Early Acadian Parish Registers Now Online

Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management in Halifax has launched a helpful new research tool on its Web site, just in time for Acadie 2003-2005 celebrations throughout the province.

The new product -- presented in both English and French -- is the latest in a series of fully searchable databases built by the archives for family historians. It provides access to the vital records from Nova Scotia's two oldest surviving church registers.

Titled An Acadian Parish Remembered, the new database contains information from more than 3,500 entries for baptisms, marriages and burials in the parish of St.-Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, between 1702 and 1755.

The entries provide names of individuals and dates for events, as well as identifying parents and godparents at christenings and witnesses to marriages. Every page from the registers -- more than 900 in all -- has also been digitized and electronically linked to the database, so researchers can view the original register entry for any event they are interested in.

Family historians who can trace their ancestry to Annapolis Royal, will find that the registers provide tangible links to the last generations of Acadian French living there before the Deportation. Until now, the spidery handwriting and old-fashioned French used by the early priests made reading and understanding the entries a challenge. The new database provides instant access to the past by carefully translating the recorded information into modern-day English and French.

The parish at Annapolis Royal dates back to 1611, when the community was known as Port-Royal, and is often called Canada's oldest parish. Destruction and loss were predominant themes in the history of Acadia, and as a result the two Annapolis registers are believed to be the only substantial body of Acadian French records to have survived the 1755 Deportation and remain in Nova Scotia.

Both volumes were brought to Halifax after its founding in 1749, and became part of the records of government now maintained at the Nova Scotia Archives. The later register, 1727 to 1755, was presented to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Halifax in 1855 to commemorate the centenary of the Deportation. The Diocese of Yarmouth, where the volume was subsequently transferred, partnered with the archives earlier this year to bring both registers together for the project.

"This newest database is a significant contribution to the Acadie 2003-2005 celebrations," said provincial archivist Brian Speirs. "It is another example of how the archives is using the Internet to reach new audiences, near and far. What better way to strengthen Acadian cultural identity than to provide online access to priceless family information about the early French parishioners of St.-Jean-Baptiste?"

The project was partially funded by Industry Canada through its Community Access Program, and endorsed by the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture as part of its Acadian Celebrations initiative. The database is available on the Nova Scotia Archives Web site at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/acadian .