Place:Northumberland, New Brunswick, Canada

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Northumberland County (2011 population 48,355) has the largest area of any county in the province and is located in the northeastern area of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

The county was established in 1785 and named for the Northumberland Strait which borders part of the county. (Source:Place Names of New Brunswick) The neighbouring county of Gloucester was part of Northumberland County until 1826.

Northumberland County is covered by thick forests, whose products stimulate the economy. The highest peaks in the province, including Mount Carleton lie in the northwestern corner of the county. The county is dominated by the Miramichi River, world famous for its salmon fishing. The lower portion of the river is an estuary which widens into Miramichi Bay, a part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The city of Miramichi is a local service centre for the county and surrounding regions with schools, hospitals and government offices and retail locations. There are several saw mills in the city of Miramichi and up the Southwest Branch of the Miramichi River. There were formerly two large pulp and paper mills at Miramichi.

Research Tips

• New Brunswick Provincial Archives. This is the introductory page. The tabs will lead you to more precise material.
• The FamilySearch wiki. This lists the availability of vital statistics indexes for New Brunswick.
• New Brunswick GenWeb. A round-up of a lot of genealogical information at the province, county and parish level. Lists of cemeteries and monumental inscriptions can be found here.
• The Provincial Archives website titled The Placenames of New Brunswick has maps of all of its parishes and descriptions of some communities within them. This site contains "cadastral" maps for each parish illustrating the grantee’s name for land granted by the province. These maps are cumulative, showing all grants regardless of date.
• Microfilm images of all Canadian censuses 1851-1911 are online at Library and Archives Canada, as well as at FamilySearch and Ancestry. The 1921 census appears to be available only at Ancestry.
• The CanGenealogy page for New Brunswick. An overview of available online sources with links written by Dave Obee.
• More possibilities can be found by googling "New Brunswick province family history" and investigating the results.
• The word "rencensement", found in Sources, is French for "census".