Researching Your Aboriginal Ancestry at Library and Archives Canada

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

Land Records

Library and Archives Canada holds registers of location tickets (documents attesting to the right of an Indian to occupy and use a section of reserve land) for some reserves. Location tickets are a sub-set of the extensive records in RG 10 dealing with individual land holdings within reserve lands. There are many other records throughout the record group that document the occupation of parcels of reserve land by individual Indians. In 1951, location tickets were replaced by certificates of possession or notices of entitlement.

Land records, Caradoc Agency, Location Ticket, 1890. Library and Archives Canada, RG 10, vol. 7618, file 15007-126, reel C-11580.

Records on location tickets are arranged in file blocks for which finding aids (FAs) 10-97, 10-20 and 10-32 can be searched using the names of reserves, agencies, bands or the keyword phrase "location ticket$" in the Government of Canada Files database. General information relating to land records in RG 10 can be searched in the General Inventory database using the keywords "Indian" and "land" at the series and government records levels. Many of these documents have access restrictions.

Because the land holdings files are in the custody of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs and because the Indian Land Registry is public, it is advisable to start a search about Indian lands with that department's Registrar of Indian Lands Section. Please contact your local Indian and Northern Affairs Canada office for additional information.