Resources
The following links and resources will help you learn more about early Chinese Canadian history and help you begin your journey to find your own family’s paper trail.
NEW SOURCES (available June 29, 2023)
The Paper Trail Collection
UBC Library, Rare Books & Special Collections
This is the largest research collection of various types of Chinese immigration (C.I.) certificates created by the Chinese Immigration Act. These records were “crowdsourced” by The Paper Trail project from private/family collections across Canada, and the community archive created from digital reproductions.
Access the collection here.
Explore related special collections of the UBC Library: The Chung Collection and Chinese Canadian Stories.
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C.I.44 Forms and Index Cards
Library and Archives Canada
This series of Chinese immigration (C.I.) records was created by Section 18 of the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 (better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act) that required every person of Chinese origin or descent in Canada (i.e., immigrant or native-born) to register with an immigration official. These records were previously restricted; The Paper Trail project had them opened in November 2021 through an access to information (ATIP) request and has been working since with LAC on their digital access.
Access the records in microfilm at Heritage Canadiana. Finding aids can be found here.
Downloadable list of Canadian-born Chinese who were registered along with their corresponding C.I.44 registration/serial number.
Access searchable indexed records at Ancestry. Searching this collection does not require you to be a paid Ancestry subscriber. However, you will have to provide an email address.
Alternatively, you can see the records on Family Search. Signing up is free, then go to this link to access the C.I.44s.
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OTHER RESEARCH SOURCES:
Vancouver Public Library
A research guide covering genealogy basics. Access the Ancestry database, city directories, and historical newspaper collections. Librarians answer your questions by email, telephone, and in-person through a service desk at VPL Central Branch.
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Here is an excellent starting page for learning about the various collections available for searching online at Canada’s national archives. Here are direct links key sources such as:
Chinese Immigration Records (1885-1949)
Search Chinese immigration records created under the Chinese Immigration Act in Canada (1885 to 1947) and in Newfoundland (1906 to 1949). This collection includes temporary travel permits issued to Chinese (C.I.9).
A Guide to Names/Spelling
A Finding Aid listing the various spellings of Chinese names used by Immigration officials.
Including the recently-released 1931 Census.
Citizenship and Naturalization Records
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Chinese Canadian Stories (UBC)
This digitized collection consists of materials that document Chinese Canadian history and are held in several institution and community archives. The collections contain digitized photographs, audio/video recordings, manuscripts (including correspondence and diaries), and organizational documents.
The Chung Collection (UBC)
A collection of more than 25,000 documents, books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, tableware, and other artifacts related to early British Columbia history, immigration and settlement, particularly of Chinese people in North America, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.
Chinese Canadian Artefact Projects
A database of photos of over 6000 artefacts housed in local and regional museums throughout British Columbia
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RESEARCH GUIDES:
Records of the Chinese in Canada: A visual guide to understanding the various C.I. certificates created by the government. Click the image below to download a high resolution pdf. (Created by project archivist June Chow.)
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Getting Started in Chinese Genealogy
A useful starter’s guide on how to become your own family detective and historian. We all have questions about how to go about finding answers to our family’s past. Well, here is your guide for starting that journey. Authored by well-known Chinese Canadian genealogist Linda Yip, the book is available online for download. Only $29.99 and worth the investment.
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Guide to Chinese Canadian Genealogy
A web-based guide produced by Vancouver Public Library on what you need to know and where you need to go to start your own family research. Includes links to a variety of resources.
Still have questions?
Librarians and archivists answer your questions by email, telephone, and in-person. Use this Library & Archives Canada link to find out more about how to get an answer to your question.
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WORTH READING:
1923 Challenging Racisms Past and Present
An eye-opening book that explores what happened in the years “that preceded the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act and how it related to Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities, and to Canada’s history of settler colonialism.” Download for free here.
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Righting Canada’s Wrongs: The Chinese Head Tax and Anti-Chinese Immigration Policies in the Twentieth Century.
Through historical photographs, documents, and first-person narratives from Chinese Canadians who experienced the Head Tax or who were children of Head Taxpayers, Arlene Chan’s 2014 book offers a full account of the injustice of this period in Canadian history. It documents how this official racism was confronted and finally acknowledged.
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Journeys of Hope: Challenging Discrimination and Building on Vancouver Chinatown’s Legacies.
Journeys of Hope captures the story of how early Chinese migrants helped transform societies around the world, and how Vancouver’s Chinatown and other Chinatowns throughout Canada and the Pacific region are the living legacies of that transformation. This official version of Journeys of Hope includes a new chapter with photos from the City of Vancouver’s apology for past discrimination against people of Chinese descent on April 22, 2018.
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WORTH WATCHING:
The Chinese Exclusion Act (Omni documentary)
A 2022 Omni documentary that explores Canada’s Exclusion Act 100 years later and the scars that remain.
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This documentary tells the personal story of filmmaker Jari Osborne’s father, a Chinese-Canadian veteran. She describes her father’s involvement in World War II and uncovers a legacy of discrimination and racism against British Columbia’s Chinese-Canadian community. Sworn to secrecy for decades, Osborne’s father and his war buddies now vividly recall their top-secret missions behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Theirs is a tale of young men proudly fighting for a country that had mistreated them. This film does more than reveal an important period in Canadian history. It pays moving tribute to a father’s quiet heroism.
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In the Shadow of Gold Mountain (NFB 2004)
Filmmaker Karen Cho travels from Montreal to Vancouver to uncover stories from the last survivors of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act, a set of laws imposed to single out the Chinese as unwanted immigrants to Canada from 1885 to 1947. Through a combination of history, poetry and raw emotion, this documentary sheds light on an era that shaped the identity of generations.
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WORTH FOLLOWING:
A site for genealogists and family historians.
Facebook groups
Canadians with Taishanese (Toi Shanese, Toishanese, Hoisanese) Roots
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