Circle Of Life: Ontario Vital Records

On Saturday October 20, 2017 I attended a free event: Circle of Life: Ontario Vital Records and Ancestry DNA. This well-attended session was organized by the Ottawa Public Library and held at the beautiful Nepean Centrepointe.

Circle of Life: Exploring Ontario's Vital Records and DNA

At the outset, Lesley Anderson (Ancestry DNA) announced that there would be a draw prize of a FREE Ancestry DNA kit. (Sadly, I did not win)

Ottawa Public Library Nepean Centrepointe.

Lesley Anderson and Glenn Wright did a joint presentation of the "Ontario Vital Records" and did so in a very entertaining and informative way. I thought that I knew everything that I needed to know about vital statistics but I learned a LOT from these two experts.

Lesley Anderson and Glenn Wright

Lesley and Glenn started off joking about some of the alternative names that they had discussed for this presentation (which they have delivered together several times). Names like "Hatch, Match and Despatch" or "Womb to Tomb".

Civil Registration in Ontario

For today, we stayed with "Ontario Vital Records" and Lesley and Glenn proceeded to take us through the slide presentation starting with births, to marriages and finally Deaths. Here are some highlights from my notes:

Births 

Source: Moynahan Genealogy Photographs

 

• In the earliest years, births weren't registered with the government and Churches supplied the information 
• The Vitals Statistics Act of Ontario of 1869 was largely ignored until the 1880s
• 1919 Vital Statistics Act: As of 1 January 1920 a physician was to report a birth within forty-eight hours and the cause of death within twenty-four hours instead of “forthwith”. 
• Delayed registrations are important to note.
• TIP: If you can locate the Registration books in digital format, it is sometimes fruitful to go page by page through the books to locate someone
• TIP: In "birth search boxes", sometimes the forename is not entered so you can try searching using surname and gender only 
• Archives of Ontario: Pathfinder to Birth Registrations - Word, PDF
• Ancestry Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913  
• Family Search: Ontario Births, 1869-1912
• Family Search NOT INDEXED Browse through 126,534 images: Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923 Description  Baptisms, marriages, deaths and other records from several Roman Catholic parishes in the province of Ontario, Canada. This collection covers church records created 1760-1923, but the content and time period of the records will vary by parish. https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1927566

Marriages

Marriage of Rhea Fern Coughlan to Ernest Joseph Moynhan (1929)

 

• Pre-Confederation, marriage records are found in church records 
• Ancestors in border cities (i.e. Windsor, Ontario) can be problematic because they would cross the border for marriages and divorces
• The most popular months for marriages were (in order) December, October, November, February and January because in these months, farm life was less hectic
• Check the records for interesting remarks
• Take a close loo at the witnesses to the marriage
• Archives of Ontario: Pathfinder to Marriage Registrations - Word, PDF
• Archives of Ontario: Pathfinder to Pre-1874 Marriage Registrations Acquired from the Office of the Registrar General - Word, PDF 
• Archives of Ontario: Guide 210 - Finding Divorce Files in Ontario - Word, PDF
• Ancestry Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1935 
• Ancestry Ontario, Canada, Civil Marriage Registrations, 1869-1873
• Ancestry Ontario, Canada, County Marriage Registers, 1858-1869
• Family Search: Ontario Marriages, 1800-1910
• Family Search: Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927

  Deaths

  

  Located just inside the gates of historic Mt. Elliott cemetery, this stone sits among grand mausoleums, Smithsonian art, and several other zinc monuments.

   

• Archives of Ontario:  Pathfinder to Death Registrations - Word, PDF
• Ancestry Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1947  
• Archives of Ontario: Guide 202 - Vitals Statistics Records - Word, PDF
• Archives of Ontario: Guide 203 - Understanding the Vital Statistics Indexes - Word, PDF
• Archives of Ontario: Guide 204 - Sources for Birth, Marriage and Death Records - Word, PDF
• Family Search  Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947 

 

Interesting Statistics from the Registrar of Ontario's Annual Reports  

Lesley and Glenn offered quite a few interesting anecdotes gleamed from these annual reports.

The Internet Archive: Ontario Registrar Records

• PROVINCE OF ONTARIO - VITAL STATISTICS by Ontario. Office of the Registrar General  Publication date 1881 https://archive.org/details/provinceofontari1881onta
• PROVINCE OF ONTARIO - VITAL STATISTICS by Ontario. Office of the Registrar General  Publication date 1883 https://archive.org/details/provinceofontari1883onta
• PROVINCE OF ONTARIO - VITAL STATISTICS by Ontario. Office of the Registrar General  Publication date 1885 https://archive.org/details/provinceofontari1885onta
• PROVINCE OF ONTARIO - VITAL STATISTICS by Ontario. Office of the Registrar General  Publication date 1930 https://archive.org/details/provinceofontari1930onta

In 1883, December was the most favourable month to be married https://archive.org/stream/provinceofontari1883onta#page/n31/mode/2up

In 1883, there were 150 deaths From Teething https://archive.org/stream/provinceofontari1883onta#page/n67/mode/2up

I will report on the information provided by Lesley Anderson's DNA presentation on my next DNA blog post. Lesley offered us lots of tips about how to read the AncestryDNA results; sort through the matches and much, much more.

Archives of Ontario: Vital Statistics Table of Contents

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/microfilm/v_contents.aspx