Hudson’S Bay Co. Archives A Blessed Gift

Many of us in the Pacific Northwest have ancestors who were connected in some way to Hudson’s Bay Co. in Canada.

Begun in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Co.

controlled fully a third of present-day Canada. Control over this enormous domain was granted by Royal Charter from King Charles II.

What began as a simple fur-trading enterprise evolved into a trading and exploration company that reached to the west coast of Canada and the United States, south to Oregon, north to the Arctic and east to Siberia. And over the years, it became a merchandising giant.

The company took its name from Henry Hudson, the English explorer who led an unsuccessful voyage to discover the Northwest Passage in 1610 and the bay that was named after him. In the spring of 1611, his mutinous crew left Hudson, his son, and seven others to die.

I enjoyed a good browse a while back, learning about Hudson’s Bay Co. through its online archives. The Web site (see address below) presents a brief history of the company and its archives and how family historians can access the files.

The archives represent a rich documentation of three centuries of history as the company continued to grow and expand into what would become Canada. Thankfully, company officials insisted on meticulous record-keeping and saw to it that most records remained in its possession. The result is an extraordinary collection of books, letters, ledgers, ship logs, pictures, photographs, maps and reports from more than 500 Hudson’s Bay Co. trading posts between 1688 and 1949.

In 1994, the company made one of the most extraordinary public gifts ever, donating its records to the Province of Manitoba. There are now more than two kilometers (well over a mile) of documents stored in a special climate-controlled vault in the Manitoba Archives Building. All company records before 1870 have been microfilmed and filming continues of material after that date.

Links from the archival Web site lead researchers to catalogs and finding aids to make the best use of this vast collection. There are nine divisions in the collection: London Office Records, Post Records, Ship Records, Governors’ Papers, Private Records, Records of Related and Subsidiary Companies, Cartographic Records, Western Department Land Records, and Miscellaneous Records. The microfilm collection is available through interlibrary loan.

For the cost of copying, the archival staff will conduct research by mail, particularly if the records of interest have not been microfilmed. Send the full name of the person you are interested in, along with the dates and geographical area of employment and be as precise as possible.

For people and events in the modern period, indicate whether the person worked in the fur trade, the retail store, or some other branch of the company.

They request you DO NOT send a long list of names or your pedigree chart.

If mention of your ancestor is found, they will send you a one-page biographical sheet on the person and will offer further suggestions for continuing research through interlibrary loan of microfilm.

If you visit Winnipeg, you can make an appointment for a guided tour. Usual tours consist of a display of selected documents, maps, artifacts and a short film. Other points of interest on the Web site are instructions about donating a company artifact to the archives and how to have your heirloom Hudson’s Bay blanket evaluated. The Hudson’s Bay Co. Web site address is: www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/about/the-bay.html.