sunnyside Amusement Park, Hanlan’s Hotel, Hanlan’s Point Amusement Park and the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto; owner of the Toronto Ferry Company and the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball…
From the Toronto Star Weekly, December 31, 1926 by Frederick Griffin You can’t imagine the gigantic United States with all its doughboys and buddies being scared of a woman. It is like a man being scared of a mouse. And yet we have the fact that they were so frightened over there by the presence…
Problem: you know your Jewish ancestors or relatives lived in Toronto in 1911 — you even know their street address — yet you can’t find them in the 1911 census. No matter how many times you search, they do not show up in Ancestry.com’s database of the 1911 census. Frequently the problem occurs because a family…
From a Canadian newspaper, August 20, 1976 By Mordecai Hershenson Harry Sniderman was a colourful figure in the Toronto scene for three decades — an able athlete, gracious sportsman and promoter and a Babe Ruth of the Bellwoods Park softball teams. During the late 1920s and 1930s, “Iron Man,” “What-A-Man Sniderman” was the king of…
