Canada Divorces (National Institute)

Divorce in Canada at the turn of the century was much different than the way getting a divorce today is handled. Prior to 1960, divorces were handled through a private act of the Parliament of Canada. The process at the time was a long and expensive undertaking.

In the late 19th century, if a person wanted to obtain a divorce, a notice of intent to petition the government for an Act of Divorce was required to be placed in the Canada Gazette and two newspapers in the district or county in which the petitioner resided, for a period of six months. These notices are of great interest to a genealogist, as the information given in this notice included the names of both parties, their place of residence and the grounds under which the divorce was being sought. The actual petition would contain more details, including the date and place of the marriage, and events surrounding the failure of the marriage. In the event of adultery or bigamy, a co-respondent was often named. After consideration, Parliament would pass an Act of Divorce, which nullified the marriage. A transcript of the Act was published in the Statutes of Canada for that year.

Finding copies of these statutes is not that difficult. Because each divorce was a separate act of parliament, each can be found by going through the indexes to the federal statutes. Most large libraries with a government documents section will carry these books. Try checking at the local university library. Or, you can use the AMICUS catalogue to find out which libraries hold copies of specific publications. Of course, The Canada Gazette and the Statutes of Canada are also available at the National Library of Canada. The following is an example of what one of these cases looks like:

Page from Journal and Proceedings of the House of Assembly, 1851



From Journal and Proceedings of the House of Assembly, 1851 (Halifax:CIHM) 1851. Image courtesy of CIHM.

The Senate of Canada holds information on divorce proceedings that occurred in the following provinces and time periods:

For more information, you can contact The Senate of Canada at:


 * Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel  Room 304, 3rd Floor 222 Queen Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A9 Telephone: (613) 992-4793

After the above listed dates, and for any provinces that were not included in the above table, divorce proceedings were handled by the provincial courts. The addresses for these courts can be located under the section heading “Courts and Judges” in the Canadian Almanac &amp; Directory. Most public libraries hold copies of the almanac.

Many provincial archives hold divorce records older than 25 years old. Check with the Provincial Archives in the province that the divorce took place in to see what divorce records they hold, and what the policies are regarding protection of privacy for those people mentioned in the documents.

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