Celebrate Canada Day with free access to all Canadian records on MyHeritage. The offer is available until July 2.
To see the records, you’ll need to set up a free account, which is easy to do.
MyHeritage has 183 collections from Canada, including vital records (birth, marriage, and death), census records, immigration and passenger lists, military records, and newspapers pages. Among these collections is the recently added 1931 Canada Census, complete with an index created by MyHeritage.
Quebec collection worth exploring
One of my favourite collections available on MyHeritage is Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997. These are not marriage registrations, but records created for statistical purposes by the provincial health department.
These statistical returns (forms), numbering almost eight million, are unique to Quebec. They were completed by members of the clergy or officiants who conducted a marriage in order for the government to compile statistics.
From 1926 to 1997, the provincial government of Quebec introduced four or five different statistical return forms, each with its own set of questions. Some years, more information was required than others.
The information provided included the bride and groom’s date and location of birth, place of residence before and after marriage, occupation and employer’s name, religion, citizenship, racial origin, father’s location of birth, and where the marriage took place. Some forms also include the names of the witnesses and whether or not the bridal couple could read or write.
Warning: As with a number of records genealogists research, the information in these statistical returns is only as accurate as what the informant provided. In the case of my brother-in-law’s marriage return, he indicated his father was born in Hearst, Ontario. While his father did move to Hearst with his parents and siblings when he was about five years old, he was born in Montreal.
Free webinar
To learn more about MyHeritage’s Canadian collections, you can watch the free recording of Lianne Kruger’s presentation, Finding Your Canadian Ancestors on MyHeritage. It will be available in Legacy Family Tree Webinars’ webinar library until about July 2. After that, you’ll need a Legacy Family Tree Webinars subscription to watch it.
Enjoy the long Canada Day weekend!
