New Brunswick Ancestors: The New Brunswick Irish Portal

When one thinks of the people who settled New Brunswick, there are three main groups that come to mind: The Acadians, The Loyalists, and the New England Planters. But there's a good chance that within your New Brunswick ancestors are another group that tend to be forgotten about: The Irish. Even my own maternal tree, which is 98 percent Acadian, has the odd Irish name in there.

https://archives.gnb.ca/Irish/databases_en.html

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) created a web portal dedicated to the Irish immigrant experience in the province. They have several different categories of records you can look at, most of them containing digitized original records.

Saint John Almshouse Records

This section provides images of admission registers from two collections

• Saint John City Almshouse fonds , Admittance Registers 1843-1897
• Graeme Somerville collection, Saint John Alms House Records, 1843 - 1884

The digitized microfilms can be browsed page by page, or you can search. There is also a name index that can be accessed. Before you start, make sure you look at the pdf About the Records. 

Brennan Funeral Home Records

This section contains transcriptions of the confirmed Irish in Brenan's records. If ireland was not mentioned in the entry, they are not included. However, they will be in the main database on the PANB's website. There is a 50 year restriction on access to the records. Right now, you can access records from 1901-1971. Records for 1972 will be available after Jan 1 2022. You can search the indexes by

• Surname of deceased
• Surname of spouse
• Surname of mother
• Surname of father
• Occupation
• Cause of death

Even though these are not original images, the indexes do contain a lot of information. Here's an example for a Mr. John Robinson, who passed away in 1937

Fitzwilliam Estate Emigration Books 1847-1856

This section is a database of 295 names of people that emigrated from the Fitzwilliam Estate in County Wicklow. When you click on the database, it automatically sorts by surname. Howver, by clicking on one the headings, you can resort the names however you wish. I clicked on reference number, as this would sort by family groups. In reference 1, I got this family group

As you can see, Pat and Rose Waddock are now included with the Balance family. You now have a possible maiden name for John Balance's wife Anty, as well as her mother and brother's name. We also have their Townland and Civil Parish in Ireland. Anyone who has tried to research in Ireland knows these are very important pieces of information.

RS555 Provincial Secretary: Immigration Administration Records

This interesting section gives insight into immigration through new Brunswick's ports as a whole. Click on the finding aid, and then scroll to the table of contents to access individual documents of interest. These are digitized images. Though the majority is correspondence, there are some other gems. Here's a page from the 35 page set of documents called  List of Patients at Emigrants Hospital in Saint John; 1847-1849 (includes name of patient, age, county of birth, date of death or discharge, name of ship, point of sailing, when arrived)

Immigrant Letters

I think this might be my favourite section. In here are digitized letters from and to immigrants here and their family and friends all over the world. Along with the images are transcriptions. They are indexed by subject, place, and by the fonds these letters come from. You can also do a full text search. here is a snippet of a letter from John Jackson of Monaghan, Ireland to Lawrence Hughes of Saint John, New Brunswick

  "...Sir I received your letter of the 12th of December which gives us a great comfort to hear that you and

your wife and children are all in Good Health. Thank God we are all in the same. Tho this country is somuch afflicted with Disorders, thank God we all got free yet if God was pleased to visit the Old Man and

Michael Armstrong with sickness we had the pleasure of our neighbors about us. Michael Armstrong

died by alcoholic in 2 days illness. A sore leg with age was the Old Man’s complaint. You may let Rosey

know that her sister Catron husband is dead. That is Patt [Conoley]. Indeed she will not be very sorry for

that. Nor neather are we for her and her 4 children is far better wanting him but you may guess my

situation with the Old Woman and Margaret and her 3 children, Catron and her 4 children all depending

on me for to give them [seporte] you may guess yourself how I am ins there is no one I feel for so much

as the Olde Woman for at the Old Man’s death the(y) prompt him up to leave but very little in her

power. She is the one iye think of moste and will do all I can for her...."

Newspapers

This section runs a close second for being my favourite. It gives a great insight into the attitudes of the day regarding the big influx of immigrants in the province. You can search by subject, or by newspaper. You can also do a full text search. Along with the digital images are transcriptions of the articles. Here's an article about the 1847 quarantine of the passengers of the Eliza Liddell in Shippegan, where many generations of my maternal line lived, and still live.

Passenger Lists

This section is the bread and butter part of research into your immigrant ancestor. Even with over 10,000 entries, it is still only a fraction of the immigration numbers into the province. Look at this table they've included of the immigration numbers as a whole

You can search by vessel or by name. Each result give you an extract of the passenger, as well as the image of the passenger list they appeared on. I found ships that sailed from England among the list, as well as Ireland.

Teachers Petition Database

There's a good chance there's a teacher among your Irish immigrants. This section has images of the petitions, licenses, and/or certificates of these teachers. There are 509 records in the index. It comes up alphabetically by surname, but you can also sort the index in various ways by clicking on the headers. Here's part of the 1840 petition for Mr. Daniel O'Keefe. He taught in Caraquet, Gloucester.

Irish Immigrants in the New Brunswick Census of 1851 and 1861

This last section has extracted those of Irish birth from the 1851 and 1861 Census. If you search by name, you will get extracted information from both Census. If you click on other indexes, you also have the ability to search either Census by

• County
• Religion
• Where from
• Year Landed

Now keep in mind this information is only as good as what is available. It has been a source of frustration for me for over a decade that the 1851 Census for Gloucester County no longer survives. Anything pre 1861 for me has to rely on parish records.

As a final note, don't forget to look at the brief historical overviews in some of the sections. They give you a good basic understanding of the overall history. They are a good read by themselves, so I've included the individual links here:

• Social Welfare in New Brunswick, 1784-1900 - St John Almshouse Records
  

• The Surplus People - Fitzwilliam Estate Emigration Records 1947-1856
  

• New Brunswick as a Home for Immigrants - RS555 Provincial Secretary: Immigration Administration Records 

• The Impact of the Irish on New Brunswick Schools - Teachers Petition Database
  

• The Irish of New Brunswick at Mid Century: The 1851 Census -  Irish Immigrants in the New Brunswick Census of 1851 and 1861

52 Ancestors: Week 47- Revolutionary Soldier Records at the PANB

Week 47 of 52 Ancestors has the theme "Soldier". This post I decided to look at a database on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick's website. If your Loyalist ancestor went to New Brunswick, you'll want to check out the database Records of Old Revolutionary Soldiers and Their Widows. After the Revolutionary War that gave the United States gained their independence, many of those who fought for the British were granted land in New Brunswick. However, by the 1830s, many of these soldiers and their widows were destitute. In 1839 the Hose of Assembly established a relief fund for them. To receive 10 pounds per year, they had to meet certain requirements. The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) have provided links to images of the Act:

The database consists of applications, correspondence, and payment schedules. The applicants had to apply to their county council. Not all records have survived. This database contains application records from:

• RS146   Albert County Council Records
• RS148   Charlotte County Council Records
• RS153   Northumberland County Council Records
• RS154   Queens County Council Records
• RS157   Sunbury County Council Records

The PANB have also drawn records from the record sets RS566 Provincial Secretary: Old Soldiers and Widows Pension Administration Records, RS9 Executive Council Meeting Files, and RS24 Sessional Records of the Legislative Assembly. These record sets contained applications, correspondence and payments schedules. The Archives have a disclaimer that says

      "...For this project, we have identified all records relating to the old Revolutionary Soldiers, however there are a few documents which refer to the individual simply as an "old soldier". This is ambiguous since it could mean the soldier was a veteran of the War of 1812-14. We have included these erring on the side of providing more rather than less information..."

In other words, just because your ancestor is in here, it does not mean he was a Revolutionary War soldier. More research may be required.

Thanks to a collaboration between PANB and the Department of Canadian Heritage, this database is indexed. Just type in the name of your ancestor and you can get 1 to 20 links to digitized documents.

So, go to the Search Screen:

https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/OldSoldiers/Default.aspx?culture=en-CA

Now, you have a few ways to search. You can search by Name or by County. A third option is to click on one of the record sets and browse. My 5x great grandfather Charles McLaughlin is a suspected Revolutionary War soldier. So, I'm going to use him for the different search methods.

By Name

This section is an index of all surnames. What you do is click on the first letter of you ancestor's surname. My 5x great grandfather Charles McLaughlin is a suspected Revolutionary War soldier. So, I'm going to use him for this section. When I went to the M's, I got a list of all M surnames alphabetized. I scrolled down and found a Charles McLaughlin who lived in Gloucester County. This corresponds to my Charles.

https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/OldSoldiers/Results.aspx?culture=en-CA&PageLoad=FN&Letter=M

I clicked on the + beside his name and got this result:

https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/OldSoldiers/ViewImages.aspx?culture=en-CA&Key=179

The images with check marks are the ones that contain Charles' name. Clicking each one opens a digital image in a new window. You can then download the image to your computer. The first image is an application detailing that Charles' service. He served in the 76th Regiment in New York, commanded by Captain James Fraser. He was discharged in 1783. He is claiming for relief from Oct 4 1840 to Dec 4 1841, in the amount of 10 pounds.

The second document is correspondence informing Of Charles' death in 1842. 

The third document is a schedule of payments. The PANB has helpfully included pages of the whole document for context. The page that he appears on is the check marked one. 

By County

This section allows you to look at the surviving records for each county. Click on the County name, and it will list all soldiers traced to that County. When I clicked on Gloucester County, the only other surviving records besides Charles is for someone not in my line. So I decided to look at Restigouche County to find a collateral ancestor. I have another possible Loyalist ancestor in New Brunswick, my 4x great grandfather William Ferguson. William and his brother Thomas both settled in New Brunswick after the War. William did extremely well, and became a prominent figure in the Tracadie area of Gloucester County. He had no need to apply for relief. His brother Thomas, however, did not do nearly as well. The story is that Thomas had to leave Tracadie to escape creditors in the early 1800s, and eventually settled in Restigouche County. When I clicked on Restigouche County, I found a Thomas Ferguson. He appeared on several payment schedules until his death in his 90's.

https://archives.gnb.ca/Search/OldSoldiers/ViewImages.aspx?culture=en-CA&Key=260

By Record Set

This section allows you to browse some of the record sets. Click on the available record set and you can narrow your browsing from there:

• RS566 Provincial Secretary: Old Soldiers and Widows Pension Administration Records- lets you browse by County and then year
• RS148 Charlotte County Council Records- browse by years 1841-1846
• RS153 Northumberland County Council Records- browse by years 1839-1871
• RS154 Queens County Council Records- browse by years 1839-1857
• RS9 Executive Council (Cabinet) Meeting Files- browse by meeting date from 11 November 1843 to 25 October 1871
• RS24 Sessional Records of the Legislative Assembly- browse reports from 1838 to 1855, and petitions from 1838 to 1856

New Brunswick Ancestors: The Genealogical Files of Mgr Robichaud

If you have north eastern New Brunswick ancestors, as I do, then you'll want to check out the Mgr Donat Robichaud Genealogical and Historical Research Collection at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. This collection is the product of many years work.

http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/FatherRobichaudTranscriptions/Default.aspx?culture=en-CA

Monseigneur Robichaud was a Catholic Priest who was born in Shippegan, New Brunswick 24 October 1924. His main genealogical focus was the north east area of New Brunswick. He authored many books, helped found the Societe historique Nicholas-Denys, and was a active member of it until his death on 8 August 2009.

His collection at the Archives contains two databases: the Genealogical Files, and the L'Evangeline Database. What is impressive about this collection is the fact that the research was done long before we have the online tools we have today. He did it "the old fashioned way".


Genealogical Files
According to the Introduction, this section is a compilation of more than 3,000 pages of research on the families of this area of New Brunswick. It is also one of the best sourced collections I've ever seen. Among the source citations are churches, newspapers, wills, and deeds. Mgr Robichaud scoured several Archives of all kinds to find any documentation he could on these families. The collection is sorted alphabetically by surname. As you can see below, each set of PDF pages are grouped by letter. Though some of the entries are in English, the majority is in French. Copy and pasting into Google Translate can give you a pretty good translation of the entry. The basic setup for each surname is first some notations of the family surname as a whole. Then it lists first names in the family alphabetically, and lists all documentation relating to that person.

http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/FatherRobichaudTranscriptions/BiographyDocuments.aspx?culture=en-CA

The nice thing about PDF files is that by pressing the F3 button, you should get a search box up in the top right. You can also press and hold the Ctrl button and press F. Type in your surname and it should take you to the right spot. My Grannie was Marie Anne MALLAIS. The MALLAIS, or MALLET, family were one of the founding families of the Shippegan area. I went to the PDF for the letters M to O, and searched for Mallais. Information on the Mallet/Mallais family starts on page 11 and goes to page 45! Here is what is listed for Jean MALLAIS, the "founding father" of the name in Shippegan:

Just look at the variety of sources and how well they are cited. Not all people listed will have as in depth a timeline, of course. But this is just an example of Mgr Robichaud's work. If your family surname from the area was not French, don't despair. There are many Anglo surnames in the collection as well.


L'Evangeline Database
This database consists of short summaries of articles from the newspaper L'Evangeline, and cover the years 1887-1957. In the explanation of the database, the PANB states that to see the orginal of the article, they are "...available on microfilm at a number of provincial institutions (libraries and archives)...". They also state that a search of Google's Newspaper Archives may get you results. Each summary has the date of the newspaper and the page the original article is found on.

You can search the database by People, by Place, or by Subject. As far as I could see, the summaries are all in French, which makes sense, as L'Evangeline is a French newspaper. Again, Google Translate will be your friend.

When searching by people, make sure you are looking at name variations. Continuing with the MALLAIS surname, I found these variations in spelling:

• Maillait
• Maillet
• Malais
• Mallais
• Mallet
• Mallette
• Malley - Don't forget that over the years some French names became Anglicized. My own line of Mallais people have been in various government records as Malley.

remember to do the same when searching by place. Shippegan was listed as Shippagan, Shippagan Gully, and Shippagan, Ile de.

The subject index is a fun one. You can search by a subject, and then further search by a secondary subject. For instance, one of the subjects listed is Acadian. By clicking on the radio button Expand index by including secondary subjects, you can look at about 50 subsections. Included in the subsections are the headings "Grand Pre", Deportation", and several on the "Convention nationale acadienne". 

It's a huge blessing to those of us researching from distance that the PANB was able to gain permission to put Mgr Robichaud's work online. And that the Monseigneur gave it. He was a truly generous man with all his research. Along with these databases, he is also the author of several books and articles. After his death, his body of research was donated to La Societe Historique Nicolas-Denys Inc.

New Brunswick Ancestors: Update to the PANB County Guides

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_New_Brunswick

A while back I wrote a blog post about the County Guides at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB). They are a wonderful resource, but at the time of writing they were last updated in 2006. I'm happy to say that over the holidays, the PANB gave us a Christmas gift and updated them. In this post I'm going to highlight some of the changes. You can see my original post on them for reference here.

• Guide to Family Histories

This is new section that has me tickled pink. Clicking on the link provided will take you to the index's search screen. Type in a name and the results will tell you if there's a written family history about your person at the Archives. According to the Introduction, this can be anything from a couple of lines of information to a whole book. Included in the index is any or all of the following:

• Surname
• First Name
• Archive Reference Number
• Remarks
• County Location of the ancestor 

Using the reference number you can find out whether it's on microfilm or not. If it is, you can use inter library loan to obtain it. In the introduction they also suggest looking at the index Guide to Biographies at the Provincial Archives. This can be accessed here.

• Census Returns

No big changes here. But there is a mention that transcripts are available for purchase from the Associates of the Provincial Archives. I do not remember seeing that last time.

• Vital Statistics

They've combined the old version sections Returns of Birth, Marriages and Deaths, and Burial Records into one section here. It's been updated what's available online on their main BMD databases. They've also added a link to the government website for accessing records that are still under privacy restrictions. The main databases tend to be listed in all the County Guides, but there are some that are County specific. It's a good idea to check and see what unique collections are available for your ancestor. For instance, the databases Early County Marriage Records (RS155), and Marriage Bonds (RS155A) are not listed in the Madawaska County Guide. However, they do have a collection called Repertoire des mariages de diocese d'Edmunston, N.-B. et du compte d'Aroostock (MC301).

There's also what I believe is a new addition to the Guides, Index to Death Registrations of Soldiers, 1941-1947. This index has death information for WWII soldiers who were New Brunswick born, but died elsewhere. They warn that is not a complete collection. Also making it into the collection are some American and non New Brunswick born. The certificates themselves are not available to view online, but by looking at the microfilm F20079 you can see the certificates. They are filled in like a normal death registration, so you will get to see such information as birth date, cause of death, and parents' names and birthplaces.

The information on the cemeteries databases have been updated. They've also added that there is some cemetery transcriptions at the Archives that is not included in their database.

• Land Records

Along with information on the Land Petitions and Land Grants collections, there is a new collection added to some of the Guides called Registry Office Records (RS##). Not all Counties have this collection in their Guide (Northumberland County is one that doesn't). The year range for each County is different, but it says among this collection are:

• Deeds
• Leases
• Liens
• Mortgages

Also included are some wills. This is a place where beginning genealogists might not think to look for a will. Sometimes people would use a will to transfer ownership of land to the heirs and/or spouse. If your ancestors did not have a lot of money, there's a good chance that instead of looking at probate records, you should be looking at land records to find a will. 

The RS# associated with this collection is different for each County, so if you're contacting the Archives for microfilm numbers make sure you have the right collection number.

• Immigration Records

Not much has changed here, but they have added a note that Passengers to New Brunswick: The Customs House Records; 1833, 1834, 1837, 1838 by Daniel F. Johnson (MC80/1263) is available to view at the Archives.

• Court Records

This section has microfilm numbers for both the Probate Court Books, and separate microfilms for the Probate Court files. Read over the instructions to save yourself some grief. For instance, the Madawaska County Courthouse had a fire in 1909, and destroyed most of the records from 1873-1909. Also note that if you are looking for a probate file post 1930, they can only be viewed at the PANB. Meanwhile in Victoria County, you can get microfilms of files up to 1972.

The Court of Equity Records is still not available online either as an index or complete digital image.

• Education Records

This section also has no new collections that I could pinpoint from the old version, but still worth checking out, especially if your ancestor was involved in the education system.

• Directories

They have noted that an online index to the Hutchinson and Lovell directories is available on their website. You can access it here for the Hutchinson directories and here for the Lovell directory. Both indexes list Name, Street, Community, County, and Occupation.

• City Council Records

Because the record sets differ for each County, I cannot immediately tell if there are new ones added. As before, not all microfilm numbers are listed. Some collections you will have to request the numbers.

• Newspapers

As with the section above, the newspapers listed are different for each County. I cannot immediately tell if there are any new newspapers added, or if any years have been added to existing ones. Also like the City Council records, you may have to contact the Archives to get the microfilm numbers you need. You can also look at their online index Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics. It was originally compiled by Daniel F. Johnson and put online by the Archives in his memory. You have the option of a name or a full text search. Just remember that if you search by name, make sure you are putting in all the name variations you can think of. My grandmother was a MALLAIS, so I've had to look at MALLET, MALLETT, and even MALLEY to find ancestors. If you're looking for a MC or MAC name, try also M' in your search (i.e. M'Donald).

• New Brunswick Museum Vertical Files

No changes to this section.

• Church Records

I like how they've improved the look of this sections. It's much cleaner looking and easier to find a specific church. They've also updated what's available. I looked at the Burnt Church records in Northumberland County. I mentioned in my original post that this was the my grandfather's people were a part of. There's a new microfilm for St. Ann's that covers the years 1891-1938. Happy dance!

• Other Institutions to Contact or Visit

Another updated section. Along with mailing addresses, they've also included phone numbers and websites if available.

• Website References

A new section that gives you web addresses for the PANB, LAC, the Associates of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, and Service New Brunswick.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a list of microfilm numbers to make.....

New Brunswick Ancestors: A Look at the PANB County Guides

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) is one of my favourite websites to use. Compared to other provincial archives' sites, it's very genealogist friendly. But did you know that there is so much more information on it than what you can find under the "Search" tab?

One of the great resources they have is the County Guides. They were developed in 2006, so some of the information is a little dated as far as what's available online. But they still have tremendous value into letting you see what they have in their holdings that isn't online.


Update January 3, 2018: Over the holidays the PANB updated these guides. You can access my post highlighting the changes here.

To access them, you want to go to the main website page here.

http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/?culture=en-CA

Next you want to click on where I've circled above on Research Tools, and then click on County Guides. Your next screen will look like this:

http://archives.gnb.ca/ResearchTools/CountyGuides.aspx?culture=en-CA

Next you just click on the county you want. The guide for each county is a PDF that you can view online, download and/or print. Each County guide has been set up the same way:

• Introduction

A quick explanation of the PANB and the County Guides

• Research, Interlibrary Loan, and Copy Services

A brief explanation of their policies. One of the great things about PANB is their participation in interlibrary loan for most of their microfilms. Why I say "most" will become clearer later on.

• Development of the County

This gives a brief history of the County you are looking at, and their Parishes. This history comes in especially handy if your County of research was not one the original  8 Counties. For instance, some of my ancestors settled in Gloucester County. Gloucester was originally part of Northumberland until it became it's own County in 1826. Have an ancestor who lived in Kent County? It didn't become a County until 1826, and was formerly a part of Northumberland as well. In both the Kent and Gloucester guides, it advises you that you should be looking in Northumberland records for your pre 1826 ancestors.

• Census Returns

This is a handy one. It tells you how complete the census records are for your particular County. For instance, It tells me that Northumberland County in 1851 and 1861 are incomplete. The PANB has census records on microfilm and the guide lists what the microfilm reel numbers are. These are not available for microfilm loan. Thanks to other websites though, you can access these in other ways.

• Returns of Births, Marriages, and Deaths

This section is one of the ones that is outdated. The introduction gives you an overview of the New Brunswick policy on access to BMD's. |It then outlines what is online and what is not. However, since these were made in 2006, the year ranges will be off. For instance, it says that births are online to 1908, marriages and deaths to 1955. But when you check the online database on the site, births are available as of today up to 1921, marriages and deaths to 1966. It also states that their record set Marriage Bonds (RS551A) is only available on microfilm. It has since been added to their collection of online databases. So, just be sure to double check their online databases to make sure if what you're looking for hasn't been updated since the guides were made.

• Burial Records

Another outdated section. The online database on the PANB of gravestone transcriptions has grown quite a bit since 2006. Depending on the County, you may also find some other collections. Charlotte County has some miscellaneous cemetery records as well as the H Owen Rigby fonds, concerning the account book of Mr. Rigby's undertaking business.

• Land Records

This section describes their online indexes for land petitions and grants. These microfilms can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. It also describes their collection of Land Registry Office Records. Each County has a different collection number (i.e. Northumberland is RS91, Gloucester is RS87).

There is a microfilmed index only available at the archives, and the records themselves are not available for loan.

• Immigration Records

Listed are microfilm numbers for their collections of passenger and crew lists. It does not say whether these are available through interlibrary loan. However, they have since been indexed and digitized and are available through the PANB's Irish Portal Virtual Exhibit here.

• Court Records

The PANB has collections of both Probate Court and Court of Equity records. Microfilms for Probate Court are available through interlibrary loan, though not all have been microfilmed. Court of Equity records are not microfilmed and can only be viewed at the PANB.

• Education Records

If you have an ancestor that was a teacher, then you might want to consult their collection Teachers' Petitions and Licenses (RS655). This province wide collection's records are not online. However, they have a searchable online index that will give you the microfilm number you need to consult. It does not say whether the records are available for interlibrary loan. I'm assuming that since they do not emphasize a restriction, that they are available to loan.

There is also the collection Teachers' and Trustees' Returns (RS657). You will find the school, teacher's name, and student lists by year. Each county guide lists the particular microfilm numbers needed to consult for that particular area. Again, it does not say whether these are available through interlibrary loan.

Lastly, each guide also lists miscellaneous education records that involve your particular County, and their microfilm numbers.

• Directories

These have the microfilm numbers of the directories in their holdings for your particular County of interest and the corresponding microfilm numbers.

• City Council Records

What's available differs for each particular County. As well, some have microfilm numbers listed, while others state "Numbers on Request". In King's County, you can find records from the Road's Commission, while in Restigouche, there are County Jail Records.

• Newspapers

Another helpful section. Listed in each guide are the newspapers circulating in that area. Some have microfilm numbers attached, while others do not. They do say to consult the Archives for the microfilm number you need. You need to let the staff know what newspaper and date you are looking for to get the right microfilm number. These are available through loan.

• New Brunswick Museum Vertical Files

These are files that "...contain genealogical, biographical, and historical research information for all of New Brunswick...". There is a microfilmed index on roll F11077.

• Church Records

This one is worth the guide all on its own. Each guide lists the churches in that county, what years are microfilmed, and microfilm numbers. Take note though that if the microfilm you want says "(RESTRICTED)", then you will need to obtain written permission from that particular church to see those records. 

If you have Catholic ancestors, as I do, then chances are you are probably going to find what you need elsewhere on the internet through the Drouin. But check anyway. You might find something that you didn't know was missing from another site's record set. For instance, in the Drouin Collection on Ancestry, records for Burnt Church in Northumberland County are available from 1891-1899. However, at the PANB they also have 2 other sets from there: 1844-1890, and 1959-1972 (this one is labelled as restricted).

Now if you are trying to get a hold of non Catholic records, then what's available will make you do a dance. Among the guides I looked at, you could find Anglican, United, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Congregational, and Jewish records. Of course, this will vary County by County.

• Other Institutions to Contact or Visit

Each County guide has a list of institutions, museums, societies and/or archives that have information on that particular area. Postal addresses are included. I'm sure a google search of the individual places will give you email contact information an/or telephone numbers as well.

While you're on the PANB's website, check out the other Research Tools and online exhibits they have. You'll be pleasantly surprised at what they have to offer.