Canada, Nova Scotia, Antigonish Catholic Diocese - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is scheduled to become available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search.

Collection Time Period
These parish registers cover 1823-1905. Dates vary for each parish.

Collection History
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish was originally known as the Diocese of Arichat and was established on September 22, 1844. Previously the diocese was part of the Diocese of Quebec. On August 23, 1886, the see was moved from Arichat to the town of Antigonish, and the diocese became the Diocese of Antigonish. The diocese covers seven counties in northeastern Nova Scotia: Richmond, Inverness, Victoria, Cape Breton, Antigonish, Pictou and Guysborough. Catholic records are traditionally kept on the parish level so the registers are usually found at the church where the event occurred.

Based on statistics from the 1901 Canadian census, around 28% of the population of Nova Scotia was Catholic and 58% of the Catholics in Nova Scotia lived in the Diocese of Antigonish. About 68% of the pre-1906 parishes in the diocese are included in this record set.

Why This Collection Was Created
Parish registers were created to keep a written record of baptisms, marriages, and burials for the Catholic Church

Collection Reliability
Parish registers are considered a very reliable source for family history research because they contain a record of an event usually entered into the register at or very near the time the event occurred.

Collection Description
In this set of parish registers, the births or baptisms, marriages, and deaths or burials are usually entered in separate volumes. A few volumes have entries that are intermixed. Some volumes are indexed. Early registers are written in paragraph format, while later registers are preprinted with the information filled in by hand in each column. The text is usually in English. A few records are in Latin or French. This set also includes transcriptions of original registers for some parishes.

Record Content
Key genealogical facts found in parish registers are: • Name of person who was baptized, married, or who died. • Names of parents (sometimes includes the maiden name of the mother) in birth or baptismal records. • Names of parents or name of spouse in death records. • Date of birth or baptism, marriage, and death or burial. • Place of birth or baptism, marriage, and death or burial.

How to Use the Collection
Because registration of births and deaths was sporadic in Nova Scotia until 1908, church records are a very important source for birth or baptism, marriage, and death or burial information. Use parish registers to identify individuals, parents, spouses, event dates, places of residence, and possible relatives who may have served as witnesses.

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