Newfoundland's Grand Banks Message Board

I am wondering if town clerks keep records of births, marriages, and deaths, which occur in their town or are they transferred to somewhere else?

Yours in genealogy,
Mark

You're not likely to find any town clerk records. Municipalities came kind of late to Newfoundland (outside St. John's), so town clerks did too. Early records were kept by local clergy, or sometimes missionaries, and then you hear stories of the time the church burned down taking all the records with it! Eventually, the provincial government started keeping records for the province, and had copies of whatever church ones survived made. Some of the old records are on this site (the Grand Banks site); the official repository is PANL (Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador) where the staff are very helpful, but of course they're in St. John's. Churches may still have the originals. Nowadays, scans are available on some sites like Ancestry, too.

Cheryl

Dear Cheryl,

Thank you for the information about the various places that birth, marriage and death records are kept. I managed to visit The Rooms when I visited Newfoundland about ten years ago. I am hoping to return next year if the Covid19 pandemic is over.

I am always curious about how vital statistics are kept in other places compared to how they are kept here in Massachusetts. Thanks again for all you do.

Yours in genealogy,
Mark