Church Records

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Introduction:

Church records of baptism, marriage and burial are an important source of genealogical information, particularly for years prior to the beginning of civil registration. The religious affiliation of individuals is usually indicated in census records.

Locating Canadian church records is very challenging. Over time, people living in Canada have belonged to a large number of church denominations, which have often re-organized, merged, split or disappeared.

Record-keeping practices have also varied considerably, and many records have been destroyed by fire, flood, mould, mice and other catastrophes. Surviving records may be in the custody of individual churches, church archives, or public archives.

The organization and holdings of church archives vary greatly. Hierarchical denominations, such as Roman Catholic and Anglican, recognize the Pope or Crown as the ultimate authority, and have a structured organization, in which authority carries down to archbishops, bishops, and the individual parish priest. Hierarchical denominations keep excellent and continuous records.

Congregational denominations generally take responsibility for their own activities, and join together in co-operative arrangements (e.g. conferences, synods, councils) to manage affairs that go beyond the small unit. These denominations sometimes split over theological differences. The quality of their records depends on the individual sect, minister or congregation.

While churches generate many kinds of records, those of interest to genealogists are primarily registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials.

For a general guide to researching Canadian church records, see the following book available at the Vancouver Public Library:

Vancouver Public Library

The Vancouver Public Library genealogy collection includes the following published transcripts and indexes to Canadian church records.

General

British Columbia

Ontario

For an informative overview of Ontario church records see:

    Early Registers of Baptisms, Burials and Marriages (1827-1850's), Her Majesty's Chapel of the Mohawks, Mohawk Street, Brantford, Ontario (1991)
    Files, Angela
    929.3713 F48m
    • Anglican church records of Aboriginal baptisms, marriages and burials at Her Majesty's Royal Chapel of the Mohawk in London, Ontario, the oldest church in Ontario. 
    Father Gordon's Register, 1830-1833: Reverend Edward John Gordon, 1791-1870 (1995)
    McDevitt, Francis V.
    929.3713 G662f
    • Index to a register of records kept by a Catholic missionary in York (Toronto). The register contains records of his missionary work in the area including the present day regions of York, Peel, Halton, Durham, and Simcoe. 
    From Esther Summers Collections: Marriage Records of Methodist Church, Welland County, St. Catherines Circuit
    Summers, Esther
    929.3713 W44s
    • These records cover the period from 1858-1920. The register does not indicate the type of Methodist church. For more information see Denominational Archives - United Church of Canada. 
    Index to Niagara Conference Methodist Episcopal Church Baptismal Register, 1849-1886: A Guide for Genealogists (1994)
    Hope, Louise
    929.3713 H79i
    • An index derived from a single unpaged register containing about 8000 entries. The first volume provides a list of districts and townships included in the Niagara Conference. This group was separate from the Wesleyan Methodists (see Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Registers and Denominational Archives - United Church of Canada. 
    New Sarum Baptist Church Marriages (1989)
    Doan, Maxwell F.
    929.3713 N53d
    • An index of marriages from the records of New Sarum Baptist Church in Elgin County, covering the period from 1858-1975. 
    The Ontario Register (1968-)
    Wilson, Thomas B.
    929.3713 O59w
    • This series of 8 volumes, published 1968-1990, contains a miscellany of Ontario genealogical information derived from a variety of sources, including some church registers:
    Volume 1

    St. Paul's Anglican Church, Fort Erie

    • Marriages, 1844-1870
    • Baptisms, 1844-1848

    Baptisms of the Rideau Circuit [Methodist]

    • 1824-1843

    Volume 2-3

    St. Paul's Anglican Church, Fort Erie

    • Baptisms, 1849-1852
    • Burials, 1844-1850

    Picton Methodist Church, Prince Edward County

    • Baptisms, 1816-1837

    Volume 4

    Marriages of the Pelham Monthly Meeting of Friends [Quaker]

    • 1800-1843 
    Marriages by the Rev. John Jennings of Toronto [Presbyterian] 
    • 1841-1854

    Picton Methodist Church Marriages

    • 1831-1857

    Marriages of the Yonge Street Friends Meeting [Quaker]

    • 1804-1840

    Some Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms in the Eastern District

    • 1859

    Methodist Episcopal Baptisms at Winchester, Dundas County

    • 1865

    Marriage Register of George Joseph Ryserse, Woodhouse, Norfolk Co. [Baptist]

    • 1831-1857

    Marriage Licences from All Saints Church, Niagara Falls [Anglican]

    • 1885-1902

    Marriage Records of Duff's Presbyterian Church, Mirriston, Wellington County

    • 1840-1849

    Some Baptisms in Malahide [Anglican]

    • 1858

    Marriage Records of the First Presbyterian Church, Chatham

    • 1848-1861

    Volume 5

    No church registers noted.

    Volume 6

    Marriage Records of Duff's Presbyterian Church, Chatham

    • 1862-1866

    Volume 7

    Gordon, Rev. Fr. Edward [Catholic]

    • 1830-1833

    Niagara. St. Mark's Anglican Church

    • Baptisms, 1837-1840

Upper Canada District Marriage Registers

Beginning in 1831, clergy who performed marriages in churches that were neither Anglican nor Roman Catholic (also known as "non-conformist") were required to send copies of the records to the Clerks of the Peace in district towns. In some cases, clergy submitted earlier records, with the result that marriage records survive from as early as 1799. The records were transcribed into registers, microfilm copies of which are available from the Archives of Ontario through inter-library loan.

The district marriage records have been transcribed into the following series of published transcriptions:

    The Marriage Registers of Upper Canada/Canada West, 23 vol. in 17 vol. (2000)
    Walker, Dan
    929.3713 W17m
    • Vol. 1. Talbot District, 1837-1857
    • Vol. 2. Brock District, 1839-1857
    • Vol. 3. Huron District, 1841-1870
    • Vol. 4. London District
      •   Pt. 1. 1795-1841
      •   Pt. 2. 1841-1852
    • Vol. 5. Bathurst District, 1831-1852
    • Vol. 6. Ottawa District, 1816-1853
    • Vol. 7. Newcastle District
      • Pt. 1 1810-1848
      • Pt. 2 1848-1855
    • Vol. 8. Johnstown District
      • Pt. 1. 1799-1851
      • Pt. 2. 1847-1863
    • Vol.9. Wellington District
      • Pt. 1. 1840-1852
      • Pt. 2. 1852-1857
    • Vol. 10. Colborne District, 1841-1857
    • Vol. 11. Home District
      • Pt.1. 1808-1836
      • Pt 2. 1835-1843
      • Pt.3. 1843-1849
    • Vol. 12. Eastern District, 1801-1865
    • Vol. 13. Gore District, 1842-1856
    • Vol. 14. Western District, 1786-1856
    • Vol. 15. Victoria District, 1839-1858
    • Vol. 16. Simcoe District, 1842-1857
    • Vol. 17. Prince Edward District, 1833-1849

Canada West County Marriage Registers

In 1849, Ontario's districts were replaced by counties, and in 1857, new legislation required that copies of all records of marriages performed by clergy in Canada West (Anglican, Roman Catholic and non-conformist) were to be sent to county authorities.

Transcriptions derived from original county registers are available in a series of 32 volumes. For a full listing of transcribed county marriage registers in the Vancouver Public Library collection, see county marriage registers Ontario. Microfilm copies of original county marriage records are available from the Archives of Ontario through inter-library loan.

Vital Records of Upper Canada / Canada West

    Vital Records of Upper Canada/Canada West, 2 vol. in 6 parts vol. (2000-)
    Walker, Dan
    Ref. 929.3713 W17v
    • This series of 6 books complements the Upper Canada district marriage registers. While the latter transcribe and index marriage records created by clergymen who were neither Anglican nor Roman Catholic, the Vital records of Upper Canada/Canada West series transcribes and indexes birth, marriage and death information from a variety of sources, including many church registers. The series covers only two districts:
      •  Niagara - 1795 -1869
      •  Gore - 1795 -1869 

Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Registers

Methodism was a very large Protestant denomination in 19th- century Ontario. There were several types of Methodism, including Wesleyan, Episcopal, Primitive, New Connexion and Bible Christian.

In 1843, Wesleyan Methodists decided to keep a centralized General Registry of Births and Baptisms. Ministers kept an annual register of births, which was submitted yearly to the General Registrar, who copied the records into a General Registry Book. These have been microfilmed and are available from the United Church Archives. Transcriptions of many of the registers have been transcribed and published. The list below shows all such publications in the Vancouver Public Library collection. Some counties are represented by more than one title. These are different editions or, in some cases, may only cover part of the county. 

Brant 1831 - 1897 Leeds 1836 - 1901
Bruce 1843 - 1898 Lennox and Addington 1834 - 1898
Carleton 1830 - 1899 Lennox and Addington 1834 -1898 (strays, errors and omissions)
Elgin 1840 - 1894 Lincoln 1837 - 1887
Frontenac 1830 - 1898 Lincoln 1843 - 1890
Frontenac 1835 - 1897 Muskoka 1952 - 1890
Frontenac 1835 - 1902 Norfolk 1837 - 1889
Frontenac 1844 - 1876 Northumberland 1834 - 1902
Grenville 1836 - 1901 Northumberland 1835 - 1902
Grenville 1843 - 1900 Ontario 1841 - 1905
Grey 1846 - 1910 Oxford 1837 - 1906
Haldimand 1843 - 1896 Prescott 1840 - 1877
Haliburton 1861 - 1877 Prince Edward 1841 - 1888
Halton 1829 - 1897 Renfrew 1830 - 1895
Hastings 1840 - 1904 Russell 1840 - 1886
Huron 1842 - 1901 Waterloo No date range indicated
Kent 1842 - 1896 Welland 1840 - 1890
Lambton 1840 - 1894 Welland 1843 - 1890
Lanark 1843 - 1902 Wentworth 1825 - 1898
Lanark 1844 - 1875 York 1835 - 1910
Leeds 1843 - 1900 York (North) 1842 - 1896

Quebec

Church records are particularly important for those tracing Quebec ancestors, because civil registration was established very late in the province. Prior to civil registration, church records were used as civil records as well. Two useful books for researching Quebec parish records are:

VPL holdings of Quebec church records include the following:

New Brunswick

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Cloverdale Library

The Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library has an extensive collection of Canadian genealogical resources in print and on microfilm, including significant holdings of church records. Full details are in their book:

  • See: Section 5. Parish and Vital Records

Church Archives

Church archives vary greatly in the services offered to genealogists. Most have some information about their holdings on their websites, but although a few online finding aids are available, denominational archival websites do not provide online databases of nominal information. In most cases, it is necessary to visit the archives or hire a researcher. Some archives provide a fee-based genealogical research service. Others do not provide service to genealogists.

Anglican

Anglican records are held by diocesan archives. The Anglican Church of Canada website provides links to diocesan websites. Contact information for diocesan archives is provided in the Anglican Archives Network Directory.

The following published guides to Anglican Church of Canada records are available at the Vancouver Public Library:

Baptists

There have been several Baptist denominations in Canada, including the Regular Baptists and Particular Dependent Closed Communion Baptists.

Records of interest to genealogists relate mainly to marriages, because Baptists do not practise infant baptism. The Canadian Baptist Archives are at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton.

Atlantic Canada Baptist records are in the Esther Clark Wright Archives of the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Lutherans

There are two Lutheran churches in Canada - the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Lutheran Church-Canada. The main archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are a Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Records of the Lutheran Church-Canada are in several repositories. More information is available on the LCC Resources > Archives Network page.

Mennonites

There are three major Mennonite archival repositories in Canada:

Methodists

See United Church of Canada

Presbyterians

See also United Church of Canada

Local and regional Presbyterian churches joined together to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1867. In 1925, about half of the Presbyterian churches amalgamated with the Methodist Church of Canada to create the United Church.

Archival holdings of Presbyterian churches which did not enter the United Church union in 1925 are held by the Archives and Records Office of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. An online Guide to Genealogical Resources at the Presbyterian Archives is available. Records in which an individual's religion is labeled C. of S. or Kirk refer to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Quakers

Archival records are held by the Quaker Archives and Library of Canada.

Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic archives operate at the diocesan level. Services for genealogists vary considerably. Contact information and web addresses for Canadian Catholic dioceses is available on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops website.

United Church of Canada

Several Methodist denominations - the Wesleyan Methodists, Methodist Episcopal Churches (Canada and America), Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians and New Connexion Methodists - had merged into the Methodist Church of Canada by 1884.

In 1925, the Methodist Church of Canada joined with the Congregationalists and about half of the Presbyterian churches in Canada to form the United Church. Later, the Evangelical United Brethren joined as well.

A centralized United Church Archives holds records created after the union, as well as those of the earlier churches which amalgamated into the union. Detailed information about holdings is available on the website. Microfilm copies of records in the United Church Archives are available through interlibrary loan.

Some United Church archival materials are held by regional repositories. See the United Church Archives Network for more information.

The Vancouver Public Library collection includes the following published guides to United Church archival holdings:

Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada (formerly National Archives of Canada and National Library of Canada) in Ottawa owns a small number of parish registers. These are listed in two publications, available at the Vancouver Public Library:

More information is available on the Canadian Genealogy Centre's Church Indexes and Parish Registers pages.

Some church records are available in provincial and territorial archives.

Family History Library

The LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has many Canadian church records in its collection. Records on microfilm may be borrowed from through local Family History Centres.
To identify films that might be of interest, go the Family History Library Catalogue page, and search by Place. In the resulting list of subject headings, look for Church records, e.g. Ontario, Perth - Church records. Follow the link for a corresponding list of Family History Library holdings.

Online

An online database of Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal records is available. For more information, see Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Registers.

A Baptisms Index on the B.C. Archives website contains information derived from microfilm copies of baptismal registers submitted to the B.C. Vital Statistics agency, covering the years from 1836-1885.

Canadian Genealogical Projects Registry includes information on Canadian church records in a variety of formats.

The Canadian Genealogy Centre's AVITUS - Directory of Resources provides annotated links to a range of online information from Canadian church records.

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