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Office of the Registrar General of Ontario. - 1801-1973
(Predominantly 1830's-1925). - 82 linear feet; 1023 reels.
- (2388 Volumes). - [Pre-1869 material was formerly RG 8
Series I-6]
BACKGROUND.
Before July 1869, the local clergy recorded births, deaths
and marriages. The State made several attempts to gather
such information for the entire province. Beginning in 1831,
the Upper Canada Marriage Act required all non-Anglican
[non-conformists] Protestant clergy to keep a marriage register
and to report yearly to a District Clerk of the Peace. Subsequent
Marriage Acts were amended to include the Anglican and the
Roman Catholic Churches. Gathered together by the Provincial
Secretary, these registrations (Series RG 80-27, formerly
RG 8 Series I-6) were transferred to the Registrar General
upon its creation in July 1869.
The Census Act of 1847 likewise attempted to gather such
records with the creation of the Board of Registration and
Statistics that required clergy to report baptisms, marriages
and burials quarterly to County Clerks of the Peace, who
forwarded such information to the Board. In areas with no
resident clergy, the head of the household was required
to reports such events to the Township Clerk, who then reported
it to the District Clerk. The Upper Canada Census conducted
in 1848 acted as an enumeration of births, deaths and marriages.
As these registration systems proved adequate, legislation
was passed creating the Office of the Registrar General
on 1 July 1869, to record all births, deaths and marriages
occurring in Ontario. Each County, District, incorporated
city or town would enter all events into a register which
yearly was sent to the Registrar General. Registrations
were to be made within thirty days following the event,
and could be made by the father of a child, a doctor, or
a member of the clergy. Starting in 1991, the Archives began
acquiring and microfilming these registers. At present,
one year of Birth, Marriage, and Death Registrations and
Indexes are annually transferred to the Archives. These
records are closed until they have been microfilmed and
released. Researchers should check with the Reference
Archivist on the status and availability of these records.
Unfortunately, many Aboriginal birth, marriages, or deaths
were not registered for a variety of reasons. Not all of
the pre-1869 Marriage Registers of the Provincial Secretary
have survived or were acquired by the Registrar General.
In other cases, the registers were never created. During
the 19th Century, the lands north of the French and Mattawa
Rivers were originally under the control of the Hudson's
Bay Company and then the Federal Government. While transferred
piecemeal to the Provincial Government during 1858-1927,
Queen's Park's presence was highly tenuous before the 1900's,
and "ended" at the boundaries of most North Shore
and Lake Superior municipalities.
This omission was especially true in relation to the First
Nations as parts of the Provincial Government considered
them a federal responsibility. Most First Nations people
residing on reserves dealt almost exclusively with the Federal,
not the Provincial, government. To a great extent, Natives
were either exempted from most provincial regulations or
their affairs were handled for them by the local Indian
Agent. The problem is that Ontario's Vital Statistics Act
placed the onus of registering a birth, marriage, or death
on the family. Many Natives never registered the births
of their children as they thought it had been done for them
by their Indian Agent (it often was) or that the registration
with the province was unimportant. The latter was also a
wide-spread feeling amongst whites at a time when there
were no social services dependent on a person's age.
CONTENT.
The collection consists of pre- and post-1869 registrations.
PRE-1869 MATERIAL consists of the following Sub-series:
RG 80-27-1 District Marriage Registers 1801-1870 [Predominantly
1830's-1857]
RG 80-27-2 County Marriage Registers 1841-1934 [Predominantly
1858-1869]
RG 80-27-3 Registers By Clergy 1896-1948
RG 80-27-4 Roman Catholic Marriage Registers 1828-1870
RG 80-27-5 Miscellaneous Registers 1859-1931
In Sub-series RG 80-1 to 80-4, researchers will find occasional
references to marriages between Aboriginal women and non-aboriginal
men. For Counties with significant concentrations of Native
people, researchers will also find records of marriages
within the Indian communities themselves. The County Marriage
Register for Lambton 1858-1869 (Series RG 80-27-2 Vol. 24),
for example, records a number of marriages from the Chippewa
(Ojibwa) Reserve on the St. Clair River near Sarnia.
Missionaries (mainly Anglican, Methodist or Roman Catholic)
who worked in aboriginal communities generally kept separate
registers for such vital statistics. In some instances,
these records are still maintained at the missions on particular
Indian Reserves. In most cases, however, they have been
transferred to the various Church Archives. The Archives
of Ontario has microfilm of some of this material which
is discussed in the section on Private Fonds in this guide.
If you are unsure where a denomination keeps their archives,
contact the Reference Archivist for the address.
The last series, Miscellaneous Registers (Series RG 80-27-5),
contains a marriage register for the Wesleyan (Methodist)
Mission to the Mississauga (Ojibwa) Indians of New Credit
Reserve near Brantford:
RG 80-27-5 Vol. 2 (on MS 248, Reel 23)
Brant County, New Credit Wesleyan Mission 1859-1931
Be warned the bulk of this material covers a considerably
smaller time period; the years cited are for the outside
limits of the records. For example, most District Marriage
Registers (1801-1870) cover only 1832-1857, and County Marriage
Registers (1841-1934) cover only 1858-1869. Researchers
must consult individual series descriptions for the details
and date ranges of any particular series of records.
POST-1869 MATERIAL consist of births, stillbirths, marriages,
and deaths registrations, with indexes to same. These records
include registrations recorded shortly after the event and
delayed registrations recorded years later, whether by the
clergy or municipal clerks. Certain records document adult
changes of name (Series RG 80-1), while a single register
(Series RG 80-17) records changes of address for clergy
members. The primary post-1869 Series are as follows (available
to public as of Autumn 1996):
RG 80-2 Births and Stillbirths - Registrations. 1869-1899.
RG 80-3 Births and Stillbirths - Delayed Registrations.
1869-1899.
RG 80-4 Index Books - Births, Stillbirths & Delayed
Registrations. 1869-1899.
RG 80-5 Marriages - Registrations. 1869-1914.
RG 80-6 Marriages - Delayed Registrations. 1869-1914.
RG 80-7 Index Books - Marriages and Delayed Registrations.
1872-1914.
RG 80-11 Original Birth, Marriage, and Death Index. July-December
1869.
RG 80-24 Original Marriage Index Books. 1869-1896.
RG 80-8 Deaths - Registrations. 1869-1924.
RG 80-9 Deaths - Delayed Registrations. 1869-1924.
RG 80-10 Index Books - Deaths and Delayed Registrations.
1869-1924.
FINDING AID.
See the RG 80 Inventory. Some of the District Marriage Registers
and many County Marriage Registers had nominal Indexes generated
at the time the registrations were recorded. These Indexes
have been microfilmed together with the surviving Registers.
Alphabetical indexes to the surviving District Marriage
Registers at the Archives and elsewhere, is being done by
NorSim Research and Publishing, 157 Ann Street, Ontario,
N4B 1H8 Alphabetical indexes to most of the County Marriage
Registers (Series RG 80-27-2) have been published by Generation
Press, 172 King Henrys Blvd., Agincourt, Ontario, M1T 2V6.
For other genealogical sources at the Archives of Ontario,
researchers should consult the Biography and Genealogy Card
Catalogues and the General Manuscript Card Catalogue in
the Reading Room or speak to the Reference Archivist.
MICROFILM VERSION AVAILABLE? Yes. The
Inventory will give the MS codes for the available registrations.
ACCESS. Only Series RG 80-1 (Change of
Name Court Orders) are closed due under the FOI/P Act. Recent
acquisitions are temporarily closed while being microfilmed.
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