CRKN has made some parts of the RG10 collections in Héritage more discoverable by running specific content through Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) software. This software allows handwritten materials to be parsed by a machine learning model, which then generates a transcript of the content. This means that you can keyword-search within ICR-processed materials in the same way you search within printed material processed with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Searching for a term in the main Héritage search box will bring up results where that term appears in ICR-processed materials. You can also search within a specific reel using the search function inside the document viewer.
Below is a list of Héritage reels that have been processed with ICR. Please note that this spreadsheet is updated bi-monthly.
Click here to see the spreadsheet.
If the spreadsheet below is displaying a sign-in page, please hit "Click here to see the spreadsheet" to access the file directly or enable third-party cookies on your browser.
Using the search function inside the viewer
Click on the magnifying glass icon and enter your search term to locate page matched results. To return more precise results, you can employ wildcards and quotation marks. For instructions on how to use wildcards and quotation marks in searches, please consult the section “Searching the Collections" on the page Navigating the Collections.
Searching numerical values
If you are searching for an item with a particular date attached (e.g., a letter sent on a specific date, the volume number or file part of a reel, etc.) please note that the ICR software will currently register all digits within a number during your search. For example, if you are searching a reel for all letters written in the year 1902, the search results may return items that contain ‘1’ ‘9’ ‘0’ and ‘2’. Using quotation marks around the specific date you are searching for can help narrow your search results.
Searching names
If you are searching for a particular individual and know their name, consider using wildcards when searching to achieve better results. Using wildcards may give you more search results by accounting for differences in handwriting style and quality that affect the ICR data, as well as misspellings or alternate spellings of a name. For instructions on how to use wildcards in searches, please consult the section “Searching the Collections" on the page Navigating the Collections.
Searching names of Department of Indian Affairs Personnel
CRKN is pleased to offer a spreadsheet database of Department of Indian Affairs personnel from 1875-1916. This database was developed by staff at the University of Saskatchewan and generously provided to CRKN to aid in searching the RG 10 Departmental Letterbooks. For more information about these resources, please read the section below.
Spreadsheet and column description index
These resources were kindly provided to CRKN by Jim Clifford, Associate Professor of Environmental History at the University of Saskatchewan. These resources were created with data compiled by Associate Professor Ben Hoy, and his research team, available here: Building Borders. This resource includes community names, school names, agent names, and other data points that are relevant to conducting research within these reels. The associated column description index provides explanations for the column abbreviations and additional contextual information, such as relevant date ranges or notable exemptions within the data.
Additional Resource
The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has created a searchable finding aid for the RG 10 collection. Please be aware that the UBCIC RG10 finding aid is not comprehensive, so users should also consult the Library and Archives Canada website for additional information.