Canada, British Columbia Birth Registrations - FamilySearch Historical Records

Canada British Columbia

What is in this Collection?
The registration of births began in 1872, but because of delayed registration, this collection includes births from 1854-1903.

These records include birth registrations, delayed birth registrations, and delayed registrations of native births. Due to privacy by the government of British Columbia, some images have been restricted from viewing.

The birth registrations are recorded on individual, printed forms. They consist of completed statements regarding live births in British Columbia submitted to district registrars and registered by the director of Vital Statistics. Birth certificates contain information from the original registration records and are only available through the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency. A stillbirth may have been registered as either a birth, death, or both.

British Columbia became a province of Canada in July 1871; registration of vital events began in 1872. The only persons excluded from the Births, Deaths, and Marriages Act of 1872 were Chinese and First Nations. This was changed by an amendment in 1897, stating the registration would apply to all races. However, the Act was amended in 1899 to once again exclude First Nations from provincial registration until another amendment was passed in 1916, which authorized registration of First Nations to begin again in 1917. Because of delayed registration, First Nation births in this collection range from 1854 -1903 (v. 795, 995A-998A). Birth records are organized by birth year instead of registration year in order to enable the release of early birth information that might otherwise have been restricted because of a late registration date. On 4 June 2004, an amendment to the Vital Statistics Act changed the release date for birth records from 100 years to 120 years.

Provincial vital registrations are considered a reliable source in family history research because they contain a record of an event usually registered very near the time the event occurred. The reliability, of course, depends on the accuracy of the informant.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Birth registrations usually include the following information:


 * Date of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Name of child
 * Gender of child
 * Name of father
 * Name of mother, including maiden name
 * Residence of parents
 * Occupation of father
 * Birthplace of parents
 * Age of parents
 * Date and number of registration

Native birth records generally contain the following information:


 * Name of child
 * Place of birth
 * Gender of child
 * Date of birth
 * Single, twin, triplet, or other
 * Marital status of parents
 * Name of parents
 * Tribe of parents
 * Age of parents
 * Occupation of father
 * Birthplace of parents
 * Number of children
 * Residence
 * Name of doctor and date of registration

How Do I Search the Collection?
To being your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate year of birth.
 * The place where your ancestor lived.
 * The names of the parents or other family members and their relationships.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View Images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search this collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select "Browse Images" on the initial search page. ⇒ Select the appropriate "Digital Folder Number" which takes you to the images.

Look at the images one by one, comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

As you are searching, it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * The names of the parents in the birth record will help you research census records.
 * Birth records may list the maiden name of the mother. If the record does have the maiden name, you may be able to find the name of the mother's parents in the collection or in Canada Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * If your ancestors were anywhere near Victoria, consider looking at the Victoria Times, Births, Marriages, and Deaths Notices, which begin in 1901 and go until 1939. This collection is not indexed, so it may take some time to look through the notices.
 * If you ancestor was born and died in British Columbia, the British Columbia Death Registrations, 1872-1986; 1992-1993 may have a death registration for him or her. This collection has been indexed and images are also available for viewing.

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

 * Try using variations on the surname when searching. Spelling was not standardized, so it could have been spelled many different ways throughout the ancestor's life.
 * Try using nicknames or middle names when searching.

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

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. Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: