Treaty Annuity Paylists

If you have some time on your hands and you want to look for your ancestors on some of the Canadian Treaty Annuity Paylists, here they are.

This collection consists, primarily, of headquarters copies of treaty annuity paylists. Paylists had at least three copies: the agent maintained one and he then forwarded the others to Headquarters for verification and retention. As the Headquarters copies, the records in this series represent the main core of the Department of Indian Affairs holdings in this area. While, in theory, the information contained in field office copies of paylists should mirror that found in the Headquarters copy, researchers have found discrepancies. As a result, users may find it useful to compare the copy of the paylists found in this series with any extant field office copies. 

While treaty annuity paylists have importance in their own right as proof of fulfilment of treaty obligations of the government, they are also used by many researchers as a genealogical tool, especially for the period prior to the establishment of the Indian Register in 1951. The value of paylists for genealogical research has some qualifications, however. Often, especially in the period prior to about 1940, paylists normally record by name the head of household only, with other family members recorded only as a number (e.g., 1 woman, 2 boys, 3 girls). This makes the tracing of women and girls particularly difficult as the head of household was commonly male. On the other hand, paylists often also contain very valuable comments about family relationships and about childrens' absences from the family home by virtue of their attendance at residential schools. Often they also indicate file numbers for correspondence about particular transactions that affect an individual's inclusion or not on a paylist (e.g., band transfers, commutations, loss of status by marriage, admissions of new adherents to treaty, etc.).

Happy Hunting!

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Reels
C-7138. Treaties 1, 2, 3, 5, 1898-1904 --
C-7145. Treaties 4, 6, 7, 1874-1882 --
C-7146. Treaties 4,6,7, 1883-1887 --
C-7147. Treaties 4,6,7, 1887-1890 --
C-7148. Treaties 4,6,7, 1891-1894 --
C-7149. Treaties 4,6,7, 1894-1897 --
C-7150. Treaties 4,6,7, 1897-1898, Treaties 4,6,7,8, 1899-1901 --
C-7151. Treaties 4,6,7,8, 1901-1903 --
C-7152. Treaties 4,6,7,8, 1904-1905, Treaty 4,6,8,10, 1906 --
C-7153. Treaties 4,6,7,8, 10, 1906-1909.