Documents & Records
Provincial and City Directories - British Columbia
Basics
The first directory published in the province of British Columbia was the First Victoria Directory compiled and published by Edward Mallandaine in 1860.
B.C. provincial directories are arranged geographically: by city, town, or region. The listing of residents for each town is sometimes selective, comprising only prominent citizens and the members of professions and trades.
Early B.C. provincial directories frequently included separate listings of Chinese residents. These listings represented only a tiny proportion of the Chinese population - mainly business owners. Separate Chinese listings in B.C. provincial directories (between 1860 and 1940) are available for the following cities, towns, and regions:
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B.C. city directories were usually quite comprehensive. Chinese residents were incorporated into the main alphabetical and street listings. In some cases, however, the alphabetical listings identified them simply as "Chinese", "Chinese dwelling", or "Orientals".
Finding the Records
At the Vancouver Public Library
The Special Collections Department at the Vancouver Public Library has a very extensive collection of historical B.C. provincial and city directories.
The following two bibliographies, also available in the Special Collections Department, indicate directories and page numbers on which separate listings of Chinese residents in B.C. communities can be found:
A Researcher's Guide to British Columbia Nineteenth Century Directories: A Bibliography & Index (1988)
Lutz, John S., ed. and Young, George, comp.
Ref. 971.199X Y72r
- See index under "Chinese residents" (p. 49-50)
The Researcher's Guide to British Columbia Directories, 1901-1940: A Bibliography & Index (1992)
Young, George and Lutz, John S.
Ref. 971.1X Y72r
- See index under "Chinese residents" (p. 77-78)
Many provincial and city directories did not include separate Chinese sections. In these directories, Chinese people are found in the main listing. In some cases, however, they are simply identified as "Chinese", "Chinese dwelling", or "Orientals".
Online
Very little B.C. directory information has been transcribed, indexed or digitized into electronic format, and the number of records relating to Chinese people is extremely limited. A few have been identified in Directories (Directories is part of the viHistory site, which hosts a large number of databases on the history of Vancouver Island). Directories provides searchable directory listings for the cities of Nanaimo and Victoria for 1882 and 1892, and a digitized 1902 Victoria City street directory.
The British Columbia City Directories, 1860-1947 provides access to digitized images from a number of British Columbia provincial, regional and city directories. Although not a searchable database, browsing by surname or the name of a business is possible. Images can be downloaded as high-resolution TIFF and PDF files.
Ancestry Library Edition includes the Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s-1900s database, which indexes Chinese (and other) residents listed in Herderson's British Columbia Gazetteer and Directory and Mining Companies for 1900-1901. Ancestry Library Edition is available for free at all VPL locations. Non-VPL users can access Ancestry Library Edition using its private subscription version, ancestry.ca.
Photo banner: Detail from VPL Historical Photograph 78362
