Canada, Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This collection covers records from 1832 to 1888

Record Description
This collection is made up of marriage records taken from various sources. The information is handwritten on a printed form. There are two to three records per page.

Record Content
Marriage records may contain the following:

• Name of the Parties (Bride and Groom)

• Date of Marriage

• Whether the Bride and Groom are Bachelor or Widower, Spinster or Widow • Names of Witnesses

How to Use the Records
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the index. Name indexes to marriages make it possible to access a specific marriage record quickly. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned. If you know the approximate date of the marriage this may help you in your search.

Use the locator information found in the index (such as page, entry, or certificate number) to locate your ancestors in the marriage records. Compare the information in the marriage record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s marriage record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. For example: • Use the marriage date and place as the basis for compiling a new family group or for verifying existing information. • Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth of each partner to find a couple's birth records and parents' names. • Use the birth date or age along with the place of birth to find the family in census records. • Use the residence and names of the parents to locate church and land records. • Occupations listed can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as military records. • Use the parent’s birth places to find former residences and to establish a migration pattern for the family. • The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. However, ministers may have reported marriages performed in other counties. • Compile the marriage entries for every person who has the same surname as the bride or groom, this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual. • Continue to search the marriage records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the bride and groom who may have married in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify. • Use the marriage number to identify previous marriages. • When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Keep in mind: • The information in marriage records is usually reliable, but depends upon the reliability of the informant. • Earlier records may not contain as much information as the records created after the late 1900. • There is also some variation in the information given from one marriage record to another record.

If you are unable to find the ancestors you are looking for, try the following: • Check for variant spellings of the surnames. • Search for the marriage record of the marriage partner if known. • Check for a different index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. • Search the indexes and records of nearby counties.

Record History
The government of Prince Edward Island did not make the recording of marriages mandatory until 1886. This collection was created from newspapers, church records, and other sources. The information given is limited and the source of the information is not always clear or provided. The card index was prepared by the Prince Edward Island Division of Vital Statistics.

Why This Collection Was Created?
These records were created to provide information on the marriages that took place in Prince Edward Island before the recording of marriages became mandatory in 1886.

Record Reliability
These records are generally reliable. As they are a compilation of records from other sources transcription errors may exist.

Related Web Sites
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Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections

Please add sample citations to this article following the format guidelines in the wiki article listed above. Examples of citations:


 * United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900, digital images, From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: September 29, 2006), Arizona Territory, Maricopa, Township 1, East Gila, Salt River Base and Meridian; sheet 9B, line 71
 * Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933, digital images, from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: April 22, 2010), Baptism of Adolfo Fernandez Jimenez, 1 Feb. 1910, San Pedro Apóstol, Cuahimalpa, Distrito Federal, Mexico, film number 0227023

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Style Guide
For guidelines to use in creating wiki articles that describe collections of images and indexes produced by FamilySearch, see: FamilySearch Wiki: Guidelines for FamilySearch Collections pages

Sources of Information for This Collection:
“Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers, 1832-1888,” database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/); from Prince Edward Island Division of Vital Statistics. Digital images of originals housed at Public Archives of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. FHL microfilm, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, including how to cite individual archives is found in the following link: How to Create Source Citations for FamilySearch Historical Records Collections