Vital Records - Indigenous & Métis
Government-registered birth, marriage, and death records are available and are excellent sources of information for family history research. Privacy laws restrict public access to these records to a waiting period before records are publicly released, unless a relationship is proven. Public access is different for each province.
Researchers are encouraged to consult our corresponding provincial research guide for the province of interest for more information on finding and accessing these records.
Basic information for each province is provided in the following table.
It is always good to look at the guidelines provided by each of these databases to get the most out of a search, as they all work a little differently.
| Prov | Civil Reg. began | Birth avail. after # years* | Marriages avail. after # years* | Deaths avail. after # of years* | Searchable digital resource link | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC | 1872 | 120 | 75 | 20 | https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy | Our Department has this collection on microfilm |
| AB | M&D 1890 B 1850 | 120 | 75 | 50 | https://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/how-to/find-birth-marriage-and-death-records | Includes limited database of indigenous marriages |
| SK | B&D 1888 M 1878 | 100 | 75 | 70 | http://genealogy.ehealthsask.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx | |
| MN | 1882 | 100 | 80 | 70 | https://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/Query.php | |
| ON | 1869 | 1869-1917 | 1803-1845 1869-1938 | 1869-1948 | Available on Ancestry & FamilySearch.org. Marriage bonds for Upper Canada (Ontario) are searchable through LAC: https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/vital-statistics-births-marriages-deaths/marriage-bonds/Pages/search.aspx | Our Cloverdale Branch Family History Department has microfilm index reels for Ontario births, marriages and deaths from 1869 |
| QUE | B 1926 M 1960 Full BMD = 1994 | See our provincial guide | See our provincial guide | See our provincial guide | Roman Catholic Church = only source for early death records. | |
| NB | 1888 | See our provincial guide | See our provincial guide | See our provincial guide | https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/VISSE/Nameindex.aspx?culture=en-CA&letter=A&datasets=012 | |
| NFLD | 1891 | 1891-1899 | 1891-1949 | 1891-1922 | https://www.therooms.ca/collections-research | Also see FamilySearch.org |
| NS | B&D 1864-1877; 1908-present M 1758 | 1920-present | 1920-present | 1920-present | https://archives.novascotia.ca/vital-statistics/ | Large gaps in pre- 1908 records |
| PEI | 1906 | 12 | 50 | 75 | http://www.gov.pe.ca/parosearch/ | See also FamilySearch.org |
*(1) Fees may apply to accessing records for some provinces, even those that are open to public access;
(2) More recent records are available but require special application and fees.
(3) The only Birth/Marriage/Death records prior to the civil registration dates are church/parish records.