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Probate case files

The series consists of original wills filed in the Supreme Court of Kamloops between 1986 and 2004. The wills are filed by a sequential number that also corresponds to a probate case file number found in GR-3001. The wills appear to be originals that were removed from the probate case files and filed separately. Not every individual with a probate file had a will.

A nominal index to probates can be found in GR-3001. Once a case file number has been found, this can be used to locate the correct file in the wills series.

The series consists of original divorce orders, judgements and reasons for judgements created between 1981 and 2001 by the Kamloops Supreme Court registry. Between 1968 and 1985, a judgement by way of decree nisi required a three-month waiting period before a judgement by way of decree absolute could be applied for. During this time, a divorce was not legally in effect without a decree absolute. After 1985, divorce orders automatically came into effect 31 days after the divorce was granted, barring an appeal. Reasons for judgment are available for some, but not all, divorces.

Between 1981-1985, the records are arranged by file number and there may be several records with the same file number grouped together, each with different entered dates. The years listed in the attached finding aid appear to be based on the date that a divorce was first initiated, but this is not verifiable or consistent across the records. Starting in late 1985, the records are arranged by volume and file number, and dates used in the finding aid are the court registry’s entered date. Reasons for judgement from 1991-2001 have been arranged separately, by file number, within box 27. A nominal finding aid for only those reasons for judgement is available at the end of the attached file list. The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51440-25.

The series consists of civil orders and reasons for judgement created between 1881 and 2000. Early records are from the Yale district, although the majority of records in the series relate specifically to Kamloops. The records are largely arranged chronologically by filing date, which can sometimes be several months after the order was issued in court. Between 1954 and 1973, orders were arranged by volume and folio numbers. Records were compiled into volumes based on filing date. Each folio is comprised of one order. The Archives does not currently have records for the period 1974 to 1982. Between 1983 and the late 1980s, some civil orders were filed by a sequential number. From the late 1980s onwards, the court filing system returned to using volumes and folios; however the volume number began again at 1. Many of the volumes contain indexes.

Civil orders are the formal expression of the ruling of the court and reasons for judgement provide the court's rationale. The records relate to a variety of civil matters, including adoption orders.

This series includes records related to forest tenures in the Kamloops Forest Region from 1987-1998. The series currently includes records from the Kamloops Forest District, Penticton Forest District and Vernon Forest District within the larger Kamloops Forest Region.

Types of forest tenure records in this series include non-replaceable timber sale licences (TSLs), including licences issued under the Small Business Forest Enterprise (SBFEP) program and BC Timber Sales Program.

Records regard the issuance, evaluation, administration, monitoring, planning, replacement, cancellation and extension of forest tenures under the Forest Act.

Records include correspondence; licences; logging plans; log hauling and harvesting contracts; preharvest silviculture prescriptions, reviews and amendments; harvest inspection reports and appraisals; stumpage calculations; records related to right of ways and Forest Service Road permits; reports; maps; and photos.

The series also includes legal documents for cutting permits for replaceable forest licences and tree farm licence (TFL) 35. These files may include some of the records described above, but primarily contain records related to silviculture prescriptions and surveys.

The records have been classified as 19500-45 and 19620-25 in the Forestry Operational Classification System (ORCS).

The ministries responsible for these records, and the years that they were responsible, are:
Ministry of Forests (1988-2005)

Probate cause books, 1884-1979 and case record cards, 1979-1983, and copies of wills, 1878-1911. A few entries are from the County Court. Cause book entries for probate numbers 2253 (1942) to 8188 (1982) are indexed. See GR-1577 for an index to probate numbers 1 to 1500 and GR-2990 for probate numbers 2300-8100. For probate files 1 to 2715 (1881-1946) see GR-1562 and for probate files 2716 to 8944 (1946-1984) see GR-3001. For probate files to 1992 see accession 83-1116.

The series consists of various timber tenures from the Kamloops Forest District of the Department of Forests and its successors. Records date from 1962-1986.

Forest tenures in this series include cutting permits, timber licences, timber sale licences, timber sale harvesting licences, licences to cut, timber berths, tree farm licences and free use permits. The licences provided the licensee with the right to harvest timber from a specific area. These files document the management of timber licences and include records relating to the issuance, administration, planning, cancellation or deletion, extension and monitoring of the tenures. Files may have A numbers, T numbers, X numbers, or other numbers specific to a type of tenure.

The files may contain a copy of the licence, forms, reports, maps of the area that will be logged, ministry approvals, operating plans, annual reports, as well as a wide variety of correspondence with the licensee.

The records were transferred to the archives under several numbers in the Ministry of Forests ORCS schedule (881261). However, most of the records in this series predate the creation of ORCS, and may have file codes from the old Ministry of Forests File Directory, such as 850-16.

Indexes to Mechanic's Liens and to Woodmen's Liens, 1894-1913; 1928-1984.

The series consists of several cause books for bankruptcy created in the Supreme Court of Vernon between 1921 and 1980. The cause books cover the Interior Region of BC, including Vernon, Penticton, Kelowna, and Kamloops. The cause book for the period 1921 to 1973 has been microfilmed, but the corresponding index is available in the original book format only. Page 1 of the 1921-1973 cause book has a note signed by G. Hunter, C.J.B.C., dated 12 April 1921 appointing Leonard Norris as Registrar in Bankruptcy for Vernon. The volume functions as a cause book for the Bankruptcy Court of British Columbia and the Bankruptcy Court of Canada for 1921-1923. In 1923 the entries read "In the Supreme Court of British Columbia - In Bankruptcy."

Indexes are not available for the period 1973 to 1980. The index covering the period 1921 to 1973 lists the name of the party and the corresponding page in the cause book. Typical cause book entries list the plaintiff(s) and defendant(s), as well as a list of proceedings in the bankruptcy case. Entries are arranged chronologically.

The series consists of the business records, 1877-1977, of the office of the Kamloops Government Agent, including the records of several additional positions usually held by the same individual: Gold Commissioner, Mining Recorder, and Land Commissioner for the Kamloops Land District. The series also includes records of the Canadian Department of the Interior; most created and received by the Dominion Lands Agent at Kamloops as part of the administration of the Railway Belt.

Record types and subject matter include, but are not limited to the following: land alienation through pre-emption or purchase from the provincial government and homesteading or purchase from the federal government; a variety of leases of Crown land; other more general types of records; and records regarding Indigenous peoples and Indian Reserves.

Records related to land alienation include: applications for pre-emption records; land classification reports; forms completed by land inspectors of the Department of Lands Inspection Branch; declarations of occupation and permanent improvement on pre-emption claims; applications for homestead entry, cancellation, and abandonment; homestead Inspector’s reports; affidavits in support of an Application for Entry for a homestead, pre-emption or purchased homestead; land sales records including applications to purchase and certificates of purchase.

Records related to a variety of leases and other uses of Crown lands include: grazing leases; foreshore leases; dredging leases; indentures to reassign leases; special use permits; timber permits; water records including conditional water licenses, and permanent water licenses; applications for irrigation schemes; petroleum and natural gas leases; quarry leases; bar leases; coal leases; mining leases regarding surface and subsurface rights; applications for lease of crown-granted mineral claims; applications for placer leases under the Placer-Mining Act; and the lapse of a lease or forfeiture of a mineral claim to the Crown.

Other more general types of records include: correspondence regarding Crown grants; inquiries about land availability; surveyor’s reports; preliminary plans and correspondence for the surveys of townships; Soldier Settlement Board records including forms, correspondence and records of soldier land grants; attestation papers and discharge certificates; naturalization papers; personal correspondence; correspondence files on specific topics such as hay permit regulations or precipitation measurements; records regarding taxes; and business records of the office, including inter-department correspondence, circulars, and memorandum related to matters of land administration.

Files also exist for specific Indian Reserves, and can include correspondence; water records; surveys; and inspection reports created in the process of allotting new, and canceling existing Indian Reserves. Some files document instances of overlapping land use and conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples on specific parcels of land.

Files are generally either correspondence files on a particular subject, or a variety of records related to a particular piece of land. Many files cover a wide time period and may be associated with multiple individuals or companies as land rights were often transferred to others or cancelled and reapplied for. Only the name of the first and last individual listed on the file is included in the file list. This means there may be additional names associated with files not included on the file list. The file list may also only include part of the legal description of land in cases where the description was exceptionally long, or included many different pieces of land. Single individuals may also have multiple files for each piece of land they are associated with.

Cartographic materials, consisting of blueprints and hand-drawn maps or plans, indicating the parcels of land relevant to the file, are commonly found throughout the records.

No file list or indexes were transferred with these records from the Kamloops Government Agent. Most files only included numbers with no clear names, so titles were created by the archives based on the contents of the files or by transcribing information on relevant file backs.

A fire on 17 September 1893 at the Dominion Lands Office in Kamloops destroyed some files. The contents for these files are marked [empty]. Files marked as [file back only] were likely destroyed in the fire, but then had their titles and some additional information transcribed by Lands employees onto file backs from letter books or other surviving records which were not transferred with these records.

Photocopy of alphabetical index to Kamloops probates numbers 2300-8100.

Series consists of floodplain maps that of the Thompson and South Thompson Rivers between Kamloops and Chase. The Water Investigations Branch created these maps between 1973 and 1975 to document areas that were susceptible to flooding.

The maps were bound in a volume and were numbered sequentially. There is an index at the front of the volume. Each map is also stamped with the Surveys and Mapping Branch of the BC Lands Service since the floodplain information was overlaid on maps that were originally maps were originally created in 1970 and 1973. All maps are 65 x 92 cm.

There are two groupings of maps. The first 33 maps show the Kamloops area from 1973-1974. These have a 1:2500 scale. These maps are stamped with the project number 73-81-0 and the file number 161673.

The second grouping consists of 27 maps of the South Thompson River from Kamloops to Chase. These have a 1:5000 scale. The project number of these maps is 74-109t-0.

This series consists of architectural proposals and consultants reports on topics connected with the construction of public buildings, urban development, siting, traffic patterns, and design requirements. Reports have been created for the Department of Public Works by various sources, including Arthur Erikson Architects, The Environmental Analysis Group (TEAG), UBC School of Architecture, BCIT, Vancouver City Planning Department, and other various architects and engineers.

Process book giving details of service of summons for Kamloops Small Debts Court, March 1966 - October 1968 (232/1966 1117/1968). Notes inside front cover give court fees and the procedure for completing a Small Debts Court summons.

Series consists of one cause book from the Kamloops Supreme Court for bankruptcy cases between 1921-1968. Cause books provide the framework for Supreme Court cases and may include the names of parties, the dates when proceedings occurred, and volume and folio numbers for locating final orders. The volume is indexed and includes a list of BC Trustees in Bankruptcy.

Certificates of limited partnership (indexed) stuck into an indexed scrapbook. Most partnerships are for a term of 1 year or 5 years.

Criminal assize calendars for Victoria. Also includes criminal assize calendars for Yale, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Clinton, Richfield, Kamloops, Quesnellemouth, Cassiar, Laketon, Glenora and Lytton, 1870s.

The series consists of Magistrate's record books for Ashcroft and including Spences Bridge cases, from 1949 to 1963. The magistrate noted lists and statistics in the back of the volumes.

Record book for criminal cases mostly under the Speedy Trials Act (index volume). Ca. 1944 this volume takes the form of a minute book for criminal cases.

Cause book (indexed). (Missing entries: Feb - Oct 1952 and Apr - Jul 1956).

Series consists of one cause book from the Kamloops Supreme Court for cases heard under the Bankruptcy Act between 1955-1957 (case nos. G94/55-P183/57). Cause books provide the framework for Supreme Court cases and may include the names of parties, the dates when proceedings occurred, and volume and folio numbers for locating final orders.

Bankruptcy minute books of meetings of creditors held in Vernon, Kelowna, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Merritt and Penticton, 1923-1956.

Series consists of one Registrar's minute book for Kamloops Supreme Court civil cases between 1913-1954.

Series consists of three Registrar's minute books for Kamloops Supreme Court civil cases between 1913-1954.

Indexes to Registers of Bills of Sale, 1893-1923; 1923-1954.

Series consists of cause books from the Kamloops Supreme Court for civil cases in 1882, 1887-1946, and 1951-1952. Cause books provide the framework for Supreme Court civil action cases and may include the names of parties, the dates when proceedings occurred, and volume and folio numbers for locating final orders. They are often the only source of information for divorces that were not finalized since no final order would have been granted and case files are destroyed.

BC Provincial Police Court record books showing name of prosecutor, name of defendant, nature of the charge, costs, name of arresting officer, name of gaol or lockup, order or conviction, amount of fine, name of presiding magistrate or justice and "remarks", 1940-1946; 1946-1948; 1948-1950.

Bankruptcy record book.

Criminal case files from Kamloops and Clinton, 1883-1902; 1906-1949. Includes Assize, County Court, Speedy Trials, informations, depositions, indictments from many places (Ashcroft, Lytton, 150 Mile House, Vernon, Fairview, Quesnel, Sicamous, Salmon Arm, Lillooet, etc.)

The series consists of civil case files from the Kamloops County Court, 1885 to 1949. Civil case files may contain the notice of claim or notice of petition, writs and affidavits, orders and a final judgment. The files are arranged by file number order.