Guide to Birth, Marriage & Death Records
Getting Started
This guide has had minor revisions in January 2017.
Note: This research guide provides general information regarding birth, marriage and death records for conducting genealogical research.
If you are trying to locate specific personal information and require research assistance, please send an e-mail to Toronto Public Library.
Library staff will then reply to you directly. Please do not post personal information in the Comments section of this guide.
Birth, marriage and death records may include information such as the event date and place, paren'ts' names, occupation, residence and religion. The cause of death is also included in most death records. The records may be created by a religious institution or a government authority.
Searching the Website
Search within these subject headings
- Baptisms [place name] e.g. Baptisms Truro
- Obituaries [place name] e.g. Obituaries Saskatchewan or for more general listings try obituaries indexes
- Registers [place name] e.g. Registers British Columbia
Suggested Titles
- County marriage registers of Ontario, Canada, 1858-1869.
- Guide to Quebec's parishes, civil registers and census: Catholic, Protestant and other denominations, 1621-2000.
- International vital records handbook
- Marriage registers of Upper Canada/Canada West [1 or more volumes per district]
- Phillimore atlas and index of parish registers (Great Britain)
- Répertoire des actes de baptême, mariage, sépulture et des recensements du Québec ancien
- Researching Canadian vital statistics records: births, marriage and deaths
- Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register [county name]
Recommended Websites
- FamilySearch Ontario births 1869-1911
- FamilySearch Ontario marriages 1869-1927
- FamilySearch Ontario deaths 1869-1937 and Overseas deaths 1939-1947
- Archives of Ontario research guides
Recommended Databases
- Ancestry Library Edition (available in any Toronto Public Library branch) has the following:
Ontario Birth Registrations 1869-1913
Ontario Marriage Registrations from 1801-1928, 1933-1934
Ontario Death Registrations 1869-1938, 1943-1944, Deaths Overseas 1939-1947
Ontario Roman Catholic Marriages in 6 counties for 1827-1870
Various French Canadian databases (see "French Ancestors" section in this guide)
Free BMD Index England and Wales
JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry - Globe and Mail Historical Newspaper Archive TPL library card required to login.
- Toronto Star Historical Newspaper Archive TPL library card required to login.
In Library Resources
Cemetery Transcriptions from the Ontario Genealogical Society's Provincial Library (collection is in closed storage on the 2nd floor of Toronto Reference Library — Humanities & Social Sciences Department — please ask at the information desk).
Index to Ontario Vital Statistics to 1913 for births, 1928 for marriages, and 1938 for Deaths (microfilm located on the 2nd floor of Toronto Reference Library — Humanities & Social Sciences Department — please ask at the information desk).
Images of the registrations themselves are also on Ancestry Library Edition. Indexes and registration forms for 1917 births, 1934 marriages, and 1943 deaths are presently only available on microfilm at the Archives of Ontario.The 1915 births, 1930 marriages and 1940 deaths are also available online only in the Archives of Ontario reading room.
York County Surrogate Court Indexes, 1940-1967 (microfilm located on the 2nd floor of Toronto Reference Library — Humanities & Social Sciences Department — please ask at the information desk).
French Ancestors
- Ancestry Library Edition has added several useful databases (Drouin Collection) whose records are primarily from 1621 to the late 1940’s.
- Quebec Vital and Church Records 1621-1967 which contains records for all religious denominations
- Ontario French Catholic Church Records 1747-1967
- Acadia French Catholic Church Records 1670-1946
- QuebecRecords.com database, available at North York Central Library and Toronto Reference Library, has a wealth of databases including:
- Parish Records: church records from origin to 21st century. Cropped records of baptisms, marriages and deaths
- 1926 – 1966 Quebec Marriages and Deaths
Deposit Collections at the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, 2nd floor of the Toronto Reference Library:
- Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants Deposit Collection
- Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto Deposit Collection
- Ontario Genealogical Society Deposit Collection
For further assistance contact:
Answerline: 416-393-7131
answerline@torontopubliclibrary.ca
Humanities and Social Sciences, Toronto Reference Library 416-393-7175
41 thoughts on “Guide to Birth, Marriage & Death Records”
I have a friend who has been looking for a very important confidential record of someone. We have been looking and searching into different sites. We should have known this before.
My friend is looking for his great grandparen’ts this is a lot of help. Thanks much!
It’s a big help to my friend who is actually searching to his long lost father.. Big thanks!
I am looking for a death record from Toronto in 1947. How do i go about getting this record?
Hello Izzy. Ontario death records are only available up to 1938 in our library branches via Ancestry Library Edition. The Archives of Ontario has microfilm up to 1940 or 1941. So 1947 is too recent. You would need to try newspapers for death notices and also cemetery records. A Toronto Public Library card holder can access the following databases from home: the Toronto Star – Pages of the Past and the Globe and Mail – Canada’s Heritage from 1844. You could also try the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid at http://ocfa.islandnet.com/
Hope this helps.
My son is looking for is dad, grandparen’ts and uncles Barrington James jr alias junior roots, Theodore and Lucille Hall , Robert, Ricky, Bobby and Lloyd Hall last know area Mississauga Ontario
Hello Marcia. Thanks for writing. We will reply to you directly via email.
Was there any success in finding this gentlemen? We are trying to locate Mr. George Barrington James Jr. I have his dob and last known where abouts as Mississauga Ontario. Mother is Lucille Hall and step dad is Theodore Hall. Please help.
Hello. As a genealogy department we primarily assist patrons with tracing persons who are deceased, as records are not made public for some time. For instance, in the library, we only have access to Ontario death records up to 1939. From both your query and the earlier one you refer to, it would seem that you are searching for a living person. Your best bet might be to try a telephone site like 411.ca for the Mississauga area and search for your Mr. James. https://411.ca/whitepages/Ontario/Mississauga/J
A check of the Halton-Peel Regions Criss Cross Directory for 2001 (latest city directory available for Mississauga) did not find a listing for Barrington or George or George B or GB James.
If you are in the Toronto area, you could come into a library branch and try searching for the name in the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail newspaper databases. Otherwise you might have to hire an agency to try to trace him.
Hello, my grandmother is looking for a friend of hers from when she lived in Toronto from 1965-66, before she moved back to Scotland. She knows her friends’ name, the rough year of birth, where she got married and the year of it. My grandmother was her maid of honour, but they lost contact after she returned home. I would really love some help. Thank you.
Hello Bernie. Wishing to help your grandmother is very understandable. However, like the response above on April 22, this is a search for a living person. The marriage information on the couple in question will not be public. IF you have the last and first names of the couple, and IF they lived in Toronto, you could try a city directory search which would take you up only to 2001. Or try https://411.ca/person for a telephone number.
Hello,
I am working on my husbands Family “Thompson” tree. I have run into a dead end. So I thought, until I uncovered a marriage record for Andrew Thompson and Maria Dayton in the “Quebec, Vital and Church Records” (Drouin Collection 1621-1967) on Ancestry.com. The copy is not clear enough to read. I am looking for names of Paren’ts or wittiness. Is there transcript for this record?
Thank you for you help and time.
Our library system does have one book on St Armand Methodist church registers,http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM1468747&R=1468747, but it only goes to 1836. Couldn’t find any other relevant publications.
However at North York Central and at the Toronto Reference Library we do have another database, Quebec Records.com which has the Drouin records and the image is clearer than on Ancestry. It is possible to make out most, but not 100% of the marriage record you want. Are you in the Toronto area that you could come in? Will also reply directly to your email with some more details.
Hi, I am looking for my gg grandmothers death record. Her name is Florence (Boucher) Desjardins. She was born 1851 in Penetanguishene Ontario and died between 1889-1890. My gg grandfathers name is Pierre (Peter) Desjardins. Florence’s paren’ts were Jean Baptiste Boucher and Rosette Josette Laramee. What is the cost of this document. I have looked all over and cant even find a death notice in the paper. She was Catholic and married at St Anne’s Penetanguishene around 1872.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Cindy.
Hello. We have just sent a detailed reply directly to your email which may help you, though we did not find the death record you wanted. Good luck with your research.
Hello, I am looking for information on my paternal grandmother. She married my grandfather, Thomas Patrick Haywood and my father Joseph Patrick Haywood was born to them in January 1913. My Grandmother died in London Ontario sometime during the second world war. My grandfather died sometime in 1952 or 1953 in London Ontario.
They are both buried in St. Thomas where one or both of them were married. Can you help me find them?
Looking for the death notice of Rose Russ in Hamilton, Ontario in the latter 1940’s
Isn’t it supposed to be easy to just enter a name in some search field on some death registry site and all results will come up? I am trying to find my uncle to see if he has died – we lost contact with him and he lives in Toronto. Just an easy thing. Someone is holding on to these records somewhere?
I’m having trouble finding my brother. His name is Ramiro Salcedo but he might have changed his last name to Mesa or Meza, and he was born in 1968. I’ve never met him and this is the only information I got from my father. Please help I would like to meet him someday. He was born in Mexico but I believe they moved to Toronto Canada. The mothers name was Helena and I believe she died in Toronto, Canada.
I am trying to find birth records for my late father born in Toronto on 16 July 1930. His name was Robert and it is likely he was registered as McLean or possibly Fraser
I’d be extremely grateful for any help you can offer
I have been trying to find the name for the birth father of my husband’s mother. She was born in Montreal, Canada in 1923 (she is now deceased). We have her Act of Birth record, but it only shows Logan as the name of the birth father. Her biological mother did not live in Montreal, but only went there to give birth to her daughter.
My husband’s mother was raised by her maternal aunt and her husband. She was not adopted by them until after she was married (so they were her foster paren’ts).
We live in the U.S. Is there any way we can find out the birth father’s complete name?
I’ve been searching for my biological grandfather who has lived in the North Canada for a while and from what I know his hometown is somewhere in Ontario. His Name is; MARK LIVINSGTONE. Could anyone out there help me out? I have no idea on where to start.
Thanks
I’ve been searching for my biological grandfather who has lived in the North Canada for a while and from what I know his hometown is somewhere in Ontario. His Name is; MARK LIVINSGTONE. Could anyone out there help me out? I have no idea on where to start.
He was living in Pangnirtung, NUNAVUT or IQALUIT, NUNAVUT (would have been NWT by than). His birth year is 1950-1953 that is what I have heard. He was working as a Canadian military (If I have it right) by the time he was dating my grandmother (who is now deceased) and would love to find him. I’ve been searching for him anywhere I could, I’ve searched on facebook as well but no luck. The reason why I posted on your site is because he was known living in Peterborough Ontario.
We’ve never met our biological grandfather and I believe he knows that he has a child in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. His child is my father and his name is Alexander Sandy Akulukjuk
I would really like it if anyone out there could help me find him. Should I go on CBC to find him? Maybe this will help?
I am looking for birth records for my older brother who was born in Montreal in 1942. We were told that a private adoption took place and that the birth registration did not have my mother’s name. Another name was used. I know the name of the hospital, the doctor’s name and the time and day he was born. Is there a way to access information to determine his name? I have been trying for years to find a way to connect with him. Thank you.
Hello, Susan. I have sent you a reply directly to your e-mail.
Hello, Lucy
I have sent you a reply directly to your e-mail.
Hello, I have sent you a reply directly to your e-mail.
Birth records for Ontario (which includes Toronto) have only been released to the public up to 1915. Please see the Archives of Ontario guide to Vital Statistics for further information.
Your search for a living relative is referred to as ‘tracing forward.’ Unfortunately, the resources mentioned in this guide will not help you with your search.
As you will read in the guide, the Ontario Government has only released death registration records up to the 1940’s, so it is not an ‘easy thing’ in Ontario.
You can’try contacting the Hamilton Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society:
http://www.ogs.on.ca/hamilton/
As you will read in the guide, Ontario death registrations have not been made public for the 1950’s. You can’try contacting the London & Middlesex County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Association for further assistance:
https://londonmiddlesex.ogs.on.ca/
Hi. I lost contact with a friend since 2007-2008. She used to live in Toronto and Markham. I only know her name and her ethnicity. I have a feeling that she passed away. Is there any way I can find out? Thank you. I hope to hear from you soon
I am wondering if it is possible to find a marriage record for the 21st of July 1941 in Toronto. Is there a place people have to get a marriage record or is any of this microfilmed for this period of time. Is it possible to get someone who does research in Toronto to go through marriage records? I need the paren’t’s names for Mary Lilla Roberts who married William Steadman on that day.
Hello, Dessa
As we have mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, you should not reveal personal information on this blog. I will reply to your question in a private e-mail.
Hello, Vince
This blog provides information for conducting historical genealogical research. I will reply to your message in a private e-mail.
Looking for records about my mum Sandra kay she was pregnant and married in 1964.
Hi Mercedes,
As we have mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, you should not reveal personal information on this blog. We will reply to your question in a private e-mail.
I am trying to find marriage records for my mother and father I believe in 1948 or 1959. They were married in Toronto City Hall I believe. Edward Charles Rowe and Lenore Doris Schoyen. Any information would help.
Should say 1948 or 1949
Hello, Norman
Ontario vital statistics (civil registrations of births, marriages and deaths) are administered at a provincial level, not a municipal level, so there are no records in Toronto City Hall, etc.
Here is the link to the Archives of Ontario Guide 202, which explains the availability of records.
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/access/research_guides.aspx
You will see that for marriages from 1938 to the present, you must fill out an application, to be sent to the Registrar General in Thunder Bay. There is a fee for this service.