Nova Scotia Land and Property Records

Land records up to about 1900 in Nova Scotia are available at land registry offices and at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Records after 1910 are only found in the registry offices. There are also some indexes available. Deeds found in the registry offices generally mention dates, names, locations, occupations, and so forth.

The Public Archives of Nova Scotia has an alphabetical file of draft land grants and petitions for land. This file covers the years from 1763 onward. There are indexes for 1784–1877. Petitions often mention a petitioner's name, country of origin, date of arrival in Nova Scotia, and other information.

Nova Scotia. Department of Crown Lands. Land Records, 1763–1914; Index, 1784–1877. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1983–1984. (On 95 FHL films beginning with 1378554; computer number 220295.)

Nova Scotia. Department of Crown Lands. Crown Land Grants, 1854–1967. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968. (On 14 FHL films beginning with 465201; index on film 466413; computer number 206190.)

There is also a land record book containing 3,300 petitions for Cape Breton entitled, Cape Breton Land Papers and Index, 1787–1843, and Miscellaneous Land Papers, 1820–1864. (FHL film 1378276; computer number 508155.) The land papers are on 13 FHL films beginning with 1378277; computer number 508155. These records are at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.

A list of the Americans who received land as refugees from the American Revolution is found in: Smith, Clifford Neal. Whereabouts of Some American Refugees, 1784–1800: the Nova Scotian Land Grants. 7 vols. McNeal, Ariz.: Vestland Publications, 1992. (FHL book 971.6 R2S; computer number 690908