The Affidavits in our Database
Data Categories in Section 31 Manitoba Act Affidavits Document Series
Beginning in 1875, four standard Manitoba Affidavit forms were used to take applications from Métis individuals in support of their claims to Manitoba Grants. Form A was used as a self-application by individuals who were 18 or older at the time the affidavit was completed but under the age of 18 on July 15, 1870. Form B was used to apply on behalf of children who were under the age of 18 at the time the affidavit was completed. The children’s parents, legal guardians, or close acquaintances over the age of 18 usually served as applicants on behalf of the under-aged child. Form C was used as a self-application for individuals who were over the age of 18 and a “Head of a Family” on 15 July 1870. Form E was used as an heir of claimant (an individual 18 years of age or older at the time the affidavit was completed applied on behalf of a deceased individual who was living on July 15, 1870).
The following is a list and explanation of database fields that were populated for the Métis Nation Historical Online Database using data from the original Affidavits. An examination of the digital version of the original documents may provide additional information.
Last Name: The applicant’s or derived individual’s[1] last name was recorded exactly as it appears on the Affidavit. For married women, their maiden names were often found in their parent’s information. If no information was available, “unknown” has been entered. For “illegitimate” children, researchers entered “unknown” for missing information. E.g. Birth name: unknown.
Married Name: This field only applies to married women. When no information regarding marital status was available, or if it was not applicable (i.e. for men, unmarried women and children), the field was left blank. Minors (those under 15 years of age) have been assumed to be unmarried.
First Names: The applicant’s or derived individual’s first name(s) has/have been entered exactly as it appears on the application. If no information was available, “unknown” was entered.
Mother’s Name: The mother’s given name was entered first and then her birth name. E.g. Josephte Bruneau. If only her married name (husband’s birth name) was provided, then “Josephte unknown” was entered, unless it appeared clear that she and her husband had the same birth names.
Father’s Name: The father’s given name was entered first and then his birth name. E.g. Joseph Morin. If an alias for his name was provided, it has been recorded after the birth name. For example, if the father’s alias was Montagnais, then “Joseph Morin alias Montagnais” was entered. The most common use for “unknown” in this field was when an applicant did not know the birth name of his father and his name appears on the Affidavit as “Joseph an Indian.” In this case the researcher would have entered “Joseph unknown.” Another case would be when the applicant did not know the first name of his father, and the Affidavit shows “__________ Desjarlais.” In this case the researcher would have entered “unknown Desjarlais.”
Year of Birth: Even if the Affidavit provided a detailed date of birth, for the purposes of the MNC Historical Online Database, the person’s birth year was entered into this field by itself, without month or day, e.g. 1870.
Parish of Birth: Most, but not all, of the Manitoba affidavit forms provide this information. The parish name was entered as it appeared on the application. (For individuals born outside of the Red River Parishes, Affidavits often included information about place of birth and this was also captured in the database.)
Parish of Residence: Most, but not all, of the Manitoba affidavit forms provide this information. The parish name has been entered as it appeared on the application.
Year of Record: In this field, researchers recorded the year the applicant applied for Manitoba grant. Even if a detailed date was provided, only the year of application has been entered in this field.
Originating Record: This field refers to the record from which the information has been obtained. For example, if a derived database record was created for a John Smith from Mary Smith’s Affidavit, the originating record would be Mary Smith’s Manitoba Affidavit (and would appear in this field as “Mary Smith”).
[1] A “derived” individual is someone whose name appeared on the Affidavit but who was not the applicant. These individuals were entered into the database so that information could be found on them using the search engine, even if they never applied for Manitoba Grants. Children did not complete Affidavits; parents would make claims for their children by including information for each child on their own (head-of-family) Affidavit. Therefore, there may be many derived records, relating to many individuals, generated from one Affidavit.