Library and Archives Canada
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
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Canadian Genealogy Centre
What to Search: Topics
Ethno-Cultural and Aboriginal Groups
Aboriginal Peoples
Source
Montagnais People making a bark canoe,
Murray Bay (Pointe-au-Pic), Quebec, ca. 1863.
Photographer: Alexander Henderson.
Library and Archives Canada, PA-149709.
In order to determine if one of your ancestors was of Native origin, you should first compile a Family Tree. Census indicate each individual's ethnic origin. Some mention of Aboriginal individuals can be found in Parish Registers, Land, Military Records and Publications.
Research at Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada holds records of the Department of Indian Affairs (RG 10) dating mainly from the late 1800s. The records are usually arranged by band, agency and district.
For information about searching Native ancestry, we recommend the following:
- Researching Your Aboriginal Ancestry at Library and Archives Canada
This is a new guide designed specifically for the genealogist. - Aboriginal Peoples - Guide to the Records of the Government of Canada
This guide contains an overview of Aboriginal History in Canada. - Aboriginal Resources and Services
This Web page provides links to additional sources and to libraries and other organizations that hold records and books relating to Aboriginal Peoples. - Aboriginal Documentary Heritage: Historical Collections of the Canadian Government
This Web exhibition recounts first-hand information illustrating the complex and often contentious relationship between the Canadian government and Canada's Aboriginal people from the late 1700s to the mid-20th century.
Research Online
"We were so far away..." The Inuit Experience of Residential Schools
[www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/whats-on/index-e.html#a1]
Native Soldiers - Foreign Battlefields
[www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm?source=history/other/native]
Project Naming
An ongoing project to identify Inuit people represented in Library and Archives Canada's collections of photographs.
Red and Black Series
[www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/red-black/index-e.html]
Treaties, Surrenders and Agreements
[www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/treaties/index-e.html]
Research in Published Sources
Tracing your Aboriginal Ancestors in the Prairie Provinces: A Guide to the Records and How to Use Them, edited by Laura M. Hanowski, published by the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, 2006.
Research in Other Institutions
For Newfoundland and Labrador, consult the Aboriginal Ancestry [www.therooms.ca/archives/aboriginal_ancestry.asp] page on the Web site of the Rooms Provincial Archives Division.
Use AVITUS to find other Web sites about Aboriginal Ancestry such as guides produced by Nova Scotia, Ontario and Manitoba Provincial Archives.
Related Topics
