Colonial Office 428 is one of the four "subject" register classes originally created by the Colonial Office in 1849-1850. CO 428 appears to have become the register class for the Emigration Department in 1876. From 1850 to 1875 (vols. 1-6), the class seems to have been concerned only with West Indian emigration correspondence, while from 1876 to 1896, when the Emigration Department was closed, (vols. 7-14), the registers appear to correspond to CO 384, Emigration, Original correspondence. The entire class, CO 428, is available on microfilm, reels B-1644 to B-1647, B-1627, and B-1657.
The class provides a list of most emigration correspondence relating to the West Indies, Australia, India, Africa, and to some of the emigration correspondence for North America, 1850-1896. The registers exhibit the usual classification and registry procedures. However, some volumes lack the "Despatches" category. Generally, after 1874, those volumes with the "Despatches" category are organized according to colony, for example, Straits, Guiana, Trinidad, and then chronologically for each colony by order of receipt. Some of the "Offices" categories in various volumes are not arranged according to office titles, but instead most of the offices are grouped together in chronological order of receipt.
CO 428 may be used as a limited finding aid to CO 318 and CO 384. However, CO 318, West Indies, Original Correspondence, has not been copied by the National Archives of Canada, and only selections have been acquired from CO 384, thereby limiting the value of the CO 428. The following list gives the Index Room Number assigned to each volume of CO 428 as well as the volume titles and the years covered by the registers: CO 428, vols. 1-6, West Indian Emigration 13378-13383, 1850-1875; vols. 7-11, Emigration, 13384-13388, 1876-1886; vols. 12-14, Emigration 15519-15521, 1887-1896.
