Historical Vital Statistics in Alberta

Vital Statistics Alberta

For years, the question has been asked:
"When is Alberta going to get historical vital statistics online?"

The time is now! 
The Provincial Archives of Alberta has digitized vital statistics indexes and or registers and are now available online.

Under current legislation, registration documents are available publicly:

birth records that are 120 years or older*;

marriage records that are 75 years or older* 

death records that are 50 years or older* 

stillbirth records that are 75 years or older* 

                                                                         *from the date of the event

Indexes are now available online for you to view at the Provincial Archives of Alberta website http://provincialarchives.alberta.ca/
under "How To" then "Find Birth Marriage and Death Records"

Words of Advice
➦ Many of the older indexes are alphabetical by the first letter, then alphabetical by the first vowel.
For example: 
                    Brown would be found under "Bo"
                    Smith would be found under "Si"
There are a few exception. I found "Be" surnames in the "Bo" section. Human error, it happened then, it happens now, it will always happen. 

Information about the registers
➦Prior to 1917, letters were used in place of the year

YEAR	CODE
up to	II / III
1898	A
1899	B
1900	C
1901	D
1902	E
1903	F
1904	G
1905	H
1906	J
1907	K
1908	L
1909	M
1910	N
1911	O
1912	P
1913	Q
1914	R
1915	S
1916	T

➦Once you find the registration you are looking for, write down the following information (you will need it later):

• Registration Number
• Event type
• Year
• Surname, Given name
• Place

➦In some registers, there is a column for year born and beside it 'pr". The year born column speaks for itself. The province born column uses numbers to represent province/country born. 

I share with you what I learned from other genealogists over the last 15 years:

Canada
01-PEI
02-NS
03-NB
04-PQ
05-ON
06-MN
07-SK
08-AB
09-BC
10-Yukon
11-NWT
13-Newfoundland*

21 - England
23 - Ireland*
24 - Scotland
25 - Wales
26 - Jersey Channel Islands* 

33 - 
35 - 36 - 
37 - 

41 - USA
45 - 

52 - Austria*
53 - Belgium*
54 - Bulgaria
55 - Czechoslovakia
56 - Denmark
57 - 
58 - Finland
59 - France

60 - Germany*
61 - 
62 - Netherlands
63 - Hungary*
64 - Iceland
65 - Italy
66 - 
68 - Norway
69 - Galicia *Austria or Ukraine

71 - Bukovina
73 - Scandinavia / Sweden*
74 - Switzerland
76 - Luxembourg
77 - USSR

[*additions to the above list made June 27, 2017, with thanks to Donald K.]

Over time, when people share what they know the list above can become more complete. I encourage you to contact me and share your findings of what the other numbers stand for. alberta.research2@gmail.com


➦be patient, wait for the files to load, they are HUGE files. 

➦If you used "ctrl f" to find surnames on the PDF forms and no result was found, review the names line by line. Always be diligent about reviewing forms manually to ensure a complete search has been done. OCR is good but not always reliable.

Remember that information you wrote down? Now you are ready to order the registration document by clicking on the "Vital Stats request form" button.

Cost per photocopy: 35¢ 
Seriously, 35¢ !!!
Have it mailed to you 
$3.00 (in Canada) 
$6.00 (outside of Canada)
(see below)

It's a great day for genealogists! Alberta vital statistics for genealogical purposes online. Wonderful!!

I don't know about you, but I will be busy for the next little while.
~Shannon

Update: September 27, 2019 costs and services of ordering vital statistic records through the PAA has changed.
Digital Scans: $5.25  sent by e-mail when complete
Photocopy 79¢ sent through Canada Post
Shipping costs remain the same