Source:British Columbia, Canada. Birth Registrations, 1854-1903

What is in This Collection

The registration of births began in 1872, but because of delayed registration, this collection includes births from 1854-1903.

These records include birth registrations, delayed birth registrations, and delayed registrations of native births. Due to privacy some images have been restricted from viewing.

The birth registrations are recorded on individual, printed forms. They consist of completed statements regarding live births in British Columbia submitted to district registrars and registered by the director of Vital Statistics. Birth certificates contain information from the original registration records and are only available through the British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency. A stillbirth may have been registered as either a birth, death, or both.

British Columbia became a province of Canada in July 1871; registration of vital events began in 1872. The only persons excluded from the Births, Deaths, and Marriages Act of 1872 were Chinese and First Nations. This was changed by an amendment in 1897, stating the registration would apply to all races. However, the Act was amended in 1899 to once again exclude First Nations from provincial registration until another amendment was passed in 1916, which authorized registration of First Nations to begin again in 1917. Because of delayed registration, First Nation births in this collection range from 1854 -1903 (v. 795, 995A-998A). Birth records are organized by birth year instead of registration year in order to enable the release of early birth information that might otherwise have been restricted because of a late registration date. On 4 June 2004, an amendment to the Vital Statistics Act changed the release date for birth records from 100 years to 120 years.

Provincial vital registrations are considered a reliable source in family history research because they contain a record of an event usually registered very near the time the event occurred. The reliability, of course, depends on the accuracy of the informant. [Copied from British Columbia Birth Registrations - FamilySearch Historical Records, 13 Oct 2019]