New Brunswick Civil Registration

Online Records
The records of Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and MyHeritage may be searched free-of-charge at a Family History Center near you.
 * Vital Statistics from Government Records Search Engine Coverage details Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Index to births, marriages and deaths, 1800-1959.
 * Vital Statistics From New Brunswick Newspapers

FamilySearch

 * 1801-1920 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1810-1899 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1810-1906 - Index and images.
 * 1812-1919 -, images only
 * 1819-1899 - Index only.

New Brunswick Archives

 * 1800-1913 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to County Birth Registers 1800-1913
 * 1800-1913 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to Late Registration of Births 1810-1918
 * 1898-1918 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to Provincial Registration of Births 1898-1918

Subscription Website Databases

 * 1670-1946 - Roman Catholic baptismal records in the Acadia, Drouin Collection (1670-1946) on Ancestry ($), index and images. Available records vary by area.
 * 1810-1906 - New Brunswick, Canada, Births and Late Registrations, 1810-1906, index and images, ($).
 * 1819-1899 - New Brunswick, Births and Baptisms, 1819-1899, ($), index.


 * 1769-1899 - New Brunswick Birth and Baptism Index 1769-1899, ($)


 * 1819-1899 - New Brunswick, Births and Baptisms, 1819-1899, ($), index

FamilySearch

 * 1763-1957 - Nova Scotia Vital Records, 1763-1957, index. Includes marriage bonds 1763, 1765, 1770-1780, 1782, when New Brunswick was still part of Nova Scotia.


 * 1789-1950 - New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950, index and images, ($).
 * 1789-1889 - Images only.
 * 1789-1950 -, index
 * 1887-1919 - Images only.
 * 1920-1950 - Images only.

New Brunswick Archives

 * 1810-1932 - Index to Marriage Bonds 1810-1932
 * 1847-1962 - Index to New Brunswick Marriages 1847-1962

Subscription Website Databases

 * 1670-1946 - Roman Catholic marriage records in the Acadia, Drouin Collection (1670-1946) on Ancestry ($), index and images. Available records vary by area.
 * 1789-1950 - New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950, index and images ($)


 * 1810-1932 - New Brunswick, Canada, Marriage Bonds Index, 1810–1932, index ($)

FamilySearch

 * 1815-1938 - Index and images.
 * 1815-1919 - Images only.
 * 1920-1934 - Images.
 * 1935-1938 - Images.

New Brunswick Archives

 * 1815-1919 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to Provincial Returns of Deaths 1815-1919
 * 1885-1921 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to County Death Registers 1885-1921
 * 1889-1919 - Index to Saint John Burial Permits 1889-1919
 * 1920-1964 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to Death Certificates 1920-1964
 * 1941-1947 - Provincial Archives of New Brunswick Index to death registration of soldiers, 1941-1947

Subscription Website Databases

 * 1670-1946 - Roman Catholic burial records in the Acadia, Drouin Collection (1670-1946) on Ancestry ($), index and images. Available records vary by area.
 * 1888-1938 - New Brunswick, Canada, Deaths, 1888-1938, index and images, ($).

Divorces

 * Acts of Divorce, 1841-1968, index

History

 * Originally, civil registration records were created by collecting copies of baptism, marriage, and burial records that the government required churches to submit. These are online in the Drouin collection, with Ancestry.com links above.
 * Marriage bonds, available starting in 1810, were required when banns were not read in the churches or when the clergyman did not know both of the parties. The bond was to protect the woman from a ‘breach of promise’ situation.
 * Covering 1810 to 1887, there are some birth records, created after the beginning of government records (1888), a "Late Registration" compilation. These are very incomplete.
 * Beginning in 1812, the original counties were required to register marriages. See Coverage Table of Provincial Marriage Records for the years available.
 * The provincial government of New Brunswick began recording births, marriages, and deaths in 1888.

What Can These Records Tell You?
The following lists represent what the most recent records contain, the most detailed versions. Earlier records are much simpler.

Online Collections
See Online Records. Records not restricted by privacy are all online in various collections

Recent, Privacy Restricted Records
If the years of interest to you have not yet been transferred to the Provincial Archives, you must request copies of records from Service New Brunswick: Vital Statistics.
 * Vital Statistics
 * P.O. Box 6000
 * Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1
 * CANADA
 * Telephone: 506-453-2385; Fax: 506-444-4139
 * Internet: Service New Brunswick: Vital Statistics.

Coverage Table of County Marriage Records

 * Most of these records are available at the Family History Library. Find them by searching under Vital Records for each county. Click on "Places in Canada, New Brunswick", then the county. Scroll down to "Vital Records" and "Vital Record-Indexes". Some of these are available online, as indicated by the small camera icon. However, a key above the icon imeans that they can only be viewed at a Family History Center near you.

* Early Northumberland County marriages are listed among the Justices of the Peace records of their Courts of Quarter Session.

** Père Henri Langlois, O.F.M. (1901-1968) compiled an eight volume, typescript record of marriages in Madawaska and the region of the upper St. John River, from 1792 to about 1940. This is essentially the Diocese of Edmundston and includes parishes in Aroostook in Maine. It is available at both the PANB in Fredericton, and LAC in Ottawa. The latter’s bound photocopy of the original onion-skin sheets is titled Dictionnaire Généalogique de Madawaska. Entries are alphabetical by family name, i.e. Volume I is A-B, etc. *** Early Marriage Records of New Brunswick: Saint John City and County from the British Conquest to 1839, Introductory Note and edited by Sociologist, B. Wood-Holt (Saint John: Holland House Inc., 1986), a somewhat curious compilation from many sources that probably includes almost all marriages in the Saint John region prior to 1840. Her notes are informative and the thorough indexing makes this a useful research tool. § Ruby M. Cusack has transcribed and published the Saint John County registers, C 1839-1847, and D 1847-1853; as well as Kings County Register A, 1812-1844 and Register B, 1844-1867. John R. Elliott has published Kings County Registers C and D (1867-1888). See their listing in Generations. As well, Ruby Cusack has a website.

§§ George H. Hayward has published York County Volume 1, 1812-1837 and some for Carleton County, Ken Kanner has published the early Marriages for Albert and Westmorland Counties, see listings in Generations “Information Sheets”.

Divorce Records
Divorce was once a matter for Parliament. Brian Gilchrist’s Index to Canadian Parliamentary Divorces, 1867-1930 (Toronto: privately published) indexes all names, both partners, children etc. Some individual’s petitions or records are held by the Library and Archives Canada, check the their website, Government of Canada Files database, key word “Divorce”—but after 1916 you must apply to the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Council, Senate of Canada.

As well, on the Internet, Hugh Armstrong’s Genealogy Site, contains material on “Canadian Parliamentary Divorces to 1946”. An Introduction gives an excellent summary of the history of divorce in Canada, and it is only one of a number of lists, indexes, and how-to-do offerings.