Researching Your Aboriginal Ancestry at Library and Archives Canada

Part I: Researching Your Aboriginal Genealogy at Library and Archives Canada

Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian Records

During the very early French colonial period (1534–1760), explorers, the military, the colonial government and the clergy maintained accounts of their respective operations in New France. Unfortunately, the documents for that period in the custody of Library and Archives Canada contain very little information of genealogical significance.

Petition of the Indians of Bécancour for a grant of land, Montreal, August 30, 1803. Library and Archives Canada, RG 1 L3L, vol. 154, pp. 75377 to 75382, reel C-2552.

A few series of records at Library and Archives Canada contain references to aboriginal individuals in the British military and their family members during the British colonial period (1760–1867). Specifically, these series include the Lower Canada Land Records (Record Group RG 1 L3L), the Upper Canada Land Records (RG 1 L3), the British Military and Naval Records (RG 8 series "I") and the Haldimand Papers (Manuscript Group MG 21 Great Britain, add. mss 21661–21892). Although not standard genealogical sources, these may provide ties to ancestors in the military and other family members of aboriginal origin. The above series are indexed and on microfilm.

There may be information relating to aboriginal people in other records from the time of the British colonial period, but the indexing practices of earlier decades have left any such references unmarked. Whether such non-indexed information would be of value to the genealogical researcher is unknown. Certainly, the researcher should consult the Hudson's Bay Company Archives at the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, as these records do include additional indexes relating to aboriginal ancestry. For more information see the Web site of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives (HBCA) [www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/index.html].

In 1850, with the passage of the Act for the Better Protection of the Lands and Property of the Indians in Lower Canada, the first definition of "Indian" was given, with Indian status linked to band membership. This fairly loose definition was found inadequate after Confederation in 1867, when the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly known as the British North America Act), gave responsibility for "Indians and lands reserved for the Indians" to the new Canadian government. Unfortunately, the Act did not define "Indian", leaving it up to the federal government to determine whether "constitutional Indians" included Indians, Inuit and the Métis. As a result, over time, constitutional jurisdiction has been exercised in different ways for the different groups that make up the aboriginal population of Canada.

Nonetheless, records on Aboriginal Peoples did improve after 1867, as the federal government began documenting the many aspects of relations between aboriginal groups and various government departments. Many of these records are located at Library and Archives Canada, the official depository for historical records of the federal government.

The archival records relating to Aboriginal Peoples are grouped into those for Indians, Métis and Inuit. These categories are not related to the cultural reality of the lives of status Indians, non-status Indians, Inuit and Métis individuals and families, but rather to the administrative organization of the records. It must be remembered that the records were almost all created by non-aboriginal people, primarily federal government clerks and officials, and that the manner of their organization is based on how those people recognized the status of the aboriginal person during his or her lifetime.

Further information on federal government records related to Aboriginal Peoples is available online.