Canada, Manitoba Church Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in this Collection?
This collection contains church records for the years 1800-1959.

These records contain baptisms, marriages, deaths and other records from some Catholic, Lutheran, and Unitarian parishes in Manitoba. The Lutheran records from Bifrost, Gimli, and Winnepeg are written in English but consist mainly of people from Iceland and an understanding of Scandanavian naming conventions is helpful in researching your ancestors. The Catholic records from Brochet, St. Eustache and St. Francis Xavier are mainly written in French and an understanding of French Records and naming patterns will be helpful in researching your ancestors. The Winnepeg Unitarian records are partially written in English and partially in the Icelandic language.

Canadian church records began in the 1620s in Quebec with French Catholic Records. These early records were kept according to a 16th-century French law. English-language church records begin in 1749 in Nova Scotia with Church of England records. Canada had French citizens until 1763, so most Protestant records begin much later. Church records were kept at the local parish of the church. A parish is a local congregation that may include many villages. Your ancestor may have lived in a village and belonged to a parish in a nearby larger town.

Reading These Records
Many of these records are in French. For help with reading the records, see the following resources:


 * French Handwriting
 * French Wordlist
 * France Language and Languages
 * BYU French Records Extraction – An Instructional Guide
 * Icelandic Word List
 * Scandinavian Given Names

How Do I Search the Collection?
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 * The name of your ancestor
 * The name of a relative or date of the event

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How Do I Analyze the Results?
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I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to find other church and vital records such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death records
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 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in censuses. Witnesses were usually family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.

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

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby town or county.
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Check the info box above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.
 * Search the indexes and records of Manitoba, Canada Genealogy.

Citing This Collection
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