This compilation contains information on over 4,000 of the first families to arrive in New Brunswick. Each descriptive family entry contains the name of the head of a household, the date and place of birth, the names of his parents and the date of his death. Next is listed the date and place of marriage, the name of his wife and her vital statistics. Each of the children and their vital information, including the names of their wives, is listed. The family entry concludes with the name of the file, book or collection in which information was found, approximate number of pages within the file, and bibliographic or descriptive material as required. There are over 50,000 index entries to facilitate access.

To simplify the descriptive entries, the New Brunswick of today is treated as if it has always existed. For instance, a family that arrived in 1764 and settled at the mouth of the Saint John River is said to have settled at Saint John, New Brunswick even though the area was part of the colony of Nova Scotia at that time, and the city of Saint John was not created until two decades later. Another example might be the family who arrived in the colony in 1804 and settled at Woodstock, NB. This family is said to have settled at Woodstock, Carleton County, NB and not Woodstock, York County as it was known in 1804. To do otherwise would take up an inordinate amount of time and space and would be extremely confusing to those not familiar with New Brunswick history and geography. The researcher should remember that the contents of files, books and collections vary in composition, size, completeness and accuracy and it was not possible to verify the accuracy of the information found in these various sources. Readers who detect errors and who wish to submit corrections or who want to send donations of genealogies, either large or small, are encouraged to contact the Provincial Archives. To view the files listed in this guide the researcher can visit the Provincial Archives on the University of New Brunswick Campus, Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturdays, excepting statutory holidays.

Researchers should remember that:

1. The data in each descriptive entry is for the first family of that name to arrive in NB.
2. Information on the family before it came to New Brunswick, and data on succeeding generations, sometimes up to the present, is often found in the file, book or collection. The researcher will have to visit the Provincial Archives and check this out themselves.
3. Entries for Acadians, Pre-Loyalists or Loyalists who arrived in the colony with older children who immediately married and themselves began having children often have two generations of their family listed.
4. Researchers are reminded that this listing of genealogies found in the collections at the Provincial Archives is an ongoing project and that it is far from complete. To this point in the project the following collections have been listed.

 

Family Histories Collection (MC1): approximately 1,500 files.
New Brunswick Publications Collection (MC80): books #1 to #1,400 (out of 2,700).
MC80/2184 WD Hamilton’s Dictionary of Miramichi Biography.
MC1156 Graves Papers
MC1286 Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
MC1694 New Brunswick Lineages Project Fonds