Sub-sub-series consists of registers and indexes created and maintained in the Office of the Civil Secretary to the Governor-in-Chief in order to provide control over and access to the correspondence received (see the Numbered correspondence sub-sub-series) in that office. As explained in the descriptive entry for the Numbered correspondence sub-sub-series, the incoming correspondence was organized in the Civil Secretary's Office in two numbering sequences. This is now reflected in the physical arrangement of the correspondence, with one set of records found in volumes 1-117 and the second set found in volumes 410-416. The registers and indexes found here in volumes 380-381, 383-384 and 386-387 provide access to the numbered correspondence found in volumes 1-117; the register and index found in volume 382 provides access to the numbered correspondence found in volumes 410-416. There is no vol. 385 in this sub-sub-series.
Despatches from the Colonial Office (records now found elsewhere within this fonds in the Despatches from the Colonial Office sub-series of the Correspondence with the Colonial Office series) were, for the period 1851-1864, included in the registration of correspondence received (i.e., the registers in volumes 383-384 of the present sub-sub-series served a dual role of registering both correspondence received and despatches received). The registers in the Despatches from the Colonial Office sub-series, however, are the preferred guide to those despatches (rather than the registers in volumes 383-384), except for the period July 1852 to September 1854, for which only volume 383 providesaccess.
Despatches from the British Minister at Washington and from fellow governors were numbered and filed with other correspondence received. The clarification of responsibilities between the Civil Secretary and the Provincial Secretary and the proliferation of government departments over time resulted in much correspondence being entered in a registry system, then re-directed. Consequently, not all items identified within the Civil Secretary's registers will have been preserved with the files in the Numbered correspondence sub-sub-series. The register column titled "How disposed of" or "Remarks" provides clues as to the direction. For example, an item of correspondence bearing the register notation "to B[oard] of Works" may now be found among the records of the Department of Public Works fonds; Indian Affairs correspondence may be traced in the records of the Indian and Inuit Affairs Program sous-fonds; correspondence re-directed to the Provincial Secretary may be found in RG 4, C1 or RG 5, C1; the notation "with No 124 Corr. Military Sec[retar]y" may be traced to the Governor General's Military Secretary series elsewhere within this fonds.
Volume 470 is an indexed register of despatches exchanged with the Colonial Office, 1831. As such, its inclusion within this sub-sub-series is something of an anomaly. The correspondence to which it relates is found elsewhere within this fonds, in the Despatches from the Colonial Office sub-series (see vol. 404A) and the Letter books of despatches to the Colonial Office sub-series, both within the Correspondence with the Colonial Office series.
Volumes 471-473 contain a set of registers created in the Civil Secretary's office as a record of correspondence received there but referred to other departments without having been entered in the correspondence numbering system. The information in these registers is arranged alphabetically rather than numerically. These registers may interest only students of administrative history.
