Q: I have recovered two newspaper articles from the Toronto Reference Library Newspaper Archives. They relate to a motorcycle / car collision in which two of my relatives were killed in 1930. One is noted as coming from Rockton, the other is from Galt and they indicate a coroners inquest took place. If those records still exist, would they be with the town, county or the province?
A: [From Brenda Dougall Merriman, CGRS, CGL] - This is not easy to answer in a specific way. Coroners were (and appear still are) County- or Region-type positions, although they all come under the provincial Ministry of the Attorney General. Coroners' records for Wentworth County (Rockton) and Waterloo County (Galt) are not listed on the Archives of Ontario website, so they are likely retained somewhere in the current Hamilton-Wentworth Region and Waterloo Region bureaucracy. I could find next to nothing on the Ontario government website re Attorney General, so I suggest your questioner tackle the websites of those two Regions to locate an appropriate address. It will likely be a department concerned with "health." The records are only public after 100 years, so after contact is made, it will be necessary to apply for 1930 material on a provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act access form.
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