Canada, Newfoundland Vital Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period:
This collection contains records dating from 1840 to 1949.

Record History:
Newfoundland, including the area of Labrador, became a province of Canada in 1949. Official registration of births, marriages, and deaths began in 1891. This collection also contains “Delayed Registration of Birth” certificates as well. Some of these can date back to 1840.

Record Content:
Birth Records and Delayed Registration of Birth date from 1840 to 1915 and may contain the following information:


 * Date of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Parent’s name (often just the father’s name)
 * Name of child
 * Sex of child
 * Date of baptism
 * Religious denomination of child
 * Parishes were baptized.

Marriage Records date from 1891 to 1922 and may contain the following information:


 * Date of marriage
 * Place of marriage
 * Name of groom and bride
 * Age (if known)
 * Bachelor or Spinster
 * Occupation
 * Religion Denomination
 * Residence at time of marriage
 * Witnesses for each marriage.

Death Records date 1891 to 1949 and may contain the following information:


 * Name of Deceased
 * Date of Burial
 * Place of Death
 * Name of Deceased
 * Religious Denomination
 * Age
 * Place of Birth (on some records only)
 * Place of Internment (on some records only)

Why this Record Was Created:
Official registration of Births, marriages, and deaths did occur in Newfoundland until 1891.

Record Reliability:
These records are generally reliable but not all churches and clergy responded to the request for records. So the collection is not complete. Also, as most of the records were handwritten and then copied from there may be transcription errors and mistakes in orthography of some individual’s names. It is important to check for alternate and similar spellings.

Related Web Sites:
This section of the article is incomplete. You can help FamilySearch Wiki by supplying links to related web sites here.

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should also list where you found the information. This will help you or others to find the record again. 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. A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections

Samples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection:
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

Sources of Information for This Collection:
Instructions for creating a citation for a Record Search or fsbeta Historical Records collection are found in the Wiki Article: How to Create Bibliographic Source Citations for FamilySearch Historical Records Collections

Newfoundland Vital Records, 1840-1949, database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/); from Newfoundland. Vital Statistics Division. Provincial Archives of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland. FHL microfilm, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.