Accession consists of records created and maintained by the Indian and Inuit Affairs Program at its headquarters as well as at its Maritime (later Atlantic) Regional Office, and its Eskasoni, Miramichi, Shubenacadie, Saint John River, and Prince Edward Island agency offices. The headquarters records in this accession are comprised entirely of central registry files Band Membership Returns, 1962-1971. Returns are not available for all bands Canada-wide or for all years, but only for certain bands and years (see the finding aid). These Band Membership Returns are classified within the 23-27 secondary of the modified duplex numeric file classification system in use within the Indian and Inuit Affairs Program at the time., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Maritime (later Atlantic) Regional Office and by its predecessor, the office of the Regional Supervisor of Indian Agencies, includes records from the following subject secondaries within the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 3-4 (Adoption); 23-27 (Band Membership Returns); 37-3 (Enfranchisement). Included as well are general operational records not classified according to the departmental file classification system, viz., an alphabeticl list of registered Indians (1966) and a census record by family (1964-1965)., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Prince Edward Island Agency includes only three central registry files, with inclusive dates of 1947-1969, relating to the following subject secondaries of the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 18-27 (Divorce, Separation and Annulment); and 23-27 (Band Membership Returns). These records may have been transferred to the Maritime Regional Office in 1971 when the Prince Edward Island Agency closed and responsibility for the bands in that province was taken over by the regional administration. However, there is no evidence in the files to suggest that the records were actually used in the regional office's administration of Prince Edward Island bands. As a result, they are considered here to be files of the Prince Edward Island Agency rather than inherited records belonging to the Maritime Regional Office., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Eskasoni Agency is comprised of central registry files from the following subject secondaries in the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 3-4 (Adoption); 23-27 (Band Membership Returns); 37-2 (Estates); and 37-3 (Enfranchisement). Inclusive dates for these records are 1942-1970., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Miramichi Agency (and its predecessor, the New Brunswick Northeastern Agency) is comprised of central registry files from the following subject secondaries in the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 23-27 (Band Membership Returns); and 37-3 (Enfranchisement). This portion of the accession also includes a number of "Personal" files. During a period in the 1950s and 1960s it was a common record-keeping practice within the Indian Affairs administration at the field office level to maintain "Personal" files on individual Indians in which were maintained a wide range of records of varying subjects relating to the named individual. Such files were identified in the record-keeping systems of the day, not by a specific file subject number but, rather, by the agency code followed by the term "Pers" (e.g., 55/Pers). This system was eventually abandonned and correspondence pertaining to the individual and relating to specific subjects placed on subject-specific case files rather than on the omnibus "Personal" files. The legacy of this record-keeping practice does, however, survive in accessions such as this one. In some cases, the "Personal" file would be re-numbered by the administration, taking on the file number of the last activity documented on the particular file about the individual. This seems to have been the situation with the files in this accession as most of them document enfranchisements. Indeed, although all bear the "Pers" designation, some document only the enfranchisment of the individual. Others, however, document not only enfranchisement but also other aspects of the individual's relationship with the administration (e.g., family allowance and other social services). In addition, it should be noted that this portion of the accession includes inherited files from the former Restigouche Agency relating to the Eel River Band, responsibility for which was transferred to the Miramichi Agency from the Restigouche Agency in 1962. Inclusive dates for the Miramichi Agency portion of the accession are 1929-1968., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Shubenacadie Agency includes central registry files from the following subject secondaries in the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 18-27 (Divorce, Separation and Annulment); and 23-27 (Band Membership Returns). One "Personal" file is also included among the Shubenacadie Agency records. Inclusive dates for the Shubenacadie Agency portion of the accession are 1951-1969., That portion of the accession which contains records created by the Saint John River Agency includes central registry files from the following subject secondaries in the modified duplex numeric file classification system: 3-3 (Membership); 3-4 (Adoption); 23-27 (Band Membership Returns); and 37-3 (Enfranchisement). In that the Saint John River Agency was a creation of the amalgamation in 1959 of responsibility for the bands in the former Kingsclear Agency and responsibility for the Edmundston and Tobique Bands of the Tobique Agency, this portion of the accession includes records inherited from those other offices. Inclusive dates for the Saint John River Agency portion of the accession are 1939-1969.
These records were transferred direct from the Ottawa Federal Records Centre (OFRC) to the National Archives. However, it appears that these disparate headquarters and field office records were brought together by DIAND into a single OFRC accession artificially for the convenience of storage at the OFRC only. The various administrative units the activities of which are documented in the records were not, for the most part, administratively linked prior to the date of the deposit of the records at the OFRC (1973) in a way that would justify the amalgamation of their records on the basis of provenance. The exception is the records of the Prince Edward Island Agency. By the time of deposit in the OFRC, that Agency had ceased to exist as a distinct administrative unit and its functions had been taken over in 1971 by the Maritime (later Atlantic) Regional Office. Hence, in 1973 when the records were placed in the OFRC there was a legitimate reason for the records of the former Prince Edward Island Agency to be found amalgamated with those of the Maritime (later Atlantic) Regional Office. As regards those files in this accession which were created originally by the Prince Edward Island Agency, there is no evidence that they were incorporated into the Maritime Regional Office records-keeping system between the time of their transfer to the control of the Maritime Regional Office (after 1971) and the date of deposit in the OFRC. For this reason, the records created by the Prince Edward Island Agency are being considered here as forming a distinct series in their own right, rather than as "inherited" records of the Maritime Regional Office.
