Why You Can't Find an Ancestor's Vital Registration

1907 Death Registration John Downey

How many times have you looked for a birth, death, or marriage in Ontario's Vital Registrations on Ancestry and come up empty? It's frustrating because you know Great-Grandpa Samuel Johnstone's death date and location. You know it was after Vital Registration began in Ontario in 1869. 

You've tried using wildcards to pick up variations in his surname, such as Jo*nston*. You've searched just under his first name. You've searched for any Johnstone, not using his first name. You've tried every trick in the book but you've come up empty. 

You're Not Alone

I've done it too. I have several people whose deaths or marriages or births are simply not showing up in the online Registrations. My most recent failed attempt was in searching for a murder victim and the woman who was executed for the crime. It was a very famous case in Ontario (James Workman the victim, beaten to death in 1872 and his wife Elizabeth Workman, the last woman hung in Ontario in 1873) and is still written about today as a miscarriage of justice. I wanted to see their death registrations for research I am doing on this family. But nothing was found. After several frustrating hours of creative searching, I wrote to the Ontario Archives and asked where the Death Certification of murder victims and the murderer were kept.

To my surprise I was told that they are filed with all deaths and registered with Ontario Vital Statistics so they should be found. Then the Archivist added that perhaps the families had not paid to have the deaths registered. This was news to me! So I wrote back and asked for clarification as to whether all individuals had to pay to register a vital event. The answer was YES. 

Archives of Ontario Explains

Here's the official explanation below:

People were required to pay (either directly or via family members, hospital, clergy or funeral home) for Ontario vital statistics registrations.  The cost to register a marriage was about .10 cents prior to WWII then the cost went up to about .25 cents after WWII.

Now I know why I can't find some of my ancestors and collateral branches' births, marriages or deaths. No doubt the family didn't have the money or thought it was a waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Don't Give Up 

So if you have been hunting and unable to find a Vital Registration Event in Ontario (or elsewhere), consider the possibility that perhaps it was never registered. That doesn't mean you should give up after the first try! Use wildcards, they are your friend. For example Ancestry allows the use of * to represent more than one letter and ? to represent one letter.  If your surname of interest is Madden, try searching M*d*n to pick up Maden, Maiden, Maddin, etc.

Be creative in how many details you put in the search engine. In other words, loosen your search, make it less restrictive. Search just by a first name or just by a location and date (no name at all) 

Church Records

If all your searches are in vain, you might want to try church records. Even if the event was not registered at the Provincial level, odds are good that it made the local church. Ontario census records provide the religion of each person so it is fairly easy to locate nearby churches to where your ancestor lived prior to death.