The Loyal-List Project
Victoria Branch, UELAC
I have created a website dedicated to the United Empire Loyalists (UEL) and their descendants who have been identified in sources such as The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Wikipedia, published books, websites, and even institutions like the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Purpose
The goal is to consolidate and highlight UELs and their descendants who have been considered noteworthy enough to be profiled. By doing so, the project makes UEL ancestry more visible and accessible.
For many of us, the distance between ourselves and our Loyalist ancestors is not only measured in time but also in family generations. In my own case, there are 195 years and six generations between myself and my Loyalist ancestor’s birth. However, if one of my grandparents had been identified as a UEL descendant, that connection would shorten dramatically — and so would the path to understanding this important part of my identity.
Migration and Distance
Beyond the passage of time, there is also the factor of distance. Many Loyalist descendants moved away from the Loyalist heartlands to other parts of Canada and beyond. In the process, families often lost touch with their Loyalist roots and, in some cases, never realized this aspect of their heritage.
Organization of the Website
At this point, the website — uelcanada.ca — only organizes Loyalists and their descendants alphabetically. In the future, they will also be organized by the province where they spent the majority of their life.
The other feature of the web site is the inclusion of profiles of the 882 Vancouver Island UEL descendants that could be identified. This Vancouver Island Loyal-List is now a subset of this larger scope and is still available through a link on the home page.
Scope and Profiles
In this Canada wide new work on previously highlighted UEL and descendants, over 600 profiles have been created in this Loyal-List, building on earlier work I completed documenting UEL descendants on Vancouver Island. The expansion to a national scale makes this project a unique resource for Canadians interested in genealogy, migration history, and heritage.
Invitation to Contribute
This initiative is both a resource and an invitation — encouraging Canadians to rediscover their connections to Loyalist history and to help keep these stories alive for future generations.
To add Loyalists and/or descendants to the Loyal-List, or to suggest edits to an existing profile, you can email membership.vic.uelac@gmail.com or submit through the Feedback portal on the home page of the website.
Mike Woodcock, UE
Victoria Branch, UELAC
October 2025