In this final post on Order in Council (OIC) records, we will look at a collection curated by Joanna Crandell and her sister and available on Ancestry: “Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960.” In the previous posts I’ve explored an OIC-based story, finding OIC records in real life, finding OIC records at LAC online, and now will discuss the eighty-thousand OIC records at Ancestry.
Let’s begin by hearing Joanna’s story.
The OIC Lists – a guest post by Joanna Crandell
As a reference clerk at Library and Archives Canada, Joanna Crandell was familiar with how to search for Orders in Council (OICs).1 She ordered the original paper copies when replying to requests for complete citation information or a copy of an OIC. She was surprised one day as she was searching through a box of OICs when she came across one that contained pages of paragraphs describing individuals and entire families of immigrants approved to come to Canada. These OICs were listed under the “Immigration” heading in the Name/Subject indexes of the Red Binders as “Regulations Waived” and started in 1930 when, in response to the Great Depression, Canada dramatically restricted immigration to only British Subjects and American citizens.
Under these new regulations, the prospective immigrants had to convince officials that they would not apply for government aid or take jobs away from Canadians. The sponsors – usually a family member who had previously immigrated – had to prove that they could financially support the new arrivals. As a result, each paragraph is a snapshot of the person or family showing ages, marital status, occupation, amount of savings that could be transferred to a Canadian bank, and future plans in Canada. The sponsor’s name, occupation, city of residence in Canada and financial details are also included.
Unfortunately, further research showed that the names of the approved immigrants were not listed in the Name/Subject indexes of the Red Binders. It seems that the Privy Council staff who created the indexes included a name only if one person was the subject of an OIC.
Knowing the difficulties of accessing OICs and the fact that the immigrant’s names were not in the indexes of the Red Binders, Joanna realized these paragraphs would be very difficult to find by a professional or amateur genealogist.
After moving to another government department, she returned as a weekend researcher to Library and Archives Canada to photograph the almost 1,000 “Regulations Waived” lists from 1930 to 1960. Her sister, Lin Sullivan, a retired librarian who loves detail and precision, indexed the names and other information of the roughly 60,000 immigrants and 20,000 sponsors. This information is currently available on Ancestry.
These lists contain information about 8,000 Chinese individuals who were mainly citizens of China approved to come to Canada from 1948 onwards. While many of these were professionals or entrepreneurs, the majority were the wives and children of Chinese men living and working in cities and towns in all provinces of Canada but mainly British Columbia and Ontario.
Joanna and her sister continued to work on two other sets of lists they found in the OICs. The first set of lists contain information about over 1,000 women and children who were given “Exit Permits” to leave Canada by sea from 1942 to 1946. During the Second World War non-military passengers were banned from all ships as the government wanted cargo space to be used for war materials. The women and children who were permitted to be passengers were mainly British pensioners who could not receive their pensions due to the war and Canadian war brides who were travelling to live with their new in-laws. The second set of lists contain information about 35,000 First Nations individuals who were enfranchised voluntarily or involuntarily between 1880 and 1970. These two sets of lists will hopefully be available on Ancestry by the end of 2024.
Thank you, Joanna. And now, onto the research.
Who was approved by OIC?
To consider who needed permission to enter Canada, it’s illustrative to see who was on the preferred list. As Joanna wrote above, immigration was tightly controlled. Here is the list of approved immigrants, from OIC PC 695, 21 Mar 1931:2
The Immigration Officer-in-Charge may permit to land in Canada any immigrant… [who is] A British subject… from Great Britain or Northern Ireland, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the United States of America, New Zealand, Australia, or the Union of South Africa.
O.I.C. PC 695, 21 Mar 1931, Library and Archives Canada
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of whose immigration had to be approved by OIC:
- Armenian
- Austrian
- Belgian
- British – there were exceptions about which British subjects were automatically granted Canadian citizenship. I’ll leave it to you to interpret on what grounds. [“British subjects of Negro race” / “British Malta” / “British Trinidad”]
- Chinese
- Czechoslovakian
- Danish
- Dutch
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- German (including German-Russian)
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Icelandic
- Italian
- Japanese
- Jewish
- Latvian
- Lebanese
- Norwegian
- Paraguayan
- Polish (Polish German, Polish Russian)
- “Roumanian” [Romanian]
- Russian
- Swiss
- Yugoslavian
Search “Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960,” Ancestry
Here is the link to the collection at Ancestry. For us Canadians, being able to access records less than a hundred years old is a delightful bonus.
First example: JA Guy (1960)
In this example is a British Jamaican approved for immigration in 1960.3
Second example: P.S. Dina (1944)
Some records are more detailed, like this entry for an Italian immigrant during the Second World War.4
Third example: C.K. Leong (1948)
And this appears to be the first Chinese person admitted to Canada after the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act: Leong Chap Kwong, on 20 Feb 1948.5 Leong was a teacher working for the Chinese Public School of Victoria and the Kwong Chee Chinese School in Vancouver.
Order in Council immigration regulations
I’m currently reading OIC regulations 1930-1960. What a deep, dark rabbit hole they are. Prior to this work, I wrote about PC 2115 and the age of X-raying Chinese teenagers. How could I know there were four immigration Orders-in-Council in 1930 alone? It’s dizzying. See my quick reference table here.
Afterword
As Joanna said, the “Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960″ collection contains the names of twenty thousand sponsors and sixty thousand immigrants 1930-1960. It’s a rich source of genealogical information for this period, and unusual for Canada, relatively recent information. If your family sponsored a family to come to Canada, you too might find their records here. About eight thousand records are for the Chinese community alone. If you’re collecting information for a potential Chinese Case file, this is a good collection to search. You can search Ancestry for free at FamilySearch centres, genealogical societies, and possibly your local library.
Thank yous
Deep bows of gratitude to Joanna Crandell and her sister for this huge gift to the genealogy community. Thank you so very much.
[updated 18 Mar 2024] Thank you to the sharp eyed readers who wrote to let me know I missed number two and instead jumped from one to three! The numbering is now fixed and apologies for the blunder.
References
1Joanna Crandell, [guest blog for Past Presence], 23 Feb 2024.
2Canada, Government of Canada, Privy Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Orders-in-Council, paper files, reference no. RG2, A-1-a, Order in Council no. 695, dated 21 Mar 1931, vol. 1479, pages 3 of 3, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, ON.
3Canada, Government of Canada, Privy Council, Ottawa, ON, “Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960,” Orders-in-Council, database with digital images, image 7 of 270, OIC no. 3-25, immigration record for John Alfred Guy, 1960, Ancestry.com, accessed 29 Feb 2024; citing Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Lists of Approved Immigrants in the Orders in Council of the Privy Council; Year: 1960; List Number: 2242; Volume: 3; Reel: T-5328. [T-5328 is on Heritage Canadiana but is not indexed.]
4Canada, Government of Canada, Privy Council, Ottawa, ON, “Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960,” Orders-in-Council, database with digital images, image 23 of 85, OIC no. 3437-6, immigration record for Paul Salvatore Dina, 1944, Ancestry.com, accessed 29 Feb 2024; citing Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Lists of Approved Immigrants in the Orders in Council of the Privy Council; Year: 1944; List Number: 1848; Volume: 3437; Reel: T-5165. [As of Feb 2024, T-5165 is not on Heritage Canadiana.]
5Canada, Government of Canada, Privy Council, Ottawa, ON,“Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960,” Orders-in-Council, database with digital images, image 46 of 368, OIC no. 632-3, immigration record for Leong Chap Kwong, 1948, Ancestry.com, accessed 29 Feb 2024; citing Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Lists of Approved Immigrants in the Orders in Council of the Privy Council; Year: 1948; List Number: 2000; Volume: 632; Reel: T-5204 or T-5205. [As of Feb 2024, T-5204 and T-5205 are not on Heritage Canadiana.]
Out of curiosity, I checked for my dad, who came to Canada from England in 1958. He was a displaced person from Poland, who had been in England since fall 1947, and never, AFAIK, had UK citizenship. My uncle was already here in Canada (had arrived in the mid-50s), as was my grandmother, and IIRC, my aunt. All Polish displaced persons. But somehow, none needed OICs as there’s no trace of any of them, either as the immigrant or the sponsor.
I also wonder at the qualification from 1931 re Polish (Polish German, Polish Russian), as at that point, Poland was an independent country. Were they referring to those born before 1919?
My mum doesn’t appear, but as a UK citizen, she wouldn’t have had need for an OIC.
Once again, thanks for yet another Canadian history lesson – so much to learn!!
Thanks for writing! My initial thought is that OIC restrictions may have eased off over time. I need to finish my page of OIC regs to see if they were named. If I see something for your people, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Treasure! Absolutely genealogical treasure!! Thanks so much for these several posts deep digging into a category not often used in genealogy. So appreciated!
Right? Who knew? Thank you for sticking with me throughout this journey, Celia. I didn’t know this is where we’d end up but a chance meeting with Joanna changed the arc of the series. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new (to me) genealogical discoveries, from lists of people with extraordinary details, to an investigation of the government of Canada’s thinking.