Canada, British Columbia Birth Registrations - FamilySearch Historical Records

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 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 These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:

Birth
 * 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
 * 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 This Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The name of a relative or date of the event

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the information to find other records such as marriage, census, church, land and death records
 * Use the occupations to find employment or military records
 * Use the information to establish a migration pattern and find additional family members
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Consult the British Columbia Record Finder to find other records
 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names
 * Search the indexes and records of British Columbia, Canada Genealogy
 * Search in the British Columbia Archives and Libraries
 * Search in the FamilySearch Catalog

Research Helps
The following articles will help you in your research for your family in British Columbia.
 * Record Finder

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.