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District Marriage Registers ( Ontario ), What are they and why are they important? Article posted: April 15, 1998 By: Fawne Stratford-Devai Biography & Archived Articles 
During the early period of settlement in Upper Canada and Canada West (the province of Ontario), all ministers who performed marriages with the exception of Anglican and Roman Catholic ministers were required to send in returns to the Clerk of the Peace for the District. The majority of returns begin in the 1830s with a few Districts containing earlier marriage returns. The Clerk of the Peace then recorded the returns in a register kept in the office. Most of these District Marriage Registers survive.It is important to keep in mind that the Register is only a copy made by the District Clerk. The returns themselves are the closest record to the original parish record that exists. For some Districts the individual original marriage returns from Ministers have also survived and in some instances contain lists of baptisms and burials performed by the minister. If the marriage you are looking for was performed by an Anglican (Church of England) or Catholic (Roman Catholic) clergy, they will not be included in the District Marriage Registers. Only rarely, and much later in the District Period did Anglican and Catholic clergy submit marriage returns. However, just because your ancestor was a devote Anglican does not mean their marriage performed by a minister of the Church of England. When settlers in the woods wanted to get married they were not always willing to wait for months and months for the next Anglican minister to come by on horseback. In many areas it was too far to journey to a church or the weather was too bad to risk a long walk to the nearest church so settlers opted to be married next minister that came by on horseback. It is important to remember the District Clerk who recorded marriage returns from clergy into a register was only human and often made errors in transcribing the marriage returns or sometimes changed a surname that was spelled phonetically by a minister into what he believed was the proper spelling. Please use your imagination in searching all surnames of interest. Try and imagine how the surname would be spelled if the spelling was based on how it sounds. Keep in mind that in most cases, the marriage returns were submitted by ministers who were circuit riders. If you cannot find a marriage you are looking for in one District, you would be well advised to search bordering districts. A minister on horseback in the wilds of Ontario had no idea when he crossed a political boundary such as a District or what we know as counties today. Many clergy simply sent a return to the Clerk of the District where the majority of their marriages were performed even though the return included marriages that were technically from a different district. About Fawne Stratford-Devai 
Fawne Stratford-Devai's work on Land Records and early Ontario records is well known in the genealogy community. A published author of several Canadian and UK research books, she has also contributed articles to the Ontario Genealogical Society's newsletter "Families" as well as writing for the online family history newsletter the "Global Gazette". Biography
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