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.

For a list of records by dates and surnames currently published in this collection, select the Browse link from the collection landing page.

What Can this Collection 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.
 * The approximate year of marriage.
 * The name of the intended spouse.

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 "Year" ⇒Select the appropriate "Surname Range" which will take you to the images.

Search the collection by image, 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.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s marriage return, 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?

 * Use the age to calculate a birth year.
 * Use the residence to search in the Canadian Censuses.
 * Use the place of birth and the calculated birth year to search for a birth record.
 * Search for a marriage record using the names of the parents.

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

 * Search for the names of the parents instead of the child.
 * Look for alternative spellings of the name.

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