Manitoba Divorce Records (National Institute)

To search for Manitoba divorce records start with the Archives of Manitoba. A search on the “Keystone Archives Descriptive Database” for the search term “divorce” will bring up a description of archival records. Each description will include the scope and content of records that make up the series or fonds, any restrictions for access, whether or not there is an index, the year range covered by the records and any pertinent notes.

The Court of Queen’s Bench handled divorces from 1917 to 1983. From 1984 divorces were handled by the Court of Queen’s Bench Family Division.

According to Library and Archives Canada’s website, there are some files still in the custody of the regional courts. For those, you may search the Index Book located at the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench where the divorce records are filed by number. You must attend in person to search the index book and it is a manual search for records prior to 1984. All records are open but you must have the surname and given name or initials as that is how these records have been indexed. Once you have found the person in the Index note the file number. You will need this to access the records. You will also need to know what area the divorce took place in. When you do have the file number you can go to the Manitoba Courts - Court Registry System and find a list of Court Division Codes, as well as Court Location Codes to search. The file number itself actually has the division code and location code in it and so you can find the location with little effort. If you order the wrong file you have to pay anyway.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Office 408 York Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0P9. Telephone: 204-945-0344

Locations are listed at Courts of the Queen’s Bench website.

____________________________________________________________________________

Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online courses offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about these courses or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.