The
Library and
Archives
of Canada (LAC).
Subscriber
Bill Daykin has provided the following, of great interest to those of us with
links in Canada
The National Archives and National Library in Ottawa have merged and are now known as The Library and Archives of Canada (LAC).
They have jointly created The Canadian Genealogy Centre (CGC) on-line. The new Web site is accessible now, at <www.genealogy.gc.ca>, but officially becomes operational on 3/29. It is a work in progress. The CGC will provide a single access point for all institutionally housed genealogy related data in Canada.
There will eventually be links to all data and databases at provincial archives, libraries, historical societies, genealogy societies, church archives, etc. It will not link to any individual's records or Web sites, because of the unreliable nature of this data. Eventually, it will become one of the largest genealogy web sites in the world.
Among the first NAC databases on the site will be indexes of the 1901 and 1906 censuses (currently works in progress), 1915-32 Naturalized Canadians, All Gross Isle Arrivals.
Future projects include indexing all ships' passenger lists from 1865-1920 (?), and World War II Service records (not a high priority because some vets are still living so there is a potential confidentiality problem). At some point they will tackle indexing earlier censuses. (The Mormons have already done the 1881 census and it is available on CD-ROM.)
The CGC currently only has 8 full time employees, and will rely on genealogy societies and similar groups to extract the information from microfilmed copies of the original documents. They have more offers of help than they can currently use. The next year will be devoted to developing the Web site, running small pilot transcription projects, and cataloging what information is currently available across Canada so they don't transcribe what is already done.
The project is currently a trial, budgeted for four years. But there is little doubt it will be a success. Discussions are under way to possibly reorganize the layout of the Archives (3rd floor) and Library (2nd floor). One possibility is that all the information of interest to genealogists will be brought together on one floor, giving the CGC a physical home.