Teachers and Students

Education is a provincial and territorial jurisdiction. Student records are usually retained by the individual school or transferred to the local school board. Records of schools run by churches are usually held by the archives of the relevant religious denomination. In the case of public schools, some records have been transferred to school boards, local archives or museums, public libraries or provincial and territorial archives. Please note, however, that it is not common for schools and school boards to retain old student records from previous generations.

As for teachers, Library and Archives Canada does not hold records relating to the certification and employment of teachers. These records can often be found in the relevant Provincial and Territorial Archives and Libraries. More recent records are likely still in the custody of the school board where the individual was employed.

Records of university and college staff are usually held by the archives within those institutions. Web sites for many of those archives can be found using the Canadian Council of Archives - Directory of Archives.

Library and Archives Canada holds only a few school attendance records. To locate these records, you can consult Archives Search by using the name of the school as the keyword.

Residential schools for Aboriginal children were administered by the Government of Canada through the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Consult our online guide Researching Your Aboriginal Genealogy at Library and Archives Canada for more information on how to search our holdings for Aboriginal or residential school records.

Quebec, Lower Canada and Canada East: Civil Secretary, records relating to education (RG 4 B30): School returns, including names of masters, teachers and students, 1829-1840

List of volumes for school returns - arranged by district