LAC orders-in-council database update

LAC announce an update to their research tool providing access to orders-in-council (OIC) from the date of Canada's modern inception on July 1, 1867 to 1910.

Orders-in-council are a legislative instrument that address a wide range of administrative and legislative matters, from civil service staffing to capital punishment, and from the disposition of Aboriginal lands to the maintenance of the Parliamentary Library.

Many OICs include personal names. For example, in a search on Wiggins I found reference to E Stone Wiggins receiving a Civil Service appointment, and a promotion, his brother receiving a pension for his part in the 1885 North West Rebellion and his uncle's appointment as a lighthouse keeper. Each entry is linked to an image of the original document.

The period of the extension of the time period covered by these OICs isn't specified for this update. The promise is made that "regular updates will extend the temporal range of these records through to the mid-20th century." That's welcome -- we don't have to wait for the whole thing to be complete before we see any of it.