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USE OF THE NOVA SCOTIA A CAL:i!::NDA.H

The Nova Scotia A calendar is the principal finding aid for Colonial Office material relatine; t o Nova Scotia for the per iod prior to 1840 . The calendar Has publ ished in the Public Archives of Canada ' s annual reports as follovrs :

1894 Report l 9h6 Report 1947 Report 1948 Report

vol umes l - 133 volumes l JJ- 161 volumes 162-184 volumes 18.5- 198

1603- 1801 1801-11320 1821-18)6 1837- 1840

All sections of the calendar have special idiosyncrasies which must be under stood before they can l:e used with assurance, but the part published in the l 89b report is by far the most complex . This complexit~r is a result of the manner in uhich it Has produced.

Nova Scotia A is an artificia l creation of the PAC; it does not, and has never existed as a unit in the Public Record Office . In l fl92 Hhen the PAC began to prepare for the copying of records r el ating to Nova Scotia it began by preparing the calendar vrhich ,,ras published in 1894. At that time C. 0. 217 did not exist ; the r ecords ivhich compr i se it Here i n a number of series such as Board of Trade, Nova Scotia.;and America and ldest Indies . In order to create a comprehensive body of r ecords dealing Hith Nova Scotia Brymner brought toget her pertinent r ecords froJn these classes and from others in the PRO as Hell as f rom sources outside of the PRO such as the i3ritish Euseum and Lambeth Palace . These 1·1er e calendared, and the calendll!j published in 1894, Has used as the basis for t he transcript..; uhich fGrmed Nova Scotia A. In t he calendar and in the transcripts principles of provenance 1-rere ignored · in f avour of a strict chronological order al though references to the original source wer e given . By the time the copyists had reached 1802 the PRO had created C. O. 217 ru1d from 1802 on the PAC abandoned its pol icy of creating a composit0 ser ies and transcribed C. O. 217 in toto up to 1840. Later under Dr . Lamb the entire C. O. 217 seri es Has microfiL"'lled . After 1802 the microfil m of C. O. 217 and the transcript series , Nova Scotia A, are by and large, identical except for t he fact t hat, prior to l iJll, t he t r anscripts do not contain marginal notes and memoranda .

A problem arises in locating an item dated prior t o 1801 on the microfilm because 1-1hen C. 0. 217 1•ras organized it vras based on the follmring older series ; Board of Trade , Nova Scotia ; America and Hest Indi es , and on the Secretary· of State 1 s papers . Consequently, man~' i tems -.rhich appear in the Nova Scotia A calendar do not appear in C. O. 217 . Nevertheless, b~r use of the follo-.ri ng process most documents 1-1hich a~pear in the Nova Scotia A calendar may be l ocated in one of the PRO classes ol' r ecords relating to Nova Scotia . This, of course , is not true of docwnents s uch as the Bri tish Huseum or Lambeth Palace manuscripts Hhcih Nere never i n the PRO.

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Use of the Nova Scotia A calendar for reference to the microfilm of C. O. 217 prior to 1802.

1. Having located a reference to the item required in the calendar, note the date and t he reference given beloH it , for exampl e :

A. & ~~ I . val . 30, p. 140 B. T. N.S. val . 33 , p. 244 E. 61, B. T. N. S. vol . 8

An explanation of these abbreviations is given on page XXII of the 1894 Report .

2. Turn ~ ·E t o Appendix .A of this paper - This consists of a list of old Colonial Office references Hith their modern equivalents . Thus A. & ltl.I. val. 30 is n01v C.O. 217, vol. 39 and B.T. N. S. val . 34 is nmv C.O. 218 , val. 3. This list. is taken from C. H. Andre.v 1s Guide to the Haterials for American History to 1783 in the Public Record Office Great Britain, vol. 1, pp. 27B-307. Because Andre1·1 ·. - terminated his book in 1783 the conversion list! -:vhich he prepared have some gaps for the period 1783-1801 most notably in the 11Colonial Correspondence 11 series (incoming correspondence of the Secretary of State) and in the 11 Colonial Office " series (entry books of the

Secretary of State 1 s despatches) . To bridge this gap I have prepared conversion lists for these series f or Cape Breton, NeH Bruns1vick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edv;ard Isla..11d. This conversion list is based on the annotated List of Colonial Off ice Records, 1911, in the Reference Room. Occasional r eferences to Colonial Correspondence serie s f or Quebec and the Canada 1 s lvill be f ound in the calendars. These can be resolved by referring to t he annot ated List.

3. Having determined the present class and volume number of t he item, refer to the microfilm shelf list and locate t he appropriate microf ilm r eel. '!'his reel number alone is an adequate reference on the call slip.

4. The i tem may nou be located using the page reference given in the calendar. The microfi lm of the originals has both a handHritten and a stamped page number. The r eference given in the calendar is to t he handvrri tten number .

In the case of early B.T. N. S. volumes no page references are given. The references are of the foll ovrin t:; type : A. 60, B. T. N. S. val. l. This is an alpha-nume r i c r eference in which 11A11 represents volume 1 and 60 is a file number Hithin the volume. \tlithi n a given volume f iles are arranged in numeri cal order. The alpha- numeric designation appears on the docket of each f ile .

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Note : Vol wnes A to T of i3 . T. N. S. (1711-1781) form the fir st 29 vol umes of C. O. 217. The microfil m shel f list gives the letter des i gnation for these volQTJies as i-Iell as the modern C.O. 217 references; consequent l y i t i s possible to go dir ect l y f rom a r eference of this type t o the shelf lis t for C. O. 217, reels B-1021-lOJl.

I t i s a lso Harth noting that PRO I ndexes No. 83h7- 83h8 pr ovide a contempor ary finding ai d for volumes "A" to 11111 (C. O. 217, vol. 1-16) . Unlike the Nova Scotia A cal endar this register lists only t hose i terns ivhich appear in C. O. 217, vol. l-16 .

5. If these meaDs of r efer ence fai l the date of the document Hi l l usually help to l ocate it .

Use of the Nova Scotia A cal endar for reference to the Nova Scotia A transcripts prior to 1802.

1 . The calendar as publ ished in the 189h Report does not contain page and vol ume references to Nova Scotia A. However hro copies of t he cal endar (in the Reference Room and in the Pre- Confeder ation Section) have been partially annotated uith volwne and page r eferences . Using one of t hese cal endars note the volume, page and date of the i tem. The proper reference on the cal l s lip is;

YIG 11, Nova Scotia A, vol ume A

2. The annotated page number given in the calendar refers to t he stamped page r ef erence in the transcripts . If no page r eference is gi ven t he date vrill usually suffice to l ocate the item.

Note : In t he cal endar enclosures are pl aced according to their date but in the transcripts they are f iled uith their co-vering l etter .

Note : Although instructions and commissions to Governors vrere calendared in the 189h Repor t t hey 1-rere not filed uith the Nova Scoti a A transcripts but Here formed int o t1vo separate ser ies Nova Scotia E and Nova Scotia F. These t wo ser ies nOiv form part of HG 11 , Supplementary II , Sections 12 and 13. In the annotated calendar they are indicated by an 11E11 or IIF" .

The last t hr ee segments of the Hova Scotia A calendar provide no special probl em to the user if the fol lcnving steps are follOl·red :

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Use of the Nova Scotia A calendar for reference to the transcripts after 1802

J.. Having located the item in the calendar, note the page reference and the volume number as indicated at the top of the page . 'l'he call slip ma~i be made out using either the Nova Scotia A volume number or the C.O. 217 volume number as a reference. After 1819 use of the C.O. 217 reference is preferable. List 11B11 may be used to change Nova Scotia A refer ences to C. O. 217 references. Proper references would be:

HG 11, NSA, vol. ~

or

MG 11, C.O. 217, vol. __

2. The page reference given in the calendar refers to the stamped page reference in the transcripts. After 1831 Nova Scotia A consists of photostats VIhich have only handHritten numbers.

Note: After 1802 enclosures are described in the calendar tvith the covering l e t ter.

Use of the calendar for reference· to the microfilm of C.O. 217 after 1802.

l. Having located t he i tern in the calendar, note the volume, the page and the date .

2. Using the attached list 11B11 convert the Nova Scotia A volume number to a C.O. 217 microfilm number. The reel number alone is a sufficient reference on the call slip.

3. In most cases the item may be located using the date as a reference. I .f this fails the follm·Iing procedure ·Hill usually 'I.J'Ork.

4. First, one must locate the item in the transcripts as described above.

5. Having located the jJtem in the transcripts it Hill be noted that the left hand margin contains a page reference 'I•Iri tten in red ink. This reference refers t o the original page number.

6. Having noted the reference turn to the appropriate volume of the microfilm copy of C. 0 . 217. The microfilm has tvw page references, one stamped and one hand1.J"ri tten. Refer to t he handvrritten number.

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Note : Although the stamped number s in C. 0. 217 can.TJ.ot be used in referring f r om the calendar t o t he microfilm , they are normally t he references -vrhich are quoted vrhen referring t o the documents for purposes of ansHering inquiries .

COLON Il\.L COPut?.ESPONDEN CE

Col. Cor r . CB/63 c.o. 217/104 Col. Cor r. P. E.I./1 c. o. 226/h 64 105 2 5 65 106 3 6 66 107 4 7 67 108 5 8 68 109 6 0

/

69 110 7 10 70 111 8 11 71 112 9 12 72 113 10 13 73 114 11 14 74 115 12 15 75 116 13 16 76 117 14 17 77 118 78 119

Col. Cor r . N. B. /1 c.o. 188/3 2 4 3 5 !~ 6 5 7 6 8 7 0

/

8 10 9 11

Col . Corr. N. S. /16 C. O. 217/57 17 58 18 60 19 61 20 62 21 63 22 64 23 65 24 66 25 26 67 27 68 28 69 29 70 30 71 31 wo '/'~ 32 72 33 73 34 74 35 75

COLONIAL OFFICE

Col. Off . CB/l C. O. 218/12

Col. Off. N.B ./1 c. 0. 189/10

Col. Off . N.S./1 c.o. 218/ 25 2 27

Col. Off. St . J . C. 01 189/10

Col . Off . P. E.I./1 c.o. 227/7

B.

NOVA SCOTIA A c.o. 217 tUCROF IUI REEL

136 78 B-10L~9 1803

137 79 lfl04

138 80 B-1049-1050 1805-06

139 81 1807

lL~O 82 B-1050-1051 1808

141 83 1R08

1h2 84 1808

143 85 B-1051-1052 1809

1h4 86 1809

116 87 B-1053 1810

146 88 1811

147 89 1812

148 90 B- 1054 1812

149 91 1813

150 92 1813

151 93 B-1055 1814

152 9h 1814

153 95 1814

15h 96 B-1056 1815

155 97 1815

156 98 1816

157 99 B-1057 1817

158 100 B-1057 1317

159 101 B-1057- 1058 1818

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NOVA SCOTIA A c.o. 217 t.UCROFILI'-'i REEL

160 102 1819

C. O. 217 Volumes 103-138 consist of Cape Breton correspondence

161 139 B- 2369 1820

162 140 1821

163 141 B- 2370 1822

164 142 B- 2370- 2371 1823

165 11~3 1824

166 1Li4 B- 2372 1825

167 145 1825

168 146 B- 2373 1826

169 147 B- 2373- 2374 1827

170 148 1828

171 149 B- 2374- 2375 1829

172 150 1830

173 151 B- 2375- 2376 1830

174 152 1831

175 153 B- 2376- 2377 1831

176 154 1832

177 155 B- 2378 1833

178 156 B- 2378- 2379 183L~

179 157 1834

180 158 B- 2380 183.5

181 159 1835

182 160 B- 2381 1831-1835

183 161 1836

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NOVA SCOTIA A c.o. 217 HICROFILH REEL

184 162 B- 2382 1836

185 163 B-2382- 2383 1837

186 161-t 1837

187 165 B- 2383- 238!1 1838

188 166 1838

Hl9 167 1838

190 168 B- 2385 1838

191 169 1836-1838

192 170 B- 2386 1839

193 171 1839

194 172 B- 2387 1839

195 173 1839

196 l7b B-2388 18!.~0

197 175 B- 2388- 2389 18hO

198 176 1840

CAPE i3RETON A c.o. 211_ HICROF ill!> REEL

23 120 B-1071 1802

24 121 1603

25 122 B-1072 1804

26 123 1805

27 124 B-1073 1806

28 125 1807

29 126 1808

30 127 1809

3~ 128 1810

32 129 B- 1071..!. 1811

33 130 1812

3h 131 1813

35 132 B- 2367 181h

36 133 1815

37 134 1816

38 135 1817

39 136 B- 2368 1818

40 137 1819

L11 138 1820