A new home for the Oblate archives of Grandin Province

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A new home for the Oblate archives of Grandin Province

OMI Lacombe Canada is pleased to announce after years of searching for a new home for the Grandin archives, they have been relocated and gifted to the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA).

For many years the Grandin archives were housed in the basement of Foyer Lacombe in St. Albert, AB, it was a suitable location but left much to be desired when it came to preservation of the historical documents of Grandin Province. After the departure of the Grandin archivist in 2014, the archives were closed to the public and researchers to allow the administrative group of OMI Lacombe Canada to evaluate and find a permanent solution for the archives.  Having staff archivists was not in our plans, it was important to find a facility that embraces making information public and allow for researchers to learn and document moments in the history of the Oblates.

The Provincial Archives of Alberta a Government institution was opened in 1906 to preserve government documents. In 1962 it expanded and accepted private collections of prominent individuals of Alberta including various religious congregations who could no longer care for their historical collections.  In 2003, the Provincial Archives opened a new state of the art facility in Edmonton, with private vaults, individual room temperature control managing humidity of older documents, over the years they have also put a tremendous amount of work on developing finding aids and have turned this facility into one of the best in the country.

It has been a long journey to find the right organization that would respect and place the Oblate collection in view of the public eye.

On August 21st 2018, Fr. Ken Forster (Provincial Superior, OMI Lacombe Canada) and Mr. Wayne Murdoch (PAA, Director of Collections Management) signed the archival gifting agreement placing the responsibility of archival management safely in their hands.

Left: Rob Meilleur, CAO – OMI Lacombe Canada Top right: Mr. Wayne Murdoch, PAA Director of Collections Management. Bottom right: Fr. Ken Forster, OMI – Provincial Superior, OMI Lacombe Canada Province

Other Oblate archives:

The New Province called OMI Lacombe Canada was born from the history of 5 Oblate provinces, St. Peter’s, Manitoba Corporation, St. Mary’s, Grandin and the Order of OMI in BC.  Currently those Oblate archives are located as close as geography can permit.

St. Peter’s Province archives are housed and under the Management of Oblate Province Notre-Dame-Du-Cap in Richelieu, Québec.

Manitoba Corporation archives are co-located with several religious order archives at the Centre-Patrimoine Du Manitoba, located in St. Boniface.

St. Mary’s archives have been moved and merged into the archives of the Diocese of Saskatoon.

Grandin Province, gifted and under the care of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.

St. Paul’s Province/Order of OMI in BC is the last piece of the puzzle, the archives are currently stored in the basement of the Oblate house on The Crescent, we have been in negotiations for over 2 years on finding the right organization to take on their archives. We hope to announce by the end of  this year who will be the permanent caretakers of this archival material.

Preservation and respect of the Oblate archives has been the key to working with all of these organizations.

Article by Rob Meilleur, CAO OMI Lacombe Canada Province

The Administration of OMI Lacombe Canada Province is very grateful to Rob Meilleur for his untiring work in moving negotiation forward to arrive at this agreement. We also want to thank Fr. Camille Piché, OMI and Monique Cloutier for assisting in the transfer of our massive archival collection.
Fr. Ken Forster, OMI – Provincial