Canada, New Brunswick Provincial Returns of Marriages - FamilySearch Historical Records

Canada New Brunswick

What is in this Collection?
This collection includes marriage returns from 1887 to 1919.

The returns of marriages are arranged alphabetically within each year by surname of the groom. New Brunswick introduced registration for all vital statistics in January of 1888. There are very few returns for 1887.

Marriage Registers (registres de mariages). Civil officials recorded the marriages they performed in registers, usually preprinted forms bound in a book and kept in the civil office. If the marriage was performed by someone else, such as a minister or justice of the peace, that person was required to report the marriage information to the local official. The marriage returns have printed numbers and handwritten numbers which sometimes differ. The index refers to the handwritten numbers. The handwritten numbers also correspond to the numbers listed by each person in the county registers. Marriage dates are often out of chronological order in the county registers. The years listed are marriage years and not registration years.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
These records usually contain the following information:


 * Date and place of marriage, including county
 * Groom's name and age
 * Groom's place of birth
 * Groom's marital status, occupation and residence
 * Groom's religious denomination
 * Names of groom's parents
 * Bride's name and age
 * Bride's place of birth
 * Bride's marital status, occupation and residence
 * Bride's religious denomination
 * Names of bride's parents
 * Witnesses' names and residences
 * By whom married

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * At least one other piece of information

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page.
 * 1) Select Year
 * 2) Select Surname Range

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name, especially French or Latin versions.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of New Brunswick, Canada Genealogy.
 * Search in the New Brunswick Archives and Libraries.
 * Search in the FamilySearch Library Catalog

Citing This Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually. Collection Citation

Image Citation

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