After I posted John D. Reid’s blog post yesterday about Nova Scotia Probate Records, some people wrote they could not find the records or figure out how to find an ancestor’s record.
A link from John’s blog led to the FamilySearch wiki that explains the record collection, what it contains, how to search the records, and how to cite them. What some people could not find was the link to the record way at the bottom of the page as shown in the following diagram.
The other problem some people had was searching the records. Using the FamilySearch search engine to search by name will not lead you to these records. Instead, you must go to Nova Scotia Probate Records, choose the county where your ancestor lived, and find the most appropriate set of records there. (It helps if you know when and where your ancestor died.)
Most of the books on microfilm have an index at the front — at least, the ones I checked did. Next to each name is a number for a page in the same book. It is a tiny bit hit and miss to find the right page, but nevertheless requires little effort.
Once you have selected a particular county, click on one of the county records and then browse page by page. Yes, they can be tedious. (John warned us we would need “undisturbed time.”) But searching online is still easier than travelling to an archival repository or library and looking at microfilm. At least, I think it is.
Where are the Halifax records? Someone wrote they could not find the Halifax probate records. If they are in this collection, I hope someone will let me know where. I couldn’t find them either.
So, turn off your phone, pour yourself a cup of tea, and go browse through these probate records.
