Canadian Council of Archives

National Treasures in Grandma's Trunk?

I am the Archivist at the Grand Manan, New Brunswick archives. We are a small Island extremely rich in Loyalist history. Many people come to us trying to make sense of their past, create roots for their children, and discover where they came from by uncovering long lost stories of their own people. We have over 500 boxes that have been worked in. Some computerizing to RAD standards has been done. We are small enough that one master index may someday be possible. CCA has supported us through funding to get us where we are today. The funding for the small archives in the backwoods communities is so important. Who knows what National treasures are still hidden away in Grandma's trunk. The small community archives needs to be able to offer salaries to its staff, enabling them to be open when Grandma's trunk is cleaned out and looking for a new home. If the archives is open only hit and miss and operated by volunteers, the consistency is not there. All we, as volunteers, can do is public service. The backlog of files needing to be brought up to National standards continues to grow. Please do what you can to secure funding for the small archives that are trying to stay open on little or no money. The Grand Manan Archives has just opened after being closed for three years because of funding difficulties. We have not found any funds and are mainly open by appointment, so at this time the backlog continues to grow for us.
Keep up the good work.

Ava Griffin Sturgeon, Archivist
Grand Manan Archives