The Ontario Records Office remained under this name until 1972. It was created at Confederation and carried out functions previously conducted within the Provincial Secretary's Office. It had custody of the indexes and records of documents issued under the Great Seal of Ontario, the Privy Seal of the Lieutenant Governor and the seal of the Provincial Secretary. These documents included official records such as:

• letters patent of incorporation and amalgamation;
• provincial and extra-provincial licenses;
• surrenders and cancellations of charters;
• Crown and land patents, and leases;
• mining patents and leases;
• appointments of Queen's counsels;
• records from notaries public, justices of the peace, and commissioners for taking affidavits.

More records are listed on the Archives of Ontario Web site. They can be found by searching descriptions of record creators in the Archives Descriptive Database with the keywords "Official Documents Services (ODS)."

Today, ODS is a unit of the General Administrative Services Delivery Branch, Ontario Shred Services, Ministry of Government Services, Government of Ontario. It provides services to the public in the following ways:

• If you are doing business or travelling abroad, you may be required to provide proof of authentication for official documents issued in Ontario. ODS authenticates documents notarized or commissioned in Ontario by verifying the signature and seal of the notary, or the signature and stamp of the commissioner of the document.