Eastern District Marriage Register of Upper Canada 1801-1865 (includes some marriage licenses & certificates)

By Dan Walker & Fawne Stratford-Devai

In October of 1792 the old District of Lunenburg (1788-1792) was renamed the Eastern District and included the present counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott, Russell, Leeds, Grenville and Carleton. Boundaries changed as the population grew. See the Background section below for those details.

Click to Browse the Index

Book includes:

• A complete transcription of the original Eastern District register created by the Clerk of the Peace. The register itself is titled: A Registry of certified Marriages of Members of the Church of Scotland, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Baptists, Independents, Methodists, Menonists, Tunkers, Presbyterians or Moravians. Each ministers entries include the page number in the original register where those entries are located.
• The few Marriage Licenses which have been found at the Archives of Ontario for 1806 & 1807. These marriage licenses are all that appear to survive for this early period -- transcribed in this book but not microfilmed or digitized yet.

Towns and townships where marriages occurred and were reported in the Eastern District Register include: Richmond, Matilda, Cornwall, Mountain, Edwardsburgh, Osnabruck, Williamsburgh, Charlottenburg, Hawksbury, Lochiel, Kenyon, Seignory of the Petit Nation (Lower Canada [Quebec]), Breadalbane, Winchester, Prescott, Martintown, Lancaster, Coteau du Lac, Point Fortune, Alfred township, Oxford township, Saint Andrews, Longuiel, Clarence, Roxborough, Nerston (in Quebec), Caledonia, Finch, and a number of other areas.

Background: 

In October of 1792 the old District of Lunenburg (1788-1792) was renamed the Eastern District and included the present counties of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott, Russell, Leeds, Grenville and Carleton. In the Act of 1798, Proclaimed in 1800, the Counties of Leeds, Grenville and Carleton were separated out of the Eastern District to become the Johnstown District. In March of 1816, the counties of Prescott and Russell became the Ottawa District. Effective 1831 marriage returns for the Eastern District were required to be returned to the Clerk of the Peace in the District town of Cornwall. Returns were sent to the Clerk from clergy who performed marriages, with the exception of Anglican and Roman Catholic ministers. However, many Anglican and Catholics settlers married in churches of convenience or by passing circuit riders when churches of their own faith had not been established yet -- the result is that many of those marriages appear in these District Marriage Registers.

As of January 1850 all Districts were abolished and the Eastern District became the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry and remain the United Counties to this day

Check bordering Districts:  Complete District Marriage Register Series booklist  When searching for marriages recorded in Marriage Registers keep in mind that many returns were submitted by ministers who were circuit riders who often performed marriages at great distance from their home bases. Circuit riders reported marriages in the register of the District where they lived which was not necessarily in the same District where the marriage took place. That said, if you cannot find the marriage in the Eastern District register you would be well advised to search bordering districts such as the Ottawa District Marriage Register, the Johnstown District Marriage Register and even the original Midland District Marriage Register (if ever found).

Related article: District Marriage Registers of Upper Canada (Ontario) 1786-1870 - What are they and why are they important?

Details:

186  Pages 
8.5" X 11" 
Maps
Index 
Originally published by Norsim, Toronto, 1995
This revised and updated edition with new maps and introduction published by Global Heritage Press, Milton, 2000 
ISBN  978-1-894571-34-0 (coil-bound edition)