As B.C. researchers know, the B.C. genealogy lookup page, Royal B.C. Museum and Archives, is a gold mine. Many records are digitized and an easy find. If they are not digitized, you’ll need to get the record from microfilm and that’s where things get complicated. This post gives the two techniques you need to quickly find that birth, marriage, or death record before and after 1944. (Note that while indexed baptismal records are available online, the originals are not held by the B.C. archives.)
How to retrieve BMDs from microfilm – 1944 and later
Step one: Look for your person using the genealogy lookup here. If there is no digital copy available, go to step two. In this example we have a death index for James Loo in 1979. There is no link, meaning there is no digital copy available.
Step two: The BMD films are filed by event type (birth, marriage, or death) and then year. In this example, the microfilm number is B13596. The “B” means government records, while the 13596 will be the microfilm number. Get the reel from the cabinet.
Step three: Follow the instructions at every digital microfilm reader and/or get a lesson from the archivist. Feel free to play with the buttons and glass setup until you get comfortable with the different speeds for fast-forwarding and rewinding. Ideally you want to get so comfortable you can use the fastest settings to get close to the record, then the medium speeds to refine your search.
Step four: Look at the numbering on the film – in this case records 010001 to 010500 – and estimate where your desired record might be. The record number is the last six digits of the registration number: 010429 (Volume 010, number 429). In this case, my desired record was near the end of the reel so the fastest way to locate it was to fast forward to the end and rewind.
Step five: Match the registration number on the index to the registration number on the record. It should be an exact match: 79-09-010429.
- “79” – year of event, i.e., 1979
- “09” – province of British Columbia
- “010” – volume
- “429” – record
How to retrieve BMDs from microfilm – 1943 and earlier
In the above example, the registration number was an exact match to the record. In the below example, you’ll see how pre-1944 records differ by looking at the 1904 death of Steave Cumye.
Step one: Look for your person using the genealogy lookup here. This is the index record for the death of Steave Cumye, died 6 Nov 1904.
Step two: The BMD films are filed by event type (birth, marriage, or death) and then year. In this example, the microfilm number is B13089. The “B” means government records, while the 13089 will be the microfilm number. Get the reel from the cabinet.
Step three: Follow the instructions at every digital microfilm reader and/or get a lesson from the archivist. Feel free to play with the buttons and glass setup until you get comfortable with the different speeds for fast-forwarding and rewinding. Ideally you want to get so comfortable you can use the fastest settings to get close to the record, then the medium speeds to refine your search.
Step four: Look at the registration number again: 1904-09-082490. The last six digits are the volume number (082) and the record number (490). Fast forward the microfilm by volume numbers until you get to the desired volume. This can be finicky to master until you get the hang of it.
Step five: Match the registration number’s last six digits to the volume number and last three digits of the record. In this case, volume 082, record (23)490.
Registration number: 1904-09-082490:
- “1904” – year
- “09” – province
- “082” – volume
- “(23)490” – record number
If you didn’t recognize his alternate name, this is Stephen Cum Yé Won (1862-1904), one of the six siblings of Alexander Won Cumyow (1861-1955). Stephen was born in New Westminster, worked as a butcher and court interpreter, and died at 41 (not 39 as shown on the index) of typhoid fever. He may have been the first Chinese baby born in New Westminster.
Thank yous
Thank you to the archivists at the BC archives, who taught me everything you see here. And to Robert, who offered to get a record for me.
Hi Linda —
Thanks for this!! I have a non-digitized death record to look up in the BC BMD microfilms at Surrey’s Cloverdale branch library this week. Let me know if there’s anything I can look up for you at the same time.
Regards, Margaret Sharon
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Great! Glad to help. And yes, I do have a record or two on my list. Thank you – I’ll be in touch.
Thanks for this, Linda – I tried to retrieve some BC death records at VPL on microfilm, but couldn’t locate the images. The dates didn’t seem to correspond. Next time I try, I’m taking this article with me to ensure I’m doing things correctly. It was very frustrating, especially as the machine wasn’t working correctly either.
They are hard to find when they are not in exact date order and there are thousands on each film.
At VPL there are better and worse machines. When I visited, I was lucky there was nobody else, and you better believe I changed machines when the one I was working on proved only semi-capable. I forget what the issue was, but it was frustrating.
Thank you Linda for your guidance. Searching by actual date is a lost cause as I found out in one of my earlier efforts. Finding the image with the method you described is the quickest and surest way. This is important since the VPL downtown computers only allow you 120 minutes plus an extension of another 120 minutes, if nobody else is waiting.
You’re very welcome. I had the good fortune of being able to visit the archives in Victoria. The LAC records at the VPL Main Branch downtown is a great, free resource, but there might not be anyone to assist when you visit.