Nova Scotia Church Records

The Public Archives of Nova Scotia has many original church registers as well as microfilm copies. The Protestant registers generally cover 1780–1914. There are Catholic records 1679–1914. A list of these holdings can be found in Genealogical Research in Nova Scotia, by Terrence M. Punch.

Nova Scotia church records, besides those above, are generally found in the individual parishes or congregations or in church-diocesan archive centers. For more information concerning the whereabouts of certain registers, contact the appropriate denomination below:

Anglican
Diocese of Nova Scotia Attention: Archivist 5732 College Street Halifax, NS B3H 1X3 CANADA Telephone: 902-420-0717 Fax: 902-425-0717 Internet: http://www.nspeidiocese.ca/

Written authorization is required to use these records. Some searches can be made by mail.

Baptist
Vaughn Memorial Library Acadia University Wolfville, NS B0P 1X0 CANADA Telephone: 902-585-1249 Fax: 902-585-1073 Internet: http://library.acadiau.ca/archives Internet: http://luxor.acadiau.ca/lib2006/guides/history/newsa.html

The Atlantic Baptist Historical Collection does not contain birth, baptism, marriage, or death certificates. The most useful genealogical information is the list of church members; it usually gives the dates members were received into the church, their date of baptism, and, if applicable, the date of their dismissal from the church.

Catholic
Most registers are still found in the individual parishes. Sometimes information can be obtained from:

Archdiocese of Halifax P.O. Box 1527 Halifax, NS B3J 2Y3 CANADA Telephone: 902-429-9800 Fax: 902-423-5201 Internet: http://www.catholichalifax.org/

THE DROUIN COLLECTION:

Drouin Collection 1621-1967 at Ancestry.ca. When searching these databases, be creative in the spellings as well as the various focuses in searching for an ancestor. The French language has many possible spellings for a name, as well as there are errors in the indexing.

This French-Canadian collection has over 15 million genealogical and vital records entries; they were microfilmed by the Institut Généalogique Drouin. In Quebec, under the French Regime, there were two sets of records kept: a copy for the civil government archives and a copy for the ecclesiastical church archives. The Drouin collection is a civil copy of these entries. Please note that the cutoff date of this collection is in the early 1940s; only a small percentage of entries were covered from 1948 to 1967.

This collection is divided into six databases: 1. Quebec Vital and Church Records, 1621-1967 2. Ontario French Catholic Church Records, 1747-1967, 3. Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records, 1695-1954, 4. Acadia French Catholic Church Records, 1670-1946, 5. Quebec Notarial Records, 1647-1942, and 6. Miscellaneous French Records, 1651-1941. For details about these six databases, see "The Drouin Collection: Six Databases" at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/The_Drouin_Collection:_Six_databases.

Acadia French Catholic Church Records, 1670-1946: This database only contains the French Catholic parish records from the old Acadia. In the 1600s and early 1700s, Acadia covered today's provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as well as Prince Edward Island and part of Quebec (i.e. the Gaspé Peninsula). The types of records include baptisms, marriages, and burials as well as confirmations, dispensations, censuses, statements of readmission to the church, and so on. They are written mainly in French, as well as English, Latin, and Italian.

Presbyterian
Presbyterian records are usually found in the individual churches. For more information, contact the church in the community in which you are researching.

United Church of Canada
Maritime Conference Archives 32 York Street Sackville, NB E4L 4R4 CANADA Telephone: 506-536-0998 Fax: 506-536-2900 E-mail: Maritime Conference Archives (Contact Maritime Conference Archives) Internet: www.marconf.ca/archives.htm

Contact Person: Ms. Judith Colwell, Archivist

For registers of other denominations (such as Adventist, Congregationalist, Jewish, and Lutheran), determine the location of the church, and then arrange to see any records that may exist.

Canada Nova Scotia Antigonish Catholic Diocese 1823-1905 (FamilySearch Historical Records)