Custodian Case Files

The custodian case files are a series of records created by the Office of the Custodian of Enemy Property documenting individual and corporate Japanese-Canadian property holdings including real estate and chattels that have been specially curated and processed by the LOI digital archive team. They are a part of the Office of the Custodian fonds held at the Library and Archives Canada (RG-117 C-3) and available on the Héritage project site. The Office recorded 14,642 case files and other official records on microfilm which were transferred to the national archives when the office disbanded in 1985. These records are a crucial component of the database as they detail Japanese-Canadian property loss with names of individuals and itemized lists of property and forced sales. Because of their importance, and the fact that most of them have never been viewed by the public, the digital archive team invested in the labour to create a single record and digital object for each case file. Each case file is searchable in the database with a detailed description of the record. This collection is a good resource for community members who are conducting family history research as well as for general researchers interested in analyzing the kinds of property recorded by the Office of the Custodian.