Canada, Difficulties at Archives - International Institute

Problems in the Archives
Certain stumbling blocks are common to genealogical researchers in archives. Let’s examine some of them and their possible solutions.

Difficulties Interpreting Documents
Every researcher, even the most experienced, will have problems with interpreting some documents. The most common problem is handwriting. New researchers will find that the calligraphy of earlier centuries seems quite foreign, and it is simply a matter of experience, getting used to the appearance.

However, there are many other situations as well, where there might be phrases in legal documents which are unknown (especially if Latin is involved), abbreviations, words which were common in the past and are obsolete now (such as many medical terms) or simply sloppy layout, blots of ink or carelessness on the part of the clerk.

It is acceptable to ask the archives staff for help. You should not expect them to interpret or transcribe an entire document, but to ask for help with individual words is all right. If you have no luck, the possibility of obtaining a copy of the document (printout for microfilm, photograph for original) should be considered. You can then carry the copy to others who may have better eyes or more knowledge.

There will certainly be reference tools similar to those in a library to help with linguistic problems. These will include a general dictionary, language dictionaries (French-English for instance), a legal dictionary, and specific volumes for interpreting Latin or medical terms. There should also be gazetteers or place-name dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, even an historical encyclopedia. If you cannot see these, ask the archivist.

Nowadays with the Internet and our discovery that so many wonderful things can be found in a few clicks, many researchers have forgotten that information of this kind (linguistic and geographical) may be found more quickly using a printed book and the results may be more trustworthy. The first act of some researchers who wonder, “Where is Riding Mountain?” seems to be to type a query on their favourite discussion list. The answers received may simply be from the top of someone else’s head, and equally misinformed. A quick trip to a gazetteer will provide a reliable answer. Those with access to the Internet and a question regarding a Canadian place-name should go to the federal government’s geographical names site first.

There are still researchers with difficulties regarding microfilm. Since microfilm is both a basic tool in archives, and has excellent long term survival capabilities, it will be necessary to use it for archival work. Using originals is not going to be possible, and those who remember the days when many original documents were available and had to be used, will state that using microfilm is much easier: quicker, simpler and cleaner.

Any archives which has microfilm readers and printers will have staff available to assist those who have mechanical trouble.

It may be that reading a microfilmed document will be difficult. In the case where a writer made an error and then wrote over the original, deciding which letter came first, or indeed what letters were intended, may be impossible. If the problem is a vital one, it may be possible to request that an archivist examine the original and interpret it.

Here is an example. A marriage record was badly written and the bride’s name, available nowhere else, might have been Reeve, Reave or Beare. After carefully noting the reference, the researcher returned home, and then wrote a query to the archives asking if an archivist could examine the original church document and interpret it. The three full possibilities were given, and the citation for the document.

The archives’ reply indicated not only that one archivist had looked at the original, but that several colleagues had shared the task. Their opinion was that the name was Reave, and the odds for this choice were raised by the observation of one archivist, an expert on the area concerned, who said that Reave was a name known to exist in the town in question, while Beare and Reeve were not.

The Difficult Archivist
What can the researcher do if the reference archivist on duty is unhelpful? This may take the form of being dismissive of your question or may simply be bad temper.

First, keep in mind that archivists are only human and may well have bad days, be unwell, or be overwhelmed by the pace of business at the time. They may also be simply unfriendly to researchers, but this kind of old-fashioned archivist is increasingly rare and may even, by this time, be extinct.

Schedules in reference rooms usually mean that the archivists change regularly. Be patient and ask your question of the next one to come on duty. It is pointless to quarrel with the archivist, for the practical reason that it will not help and may well cause you to be pointed out as a ‘problem patron’ which will ensure that you will have difficulties with staff throughout your stay. Keep a courteous face at all times.

If the difficulties you experience are sufficiently awful, then you can always write to the head of the archives afterward to point them out.

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