Getting Started on Your Research

Looking for answers to where a missing patient is buried can feel daunting. It can be hard to even know where to begin, but the answer is simple: Begin with what you know. Researchers sometimes call this approach upstreaming because it usually begins with the most recent information you have, and then uses that information to work back, to work upstream, to find information about what came before.

Gather the information that you have. Start with the name of the person you are looking for, when they were born, and when they went away. You do not need to be exact. If you don’t know their exact birth date, can you say roughly when they were born? What community did they come from? When did they leave the community, and why? Sometimes people left their communities for work or to go to a residential school, and from there were sent to a sanatorium. Who were their family? You can use the checklist below to help guide you.

As you go, make notes. It’s ok if you don’t know all of the answers to the questions listed below.

To begin your search, it is helpful to gather as much information as possible. Write down your answers and, as your research progresses, you may be able to come back and add more information. If you don’t know much, that’s ok. Just fill in what you can. You can download a fillable pdf version if this list here.

1. First and middle name(s) of the missing person. Be sure to include formal names, nicknames, and any spelling variations you can think of (for instance, Betsie could be Betsey, Betsy, or even Elizabeth).

2. Last name of the missing person. Include possible different spellings. Also, if they might have had stepparents or been adopted by or lived with someone or another family, include their last name as possible here. Include women’s married and maiden last names if you can.

3. Community of the missing person. There may be more than one community to which they are connected. If the person was at school when they were sent to hospital, include the name and location of the school here.

4. Birthdate, or age of person when they were sent to hospital. Even a rough estimate can be helpful.

5. Parents of the missing person. Include stepparents, adopted family (including customary adoption). Were any of them sent to a hospital? Do you know which one(s)?

6. Siblings of the missing person. Include step siblings and cousin siblings. Were any of them sent to a hospital? Do you know which one(s)?

7. Any faith community or religious affiliation of the missing person.

8. Any faith community or religious affiliation of the family of the missing person.

9. Date the missing person was sent to the hospital. Even a rough estimate can be helpful.

10. Name of the hospital the missing person might have been sent to. Even a rough estimate or name of a nearby community can be helpful. For example, “close to Winnipeg” narrows the options down to two hospitals.

11. Any stories you might know or have heard about where they were sent, when they were sent, who sent them, anyone who was sent with them, etc.

Now you are ready to move on to locating the records that might help your search.

Depending on where your family or community member lived there are a number of “first stop” sources where researchers can begin. You may also find it helpful to come back to these sources if you have started somewhere else but hit a brick wall. Some of these sources may apply to your research and others will not.

1. MITHP Hospital-Specific Research Guides

If you think you know the name or names of the hospitals the patient was admitted to, read this page and then go to our hospital-specific Research Guide pages. Follow the steps and options outlined on those pages.

2. Records of the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba

If you do not have any clues as to which hospital or hospitals the patient was admitted to, begin by making a request to access the records of the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba.

The Sanatorium Board of Manitoba ran TB hospitals and sanatoriums where Indigenous patients were treated. These hospitals include: the Ninette Sanatorium, the Brandon Indian Sanatorium, Clearwater Lake Indian Hospital, Dynevor Indian Hospital (after 1939), and the Central Tuberculosis Clinic in Winnipeg.

Most of the surviving records of the San Board are held by the Archives of Manitoba. Access to records that include information that may identify individual patients is restricted under the Manitoba Personal Health Information Act.

You can request that a search be performed in these restricted records, like the SBM Central Tuberculosis Register, to see if there is information about a specific patient. To request these records, fill out and submit a Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) request. To make a PHIA request, download the form HERE.

The PHIA request forms are not designed for historical record requests and the form may ask you to provide information or proof that is not available to you. That’s ok. Just fill in the information that you have and indicate how you are related to the patient in question. Please note that information requests for PHIA searches can only be made by the patient or a family member of the patient.

3. Nanilavut Initiative

If you are searching for an Inuit patient from the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, contact the Nanilavut Initiative. The Nanilavut Initiative was established after the Qikiqtani Truth Commission to help Inuvialuit and Inuit from across Canada locate lost loved ones who did not return home after being sent to southern hospitals during the Tuberculosis Epidemic (1940s to 1960s).

News story: In Pursuit of Resolution: Families continue to grieve loved ones who died of tuberculosis in the south (Nunavut News/North, 2017)

4. Government of the NWT: Medical Patient Search Project

If you are searching for a patient connected to the Northwest Territories, the Government of the Northwest Territories may be able to assist you via the Medical Patient Search Project. If the person you are searching for came from the Northwest Territories, the Government of the Northwest Territories may be able to help you by searching records located in the NWT Archives. The Medical Patient Search Project assists in searches for patients who were sent from the NWT to a southern hospital.

5. The Manitoba Vital Statistics Database

Many of the deaths that occurred at the Brandon Indian Sanatorium were recorded with Manitoba’s Vital Statistics Agency. If the death occurred more than 70 years ago, you can search for the person’s name in the MB Vital Statistics’ online database. The database is updated every three months, so deaths that occurred between October and December of a year may not be added until sometime after January.

Note: If you are looking for a family member who may have passed away less than 70 years ago, you can contact the Vital Statistics Agency and ask if you are able to request their death record. They may or may not be able to help in this situation.

Using this database may be easier if you know a few tricks. Click here for instructions on how to search in the database by name and using wildcard searches. To learn more about wildcard searching and using Manitoba Vital Statistics records, read the MITHP Case Study: Manitoba Vital Statistics and Residential School Students.

6. Société historique de Saint-Boniface (St. Boniface Historical Society)

The Société historique de Saint-Boniface hosts some religious records, which may include burial records from from the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, including the Clearwater Lake Indian Hospital/St. Anthony’s Hospital in The Pas, the St. Boniface Hospital/Sanatorium, Ninette, and possibly others.

You may find information or even photographs by searching for names and places in their database, but their online database does not include burial registers. For this, you will need to speak with an archivist directly. Researchers will have to get permission from the originating organization to access sacramental and health-related records.

Services at SHSB are provided in French and English.

7. The Manitoba Genealogical Society

The Manitoba Genealogical Society (MGS) has a wealth of cemetery transcriptions, and knowledgeable volunteers. Some of their resources are available online for free, but the best access is provided through purchasing a membership for a small fee.

Members and non-members can search the online Manitoba Names Index (MANI). You may need to try various spellings in your searches. Many of the missing TB patients were not memorialized in a published obituary or with a headstone, so the public-facing online database may not be as helpful as some of the transcriptions the MGS holds in their collections. These transcriptions are only accessible on-site at regional MGS locations or through the members-only section of the MANI database.

There are regional MGS sites across the province. If you cannot find what you need online and/or cannot attend a regional site, you can hire a volunteer to help you search through the MGS holdings.

8. Library and Archives Canada

We will be adding more information about what is available through Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in the coming months. Broadly, LAC's collections include schools' files that may be helpful if the person you are looking for was a student at a residential school or a school located in a TB hospital. LAC also holds records of tuberculosis surveys and some hospital admissions. For young people who entered a sanatorium, family allowance records may also be helpful in your search.

Health records, family allowance files, and some school records are restricted, but you may be able to make a request to see a particular record or records relating to yourself or a person who has passed away. The request procedure is explained online HERE.

9. Find a Grave

FindAGrave.com can be useful, depending on the cemetery. The information for cemeteries around The Pas is particularly helpful, while other cemeteries contain only the names of some of the people buried there who had headstones. It can be worth a search if you think you know where the person might have been buried.

10. The University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections

Because of its connections with health care and biological sciences, the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections may have relevant records. For example, here are some of the records available at UMASC about Clearwater Lake Indian Hospital. Consult with a UMASC archivist to see what records are available that might relate to your search.

11. Voters Lists

For adult patients, Voters Lists can be useful. Voters Lists contain the names of people who were eligible to vote in any given election. For each election, the eligible adult patients in hospitals are listed by hospital on the Voters Lists. These lists can be viewed through Ancestry.ca. Some libraries offer free public access to Ancestry. Finding a name at a certain place can help to narrow down where a patient might have been buried.

12. RG 10 Indian Hospital School Files

All three of the Manitoba Indian TB hospitals, the Ninette Sanatorium, and the St. Boniface Sanatorium had schools in the hospitals. The MITHP Research team is continuing to conduct research into the location of school reports from the Ninette Sanatorium and the St. Boniface Sanatorium. We will update this section as new information becomes available.

At Brandon Indian Sanatorium, Dynevor Indian Hospital, and Clearwater Lake Indian Hospital the schools were federally funded and were inspected by federal authorities. They were subject to regular reporting, including pupil lists. These pupil lists can confirm that an individual was a patient at a specific hospital. Pupils were not always limited to young people and can include adult patient-students as well.

The school inspection records are held in Library and Archives Canada collections. Some of these records are open and available online, others must be requested through LAC via an Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Online Request. You can also contact LAC to help locate records that might be relevant but are not necessarily obvious from LAC database searches.

You can access the RG 10 Hospital School Files in a few ways:

• The Archives of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has some of the RG 10 School files available online, but the records are not complete. Some of the Admissions and Discharges files in particular are missing.
• The RG 10 School Files are digitized via the LAC website HERE.
• Heritage Canadiana is the online repository for some non-restricted files that LAC has digitized.

Refer to the individual hospital pages for additional information on hospital-specific school files.