Q: I'd like to know when Microsoft Word documents were originally created.

I'm working on an archival project, and part of that project involves figuring out when (thousands... and thousands...) of Microsoft Word files were originally created. Many of the files were first created in the early 90's (possibly late 1980's) on a Mac Color Classic (perhaps a Macintosh 512k?) using Microsoft Word 1.x-5.x, and most were  subsequently updated to later versions of Word. The problem is that when the operating systems were updated (or restored? I'm not sure exactly), the "Created" date was changed for these files to the date of the system update. In some cases, the date in the Files>Properties... menu in Word seems to be accurate, but not for the files from before 1999.

Is there any way for me to ascertain when the file was first created that doesn't involve the "Get Info" command in Finder or the "Properties" command in Word?