Canada, Nova Scotia Births - FamilySearch Historical Records

Canada Nova Scotia

What is in this Collection?
This collection includes county birth indexes and images of Nova Scotia from 1864-1877. These records are the registration of births, not birth certificates. The numbering on the left page starts at one for each year.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Birth registers may contain the following information:


 * Name of child
 * Gender
 * Birth date and place
 * Father’s name, occupation and residence
 * Mother’s name and maiden name
 * When and where parents were married
 * Informant’s name and residence
 * Date birth was registered
 * Name of witness

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate year of birth.
 * The place where your ancestor was born.
 * The names of the child's parents.

View images, in this collection by visiting the Browse Page:''' To search this collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select "Browse Images" on the initial search page ⇒ Select the "County" category ⇒ Select the "Year Range" category, which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image, comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s birth record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the parents’ names to find siblings’ records in surrounding years.
 * Use the parents’ marriage date and location to locate their marriage certificate.
 * Use the residence to find census records.
 * Occupation may be a clue to the family’s social status within the community.
 * Occupation may be a clue to family mobility. For example: A laborer will move around more than a landowner.
 * Continue to search the index and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been born in the area.
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.
 * Check for variant spellings of the names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. In addition local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the records of nearby localities (or military unties, counties, parishes, etc.).

Known Issues with This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection citation:

Image citation: