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War of 1812, Upper Canada War Loss Claims Numerical Index Compiled by Fred Blair Published January 28, 2017 Copyright Fred Blair Introduction The Collections Canada, War of 1812, Board of Claims and Losses documents are online at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02e.php?&q2=33&interval=50&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=nf5gb8qjdi09u45qfhi78sl726 War loss claims were initially made during or just after the war. As there were different commissions for losses to the British, the Americans, and Indians aiding both armies, a claimant may have made two or more separate claims. These claims were usually filed together but there was also a register of certificates supporting claims and pages were sometimes misfiled with other people's claims. There were insufficient funds available to pay the claims immediately after the war and claims had to be resubmitted in 1823. Claims were rejected for a number of reasons, including fraud and lack of evidence. Agents were sometimes hired to appeal rejections or to facilitate the claim process. Carpenters, and other tradesmen, and merchants sometimes certified the value of lost items. Because of the delays in recompense some families were left destitute for over ten years after their loss. The ideal war loss claim included details for who, what, when, where, why, and how the loss occurred. However, many claims lacked some these details. Some documents were illegible or difficult to read. The claim registers in the collection were sometimes incomplete, illegible, or contained transcription errors. An effort has been made in the indices below to correct those problems. Even when documents were legible, determining who made the claim was not always easy because names were spelled phonetically and it was not unusual to find two or more different spellings for a surname on the same page. The first name for each claim below was usually the claimant. The claimant may also have been a widow, an heir, or an agent for the deceased's estate. Additional names in these indices were generally principal witnesses to the loss or related events. The names of character references for the claimant and appraisers for the value of the loss have not been regularly included.