About the Anglican Registers Project

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The Anglican Church has been active in New Brunswick since 1768, when Rev. John Eagleson was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to serve communities in the Tantramar area. A significant expansion occurred in 1783, when United Empire Loyalists arrived and established new congregations. With them came the practice of recording key church events such as baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials.

Starting in the 1960s, the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton began efforts to collect and preserve these valuable records. Today, over 2,000 registers are housed at the Diocesan Archives.

In May 2018, the New Brunswick Genealogical Society (NBGS) partnered with the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB)—which now manages the Anglican records—to launch the Anglican Registers Project (ARP). This initiative aimed to scan, transcribe, and publish these records online for public access via the NBGS website.

Work officially began in January 2019 after a pilot phase and the recruitment of both technical staff and volunteer transcribers. The project is challenging due to the fragile condition of many registers and the resources required to handle, scan, and enhance them.

To date:

•     2,376 registers have been scanned.
•     55,112 individual page images were created.
•     51,044 pages have been transcribed.
•     Some non-event (administrative) pages will remain untranscribed but will still be viewable.

The ARP database now includes:

•     547,117 records of baptisms, burials, marriages, confirmations, and other events.
•     1,334,773 individual names involved in these events.

Access:

•     NBGS members can search the database by name, location, event type, and date.
•     Non-members can register as "guests" to search and view register images by location and date.
•     Full access is available by joining NBGS online.
  
  

Summary – Key Points

•     Anglican church records in New Brunswick date back to 1768.
•     Over 2,000 historical registers are preserved by the Diocesan Archives.
•     The Anglican Registers Project (ARP) began in 2019 to digitize and transcribe these records.
•     2,376 registers scanned, producing 55,112 images, of which 51,044 are transcribed.
•     The database holds 547,117 event records involving over 1.3 million individuals.
•     NBGS members get full searchable access; guests can view by location and date.
•     The project is a joint initiative of NBGS and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.