Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Genealogy

Guide to Newfoundland and Labrador ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Newfoundland and Labrador Information

 * The first peoples were the Beothuk, who became extinct in 1829. Today there are Inuit, Innu, Mi'kmaq and Southern Inuit peoples.
 * In 1501 and 1502. the Corte-Real brothers, Miguel and Gaspar, explored Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming them as part of the Portuguese Empire. Seasonal fishing outposts were established in Newfoundland around 1521, and older Portuguese settlements may have existed.
 * Sometime before 1563 Basque fishermen, who had been fishing cod shoals off Newfoundland's coasts since the beginning of the sixteenth century, founded Plaisance (today Placentia), a seasonal haven which French fishermen later used.
 * Twenty years later, in 1583, Newfoundland became England's first possession in North America and one of the earliest permanent English colonies in the New World.
 * Proprietary Governors were assigned to establish colonial settlements on the island from 1610 to 1728. John Guy became governor of the first settlement at Cuper's Cove. Other settlements included Bristol's Hope, Renews, New Cambriol, South Falkland and Avalon.
 * Explorers quickly realized the waters around Newfoundland had the best fishing in the North Atlantic. By 1620, 300 fishing boats worked the Grand Banks, employing some 10,000 sailors; many continuing to come from the Basque Country, Normandy, or Brittany. They dried and salted cod on the coast and sold it to Spain and Portugal.
 * A triangular trade with New England, the West Indies, and Europe gave Newfoundland an important economic role. By the 1670s, there were 1,700 permanent residents and another 4,500 in the summer months.
 * In 1655, France appointed a governor in Plaisance (Placentia), the former Basque fishing settlement, thus starting a formal French colonization period in Newfoundland, as well as a period of periodic war and unrest between England and France in the region. In 1713, when France ceded to the British its claims to Newfoundland. The French population of Plaisance moved to Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island). French fishermen retained the right to land and cure fish on the "French Shore" on the western coast.
 * Newfoundland rejected confederation with Canada in the 1869 general election. Newfoundland remained a colony until acquiring Dominion status in 1907. A dominion constituted a self-governing state of the British Empire or British Commonwealth and the Dominion of Newfoundland was relatively autonomous from British rule.
 * Since the early 1800s, Newfoundland and Quebec had been in a border dispute over the Labrador region. In 1927, however, the British government ruled that the area known as modern-day Labrador was to be considered part of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
 * Newfoundland officially joined Canada at midnight on March 31, 1949.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records - databases and record images on FamilySearch
 * Newfoundland and Labrador Family History Center locator map