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The series consists of civil orders created in the Supreme Court in Duncan between 1950 and 2002. Orders are a formal expression of the court’s will, and orders in this series cover a variety of issues, including adoption and divorce.

The series is arranged by volume, and then by folio. From volumes 1 to 48, the volume and folio numbers are provided on the records themselves. After volume 48, this information is not always provided. Sometimes the records bear file numbers which appear to be sequential and which restart every year. Sometimes even these numbers are not listed on the records and the only way to identify them is by filing date.
The dates listed in the file list are derived from the date on which the order was filed. Although the filing date for the majority of the records corresponds closely to when the order was issued, this is not always the case, and there are instances in which orders were filed months after being issued.

Originally the majority of the files were arranged in binders based on volume number. If an index existed for the volume, it would be placed in the front of the binder. For space and preservation reasons, the records have been removed from the binders and placed in acid-free folders. Records from binders tend to span two folders, which are linked by volume number. The first of the two binders will house the index for the entire volume, if one was included.

Stock shots. Shows protection of seedlings against frost damage.

Stock shots

The series consists of original wills maintained by the Supreme Court in Duncan. The wills were probated between 1986 and 1998, and relate to probate records in GR-2997. Not all probate records have an accompanying will. Wills are arranged by probate number. A nominal index providing an individual’s name and file number can be found in GR-2997.

Researchers should note that 1995 and 1997 have very few wills, and that there are no wills at all for 1996. The archivist suspects that these have not yet been transferred, and may still be in the custody of the court registry.

Series consists of records related to the Sisters of St. Ann’s work at the Tzouhalem Road property in Duncan, BC.

The Sisters purchased, by Crown grant, 400 acres in Cowichan between 1864 and 1870. The first convent and school was built on that land in 1864 under the direction of Father Pierre Rondeau, who had established a mission in Quamichan in 1861. Two Sisters arrived in October of 1864 with the mission of establishing a school for Indigenous girls.

When the school opened, 21 girls aged 4-18 were registered, from six local Fist Nations: Quamichan (Kwa’mutsun), Qw’umiyiqun (Comiaken), Xwulqw’selu (Koksilah), S’amuna’ (Somena), Lhumlhumuluts’ (Clemclemluts), Xinupsum (Khenipsen) and Tl'lulpalus (Cowichan Bay). In 1876 a decision was made that Indigenous girls in Cowichan would be taught as day students only, which allowed for the Duncan school lodgings to be renovated and enlarged to accommodate orphans sent from the overcrowded St Ann’s school in Victoria, as well as from other regions where the Sisters taught, including Alaska. After the E&N Railway was completed, more children from middle-class settler families began to attend the Duncan St. Ann’s school.

The Sisters began teaching boys at the Duncan school in 1904, after the closure of St. Aloysius Protectorate in Victoria. Increase in student boarders led to a need for a bigger school building, and one was constructed in 1921. This building was designed by Sister Mary Osithe as architect.

The school closed in 1964, with Sisters transferring to the nearby Queen of Angels School to teach. The building was briefly used as a novitiate in 1968, and the land was leased out in 1969. In 1979, Providence Farm was established on the site, an organization which is under the direction of The Vancouver Island Providence Community Association. This is an active organization as of 2023.

During the years the Sisters oversaw the school, it was known by a number of different names internally and externally, including: St. Ann’s Boy’s School, Duncan; St. Ann’s, Quamichan; St. Ann’s, Cowichan; The Farm; St. Ann’s Indian School for Girls; and St. Ann’s Orphanage for Girls.

This series consists of three subseries: A) Convent subseries; B) St. Ann’s School, Duncan subseries; C) Farm subseries.

Records in subseries A include chronicles of the school and convent, financial records, Local House minutes, Official Visitation reports, a monograph and history of the school, as well as a scrapbook of Sisters’ art and photographs.

Subseries B consists of records related to the administration of the school, and includes school registers, student accounts, application forms, grades, tests, monthly attendance reports, and photographs. Only a small amount of ephemera relating to the school has survived, and includes two year books (1940 and 1957), a school newsletter (1964), a visitor’s book, and programs and invitations.

Subseries C consists of records relating to the farm on the Duncan property that sustained the school, and includes accounts, receipts and expenses.

Unedited footage. Probably material shot for the historical documentary A PROUD PAST.

RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1986-08-26 SUMMARY: Gwyneth Ashby talks about her family history, growing up, and her nursing career, including her experiences as a student nurse at King's Daughters Hospital, Duncan, B.C., ca. 1914, and her later experiences as a nurse.

Item consists of one instructional video on the Ministry of Forests' seed centre. The video covers the work done in the seed centre following cone collection.

Instructional video. Describes the Cowichan Municipal Forest near Duncan. Developed for woodlot owners, this presentation will be of interest to anyone who is concerned about forest management on small parcels of land.

Industrial video

The series consists of plaint and procedure books from the County Court of Duncan, from 1902 to 1976. Each volume includes an index. Only the indexes for volumes 9, 10, 13-17 were transferred to the archives. Volumes 4 and 12, and their indexes, were not transferred to the archives.

The plaint and procedure books primarily include civil and small claims matters, as well as some appeals, liens and criminal cases, including those tried under the Speedy Trials Act. Earlier volumes may include partnership declarations and naturalization records. Volumes covering the years 1911 to 1934 include bylaws for the city of Duncan. There is also one index of builder’s liens for 1940-1984.

The item consists of an audio interview with Mollie Thompson recorded in Victoria, B.C. on August 10, 1984.

Tape summary:
Track 1: Mollie Thompson came with her mother and 3 siblings to Canada from England in 1921. Arrived at Montreal and took the train across Canada to Duncan. Family lived with Mollie's grandmother in Duncan but within a year her mother remarried and they moved to the Kootenays. Lived there until 1925. Describes her grandmother's home in Duncan. Mother had a car so they could get around in the isolated Kootenays. Moved back to Duncan, mother didn't think that the Kootenays were a safe place for a teenage girl to grow up. Relates some of her school experiences. Took domestic science in Duncan prior to moving to the Kootenays.

Track 2: Continues her talk about domestic science. Talks about her role as a woman. Only went to high school for 18 months until she got a full time job at a Catholic girls' school in Duncan. She married in 1926.

Thie series consists of an extensive collection of stock shots, depicting a wide range of B.C. Forest Service and Ministry of Forests activities and related subjects. Compiled from footage shot for a variety of purposes, the material was retained for potential use as stock footage in BC Forest Service and Ministry of Forests film productions and TV spots. Some footage was also loaned out for TV news use.

Letters of administration with wills annexed (Form B).

Letters probate (Form A). Volumes 6 and 10 are missing.

Letters of administration (Form C).

Lists of monument inscriptions from St. Mary's Anglican Cemetery (Somenos Road, Duncan); monument inscriptions from All Saints Church (Westholme); record of headstones at Pioneer Methodist Cemetery (Maple Bay).

Minutes, Board of Directors, 1915-1959; minutes of annual general meetings, 1931-1951; reports of Matron to House Committee, 1923-1931; annual reports, 1947-1981 (some missing); patients' record book, 1927-1933.

King's Daughters' Hospital was built in Duncan, B.C., in 1910, by the local Order of King's Daughters. Administration of the hospital was taken over by the Cowichan District Hospital Association in 1931, and the original building was replaced in 1967. The records consist of minutes of the Board of Directors, of annual general meetings, reports of the matron to the House Committee, annual reports and a patients record book of the hospital.

Television stock shots

Television stock shots

News footage. An (uncompleted?) TV news feature examining the pros and cons of a proposed fixed link between Vancouver Island and the Mainland. Includes interviews with Vancouver Island residents who support or oppose the plan. Includes footage of Victoria and other Vancouver Island communities; Strait of Georgia ferries (including jetfoils); and interview with Sam Bawlf, Mel Couvelier, Nanaimo mayor Frank Ney, Dr. Patrick McGeer, and others.

Series consists of records of the Sisters’ work at St. Catherine’s Indian Day School.

While the school was built, funded and overseen by the federal government, the Sisters of St. Ann staffed the school and educated the students. When the school opened in 1939, it was expected that students would be transferred from Comiaken and Koksilah Schools as well as Kuper Island Residential School. Children from local Indigenous communities attended, including Quamichan (Kwa’mutsun), Qw’umiyiqun (Comiaken), Xwulqw’selu (Koksilah), S’amuna’(Somena), Lhumlhumuluts’ (Clemclemluts), Xinupsum (Khenipsen) and Tl'lulpalus (Cowichan Bay).

The goal of the school, as communicated by the Indian Affairs Branch, was to provide practical education, which included the promotion of gardening and creation of Cowichan sweaters. The school itself was located on Tzouhalem Road on the Cowichan Reserve, about 3 miles from the Duncan city centre. The Sisters left the school in 1969, with some teachers moving to Queen of Angels School.

The records consist of reports, chronicles, correspondence, a student newsletter and photographs. The chronicles within this series are different from others as they are predominantly about life at the school. The Sisters did not live at the school but at the nearby St. Ann’s Convent, Duncan.

Stock shots. 1. Flood scenes - houses awash, roads washed out, etc. 2. Seaspan's Santa in the Inner Harbour. 3. More floods and washouts. 4. CUPE Local 727 on strike in a flood. 5. Snowstorm - car wrecks and toboggans. 6. Small oil spill? Divers. 7. Premier Bill Bennett and unidentified woman [Bella Abzug?]. 8. More flood footage. 9. CPR train wreck. 10. Flotsam and jetsam on the beach. Clean-up. 11. Burst pipes in Chinatown. 12. Nuns demonstrating. 13. Fire - good action shots. 14. BC Hydro pickets. 15. Glenshiel Hotel - seniors demonstrating. 16. Student rally against tuition increase. 17. Demonstration in front of the Legislature. 18. Royal visit - [given the date, probably Princess Alexandra]. 19. Lambrick Park Secondary - vandalism. 20. Sooke Forest Products. 21. Reception - Prince Charles and Grace McCarthy. 22. Damaged aircraft - light planes. 23. Airport arrival [of ?]. 24. Satellite dish at Legislature. 25. Fernwood News. 26. Fire at the British Columbia Provincial Museum. 27. Village Green Inn in Duncan. Police artist sketches. 28. Airport arrival - [state visit?]. 29. "The Daily Colonist" shuts down. 1858-1980. The last issue. 30. Moving a house through city streets. Saanichton School. 31. A satellite dish or telescope [?] on the Legislature lawn.

This series consists of probate cause books from the Supreme Court of Duncan, 1940-1979.

This series contains published forest management manuals, guides, tables, and studies from the Duncan Forest District. Records include lookout man's diaries, 1972-1974, files concerning the closure of Mt. Prevost and Mt. Hooker lookouts, British Columbia Forest Products, Maquinna T.F.L. no. 22 and annual reports, 1969-1972.

News item. IWA is on strike for better wages and working conditions. CUPE Local 606 supports the IWA. Rally includes elementary school children. Placards read: "Get back to the bargaining table"; "Why stay if you don't like the pay?"; "Help the needy not the greedy". CUPE's support of the IWA is keeping children out of school -- some parents object.

CALL NUMBER: T2354:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Industrial first aid in BC RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-03-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Early personal history; 1914 to 1929 lived in Nanaimo; went to Princeton to work in the coal mines; description of working there; 1935, went to Bridge River Valley above Lillooet; in 1937, came down to Duncan for a while, and left for Princeton again; back to Kamloops to work at Windpass Mine, a gold mine; some details of the life in each of these places; work camps and the Depression; uses of mules in the mines; went to work in Industrial Timber Mills for seven months on Vancouver Island; requirements for industrial first aid attendant at the time Mr. Mottishaw was in it at Windpass Mine; some accidents at Windpass; went to Zeballos in 1939 and worked as a first aid attendant; description of life and what he did there. TRACK 2: More description of Zeballos; the miners that were there; how the community lived; medical services available during the time he lived on Vancouver Island; "Thomas Crosby" one of the boats; Shantymen's Christian Association Hospital at Esperanza; Dr. R. D. McLean; Dr. Sharpe, Dr. Lewison; problems of delivering heath care; Reverend McLean's son drowned; communication and transportation; marriage in 1940; leaves Zeballos a few years later, around 1945; works as a first aid attendant at Kelly Douglas Distributors for one year; goes to work in foundry. CALL NUMBER: T2354:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Industrial first aid in BC RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-03-02 SUMMARY: TRACK !: Foundry business in New Westminster working for four years; active in the Industrial First Aid Attendants' Association; December 1947 went with forest first aid; history of industrial first aid; starts 1932; late 1800s first, first aid committee formed to update workers' first aid program; composed 50% each of Workers Compensation Board and St. John's first aid; problem of getting a textbook and trying to arrange a program for mass interest; instructor exams come into being; Dr. Salsbury writes first industrial first aid book; a collective text begins on the revision; joins the WCB in 1943; becomes an official examiner; new book being written under auspices of BCB; first first aid; St. John Ambulance, 1964 to 1969; basis of change reviewed; how first aid training progresses and how they are graded; 1959 first instructors course. TRACK 2: Numbers of people changed; Sloan Commission discussed; oxygen therapy becomes adopted into industrial first aid; Tysoe report discussed; this gave WCB the authority to pass rules and laws concerning industry; problems faced by the WCB in trying for form rules and get authority; new areas being used to get industrial first aid across to the public. CALL NUMBER: T2354:0003 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Industrial first aid in BC RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-03-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Discussion of the reasons for updating information for the masses and the hopes of using modern media for teaching. [TRACK 2: blank.]

This series consists of cause books from the Supreme Court of Duncan from 1937-1976. The books include divorce, adoption and other civil matters.

Series consists of original divorce decrees nisi, decrees absolute, orders, and judgements created between 1950 and 1976 by the Duncan Supreme Court registry. Records for 1969-1971 are missing. 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.

Orders, judgements, decrees nisi, and decrees absolute are filed together and arranged by case number, not by volume and folio or by date. This means that records of varying dates are interfiled. From 1950-1978, case file numbers were assigned chronologically and include the year a divorce was initiated. For example, no. 1/53 was the first divorce initiated in 1953, no. 1/54 was the first divorce of 1954, and so on. Later, case file numbers continued sequentially across years from no. 93 in 1971 to no. 430 in 1976. The records were scheduled for full retention under Court Services ORCS (schedule 100152) 51440-25.