Canada, Newspaper Indexes by Province - International Institute

Newspaper Indexes or Abstracts (continued)
Here is a Province-by-Province Sampling of Indexes:

Alberta Published Indexes

 * Obituaries index of the Barrhead Leader, by Flora and John Stewart (n.d.) and their Marriage index from the Barrhead leader, 1928-1949 (1994).
 * Mary Kearns Trace. Birth, marriage and death notices of “the Alberta tribune,” Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1897-1899. Calgary: Traces, 1986.
 * Dates gone by: extracts from Grande Prairie newspapers', 1913-1920. Grand Prairie: Grande Prairie and District Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society, 1997. Grande Prairie obituaries are also available online.
 * Jack F. Layton.Vital statistics from the Innisfail free lance and the Innisfail providence, 1902-1925. Innisfail: Layton, 1993.

Some Edmonton indexes currently covering 1903-1908 are available from Rob Milson, 8616-176 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5T 0N3. He says they contain, “The original extract or in some cases a paraphrasing of longer extracts, as well as an alphabetized index of all names, that is the name of the person/s about whom the article is concerned as well as other named individuals.”

Alberta Unpublished Indexes
Edmonton: There are film or card files at Edmonton Public Library (from 1961) and the City of Edmonton Archives has manuscript extracts from ca. 1907-1950s.

The provincial archives has index booklets 1880-1900.

Other manuscript indexes are at the Legislative Library of Alberta (clippings from 1971), Alberta Genealogical Society library in Edmonton.

British Columbia Published Indexes

 * Birth, marriage and death references from the Campbell River Upper Islander. Campbell River: Campbell River Genealogy Club, 2000-(ongoing). Published so far, v.1. 1964-1975–v.2. 1977-1990.
 * Birth, marriage and death references from the Campbell River Courier. Campbell River: Campbell River Genealogy Club, 1998-(ongoing). Published so far, v.1. 1947-1959–v. 2. 1960-1974.
 * British Columbia vital statistics from newspapers, 1858-1872: including, in an appendix, vital statistics from diaries 1852-1857, by Brian J. Porter &amp; the British Columbia Genealogical Society. Richmond: British Columbia Genealogical Society, 1994.
 * Name index of the births, marriages, deaths published in the Nanaimo Free Press, April 1874 to December 1899. Nanaimo: Nanaimo Family History Society, 1991.

British Columbia Unpublished Indexes
The British Columbia Archives has released a newspaper index on microfilm covering 1900-1990. It uses a subject format giving the headline and page, and seems mostly to be concerned with Vancouver and Victoria publications.

Manitoba Published Indexes

 * Kathleen Rooke Stokes. An Index of marriage and death notices from Manitoba newspapers. Winnipeg: Manitoba Genealogical Society, 1986-(ongoing). Published so far, 1859-1881, 1882-1884, 1885.

Manitoba Unpublished Indexes

 * The Legislative Library has an index to Winnipeg obituaries since 1975 (ongoing) and a series of scrapbooks of Winnipeg newspapers beginning in 1885 (indexed).

New Brunswick Published Indexes

 * New Brunswick vital statistics from newspapers. An extensive abstracting and indexing project, begun by the New Brunswick Genealogical Society, later taken over by Daniel F. Johnson and covering 1784-1896. Available in book form or searches can be done at the Provincial Archives on New Brunswick website. This enormous index is an extraordinary accomplishment, of incalculable benefit to New Brunswick researchers.


 * David R. Henderson. Parish of Kars, Kings county, New Brunswick: some births, marriages, deaths, etc. and articles of interest gleaned from the Kings County Record regarding the parish of Kars, Kings County, New Brunswick for the years 1891 through 1965 (1997). Henderson has published similar volumes for the parishes of Norton, Springfield, Wickham, Johnston and Cambridge.

Newfoundland and Labrador Published Indexes

 * Mildred Howard. Vital statistics and items from newspapers of Newfoundland, 1831-1872. Mildred Howard, 1983. Includes items published separately in earlier volumes,Vital statistics and items from The Newfoundlander of St. John’s Newfoundland (1980), in two volumes, 1834-1854 and 1854-1870.


 * Mildred Howard. Royal Gazette and Newfoundland Advertiser: vital statistics and items. Mildred Howard, 1986-(ongoing?) Published so far, 1810-1845, 1846-1862.


 * Gert Crosbie. Births, deaths, marriages in Newfoundland newspapers. St. John’s: Memorial University of Newfound, Maritime History Archive, 1986-(ongoing). Published so far 1825-1850, 1851-1859, 1860-1865, 1866-1870, 1871-1874, 1875-1877, 1878-1880, 1881-1882, 1883-1884, 1885-1886, 1887-1888, 1889-1890.

Newfoundland and Labrador Unpublished Indexes
The Public Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador has unpublished extracts from newspapers in Twillingate.


 * Extracts of births, marriages and deaths from newspapers in the Conception Bay area of Harbour Grace and Carbonear, circa 1850-1900, a collection at the provincial archives.

There is a newspaper index for the 1840s among E. R. Seary’s papers at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).

Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia

 * Nova Scotia vital statistics from newspapers. Halifax: Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia, 1978-1988. The volumes cover 1769-1812, 1813-1822, 1823-1828, 1829-1834, 1835-1839, 1840-1843, 1844-1847, 1848-1851, 1852-1854; a full list and details are available at their website.


 * Mildred Howard. Early Cape Breton newspapers: vital statistics and items. Cape Breton Genealogical Society, 1992.


 * Roger MacPherson. Vital statistics from the Colonial patriot (Pictou), Dec 1827-May 1834. Nepean, Ont: MacPherson, 2001. Another version of this was published on the website of the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotia Unpublished Indexes

 * Halifax Mail-Star obituary index at the provincial archives (from 1949).

Ontario Published Indexes
Many Ontario Genealogical Society branches have published volumes of newspaper extracts or indexes, too numerous to list. Look at the OGS website for connections the branch sites, where publications are listed.

The largest publisher of extracts, mostly 19th century newspapers but from across the province, is Bur-Mor, 359 West Gore, Stratford, Ontario N5A 1K9 (send large SASE for catalogue). These are high-quality full transcriptions.


 * William D. Reid. Marriage notices of Ontario (1980, later edition still available from Genealogical Publishing, 2000) and Death notices of Ontario (1980, later edition Genealogical Publishing, 1997). Both contain extracts from pre-1850 newspapers.


 * Mary Kearns Trace. Births, marriages and deaths, “The Globe,” Toronto, Ontario. Calgary: TRACES, 1986. Only the volume for 1844-1847 was published.

Prince Edward Island Unpublished Indexes
Some newspaper indexing has been done, and these names are included in the Master Name Index at the provincial archives. There are newspaper references in the ‘deaths before 1906’ file at PARO also.

There is a list of indexed newspapers in Orlo Jones’Family history in Prince Edward Island: a genealogical research guide (Charlottetown: Prince Edward Island Heritage Foundation, 1981), which must now be considered somewhat out of date.

There are also unpublished indexes at the Confederation Centre Public Library P.O. Box 7000 Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island C1A 8G8 Telephone: 902-368-4642 Email: [mailto:ccpl@gov.pe.ca ccpl@gov.pe.ca];

Québec Published Indexes

 * Diana Hibbert Bailey. Extracts from newspapers of the eastern townships (Quebec) 1823-1849: references of interest to the family historian, including births, deaths, marriages, legal notices, news items, etc. Carlton Place, Ont.: Bailey, 1990.


 * Index de “La gazette des campagnes”. La Pocatière: Société historique de la Côte-du-Sud, 1985.


 * Mathieu Gourdes Vachon. Mariages, anniversaires de mariages, générations et nécrologies parus dans le journal Le Courrier de Frontenac. Société généalogique de la Région de l’Amiante, [n.d.] Published so far, v. 1. 1987, v. 2. 1988, v. 3. 1989, v. 4. 1990, v. 5. 1991, v. 6. 1992.

Saskatchewan Published Indexes

 * Laura Hanowski and John Marley. Births, deaths, marriages from Regina newspapers, 1883-1889. Regina: Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, 1990.


 * Laura Hanowski and John Marley.Births, deaths, marriages from Regina newspapers, 1890-1899. Regina: Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, 1990.


 * Saskatoon newspaper index, birth, death, and marriages, 1902-1907. Saskatoon: Saskatoon Branch, Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, 1996.

There is a lengthy list of published indexes including papers in Craik, Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert, Biggar, Landis in Laura Hanowski’s Tracing your Saskatchewan ancestors: a guide to the records and how to use them (Regina: Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, 2000).

Saskatchewan News Index
The Saskatchewan News Index is a searchable index of stories published in Saskatchewan newspapers 1884-2000.

The Regina Public Library’s index begins 1992. There are paper indexes at the Saskatchewan Archives Board for obituaries, 1930-1976.

The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society collects obituaries which in 2001 numbered 700,000 names. For details see their Bulletin (December 2001 issue).

Some indexes may be available only in the form of a card file or database which is not open to the public, but which the compiler will consult for a fee. It may well be worth your while to pay for this service.

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