Understanding the Vital Statistics Indexes


Archives of Ontario
Research Guide 203

Birth Index

Illustration of Birth Index

Marriage Index

Illustration of Marriage Index

Death Index

Illustration of Death Index

  1. NAME: copied from the original handwritten Registration. Women remarrying were indexed under their previous married surname. Check every variation, including phonetic spellings and typographical errors.
  2. DATE OF EVENT: e.g. 06 12 01 = June 12th 1901. Marriages 1873-1881 were indexed with a single digit for the months and O, N, and D for October, November and December.
  3. PLACE OF EVENT: town or township of event.
  4. REGISTRATION YEAR: compare with #2 in case it is a Delayed Registration, not all of which are at the Archives of Ontario. Many births and some marriages were not registered until decades after the event.
  5. REGISTRATION NUMBER: refers to the numbered entry in the Registration Book that contains the full record.

Depending on the type of event, additional information may be given, including:

  1. CONTROL CODES: first digit refers to the nature of the Registration; second digit to any alteration made to it (see listing of "codes" below). For example:

    91 = Death Registration / Original unchanged entry

    38 = Marriage Registration / Entry information corrected

    14 = Birth Registration / Re-registered under guardian's name

    Births involving an act of guardianship may be listed twice: once as an "illegitimate" birth, often under the mother's surname (13 = birth / original registration), and again, under the guardian's surname (15 = birth / duplicate surname).

    Codes:

    1. Birth
    2. Stillbirth
    3. Marriage
    4. Divorce
    9. Death

    1. Original entry
    3. Cross index
    4. Adoption
    6. New entry
    9. Cancellation

    Cross Index of Name Changes:

    1. Original or previous
    2. Christian names
    3. Illegitimate identity
    4. Adopted name
    5. Duplicate surname
    6. Surname or when both are changed at the same time
    7. Long surname
    8. Correction

  2. "*": shows an altered Registration, as in a surname being correctly respelled or changed due to a guardianship. If altered before the creation of the Indexes in the late 1950s, only the corrected version is listed.
  3. MAIDEN NAME: women remarrying were indexed under their previous married surname. The maiden surname is listed here as a cross reference.
  4. "C.O.": IGNORE. An early data processing code for locations in Ontario (e.g. Toronto = 72, Waterloo Township = 61, etc.).
  5. "Sex Status" & "Event": IGNORE. These may be encoding checks done during the transcribing of 1873-1881 Marriages.