Are all records at the BC Archives open? What about the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act?
The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act covers all government documents. Some may be restricted for general research. Other restrictions may apply to court records. Private (non-government) records may also have specific restrictions. Please phone the reference desk during regular hours to ask about the access status of particular government records (we’ll need the call number and box number). If you have more than three call numbers, please put your request in writing. If the records you are interested in are not open for routine access, staff will explain your options for access.
Do you have any information about other provinces and countries?
No. We collect and preserve records about British Columbia. The best place for information about other provinces and countries is your local library. The Internet is an excellent resource for finding contact information for libraries and archives.
How do I get copies and reproductions of records?
See Photocopies and Reproductions
Where can I buy books and tapes in your Sound Heritage series?
Although we stopped publishing the Sound Heritage series in 1983, many of the books are still in print and available from Crown Publications of Victoria. The BC Archives continues to sell copies of the cassette sound programs. For more information on the availability of the book or cassette you're interested in, see the Royal BC Museum website, under Shop.
Do you lend material through interlibrary loan?
The BC Archives' library and archival collections are non-circulating and therefore unavailable through interlibrary loan. However, if you can provide an exact reference to a book or an archival record held by the BC Archives, we may be able to provide photocopies at the usual cost.
Textual Records
I’m looking for a government record. Where do I start?
The BC Archives is the repository for the records of the Province of British Columbia. Most government records have a "GR" prefix. A GR usually consists of an accession of records. The Bureau of Canadian Archivists' Rules for Archival Description defines an accession as "a body of material from the same source taken into archival custody at the same time". An accession can vary from a single document to hundreds of metres of records. You can see descriptions of these records by searching the Textual Records index. Each listing gives you the GR number, the name of the transferring agent, the format of the material, the date range and physical extent. It also gives a short description of the records, a general note and subject headings. If a GR is quite large (i.e. more that 30 cm of records), it is likely that we have created another description of them. These descriptions are called finding aids. A finding aid consists primarily of a file, box or item listing. The purpose of a finding aid description is to let you know the content of a GR before you view the records themselves. You can search finding aid catalogues by using keywords to search the entire content of the description, the title or the call number. If you still can't find what you are looking for, contact or visit the BC Archives.
Please Note: Not all government record catalogues are available online, and you may need to visit the archives to consult them. We also have a backlog of undescribed records, due to the large volume of government records received. An archivist may be able to search lists and in-house resources to see if the records that you are looking for exist.
I’m looking for private papers – not government records. Can I find them online?
First complete a search of our Fonds Descriptions and Textual Records. If your search is unsuccessful, search MemoryBC (formerly the BC Archival Union List). If you find what you’re looking for, be sure to record both the record numbers and the repository (MemoryBC contains listings for 173 archives in the province, including the BC Archives). If your search is still unsuccessful, send a written inquiry to the BC Archives so an archivist can check the manual card catalogues and lists of unprocessed records.
What kinds of company records do you have?
We hold operational records of some private companies, such as the BC Land and Investment Company and Britannia Mines. You can search for these in the Text Records indexes or catalogue.
We also hold specific records filed with the British Columbia Registrar of Companies and Registrar of Societies. They include annual reports of inactive companies and societies that have been dissolved or removed from the registries for more than ten years. To determine whether we have a particular company or society file, please contact the Corporate Registry. You will need to supply the BC Archives with the registry search information to identify and locate the file. Please note that the records contained within the files are only the documents that the Corporate Registry under the Companies Act or Societies Act required to be filed. They are not the operational records of a company.
I found an old share certificate. Can you help me find out how much it’s worth?
No, but we can assist you in determining the status of the company. We hold the Registrar of Companies files for companies that have been inactive for at least ten years. The vast majority of companies that were registered with the Registrar of Companies were private companies with shares that were issued and traded privately. If you are interested in determining any possible value of shares in a publicly traded company, contact the stock exchange where the shares were traded, or other available resources such as an investment dealer, financial institution, or stock search company. To clarify if the company has been inactive for at least ten years, please contact the Corporate Registry.
How do I access court records?
Researching court cases can be very time consuming. If the case took place in the last ten to fifteen years, your first stop should be the court registry where the action took place. You should also consult the local newspaper from the time, to get details about the case. A visit to a law library to take advantage of published resources (including published judgements) and the help of expert librarians will be useful.
You are also welcome to use our online resources or visit the BC Archives in person to conduct research. If you are not able to visit, please consider hiring an Independent Research Agent to conduct research on your behalf. Please keep in mind that most case files are routinely destroyed by the courts after fifteen years and transcripts are not necessarily prepared for every case. Court records (both Provincial and Supreme) transferred to the BC Archives include orders, judgements, samples of case files and other record books. You may have to look through a variety of indexes, finding aids and records to track down information about the particular case you are interested in. Some court records are restricted and may require a research agreement. BC Archives may also charge you an hourly search fee if staff time is required to search through restricted records.
Can I order a copy of a will from the BC Archives?
The BC Archives holds wills probated in British Columbia between 1861 and 1981. The wills indexes and the wills on microfilm are self serve and open for access in the reference room. The 1981 wills are in hardcopy and stored off-site. See conduct research on your behalf.
What are probate files? Can I get a copy of one?
The BC Archives holds probate or estate case files from many BC court registries up to, in some cases, 1992. Probate/estate files include the proceedings of all business relating to either the proving of a will, in cases where there was one, or to the ultimate settling of an estate in instances where the individual died intestate (without leaving a valid will). A typical file might contain: copy of the will, death certificate, inventory of belongings, claims from creditors and general family and financial information. Historic probates were filed either in the Supreme Court or the County Court, depending on the value of the estate. The BC Archives does not have all the probate files for the province. See Probate Case Files Guide for more information. If you need to have staff search for a probate file for you, you must make your request in writing. You need to provide the name of the deceased, the date of death and the name of the court registry that processed the probate (usually the court registry closest to the community where the person lived). Please keep in mind that we charge a fee for each probate search. If you request copies of three different probate files, three search and copy fees will apply.
Can I get a copy of my divorce order from the BC Archives?
We hold some court records relating to divorce, however, if you are looking for a certified copy of your divorce order you should first contact the court registry in BC where the divorce took place.
The court registry may be able to supply a certified copy of your divorce order, or a divorce certificate. If they have transferred the records to the BC Archives, they should be able to supply the index information: accession, box, volume, folio, file numbers and date of the final order. Once you have this index information you can write to the BC Archives to request a certified copy of the divorce order.
If your divorce took place after 1968 and you do not know which BC court registry processed the divorce, you may write to the Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings in Ottawa. They will provide the registry location and the registration number, which you can then take to the appropriate BC court registry for more detailed information.
Family Law Assistance Services
Central Registry of Divorce Proceedings
PO Box 2730, Station D
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5W7
Telephone: (613) 957-4519
Fax: (613) 941-2520
They will need at least four of the following seven items to complete a search:
husband's surname
husband's given name
husband's date of birth
wife's maiden name
wife's given name
wife's date of birth
date of marriage
All requests for copies of divorce records must be made to the BC Archives in writing.
Cartographic Records
Do you have old maps of BC?
There are over 60,000 maps of various geographical areas of British Columbia in our Cartographic Records section. They date from the early explorers up to and including more recent maps prepared for tourists. Our collection spans a broad range including: maps prepared by the Royal Engineers, early land surveyors, admiralty charts, architectural plans, fire insurance Atlases, and BC government maps. The main card catalogue to the map collection is not available on our web site, although we have a small sample from the map collection available. See Cartographic Records. To request information by mail, please indicate a specific geographic location and date range. Reproductions are available.
I’m looking for a map of Leechtown. Where can I find it?
Leechtown, at the junction of Leech and Sooke Rivers, Vancouver Island, was the site of a minor gold rush in 1864. The original gold rush community existed there for a very short period of time. Peter Leech first discovered gold there on 14 July 1864 during a Vancouver Island exploring expedition led by botanist Robert Brown. Gold mining activity continued into the 1930s. Leechtown is commemorated with a stone cairn, erected on 1 October 1928 by the British Columbia Historical Association. The geographic coordinates of Leechtown are 48°29'00" (latitude) and 123°43'00" (longitude). The National Topographic Series grid map identifier is 92B/5. Leechtown is in the Malahat Land District and the Victoria Mining Division.
You can search All Indexes of the BC Archives web site or just the Cartographic Records Catalogue and find a catalogued townsite plan for Leechtown prepared by Edward Stephens in 1864 (CM_A1311).
Because not all maps and plans are described in our on-line catalogue and staff resources do not permit responding to research questions, you will need to make a personal visit and search of our existing map card catalogue.
Besides maps and other online records, the archives library card catalogue describes many publications about Leechtown. The Colonial Correspondence files (GR-1372) are especially useful for learning about the gold rush days of Leechtown. There is a partial subject index to these files in the reference room and on microfiche (GR-1920). We also have the papers of Robert Brown, which pertain to Peter Leech and gold commissioner Richard Golledge, along with extensive mining records and photographs taken by Victoria photographer Charles Gentile in August 1864.