One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.
Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all – FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and often scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.
There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:
- 27 Ways to Find Ancestor Birth Information
- 22 Ways to Find Ancestors Marriage Information
- 21 Ways to Find Ancestors Death Information
The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online.
Note 1: Some of the links listed below take you to a FamilySearch Collection of digital images. In many cases there is a link to the digital collection in the middle of the page, but also near the bottom of the page under Film/Digital Notes is the name of each sub-collection. If there is a camera icon at the right of the name (in the Format column) then the collections’ images are browsable. If there is a camera with a key icon, it is only available at a Family History Center or affiliated library. If there is a film reel icon, then it is only available in microfilm format, not digital. Please also note that I have listed below only BMD databases that are accessible digitally from your computer (or tablet/phone). Important: Make sure that you are logged in to the FamilySearch site. For some reason, if you are not logged in an otherwise browsable collection will show up with the camera icon with a key; if logged in, it will show up as the camera icon, ensuring that you can access the collection online remotely.
Note 2: There are obituary record indexes included, but are only listed if the index contains the death date, not just the date of publication of the obituary.
(Updated December 2020; recently added links are in BOLD)
General Canada
- Canada Births and Baptisms, 1661-1959
- Canada Deaths and Burials, 1664-1955
- Canada Marriages, 1661-1949
- Canada Miscellaneous Marriages
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Avalon South Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Bay Bulls, Catholic Church, Saints Peter and Paul, Parish Registers, 1830-1899
- Bonavista Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Burin Peninsula Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Carbonear and Harbour Grace Baptisms and Marriages
- Central Region Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Conception Bay North Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Conception Bay South Vitals
- Ferryland, Catholic Church, Holy Trinity, Parish Registers, 1837-1899
- Fortune Bay District, Catholic Church, Fortune Bay District, Parish Registers, 1860-1883
- Fortune Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Freshwater, Catholic Church, Holy Rosary, Parish Registers, 1835-1899
- Labrador Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Newfoundland and Labrador Parish Records
- Newfoundland Birth Records, 1891-1897 and Delayed Registration Births, 1891-1900
- Newfoundland Church Records, 1793-1945
- Newfoundland Death Records, 1891-1949
- Newfoundland Deaths and Obituaries (Transcriptions)
- Newfoundland Grand Banks Vital Records
- Newfoundland Marriage Records, 1891-1922
- Newfoundland Miscellaneous Delayed Birth Registrations 1840-1915
- Newfoundland Vital Records, 1840-1949
- Newfoundland Vital Statistics, 1753-1893
- Newfoundland, Labrador, Church Records, 1840-1876
- Newfoundland, Miscellaneous Delayed Birth Registrations for 1840-1915
- Newfoundland, Registers of Vital Statistics Collection, 1753-1893
- Northern Peninsula Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Notre Dame Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Placentia Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Placentia, Catholic Sacred Heart Parish and Circuit, Parish Registers, 1822-1944
- Portugal Cove, Catholic Church, Holy Rosary, Parish Registers , 1844-1899
- Salmonier, Catholic Church, Saint Joseph, Parish Register, 1874-1899
- South Coast Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Spaniard’s Bay, Church of England in Canada. Holy Redeemer, Church Records, 1841-1953
- St. John’s, Catholic Church, Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, Parish Registers, 1793-1899
- St. John’s, Catholic Church, Saint Patrick, Parish Registers, 1872-1899
- Torbay, Catholic Holy Trinity Parish, Parish Registers, 1845-Feb. 1900
- Trinity Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- Trinity District, Surrogate Court Records, 1815-1825
- Waterford, Church of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Church, Extracts of Baptisms, 1756-1770
- West Coast Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
- White Bay Region Parish and Vital Indexes (Select District)
Check out the links for other provinces on the BMD Records page.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
For other Free Newfoundland and Labrador Links, click on the category of interest:
Newspapers
Obituaries
BMD Records
Photos
Yearbooks
Directories
