Reproduction of vital records (baptism, marriage, burial)
It is absolutely required that you fill out the online form to request any vital record reproduction. Requests made by phone or email will not be processed. If you need several different records, it is imperative that you request them within the same form.
If you fill out another form, your request will not be processed.
Frequently Asked Questions
There will be no follow-up by phone or email. You will be contacted once your request has been processed.
You must wait to receive the quote. We will contact you if we need additional information. There is therefore no need to contact us for a follow-up.
For Québec residents: $55
For non-residents of Québec: $350 for the first copy and $100 for each additional copy
A quote will be sent to you when the documents have been located.
Due to an exceptionally high number of requests received, we unfortunately cannot determine the processing time to reproduce and certify vital records. Thank you for your patience.
All the documents are sent via Canada Post’s regular service. We cannot estimate delivery times.
No. We will contact you if we need additional information.
No, we cannot issue such a letter. If we do not find any document pertaining to your request, we will inform you by email.
No. BAnQ can provide a copy of a baptismal certificate, not a birth certificate. In Québec, before 1994, births were recorded only in municipal and parish registers.
- From 1621 to 100 years ago: vital records are preserved by BAnQ.
From less than 100 years ago to the present day: the vital records are preserved by the Registrar of Civil Status of Québec, (Directeur de l'état civil du Québec, in French).
From the time the colony was founded, the governors of New France kept track of the king's subjects by recording baptisms (or births), marriages, and burials (or deaths). In keeping with the practice in France at the time, the Catholic church kept two copies of each record: a religious copy, held at the parish, and a government copy; each year, the civil copies were sent to the local court clerk's office.
Starting in the period after the British Conquest and continuing throughout the 19th century, the right to maintain vital records was gradually expanded to include the representatives of some twenty Protestant denominations, as well as to Jewish communities. The Civil Code of Lower Canada, enacted in 1866, extended this right to any legally authorized official.
Following changes to the Civil Code of Québec in 1994, births, marriages, and deaths are now registered solely with the Registrar of Civil Status of Québec (Directeur de l'état civil du Québec, in French).
The Registrar keeps the vital records for all of Québec that are less than 100 years old. Each year, those that have turned 100 are sent to Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) where they are preserved.
The process of digitizing the vital records of Québec citizens is ongoing; the digitized records can be found on the institution's online platform, BAnQ numérique.