The project, for post records created between 1670 and 1870, includes journals, accounts and district reports.
HBCA archivist Bronwen Quarry is quoted as saying there's information about what’s happening at the post, who’s arriving and who’s leaving and, goods being traded. "People use them to look at animal population, weather conditions and weather patterns.” Genealogists are major clients.
Read more and see a video at Province digitizing centuries-old trading post records to mark Manitoba 150.
Comment: Credit should also be given to the previous work of putting the original material on microfilm which is much more labour-intensive than microfilm digitization.
This is exciting. The records of my forefathers. The fur traders.
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased the HBC Archives will be displayed on line and easy to research. The fur trade records and other information is important to my family since we were the early fur traders in this country.
ReplyDeleteI hope no jobs will be lost as a result.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed they will make Fort McLeod (McLeod Lake, BC) journals available... there's quite a lot of back history info I've been looking for lately that having them online would make my life so much easier in researching
ReplyDeleteLooking to find the real history of my Cousin George Drouillard.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to this, and excited to see! My Grandfather was a surveyor for the Hudson's Bay Company.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to see the journal comments from around the James Bay District of which I was a part of in the early 1970's.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome! I have multiple ancestors from the Orkney Islands who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. Steersmen, oarsmen, and Linguists/translators. Looking forward to learning more about these folks.
ReplyDeleteLooking for ANY info on Joseph Auger who clerked for the NWC in Manitoba in the 1790's. Hopefully the HBC records will include the NWC records as they absorbed the company...
ReplyDeleteMoose Factory
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