Canada, Specialized and Ethnic Archives - International Institute

Specialized Archives
There are many other smaller archives whose holdings contain materials of use to genealogists. Researchers would be advised to pursue these by examining their research question, asking, “What kind of archives might have this information?” and then trying to find a suitable institution. Finding a suitable place might be as simple as asking a local librarian or archivist for suggestions about other places to find the information you require. In addition, there are many lists and directories of archives which might help. In this module we will examine a few of these alternative archives. The first two are special but not at all small.

Hudson’s Bay Company Archives Archives of Manitoba 130-200 Vaughan Street Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 1T5 Telephone: (204) 945-3971 Toll free in Manitoba: 1-800-617-3588 Email: [mailto:hbca@gov.mb.ca hbca@gov.mb.ca]

The Hudson’s Bay Company was founded in 1670 and its principal purposes were the fur trade, exploration and settlement; it controlled much of western Canada until 1870, when Rupert’s Land became part of the new country.

The archives are extensive and, genealogically speaking, very valuable as they contain a great deal of biographical information about company employees.

The website is informative and easy to use. The archives are now part of the Archives of Manitoba. Although the HBCA has a separate but connected reading room, the same staff service both areas.

Accessing these materials is very easy. Most of the textual records up to 1904 are available on microfilm (4000 reels), and the films can be obtained on interlibrary loan. There are some online finding aids, but very detailed finding aids have been filmed and can be borrowed also. Copies of the films can be viewed at Library and Archives Canada and the Public Record Office at Kew (London, England). A great many libraries across Canada and the USA have copies of the finding aid films, including the Family History Library; the website contains a complete list of these libraries. A list of available microfilm is on the site. There is an HBC finding aid on the British Columbia archives website also.

The archives include post records, ships’ records, administrative materials from governors, commissioners and the London office, maps, documents from related companies and private records (arranged by person’s name and consisting of journals, diaries, correspondence and similar documents).

The reference staff will accept queries by email or mail, but require a postal address because there may be photocopies to be sent. There is no charge for a limited search, but there is for the copies. These are the same as for copies of materials in the Archives of Manitoba and are outlined in detail on their website. More extensive questions may require a professional researcher, to whom HBCA can make a referral. Queries may take 4-8 weeks for reply.

Reference queries about individuals are usual here. Be sure to include the person’s full name, approximate date and place of employment. The website stresses the HBCA’s eagerness to help.

Glenbow Archives 130 - 9th Avenue S.E. Calgary, Alberta T2G 0P3 Telephone: (Archives) (403) 268-4204 Email: [mailto:archives@glenbow.org archives@glenbow.org]

The archives is part of a large complex which includes a very fine museum and a library. The reading room has the library reference desk at one end and the archives at the other, indicative of the cooperative nature of work here. The website homepage describes it as having ‘extensive holdings of unpublished documents and photographs related to the history of Western Canada.’ It is also a welcoming environment for genealogists.

The collections include personal, family, business and organizational records, and a million photographs. It is, interestingly, a rare archival site which states that family research is more meaningful if done by the genealogist personally (as a gentle urging to come in and use the archives). It has a specialty in aboriginal research, particularly Métis, which includes a Métis research service (for a fee). Much of the Métis material is also available on microfilm and through interlibrary loan.

The collections include newspapers, church records, school records, business and organizational archives. The main catalogue is available online. There is also a collection entitled “Southern Alberta Pioneers and their Descendants.” From other archives, there are census records on microfilm and the index to Alberta homestead records (from the Alberta archives). One exciting aspect of the website is “Sales of agricultural land by the Canadian Pacific Railway to settlers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 1881-1906,” which is searchable on the site. Other Alberta CPR records are at Glenbow. Finding aids are available online to the file level.

The library has an extensive collection of local histories for Alberta (with some for Saskatchewan and Manitoba).

Ethnic Archives or Archival Collections
If your family belonged to an ethnic group there may be an archives devoted to collections which concern it. There may have been cultural, religious or political groups associated with that group, and their archives may be available for study. These almost invariably will provide some biographical material, in some cases even including hard genealogical facts (BMDs).

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has an area within their Genealogy and Family History section devoted to ethno-cultural and aboriginal groups. You will find this area under “What to Search: Topics.” Listed is a brief history of the group in Canada and then LAC’s major holdings regarding the group.

While there are ethnic archives, there are many more collections which contain ethnic material. Begin by looking at local archives in the area where your family lived.

While political groups may be of great interest, they may generate fewer records of a genealogical kind than some others. Cultural groups or those promoting social welfare may leave records which will be of greater interest. The latter in particular, in an attempt to establish the bona fides of individuals asking for assistance, may have taken down personal details which remain in the records.

For example the Invalid Commission of the Hamilton Branch of the Polish Congress includes information about Stanislaw Mazurek that includes his birth date (1945), the fact that he was in the sanatorium in Hamilton with tuberculosis and is now at home.

As with records of many organizations, these collections may be extensive and a good look at the finding aid will save time. To begin with, it will probably be in English (or French in a Québec archives), and hence easier to read. The collections of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario at the Archives of Ontario are huge, and the collection requires a series of finding aids. If we look at series 54, v. 2, Polish Canadian papers the introduction notes that some of the papers concerning the national congress have gone to LAC, and that local chapter papers are at the Canadian Polish Research Institute. It is interesting that those pages regarding the national congress have been removed from the finding aid; researchers might think that having the listing in the finding aid at the Archives of Ontario might help them determine if they needed to look at the materials which had been moved to LAC without having to go there.

There are a number of items listed which may contain genealogical materials, including the invalids’ commission (noted above), a charity for families of miners killed on the job, school records (Polish language school), and forms for applying for Christmas aid. A first look into the invalids’ commission records shows that most of the material consists of minutes and financial ledgers, all in Polish, of course.

Among the papers is a collection of memoirs written as part of a project in 1972-1974. Most are handwritten and in Polish. At the beginning of that by Magdalena Lacz, even a non-Polish speaker can see the place name Vallejski Pamiêtnik Joasi, perhaps her birthplace. The list of entrants includes date of emigration for each. The memoirs were later published by the Canadian Polish Research Institute as Memoirs of Polish immigrants, edited by Benedykt Heydenkorn (1979).

The Christmas fund materials include receipts for donations and questionnaires for those applying for aid, which are certainly genealogical material.

Here is a copy of one of the receipts:



This document does not contain much of interest, but is included to demonstrate that if a researcher encounters a document which might be useful, but is in a language outside their experience, it is still possible to copy it carefully for translation later. In the case of the aid questionnaires, common sense and experience could make much of the information accessible despite it being in Polish, because it is on a form. This is also true of church records, for example.

Working in ethnic archives can have an advantage because the archivist will be fluent in the language concerned and be able to assist in translation. Even in a large archive with ethnic collections, there may be an archivist on staff who can assist with small translation duties. The translation of extensive texts will require the hiring of a translator, or perhaps a professional researcher with abilities in that language.

The Centre d’études acadiennes at the Université de Moncton is interested in Acadian studies in the larger academic sense, but it does include a great deal of information about families and has a genealogy button on its website which leads to information about its publication on Acadian families.

Many university archives have collections on ethnic groups with connections to their home area, or the group may be of interest to someone on the faculty. An example of a specialized ethnic collection which might be of help to genealogists is that on the Doukhobors at the University of Saskatchewan.

Ethnic archives tend to extend their interests over a broader geographic area, simply because they are interested in an ethnic group (as opposed to a particular locale) and people do tend to move about. Even if their interests do have a stated geographic limit, there is a good chance that they will interpret this liberally in an effort to ensure that archival documents are not lost. For example, the Icelandic Archives of British Columbia states on its website, “Where persons of Icelandic origin or descent have relocated to British Columbia from other areas, we offer to safeguard their old photographs and papers or other historical items for posterity.” Any ethnic archive for your people is a possible site of interest, even if it is only to ask, “Where should I look next?”