The article discusses the significance of land registry offices and the preservation of historical documents in Ontario. It highlights how records of land ownership are vital for preventing disputes and maintaining societal order. The author reflects on historical events where fires destroyed significant records, such as the University of Montreal parliament building fire in 1849 and subsequent losses in Quebec's history. The article emphasizes the importance of careful record-keeping and the consequences of neglecting historical archives, ultimately stressing the necessity of protecting heritage documents to safeguard future ownership rights.
The little registry offices were important to the people who built them. The records of land ownership were stored there, and they looked after them very carefully.
Good land records and respect for old documents help keep the peace in our society. Say, you have the old surveyors' notes of an Ontario township. Then people start arguing about who owns the township's beach.
In 1849, a mob burned down the parliament building in Montreal, along with its library and archives. (A few books and documents were recovered in an archaeological dig in the 2010s, but only enough to remind us of the loss.)
After Confederation, some of the country's oldest records were stashed in a loft in the reading room of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. That's where a fire started in 1916 that destroyed the whole building, along with many historic treasures.
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