New Brunswick, Canada Genealogy

Guide to New Brunswick ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

New Brunswick Information
By the early 1700s the area that is now New Brunswick was part of the French colony of Acadia, which was in turn part of New France. Acadia comprised most of what is now the Maritimes, as well as parts of Québec and Maine. The peace and prosperity of the colony was ended by rivalry between Britain and France for control of territory in Europe and North America starting in the early 1700s. With the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, the part of Acadia today known as peninsular Nova Scotia became another British colony on the eastern seaboard. Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island remained French. To defend the area, the French built six forts and one was later captured by British and New England troops in 1755, followed soon after by the Expulsion of the Acadians. After the American Revolution, about 10,000 loyalist refugees settled along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy, commemorated in the province's motto, "hope restored". In 1784 New Brunswick was partitioned from Nova Scotia, and that year saw its first elected assembly. In 1785 Saint John became Canada's first incorporated city. In 1866 the US cancelled the Canadian–American Reciprocity Treaty leading to loss of trade with New England and prompting a desire to build trade within British North America, while Fenian raids increased support for union. On 1 July 1867 New Brunswick entered the Canadian Confederation along with Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. At the end of the Great Depression the New Brunswick standard of living was much below the Canadian average. 

New Brunswick History
New Brunswick is a province in eastern Canada. Its capital is Fredericton. The territory was originally part of Acadia, which France lost to Great Britain after the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). Before 1784, New Brunswick was part of Nova Scotia. When New Brunswick was established in 1784 it was divided into eight counties. As the population grew the original counties were divided and new counties set up. The counties are subdivided into civil parishes.

In 1783, refugees loyal to the Britain began to colonize the area. They were relocating after the American Revolution and came from as far south as Georgia and as far north as Massachusetts. These refugees were not all of British origin, but included German, Dutch and Black Loyalists. The Black Loyalists included a number of freed slaves, but there were a small number of loyalists who brought their slaves with them to New Brunswick. By 1785, so many refugees had landed and settled at the mouth of the St. John River that the King granted a charter to the new City of Saint John, the first incorporated city in Canada.

Scottish and Irish settlers began to settle in New Brunswick in the early 1800s a result of the potato famine. Later immigration included a few hundred Danish settlers in the 1870s. A significant number of Jewish immigrants came through the Port of Saint John from the 1890s to the beginning of the First World War. A number of these immigrants remained to form Jewish communities in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in resourcing your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records - databases and record images on FamilySearch
 * Family History Center locator map