More than 100 years of McGill University yearbooks digitized and available online

If you have an ancestor who graduated from Montreal’s McGill University or think you may, take a look the digitized collection of Old McGill Yearbooks from 1898 to 2000 that the university has produced. Also available are the yearbooks for McGill’s Macdonald College for the years 1933 to 1960. This collection is described on the website as a “rich resource for family researchers and historians alike, this slice of McGill’s history provides a unique view of student life, learning and research.”

You can browse through the years or search by name.

Knowing one of my ancestors, George Arthur Boon, earned his medical degree in 1923, I easily flipped through the pages of the yearbook for that year. (I also found him by searching for his name.) There I found a photo of him, short bio, and a descriptive quote:

“He comes as a boon / And a blessing to men. Born in Montreal in ’99. Was class secretary in 1921-22, on the Medical Dance Committee in ’22 and played class basketball. Hobby: The light fantastic.”

Then I entered “Dever” in the search box and found my father’s cousin, JoanMary Dever, who graduated in 1946, a year when they shared more information about themselves, in addition to an individual photo, class photo, and club photo. Here is what they wrote about her:

“No small art is it to sleep, it is necessary for that purpose to stay awake all day. It happened May 15th, 1926. Lived and educated in St. Lambert until 1938, then moved to Westmount. Matriculated from Trafalgar in 1943 and entered Science at McGill that fall. Switched to Physiotherapy in 1944. Pre-medical Society; Red Wing Society, 1944-46; Doodled at Basketball; Red and White Society.” 

I entered several family names, and the search tool appears to work well.

Copyright © 2014, Gail Dever.