Archives

St. Andrew's Church Ottawa illustration

St. Andrew’s is fortunate to have an extensive archival collection dating back to the foundation of the church in 1828.  While the archives focus mostly on the church itself there is also considerable material related to the surrounding community. The archives are mostly paper documents, but also include other types of records
such as photographs, architectural drawings, and microfilms.

The Memorials Committee of the church is responsible for creating and maintaining the church archives under the direction of Session and Appendix G of the Book of Forms of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

 

archives locations:

 

City of Ottawa Archives

The main archival collection is at the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Nepean, and consists of over 100 boxes of materials in ‘fonds’ MG223.   This collection is ‘on deposit’ with the city meaning that ownership of the records remains with the church.  However, the bulk of the deposit at the City Archives is open to the public, while a few records such as Session minutes within the past 50 years are subject to restricted access.  (‘Session’ is the governing body of the church.)

The ‘finding aid’ or index to the City Archives holdings may be viewed at the following link:  City of Ottawa finding aid.  If you wish to view records in this collection, you need to register at the City Archives location, which is a simple process, and then City Archives staff will make unrestricted records available to you for viewing, as well as restricted records for which you have access authorization. 

  • City of Ottawa Finding Aid

 
 

PCC Archives

The Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) maintains an archive for the national church at the head office in Toronto.  The normal policy of the PCC Archives is not to maintain archives for functioning churches, as distinct from churches that have closed.  However, they do encourage the microfilming of key records such as Session minutes and birth/marriage/death registers.  Over the years, St. Andrew’s has had its key records microfilmed by the PCC Archives, where the resulting microfilms are then held.    The contents of the PCC Archives collection of St. Andrew’s materials as of August, 2023 is described in the following document: PCC Archives finding aid.  For the most recent version of the PCC Archives finding aid, please see the PCC Archives web page at PCC Archives.