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We recognize that not all communities will have the capacity to or the desire to conduct the research process internally. In this case, private service providers are an option to help conduct the needed research and access archives and other documents. 

When looking for a service provider to help with the research process, there are many things to consider. The list below provides some examples of questions that should be addressed when assessing a private sector company's ability to complete the requested research. 

Please note that there will always be a tradeoff between time, cost, and quality when it comes to private services. Quality work cannot be both cheap and fast. Quick work cannot be both cheap and high quality. There may have to be some compromise on either the time needed to conduct the research or the total cost of the project. However, due to the nature and sensitivities of the work of searching for missing children, we highly recommend that the quality of the work being done is never compromised. 

A Venn diagram showing the interactions between Time, Cost, and Quality and how they impact a project's performance.

If the goal of your research is to find names of children who attended residential school or prepare for a remote sensing survey to search for unmarked burials, a typical research process that that one might follow if the goal is to prepare for ground survey and geophysical methods for finding unmarked burials is as follows: 

1. NCTR: 
   1. Use the NCTR narrative documents for dates, location(s), religious organisation involved in administration, date that government became involved in administration, day of closing, and any names of the residential school.  
   2. View quarterly returns for lists of children who attended the school and the memorial list to identify the children who never went home from residential school. 
   3. Take note of names of staff who worked at the school, and note any important events from the narrative document such as any fires or changes to building locations.
2. Provincial/territorial archives: 
   1. Starting with any available online databases or finding aids, start searching using some of the names of the residential school listed by the school narrative, names of staff who worked at the school, or other identifiable information. Save any available records found and make a list of records of interest to view at the archive in person if they are not available online digitally. 
   2. Look into the process for accessing any vital statistics records held at the archive, starting with the records of children known to have passed away at the school based on the the NCTR memorial list or any children you identify from other records or the quarterly returns.   
   3. Order any historic aerial photos that may show the layout of the land and the buildings that once existed on the landscape. 
   4. Cross reference the aerial photos with any photos of the school to note any changes to the residential school site over time.
3. Genealogy societies: 
   1. Checking for burial records that were recorded or transcribed from the church and community records. Many genealogical societies have these transcriptions available. For example, see, the or the
   2. Check the lists of recorded burials from community cemeteries surrounding the residential school, hospital, or other institution. 
   3. Check community history books for residential school locations or nearby communities. Most genealogical societies have large collections of community history books. 
   4. Any photographs with information about students or landscape including any aerial photos or photos of historic cemeteries within the collection.

From this point, looking at records from smaller archives in and around the community, collecting oral histories, and utilizing the information you find to inform the research process is one possible route. There is no “right” way to do this research. Focus on collecting as much information as you can, and allow the information you find to guide where you look next. The records will often tell you where to go or set you on a path to explore further.

The NCTR is likely to provide the best help where you are looking for information specific to yourself or your relatives. That being said, it is important to remember that the NCTR collection is restricted to residential schools that were named within the Settlement Agreement. This means that if you are unable to find information for a residential school attended by yourself or a relative within the NCTR collection, it may be that the institution you attended was not captured by the IRSSA. In this instance, we suggest starting by gathering as much information about the institution and then determining where information from the institution might be located. In general, where a governmental body had control over the institution, a provincial or territorial archive is a good place to start and where a church organisation had control, the religious organizations archive may be the best place to start.

• Start with searching the name of the IRS and any name variations listed in the NCTR narrative. 
• Search the name of the associated mission or parish. 
• Search the names of different staff members/principals at the residential school. 
• Search by the name of the surrounding community - this will help you locate different community history books or files of community residents. Occasionally, this can turn up further mission records or photo collections. 

• to learn how to navigate the website.

Sometimes your search won’t yield any results, and this can be a sign to either change what you are searching and how you are searching it, or alternatively, there may be no records available. The first thing you can do if you encounter this issue is try advanced search and searching by single words, or, search by location and then the key word being different historic terms for Indigenous people. Your search results are often highly dependent on the metadata used when records and descriptions were inputted into the online database that you are searching. It may take trying a few times with multiple terms and settings before you get the results you are looking for. This is especially true on older databases that are not frequently updated - this does not mean that the records are not at the archive you are searching, they may have just not yet been added to the online database. 

If the archive has a website, start by browsing their website for information on how to plan your visit. If possible, try to know ahead of time what records you would like to view. Many archive locations have finding aids available online, or online databases that you can search to identify records that you might want to view when you go to the archive. If possible, speak with an archivist before attending so when you do attend, records can be taken out for you in advance of your visit. 

Check out this resource from the University of Manitoba: