Canada, Using Archival Records - International Institute

New genealogists, or those who have only worked in libraries, may find the quality of archival records startling. While published books are neatly presented in typed format, perhaps with explanatory notes and sources and an index, archival records tend to be ‘an undigested mass of information.’

Researchers should remember that many of the documents they want to see were created with no genealogical purposes in mind; even that most valuable of genealogical resources, the census, collected all its personal facts for statistical reasons, not to help people sort out their families a century in the future. The fact that it does, is a bonus.

There are similarities between special collections or rare book rooms, and archives (which can be seen in the fact that the two are combined in some institutions), but an essential difference for researchers is that books are acquired for use in libraries; their continued presence depends on them being used. If statistics indicate that a certain volume is no longer being circulated, then it is deemed to be no longer useful and may be discarded. (This does not happen in rare book collections because the items already have value because of their rarity.)

Archival documents are acquired because they represent something about their time period or creator, or because they have a potential to reveal facts not available elsewhere. They may simply be good examples of their kind, to offer a flavour of their era. An example of this might be a broadside or poster which tells that a circus is coming to town in 1857. There are no new facts in the broadside which we did not know before—the presence of a circus might be known, its visit on that date could be gleaned from a newspaper—but the wording and appearance of the broadside will tell us something about circuses and people’s reaction to them in the 1850s.

The judging of this potential for use places a great deal of both power and responsibility on the archivist who decides whether something should be kept or discarded. The criteria for keeping things change as ideas about what will interest historians and other archival users change. We have already seen that responses to genealogical resources have altered greatly over the last thirty years. Changes have continued to affect archives, with the tendency to broaden what is kept and a greater reluctance to absolutely discard materials. This is also the reason why so many archives constantly face problems of space and lack of personnel for processing. What does this mean for the genealogical researcher? While the library catalogue may be sufficient to tell us if a book will help us, or the table of contents and index might quickly give us that information, an archival document is more mysterious. It may be that the item-level description in a finding aid may give enough information for a judgement about a document, but it is more likely that we will have to read it and consider the contents before we know for certain. Thus, archival research is much slower than work in libraries. Genealogists new to archives who expect to work as they do in libraries may be confused or frustrated.

It is essential that researchers visiting an archive be thoroughly prepared. Archival websites everywhere stress this, for good reason. Researchers who are prepared will have greater chances of success. Unprepared workers will almost certainly be disappointed.

This preparation takes two forms: research preparation and psychological readiness.

To be psychologically prepared, the researcher should:


 * have thought about the problems to be solved and understand them


 * have realistic expectations about the documents to be encountered, about the archival services provided and about the amount of help the archivists can give


 * be ready to work carefully and to look at a great many resources without finding anything that seems useful

Perhaps the greatest barrier to success in genealogical research, whether in archives, libraries or sitting at home cruising the Internet, is having a preconceived notion of what can be found, which blinds the researcher to other choices which may arise. If a user continues to reject all suggestions made by the archivist because they do not fit some set idea, or because ‘I’ve done all that before,’ then it is likely that the suggestions will dry up. And why not? The archivist is the expert, at least on the resources of that archives. Researchers should consider their advice carefully.

Preparing research problems can involve a number of things:


 * Looking at all background materials which will contribute data to be used in solving the problems. Once the family’s own knowledge has been tapped, the census is basic to providing a structure for further research (names, places and dates). New genealogists are often reluctant to face up to using the census thoroughly, wanting to use an index or two and then get on with other resources. The census may require a great deal of work, but the rewards are proportionate. In particular, the 1901 census with its extra questions, adds a great deal to what we know about our ancestors. The census is universally available. It can be found in many libraries and archives across Canada, and is available on interlibrary loan everywhere in North America in public libraries from Library and Archives Canada, and at FamilySearch Centers. It is also available, in searchable databases and digital images, on various free and paid Internet sites.


 * Using published sources to provide information for the archival search.


 * Examining the archives’ website, or lacking that, its printed brochures, to be sure that our expectations are reasonable. This includes such mundane ideas as ensuring that the institution will be open when we visit, to the basic requirement that the documents we want are there.


 * Establishing which questions we hope to answer, what we know about each and what facts we hope to find.

In thinking about what problems we hope to solve in an archival visit, we will be ready to answer the archivist’s questions intelligently. Researchers will want to avoid the situation where they present a question, the archivist asks, “When was he born?” and the questioner has to riffle through a pile of papers looking for the date. Clarify the question and write down the relevant data. A good idea is to have the data written down on a piece of paper, one sheet per question.

In addition, the researcher might find it useful to ask, “What exactly do I want to find?” The archivist (or librarian) might ask this. It is quite useless to reply, “Everything,” as so many researchers do. In genealogical research, you should be searching for some particular piece of information in any resource you use. Many resources may supply a number of pieces of information (as the census does), but a good researcher will have these in mind individually as they search.

As for using published sources, here is an (imaginary) example from a military question:


 * You are looking for information about Joe Blitz, who died at the battle of Monte Cassino in World War II. You know his date of death, but you want some more information about the activities of Canadian soldiers in the battle that day.


 * From printed sources you can find the official descriptions of the army’s actions that day, perhaps a map of the area, establish what regiments were involved and the names of commanders. From the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission you will have a very general description of the battle.


 * With this information, you can visit an archives of military materials to find the reports of regimental commanders, which may be daily war diaries with the official and very detailed reports, or copies of correspondence or other primary documents with as much information as exists about what happened the day Joe died. There may also be manuscript memoirs or oral history tapes of other soldiers who were there.


 * It is essential that you have the military unit information when you go to the archives, so you can quickly discover whether there are documents from this unit.