Military Records - Indigenous & Métis
Indigenous soldiers would have been included in general resources pertaining to service in Canada’s wars. Several resources specific to service by indigenous soldiers are also available, as noted below.
Online
Databases offering a name search
- Ancestry and FamilySearch.org include searchable military records in their databases.
- Library and Archives Canada holds the military personnel and service files. Records that are open to the public are pre-1914, World War 1, and World War 2 for soldiers that died in service. Information is provided on this link, which also provides searchable databases.
- Books of Remembrance
- First World War Personnel Records database
- Canadian Expeditionary Force records
- Library & Archives Canada: Military Records
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- Canadian Virtual War Memorial
- Library and Archives Canada has digitized a collection of World War 1 microfilms pertaining specifically to indigenous soldiers. While these digitized microfilms are not searchable by name, they are viewable and browsable.
Information on the military contributions of Indigenous soldiers
- Government of Canada: Indigenous Peoples in Military History
- Library and Archives Canada: Indigenous Soldiers, Foreign Battlefields
- Canadian War Museum – First Nations Soldiers
- Veterans Affairs Canada – Indigenous Veterans
- Veterans Affairs Canada – Indigenous Veterans in the Second World War
- Royal Canadian Armored Corps Battle Honors
- Canadian Military Heritage Project
Microfilm
Our Family History Department has a collection of microfilms pertaining to military records. See Section 9 of the library’s guide: Canadian Family History Resources which describes Canadian military records on microfilm available at the library or ask staff for assistance.
When searching for military print items in our library catalogue use keywords such as “soldiers – Canada”, “soldiers - Canada - indexes”, or “solders –[location]- registers”. A sample from our collection here:
Wright, Glen T. Canadians at War 1914 – 1919: A Research Guide to War Service Records. Library call number: 940.40971 WRI 2010
British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa. Index to Canadian Service Records of the South African War (1899-1902) held at the National Archives of Canada. Library call number 929.371 IND 1999