Sites for Genealogy Research
Latest update to this page: February 1, 2024
If you are interested in searching your own family genealogy, there is often a lot available online. Much is free but some are on sites that require payment. I have been very fortunate in that everything I have found on my family I have located on free sites. I am also fortunate that my family is from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia and much research is available online for this area.
So here are the main sources that I have used, and then a number of others that I have found. I hope that you might find them useful.
#1 - Lunenburg County Church Records - I have a spreadsheet of birth, marriage, and death records that was created by Bob Hegerich, who is a distant cousin, from the records of Kim Stevens. I have found it invaluable in tracking some relatives prior to 1900. It is not complete but is still a great resource. You can download a copy from this web page. Download both the Index file and the ReadMe document for some explanations. (Or you can download the individual church lists in Word doc format.)
#2 - FamilySearch - This is my primary "go to" site for an initial search for deceased people. Often I get lucky, sometimes nothing. There is a login required but everything is free. Depending on the results it finds, sometimes it can give you a "back door" free access direct to other US census records that normally cost through Ancestry. Their filters are rather tricky to use. I suggest searching first without any filters. If you know the year of birth, I would suggest entering the "From" and "To" fields with a couple years before and after as some old documents such as census reports may have wrong years. You will probably get many results with similar names. Then maybe use some of the filters to try to narrow down the results (including a province or state of birth will often help after searching without it.) I found that adding a filter will sometimes remove a useful record that was found without a filter, so be careful. It takes some practice to get to understand best use of the filters and other sections of this web site. But it will often link you directly to an original document. I've found numerous US immigration records for relatives who went to the US as well as various US census records. In the menu at the top of the page, select Search > Records to use this part of the site.
I have also learned that the user trees can also be useful. For that, select Search > Family Tree and then search by name. If you find someone be careful that it is the right person ... there are many people with similar names. One very important word of caution here ... do not accept that the information is correct unless there is a link to the actual document that you can view to verify it. Lots of trees on the Internet contain wrong information so you need to independently verify before putting it into your tree. What I find very useful about these trees is they often have more people than I've found (children, parents, etc.) so it saves a lot of time figuring out who to look for.
Another couple of possibly useful sub-sections of this web site are:
#3 - Nova Scotia Archives Vital Statistics - This site is a gold mine for researching births, deaths and marriages in Nova Scotia. Look up births (1864-1922), marriages (1763-1947) and deaths (1864-1972).* Each year they add one more year's records so each ending date increases by one. As of 2021 the site has changed and better quality resolutions are viewable and now can be downloaded also. (* Dates available as of 2023.)
Unfortunately Nova Scotia did not require registration of births and deaths from 1878 to 1907 which is now really annoying so unless someone voluntarily registered a birth in later years, you may not find anything for those years. Also in the early years many births, marriages, and deaths may not have been registered at all. Transcription is usually pretty good but there are errors so you may have to try partial names if you don't find what you are looking for. I've notified them of numerous errors I've found which they are prompt to correct. (I'm now on a "first name basis" with one of their staff!)
#4 - Canadian Census Records at Library and Archives Canada. While census records begin at 1825, these are regional and only cover the whole of Canada after confederation beginning with the census of 1871 and every 10 years up to 1921. Census records after that date are not public. All are freely searchable. The 1851 and 1861 census records include Nova Scotia but are next to useless as only the head of household is named. It is difficult but if you know how many people were in the family at that date and their ages, it is sometimes possible to locate the correct family for those two years. But it won't give you much useful information. Warning - the people indexing the records were often unfamiliar with names and some of the spellings are way off so you may have to try variations and partial names in your searches. Pay attention to the census districts. If you get too many results, try narrowing down your search to the region where your relative lived.
(These next two paragraphs refers to using the older census search pages ... each year searched separately. The new census search has some similar functions but looks completely different. One think it does not appear to provide is a separate list of all the sub-districts for a region. That was quite useful when trying to find someone and you know approximately where they lived.)
Canadian census records remain sealed for 92 years so the 1931 census is the last currently available.
#5 - United States Census Records - If you had relatives in the US, you may find them here. The US census has quite a bit of detail including street address of residence, occupation and sometimes the name of employer, etc. Their census records are sealed for only 72 years. The latest available census is 1950 which was just released in 2022. See the links to the various years in the United States section below. (The Corkum name first appears in the US census in 1870, however the first known Corkum that I found in a US census was Hannah (Corkum) Skerry who with her husband moved to Utah from Nova Scotia in 1856.)
#6 - Find-A-Grave - This is an excellent site to find where your deceased relatives may be buried. It is a volunteer run site with many names from many cemeteries, including many tombstone pictures where available. Sometimes you will find an obituary posted here also. You do not need a login (free) to search, only if you wish to post anything or contact someone. If you have a login, you can create your own "virtual" cemetery where you link the cemeteries and names that you have found all in one place. I have found relatives in over 150 different cemeteries so far. If you don't find the person here, you might also try BillionGraves as I've occasionally found one there although I don't particularly like the way that site is designed. I've found that it is difficult to find graves for persons any farther back than the late 1800's as burial locations are either unknown or many in those times didn't have tombstones.
#7 - United States Social Security Death Master File - In the US, Social Security numbers are public following death. The record includes the person's name, date of birth and date of death. This is a private site and gains no points for attractiveness however the search works rather well. You have two options ... either search by name or by date of birth ... it is easier if you know the actual birth date, but if you don't, you can use the search by name but you may have to scroll through pages of similar names to find the correct one. WARNING - this site is probably of little use unless you already know most of what you are looking for. Unless your relative has an extremely unique name, you'll probably find that there are many listings of people with the same or similar name. The name search will take you to the first page for that name but you may have to flip through page after page to find the person you want, if it even exists there. Basically I just use it to confirm birth and death dates that I already think I know. Also if you find useful information, it's not much point to bookmark the page (unless you searched with the birth date) because each time they upload new data, it intermixes with the data already there and the page numbers will constantly change. So I do find the site quite useful but in a limited way.
To search by date of birth, go to ... sortedbydate.com/
To search by name, go to ... sortedbyname.com/
#8 - GOOGLE! - Quite often searching a relative's name on Google will take you to someone else's genealogy database which sometimes has a bit more information (maybe) but often they haven't given any sources so may be of little use. With this I must provide a strong WARNING! Other people's databases are only as good as their research. Everyone seems to copy from each other so you can't always trust other people's research unless they have provided proper sources, but sometimes it will give you additional names or other bits of information to help you look further. Many have errors and often no sources. If you find someone else's tree, make certain that you can verify the information independently ... especially good if they provided their source and you can find it. I was fortunate in finding two good trees, one by Gail Facini Edwards (in 1999) and one by Bob Hegerich ... both in the US and both distant cousins. Gail did not include sources but provided the first 5,500 people in my tree which I then had to independently dig up sources to confirm, and Bob included his sources which made it much easier. BUT I did find that everyone has a few errors so DO NOT ACCEPT with certainty anything you cannot verify yourself.
I find Google particularly useful when searching more recent aged relatives who may possibly have passed away in the last twenty years as many obituaries are available online now and when I find one, it gives me more names of other relatives. And sometimes for living relatives, it may find a FaceBook or other social media site if they have one.
#9 - FaceBook - OK, this may sound like an odd suggestion for a genealogy source but I have found it very useful for finding living people. You will need a FaceBook account to see others' pages. It does depend on whether the person has a FaceBook account and how much information they are sharing. When I find a relative's FaceBook page, I scroll through their "Friends" list looking for other family members (only if a reasonable number ... forget that if they have hundreds of "friends" ... way too much trouble.) I also look at their "Pictures" to see if there are any other family members pictured there and look at the comments to see if a family member has commented which will connect me to their FaceBook page too. There are also FaceBook genealogy groups- maybe one for the area of your research. I am a member of Lunenburg County Genealogy, Nova Scotia Genealogy, Prince Edward Island Genealogy, and also New England Genealogy.
OK, those are my key sites that I've found most useful. I've found other sites which I have used less often and many quite rarely if at all however they may be of some use to you so I'm listing them below for reference as I find them.
One more word of advice before proceeding - I've said it above but it bears repeating. You must independently verify if the information is correct. Copying and pasting from someone else is bad genealogy - the Internet is full of wrong information because too many people do that! I've learned that the hard way starting with some copied information and now that I'm researching all of that I'm still finding mistakes that I need to correct. Creating an accurate family tree is a lot of work. And sometimes with older records information is difficult to decipher. Occasionally I will include something that I believe is true but cannot prove beyond a doubt. In that case, I will include a full explanation of why I believe it to be correct and what sources I've found to support that conclusion. Sometimes however it is just not possible to connect the dots. (For an example, I have four William Corkum's born in the 1780's all properly connected to their parents. BUT twenty years later I also have four William Corkum's who married however none of the marriage records show any parents names. So I cannot properly connect the married William ... and all his descendants ... to the correct birth William.) If you have only circumstantial evidence or must make an educated guess, explain that in your notes so others are aware of the uncertainty. Despite best efforts, everyone's family tree is bound to contain a few errors ... genealogy is not always a precise science!
So here are the main sources that I have used, and then a number of others that I have found. I hope that you might find them useful.
#1 - Lunenburg County Church Records - I have a spreadsheet of birth, marriage, and death records that was created by Bob Hegerich, who is a distant cousin, from the records of Kim Stevens. I have found it invaluable in tracking some relatives prior to 1900. It is not complete but is still a great resource. You can download a copy from this web page. Download both the Index file and the ReadMe document for some explanations. (Or you can download the individual church lists in Word doc format.)
#2 - FamilySearch - This is my primary "go to" site for an initial search for deceased people. Often I get lucky, sometimes nothing. There is a login required but everything is free. Depending on the results it finds, sometimes it can give you a "back door" free access direct to other US census records that normally cost through Ancestry. Their filters are rather tricky to use. I suggest searching first without any filters. If you know the year of birth, I would suggest entering the "From" and "To" fields with a couple years before and after as some old documents such as census reports may have wrong years. You will probably get many results with similar names. Then maybe use some of the filters to try to narrow down the results (including a province or state of birth will often help after searching without it.) I found that adding a filter will sometimes remove a useful record that was found without a filter, so be careful. It takes some practice to get to understand best use of the filters and other sections of this web site. But it will often link you directly to an original document. I've found numerous US immigration records for relatives who went to the US as well as various US census records. In the menu at the top of the page, select Search > Records to use this part of the site.
I have also learned that the user trees can also be useful. For that, select Search > Family Tree and then search by name. If you find someone be careful that it is the right person ... there are many people with similar names. One very important word of caution here ... do not accept that the information is correct unless there is a link to the actual document that you can view to verify it. Lots of trees on the Internet contain wrong information so you need to independently verify before putting it into your tree. What I find very useful about these trees is they often have more people than I've found (children, parents, etc.) so it saves a lot of time figuring out who to look for.
Another couple of possibly useful sub-sections of this web site are:
- Canada Online Genealogy Records - This page has many links that may be useful if you are searching regarding Canadians. Some links to go paid sites, some no longer work, but some do look useful. I've only checked a few.
- North America - Here you can drill down to your country, province/state, county, etc.
- Nova Scotia Probate Records, 1760-1993 - If you are in Nova Scotia, this could be useful. I found my original ancestor's 1750's Lunenburg property grants here.
#3 - Nova Scotia Archives Vital Statistics - This site is a gold mine for researching births, deaths and marriages in Nova Scotia. Look up births (1864-1922), marriages (1763-1947) and deaths (1864-1972).* Each year they add one more year's records so each ending date increases by one. As of 2021 the site has changed and better quality resolutions are viewable and now can be downloaded also. (* Dates available as of 2023.)
Unfortunately Nova Scotia did not require registration of births and deaths from 1878 to 1907 which is now really annoying so unless someone voluntarily registered a birth in later years, you may not find anything for those years. Also in the early years many births, marriages, and deaths may not have been registered at all. Transcription is usually pretty good but there are errors so you may have to try partial names if you don't find what you are looking for. I've notified them of numerous errors I've found which they are prompt to correct. (I'm now on a "first name basis" with one of their staff!)
#4 - Canadian Census Records at Library and Archives Canada. While census records begin at 1825, these are regional and only cover the whole of Canada after confederation beginning with the census of 1871 and every 10 years up to 1921. Census records after that date are not public. All are freely searchable. The 1851 and 1861 census records include Nova Scotia but are next to useless as only the head of household is named. It is difficult but if you know how many people were in the family at that date and their ages, it is sometimes possible to locate the correct family for those two years. But it won't give you much useful information. Warning - the people indexing the records were often unfamiliar with names and some of the spellings are way off so you may have to try variations and partial names in your searches. Pay attention to the census districts. If you get too many results, try narrowing down your search to the region where your relative lived.
(These next two paragraphs refers to using the older census search pages ... each year searched separately. The new census search has some similar functions but looks completely different. One think it does not appear to provide is a separate list of all the sub-districts for a region. That was quite useful when trying to find someone and you know approximately where they lived.)
- When searching you can shorten the list of results if you know the general area where a person lived. Obviously you will select the province but if you "Show Advanced Search Options" it will open some more fields. You can enter the District name or number (usually a county) which you probably know, and possibly a sub-district name or number. The sub-districts are a little more confusing because of the names used on older census reports. If no results, make sure you typed it correctly. Before searching you might want to look at the list. Click the "Districts and Sub-Districts" link in the left menu and then navigate to your province and county and see if you can identify a suitable sub-district. If not, just search using province and county. Census results show only one page however note the page address in your browser at the top of your screen - it will end in a number. To move to the next page, increase that number by one (a little trick I found useful). There have been a few times that I've actually had to start at the first page of a census district and look at each page of the census to find the person when they did not come up in the search and I was fairly certain they lived there. They may have been missed in the indexing or the name may have been so far off that it just wasn't found in your search. (To do that, leave the person's name blank, and fill in the Province, District, and Sub-District, and Page 1, and flip from page to page.)
- Census records are grouped by census sub-district which can take in multiple communities so before 1901 it will not tell you exactly where a person lived, just a general area. Starting in 1911, the community name was listed for each family on the census page. In 1901 however you can still locate the community but there is a trick to finding it. The name search if successful will take you to the person on "Schedule 1 - Population". Here's the trick using a Corkum example found in the New Dublin sub-district of Lunenburg County. Make note of the census page (found in top left corner of the page) and the first line number of the family. In my example it was page 6, line 36. Now look at the web address at the top of the screen and the number at the end ... in my example it was 000044482. The community name is in "Schedule 2 - Buildings and Lands, Churches and Schools" which is placed just before Schedule 1. So change that number in the web address by reducing it by the number of the census page - do not change anything else in the web address. In my case I went back 6 pages to 000044476. This put me at the last page of Schedule 2. Now look in the first two columns of the schedule for page and line of your family. You may have to back up some more pages to find it ... in my case I had to back up one more page to 000044475 ... and I found the result on that page. Column 3 shows the name of the community where that family lived. In my example it was Petite Riviere. Note - this works only for 1901. Before that you are limited to knowing only the larger sub-district.
Canadian census records remain sealed for 92 years so the 1931 census is the last currently available.
#5 - United States Census Records - If you had relatives in the US, you may find them here. The US census has quite a bit of detail including street address of residence, occupation and sometimes the name of employer, etc. Their census records are sealed for only 72 years. The latest available census is 1950 which was just released in 2022. See the links to the various years in the United States section below. (The Corkum name first appears in the US census in 1870, however the first known Corkum that I found in a US census was Hannah (Corkum) Skerry who with her husband moved to Utah from Nova Scotia in 1856.)
#6 - Find-A-Grave - This is an excellent site to find where your deceased relatives may be buried. It is a volunteer run site with many names from many cemeteries, including many tombstone pictures where available. Sometimes you will find an obituary posted here also. You do not need a login (free) to search, only if you wish to post anything or contact someone. If you have a login, you can create your own "virtual" cemetery where you link the cemeteries and names that you have found all in one place. I have found relatives in over 150 different cemeteries so far. If you don't find the person here, you might also try BillionGraves as I've occasionally found one there although I don't particularly like the way that site is designed. I've found that it is difficult to find graves for persons any farther back than the late 1800's as burial locations are either unknown or many in those times didn't have tombstones.
#7 - United States Social Security Death Master File - In the US, Social Security numbers are public following death. The record includes the person's name, date of birth and date of death. This is a private site and gains no points for attractiveness however the search works rather well. You have two options ... either search by name or by date of birth ... it is easier if you know the actual birth date, but if you don't, you can use the search by name but you may have to scroll through pages of similar names to find the correct one. WARNING - this site is probably of little use unless you already know most of what you are looking for. Unless your relative has an extremely unique name, you'll probably find that there are many listings of people with the same or similar name. The name search will take you to the first page for that name but you may have to flip through page after page to find the person you want, if it even exists there. Basically I just use it to confirm birth and death dates that I already think I know. Also if you find useful information, it's not much point to bookmark the page (unless you searched with the birth date) because each time they upload new data, it intermixes with the data already there and the page numbers will constantly change. So I do find the site quite useful but in a limited way.
To search by date of birth, go to ... sortedbydate.com/
To search by name, go to ... sortedbyname.com/
#8 - GOOGLE! - Quite often searching a relative's name on Google will take you to someone else's genealogy database which sometimes has a bit more information (maybe) but often they haven't given any sources so may be of little use. With this I must provide a strong WARNING! Other people's databases are only as good as their research. Everyone seems to copy from each other so you can't always trust other people's research unless they have provided proper sources, but sometimes it will give you additional names or other bits of information to help you look further. Many have errors and often no sources. If you find someone else's tree, make certain that you can verify the information independently ... especially good if they provided their source and you can find it. I was fortunate in finding two good trees, one by Gail Facini Edwards (in 1999) and one by Bob Hegerich ... both in the US and both distant cousins. Gail did not include sources but provided the first 5,500 people in my tree which I then had to independently dig up sources to confirm, and Bob included his sources which made it much easier. BUT I did find that everyone has a few errors so DO NOT ACCEPT with certainty anything you cannot verify yourself.
I find Google particularly useful when searching more recent aged relatives who may possibly have passed away in the last twenty years as many obituaries are available online now and when I find one, it gives me more names of other relatives. And sometimes for living relatives, it may find a FaceBook or other social media site if they have one.
#9 - FaceBook - OK, this may sound like an odd suggestion for a genealogy source but I have found it very useful for finding living people. You will need a FaceBook account to see others' pages. It does depend on whether the person has a FaceBook account and how much information they are sharing. When I find a relative's FaceBook page, I scroll through their "Friends" list looking for other family members (only if a reasonable number ... forget that if they have hundreds of "friends" ... way too much trouble.) I also look at their "Pictures" to see if there are any other family members pictured there and look at the comments to see if a family member has commented which will connect me to their FaceBook page too. There are also FaceBook genealogy groups- maybe one for the area of your research. I am a member of Lunenburg County Genealogy, Nova Scotia Genealogy, Prince Edward Island Genealogy, and also New England Genealogy.
OK, those are my key sites that I've found most useful. I've found other sites which I have used less often and many quite rarely if at all however they may be of some use to you so I'm listing them below for reference as I find them.
One more word of advice before proceeding - I've said it above but it bears repeating. You must independently verify if the information is correct. Copying and pasting from someone else is bad genealogy - the Internet is full of wrong information because too many people do that! I've learned that the hard way starting with some copied information and now that I'm researching all of that I'm still finding mistakes that I need to correct. Creating an accurate family tree is a lot of work. And sometimes with older records information is difficult to decipher. Occasionally I will include something that I believe is true but cannot prove beyond a doubt. In that case, I will include a full explanation of why I believe it to be correct and what sources I've found to support that conclusion. Sometimes however it is just not possible to connect the dots. (For an example, I have four William Corkum's born in the 1780's all properly connected to their parents. BUT twenty years later I also have four William Corkum's who married however none of the marriage records show any parents names. So I cannot properly connect the married William ... and all his descendants ... to the correct birth William.) If you have only circumstantial evidence or must make an educated guess, explain that in your notes so others are aware of the uncertainty. Despite best efforts, everyone's family tree is bound to contain a few errors ... genealogy is not always a precise science!
Links below usually arranged in alphabetical order in each section and do not indicate any ranking of usefulness!
Canada:
Automated Genealogy - This site has indexed some Canadian census records however it is also trying to link various records together so that if you find a person in one record, there will be a link to take you to this person in other records also.
CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project - Search for a deceased person in a Canadian Cemetery
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922 - A FamilySearch collection. Possibly useful if your ancestors immigrated to Canada during that period. The most useful feature is probably the search on the main page unless you know exactly when, where, and on what ship your ancestor arrived. If you do, then click on BROWSE ALL and the next page lists a number of ports of arrival. Select a port and the next page gives you a selection of time periods. Select a time period and you have a list of ships arriving during that time. Select a ship to see the passenger list. (Note - As well as immigrants, these lists contain residents returning from other countries and also servicemen returning from Europe for demobilization after WW1.)
Canadian Great War Project - A site with information regarding Canada in WW1. Another Beta site is here. A news article (2016) about it can be read here.
CanadianHeadstones - This is another site cataloging graves and tombstone pictures from cemeteries in Canada. My first choice is Find-a-Grave however if you don't find it there, you might try this one for persons buried in Canada.
Canadian Navy List - "The Canadian Navy List was published from 1910 to 1965. These lists are a useful tool for researchers who are trying to track the career of an officer in the Canadian Navy. They provide information about which ships and/or shore establishments individual officers served in, as well as their career advancements and promotions. (Enlisted personnel, however, are only to be found in either Crew or Nominal Lists)."
Canadian Obituaries (CanadianObits.com) - This may be a good site for obituaries that you can't find elsewhere. I've found some here but it is my last choice to look. The search function is really clunky and difficult to narrow down to the correct obituary.
Canadiana Héritage - "The Héritage project is a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 40 million pages of primary-source documents."
Family Search - Canada Online Genealogy Records - Various databases. Some are free access, some are not.
For Posterity's Sake - This is not an official site but if you had relatives who served in the Royal Canadian Navy, they may be listed on this site under the ship that they served on, or if deceased, in the obituary section. There are many ships listed, some with pictures, and the crew lists are far from complete especially on the older or lesser known ships.
Legion Magazine - A database listing of "Royal Canadian Legion members with military backgrounds, Canadian veterans and Legion members with police service" for those who have died since 1984. Very basic information but might be useful.
Library and Archives Canada - On this site you can find a lot of resources, in particular census documents. Look around the site to see what you can discover. Here are some direct links to useful pages. (NOTE: Their web site has been revised and I have not had time to update the links. Many of the links below in this group may no longer work and send you to a new home page. If you search on these terms, you may end up on the proper pages. It seems to be more complicated now to find useful information than the old design which had nice menu arrangements. Change is NOT always better ... just my opinion ... and my rant for the day!)
This link will take you to the old census pages (up to 1921) which I think are still easier to search (select the year in the left menu), but if you prefer, this link (includes 1931) will take you to the new census search.
List of Vessels Registered 1873 - An annual report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries
Lost at Sea - This is an archived web site last updated in 2005 however there are links on the main page to lists of sailors lost at sea from various fishing locations locally and around the world, also some links to other seafaring articles.
Necrologie Canada - This is primarily a French Canadian site for obituaries but there are some English results. I didn't find it particularly useful myself but it may be, depending on where your relative lived.
RCMP Graves - Useful if you are looking for information on a deceased relative who served with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Click the search by name, enter the surname, and click Details by the appropriate name.
Reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries - For the years 1901 to 1924. It's hard to dig out the information but if you can find the Appendix 2 - Fishing Bounties in these reports, you can see a list of fishing vessels showing a variety of information including their ownership. From these reports I learned that my Great Grandfather was a shipowner of a number of fishing schooners.
Sessional Papers, 1901-1925 - This is a collection of numerous reports by departments of the federal government during that period. This is very dry reading but might contain something of interest if you can locate a useful report. The Marine and Fisheries reports above came from this section.
Veterans Affairs, Books of Remembrance - If your relative died in service to Canada, you can see the page from the book containing the name and also request a copy.
Veterans Affairs, Canadian Virtual War Memorial - On this site you can look up information on any relatives who died serving in the military or the RCMP.
CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project - Search for a deceased person in a Canadian Cemetery
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922 - A FamilySearch collection. Possibly useful if your ancestors immigrated to Canada during that period. The most useful feature is probably the search on the main page unless you know exactly when, where, and on what ship your ancestor arrived. If you do, then click on BROWSE ALL and the next page lists a number of ports of arrival. Select a port and the next page gives you a selection of time periods. Select a time period and you have a list of ships arriving during that time. Select a ship to see the passenger list. (Note - As well as immigrants, these lists contain residents returning from other countries and also servicemen returning from Europe for demobilization after WW1.)
Canadian Great War Project - A site with information regarding Canada in WW1. Another Beta site is here. A news article (2016) about it can be read here.
CanadianHeadstones - This is another site cataloging graves and tombstone pictures from cemeteries in Canada. My first choice is Find-a-Grave however if you don't find it there, you might try this one for persons buried in Canada.
Canadian Navy List - "The Canadian Navy List was published from 1910 to 1965. These lists are a useful tool for researchers who are trying to track the career of an officer in the Canadian Navy. They provide information about which ships and/or shore establishments individual officers served in, as well as their career advancements and promotions. (Enlisted personnel, however, are only to be found in either Crew or Nominal Lists)."
Canadian Obituaries (CanadianObits.com) - This may be a good site for obituaries that you can't find elsewhere. I've found some here but it is my last choice to look. The search function is really clunky and difficult to narrow down to the correct obituary.
Canadiana Héritage - "The Héritage project is a 10-year initiative to digitize and make accessible online some of Canada’s most popular archival collections encompassing roughly 40 million pages of primary-source documents."
- Canadiana Online - Also use the search on this page. I found many more results there searching on "Corkum" although many of the results are general news articles containing the name that may or may not be useful for genealogy purposes.
Family Search - Canada Online Genealogy Records - Various databases. Some are free access, some are not.
For Posterity's Sake - This is not an official site but if you had relatives who served in the Royal Canadian Navy, they may be listed on this site under the ship that they served on, or if deceased, in the obituary section. There are many ships listed, some with pictures, and the crew lists are far from complete especially on the older or lesser known ships.
Legion Magazine - A database listing of "Royal Canadian Legion members with military backgrounds, Canadian veterans and Legion members with police service" for those who have died since 1984. Very basic information but might be useful.
Library and Archives Canada - On this site you can find a lot of resources, in particular census documents. Look around the site to see what you can discover. Here are some direct links to useful pages. (NOTE: Their web site has been revised and I have not had time to update the links. Many of the links below in this group may no longer work and send you to a new home page. If you search on these terms, you may end up on the proper pages. It seems to be more complicated now to find useful information than the old design which had nice menu arrangements. Change is NOT always better ... just my opinion ... and my rant for the day!)
This link will take you to the old census pages (up to 1921) which I think are still easier to search (select the year in the left menu), but if you prefer, this link (includes 1931) will take you to the new census search.
- 1871 Census - Nova Scotia Sub-District Map - This is a map showing the areas covered in the various sub-districts in Nova Scotia in the 1871 census.
- Collection Search - Search throughout the whole collection.
- Directories - Numerous directories of cities, counties, etc. were published and PDF copies can be accessed here.
- List of Databases - See this page for the various databases available to be searched. Some cover only certain regions.
- Military Heritage - If you relative served in the military, died in the wars, received a medal, etc. you may be able to find them in one of the databases here.
- First World War, Circumstances of Death Records
- First World War, Commonwealth War Graves Registers
- First World War, Service Records - If your relative served in WW1, there's a good chance you can find his full service record here. I've downloaded a number of them and there is often a lot of information. The army was very meticulous about paper records! (This data base is being updated ... I like the old site but if you prefer, the new site is here.
- First World War, Veteran Death Cards - Note that the name in the index is the first name listed in a section. There are many cards in each section arranged alphabetically so you will have to jump around to locate the person for which you are searching (if they are listed.)
- Military Medals & Awards - 1812 to 1969
- Royal Canadian Navy, Service Files, 1910-1941
- Second World War, Service Files of War Dead - 1939 to 1947 - Only those who died in the war can be found here.
- Researching Canadian Soldiers of the First World War - A "how to" document for the Canadian Archives.
- Ship Registrations, 1787-1966 - Did your relative serve on board a ship? You may be able to learn about the ship here.
- 1931 Canada Census - Just released in 2023. The 1931 census is now available on Library and Archives Canada however it is not indexed so is not searchable. However you can drill down by Province, then District, and then Sub-District but at that point you have to just flip pages looking for the family you want.
- 1931 Census Finding Aid for Nova Scotia - If you are looking for someone in Nova Scotia and you know where they lived, this document might help you narrow down to the correct Sub-District. Look at the Sub-District Name and the Sub-District Description columns to see which communities are included in each Sub-District. For Halifax City however it becomes very difficult as there are 50 Sub-Districts for the city on the peninsula. But if you know which street they lived on, you can narrow it down some by locating the Ward number on the following map. Knowing the ward will narrow down your search but unfortunately there still between 5 and 11 Sub-Districts in each Ward so still a lot of pages to flip through (but not as bad as it could have been if you didn't know the Ward!) UPDATE - The 1931 census is now searchable so you should not need this but may be useful is the search doesn't find someone you believe should be there.
- Halifax City Map, 1930 - A map of the peninsula showing the various wards from 1 in the south to 6 in the north. You have to look close to see the ward numbers but they are divided by the bolded streets showing the ward outlines. This is viewable online but you can't download a copy.
List of Vessels Registered 1873 - An annual report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries
Lost at Sea - This is an archived web site last updated in 2005 however there are links on the main page to lists of sailors lost at sea from various fishing locations locally and around the world, also some links to other seafaring articles.
Necrologie Canada - This is primarily a French Canadian site for obituaries but there are some English results. I didn't find it particularly useful myself but it may be, depending on where your relative lived.
RCMP Graves - Useful if you are looking for information on a deceased relative who served with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Click the search by name, enter the surname, and click Details by the appropriate name.
Reports of the Department of Marine and Fisheries - For the years 1901 to 1924. It's hard to dig out the information but if you can find the Appendix 2 - Fishing Bounties in these reports, you can see a list of fishing vessels showing a variety of information including their ownership. From these reports I learned that my Great Grandfather was a shipowner of a number of fishing schooners.
- Lists of Shipping - These reports list all the registered vessels 1902 to 1922 alphabetically segregated by steam or sail. This could be of use if you know the name of a vessel and are looking for information about it.
Sessional Papers, 1901-1925 - This is a collection of numerous reports by departments of the federal government during that period. This is very dry reading but might contain something of interest if you can locate a useful report. The Marine and Fisheries reports above came from this section.
Veterans Affairs, Books of Remembrance - If your relative died in service to Canada, you can see the page from the book containing the name and also request a copy.
Veterans Affairs, Canadian Virtual War Memorial - On this site you can look up information on any relatives who died serving in the military or the RCMP.
Nova Scotia:
The late Winthrop P. Bell's research on the "Foreign Protestants" who settled in Halifax and Lunenburg from 1749 to 1753 is probably the "holy grail" of information for anyone researching ancestry in that time period and region. His books are almost impossible to find outside of maybe some libraries and archives. And information is scarce online. I have found both books online at Archive.org. You cannot download them but you can view them. You must create a free login to see more than a couple sample pages. You can then click a button to "borrow" for one hour (renewable) and unlock all the pages. If you see something of interest you could take a screen snip. Bell wrote a detailed history in 1961. He then went on to research his famed "register" of massive detail on the many families. This was published after his death in 1965, with additional information by some other noted genealogists. Bell's notes on the families are alphabetical and volume 1 contains A to M, volume 2 contains N to Z. Both volumes contain much other information also - check the Table of Contents at the beginning. Here are the links:
The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia (673 pages)
Register of the Foreign Protestants of Nova Scotia (ca. 1749-1770) (859 pages)
Volume 1 Volume 2
Winthrop Bell's original notes (which are reproduced in the above books) are available for download on FamilySearch. These are the loose leaf notes only and do not include the additional information added to the books.
The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia (673 pages)
Register of the Foreign Protestants of Nova Scotia (ca. 1749-1770) (859 pages)
Volume 1 Volume 2
Winthrop Bell's original notes (which are reproduced in the above books) are available for download on FamilySearch. These are the loose leaf notes only and do not include the additional information added to the books.
A. F. Church Maps - Various county maps from 1865 to 1888 prepared by Ambrose Finson Church. The maps are at the Nova Scotia Lands and Forests Library in Halifax and this page explains how to view the maps and purchase copies. Nothing is viewable on the web site.
Ancestry's Nova Scotia Collections - A variety of topical collections. Access requires an Ancestry paid membership.
Captured in Time - Shared pictures of Nova Scotia ancestors. Not a large database but maybe a chance of finding a relative's picture.
Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax - This is an old site however the "Interment Search" has many records of burials in the Catholic cemeteries of Mount Olivet and Holy Cross in Halifax and Gate of Heaven in Lower Sackville. It appears that the site is no longer used and there have been no updates since about 2012. The search is a little "clunky" and my suggestion is to just use a surname (and ignore the other fields) and then flip pages until you find the person you are looking for if the entry exists. (If you use first and last names, it will only search on the last name anyway.)
Chester Township Book - This rather old site contains a quantity of interesting records from the 1700's and 1800's for the Chester area.
The Diary of Simeon Perkins - For Queens County research and Liverpool in particular, you might probably find Simeon Perkins' diaries very useful. The Nova Scotia Museum says "Simeon Perkins provided a faithful record of his life and times ... his diary provides vivid detail about what life was like in Liverpool from 1766 to 1812." See here for more information. The diary was published in five volumes and three are available on InternetArchive where with a free login you can "borrow" (not downloadable) for an hour at a time (renewable) to read.
Volume 1: 1766 to 1780 Volume 3: 1790 to 1796 Volume 5: 1804 to 1812
Down East - A Maritime Heritage - This web site by the late genealogist Don Shankle (a cousin) has a number of names from Nova Scotia and a few from Newfoundland also.
Dr. Kenneth Paulsen - This noted genealogist has some extensive research on Nova Scotia families as well as some other locations.
FamilySearch:
Gail's Genealogy Page - This is an old site by Gail Facini Edwards no longer updated since 2009 however it contains a very large database of names and I am including it here because I think it is a very valuable resource for anyone researching Lunenburg County relatives. If you are looking for a relative who lived in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, try here - I found 5,500 of my relatives listed on her previous site which gave my genealogy a big head start. Click the Surname List link and go from there (watch for variations in the spelling.) Unfortunately there are no original sources listed and as with anyone's personal database, there are likely some errors so you need to do your own research as I am now doing for these people. I have found some that Gail has included in my family that I cannot prove actually belong there. (Anyone in my database with "oocities" as a source came from her original database and have not yet been researched or verified.)
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia - Membership required to view much here.
Global Genealogy - Various resources, books, available for purchase from this Ontario book store. Links to other regions in left menu. Prices look quite good.
Guysborough County Genealogy - Look around, there are some genealogical resources here if you can find them.
Halifax Chronicle-Herald Death Index 1961-1992 - This link will take you to Dwayne Meisner's web site. You will need a free login to access this page. This index was taken from a CD (no longer available) published by the Chronicle-Herald newspaper. Please note this index will show the publication date of an obituary only ... it does not include the actual obituary. However if you do not know a death date, this index will give you a close approximation based on the publication date of the obituary. To see the actual obituary, you would need to go to the Halifax Central Library to access their newspaper archives, or you can use their online request to obtain a copy of the obituary. Provide the name and publication date. I have used the online request and they were reasonably quick to email a copy.
HOWEVER Dwayne's site does include some births / marriages / engagements / anniversaries / deaths from 1992 to 1998 that were transcribed which you can search from a link on that page.
Halifax City Civic Street Renumbering - If you had a relative that lived in the city of Halifax and you know their old street number, it may be difficult to know today where they actually lived as the city adopted a completely new four digit renumbering system in 1958. However this chart will allow you to convert many old numbers to new ones. For some more information on the project see here.
Halifax City Map, 1930 - A map of the peninsula showing the various wards from 1 in the south to 6 in the north. You have to look close to see the ward numbers but they are divided by the bolded streets showing the ward outlines. This is viewable online but you can't download a copy.
Halifax County - This RootsWeb site last updated 2010 has a variety of interesting looking links - note particularly the census records.
Halifax County Deed Indexes, 1749-1958 - Another FamilySearch collection. Note that this is an "index" and does not show any actual deed information beyond the names of the "grantor" and "grantee" and the year/book/page where to find the deed. These are computer printed indexes and the "year" is shown only by two digits so doesn't really tell if it is 1700, 1800, or 1900 but presumably if you know the name, you will probably know the time period. This would be useful probably only if you intend to visit the registry to locate a copy of the original deed. On the main page click BROWSE ALL which will open a list where you can select from a time period. After that, you're on your own but most are alphabetically arranged by grantee surname.
Halifax Explosion - A List of Those That Died - This is a searchable site if you have a name, or select the "Database List" to scroll through the alphabetical list of 1782 names.
Halifax Funeral Home Records, 1939-1969 - Lists of deceased persons with dates of death.
Halifax Historical Council Minutes - Starting from 1841, you can find minutes of council meetings for Halifax city, county, Bedford, and Dartmouth.
Halifax Municipal Archives - Not much available online but might be something interesting.
Hillcrest Cemetery, Lunenburg - This Nova Scotia Archives site contains a recording project from 1970 where attempts were made to record the names and photograph all surviving pre-1867 grave stones. It includes also some from the older French cemetery. Click the "Virtual Exhibit" button for the list and pictures.
Local Cemeteries near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia - This is a list of cemeteries only on this funeral home site, not a list of graves.
Lunenburg Academy Yearbook, "The Seagull" - Forty years of yearbooks of this former school in Lunenburg are available online from 1935 to 1974. These yearbooks often have fascinating local historical articles written by the students. The link here goes to the 1935 issue. To see other issues, just change the year at the end of the web link.
Lunenburg County Cemetery Burial Index - This site is quite out of date now but it is useful for pre-2000 information.
Lunenburg County Genealogy FaceBook Group - If you are on FaceBook and looking for Lunenburg County information, there are people here who may be able to help. It's a private site so you have to become a member to view or post.
Lunenburg County GenWeb Project - Links to genealogy sources for Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. In particular, I would recommend you to check the Church Records page - download the Excel spreadsheet index at the top for a great searchable database. I've only viewed a few of these resources so far. Looks like not updated since 2010.
Lunenburg County Land Grant Maps - These are some maps from the late J. Christopher Young's book "Maps Associated with Lunenburg County Family History" and shows the locations of the lands granted to the original settlers of Lunenburg. For a map of the Lunenburg town lots that were granted, see this Nova Scotia Archive page. However this isn't much help if you don't know the lands your ancestors were granted. For that, see the Family Search link for Nova Scotia Probate Records above - you might get lucky and find your ancestor's name listed. I did.
Lunenburg County Map - A nice map showing many communities in the county.
Lunenburg County Personal and Family Genealogy Sites - Being an old RootsWeb database, some of these may no longer work.
Lunenburg County Place Names - From Chris Young's web site, a list of communities in Lunenburg County, and indicating the current names of places that have changed.
Lunenburg County Will Extractions - Not the actual wills but names and dates and some information including heirs extracted from the wills. Some go back to 1762. Here is another site that has an index of probated wills from 1770 to 1999 (not many very old ones) and again it is not the actual will (and no extracted information) but the reference index that would enable you to find it at the office in Bridgewater (note the pricing is out of date.)
Lunenburg Town Maps - Some interesting historical maps - 1770 - 1888 - 1890
Lunenburg Township First Families, 1750-1784 - This is an interesting compilation by the late Dr. J. Christopher Young of the names of the original families that settled the town of Lunenburg and various documents where these names are found. Some are linked to other pages on this site, some reference documents you may have to find elsewhere.
McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory 1907-1908 - Searchable directory of 1,556 pages!
Nova Scotia Archives - There are some things here that can be useful for genealogy.
Nova Scotia Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, 1759-1960 - This is a searchable database for divorces. There is no information other than the names and usually (but not always) a year. HOWEVER there is also a collection on FamilySearch that may be quite useful. You can find that HERE. Scroll down the page a bit and you will see a list of files - note the camera icon at the right of each line. Click the camera, open the file and look around. Some of these are duplications of each other. Open one of the first three files (all the same) and the first 230 pages are an alphabetical list of divorces in typed format. After that you can see numerous very old original divorce documents, some in handwriting before typewriters were invented. The other files contain more original divorce documents. These of course are not searchable and no easy way to find one (or sometimes read the handwriting.)
Nova Scotia GenWeb Project - Another site by Gail Edwards. Many interesting reference links.
Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers - A selection of various old newspapers free to view online. This is by no means complete and some have missing issues but you may find it useful.
Nova Scotia Probate Records, 1760-1993 - This is a huge FamilySearch collection (it says almost 1.4 million images). I did find some valuable documents here showing my 5th Great Grandfather's land grants so it is a useful file but not easy to find anything. Click the link BROWSE ALL and the next page will give you a list of counties so you can narrow down the county where you wish to look. Within each county, a page will list the individual types of files that are available and within year groupings. Once you open that file however, you are now on your own to flip through page after page hunting for whatever you can find. (I found our original land grants in the "Allotment books" file for Lunenburg County.)
OBITUARIES - To make it easier to find, I have grouped a number of obituary sites into this one entry.
Passenger Lists 1750-1752 - Arrival of the "Foreign Protestants"
Queens County GenWeb - Various useful information, looks like another Gail Edwards site but doesn't look like there has been any updates since 2010.
Riverport, Lunenburg County - There are some locally written histories of this area archived from a discontinued web site.
Royal Gazette (Nova Scotia) - May be useful if you are looking for an estate notice. If found it will tell you the community where the person lived. The database is not searchable so you will have to look at individual issues within which you can use the PDF search. Issues are available from 2006.
South Shore Genealogical Society - Genealogical information on Lunenburg and Queens Counties, Nova Scotia. There are some links to other family sites on this page (some of the links no longer work).
Thomas Raddall Research Centre, Liverpool - This FaceBook site may be an interesting site for anyone researching Queens County or just looking for interesting articles.
The Wizard's Cove - The late noted genealogist, Dr. J. Christopher Young (also a cousin of mine) had a very good web site titled The Wizard's Cove that contained a wealth of useful information particularly on Lunenburg County, and after his death, it had been hosted on another site which also had some good information but that site is now gone too. The WaybackMachine site has archived it but their archives don't always get everything so it's hit or miss what will still work. The 2006 version is here but some pictures are missing. An earlier 2002 version which seems to have more pictures is here.
- Map of Lunenburg County - This Ambrose Church map is viewable online and is dated 1864 presumably when it was drawn but wasn't published until 1883. You can zoom to full screen with the four-arrow icon in the upper left. The map shows the names of property owners however only with first initial and last name so you need to know who lived in that area at the time if you are looking for someone in particular.
Ancestry's Nova Scotia Collections - A variety of topical collections. Access requires an Ancestry paid membership.
Captured in Time - Shared pictures of Nova Scotia ancestors. Not a large database but maybe a chance of finding a relative's picture.
Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax - This is an old site however the "Interment Search" has many records of burials in the Catholic cemeteries of Mount Olivet and Holy Cross in Halifax and Gate of Heaven in Lower Sackville. It appears that the site is no longer used and there have been no updates since about 2012. The search is a little "clunky" and my suggestion is to just use a surname (and ignore the other fields) and then flip pages until you find the person you are looking for if the entry exists. (If you use first and last names, it will only search on the last name anyway.)
Chester Township Book - This rather old site contains a quantity of interesting records from the 1700's and 1800's for the Chester area.
The Diary of Simeon Perkins - For Queens County research and Liverpool in particular, you might probably find Simeon Perkins' diaries very useful. The Nova Scotia Museum says "Simeon Perkins provided a faithful record of his life and times ... his diary provides vivid detail about what life was like in Liverpool from 1766 to 1812." See here for more information. The diary was published in five volumes and three are available on InternetArchive where with a free login you can "borrow" (not downloadable) for an hour at a time (renewable) to read.
Volume 1: 1766 to 1780 Volume 3: 1790 to 1796 Volume 5: 1804 to 1812
Down East - A Maritime Heritage - This web site by the late genealogist Don Shankle (a cousin) has a number of names from Nova Scotia and a few from Newfoundland also.
Dr. Kenneth Paulsen - This noted genealogist has some extensive research on Nova Scotia families as well as some other locations.
FamilySearch:
- Nova Scotia Online Genealogy Records - links to various useful sites
- Nova Scotia Probate Records - Quite a bit here but hard to locate anything specific, you have to scroll through a lot of image pages.
- See my FAMILY SEARCH INDEXES which may help if looking for birth/marriage/death information on Lunenburg area (and a few other locations).
Gail's Genealogy Page - This is an old site by Gail Facini Edwards no longer updated since 2009 however it contains a very large database of names and I am including it here because I think it is a very valuable resource for anyone researching Lunenburg County relatives. If you are looking for a relative who lived in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, try here - I found 5,500 of my relatives listed on her previous site which gave my genealogy a big head start. Click the Surname List link and go from there (watch for variations in the spelling.) Unfortunately there are no original sources listed and as with anyone's personal database, there are likely some errors so you need to do your own research as I am now doing for these people. I have found some that Gail has included in my family that I cannot prove actually belong there. (Anyone in my database with "oocities" as a source came from her original database and have not yet been researched or verified.)
Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia - Membership required to view much here.
Global Genealogy - Various resources, books, available for purchase from this Ontario book store. Links to other regions in left menu. Prices look quite good.
Guysborough County Genealogy - Look around, there are some genealogical resources here if you can find them.
Halifax Chronicle-Herald Death Index 1961-1992 - This link will take you to Dwayne Meisner's web site. You will need a free login to access this page. This index was taken from a CD (no longer available) published by the Chronicle-Herald newspaper. Please note this index will show the publication date of an obituary only ... it does not include the actual obituary. However if you do not know a death date, this index will give you a close approximation based on the publication date of the obituary. To see the actual obituary, you would need to go to the Halifax Central Library to access their newspaper archives, or you can use their online request to obtain a copy of the obituary. Provide the name and publication date. I have used the online request and they were reasonably quick to email a copy.
HOWEVER Dwayne's site does include some births / marriages / engagements / anniversaries / deaths from 1992 to 1998 that were transcribed which you can search from a link on that page.
Halifax City Civic Street Renumbering - If you had a relative that lived in the city of Halifax and you know their old street number, it may be difficult to know today where they actually lived as the city adopted a completely new four digit renumbering system in 1958. However this chart will allow you to convert many old numbers to new ones. For some more information on the project see here.
Halifax City Map, 1930 - A map of the peninsula showing the various wards from 1 in the south to 6 in the north. You have to look close to see the ward numbers but they are divided by the bolded streets showing the ward outlines. This is viewable online but you can't download a copy.
Halifax County - This RootsWeb site last updated 2010 has a variety of interesting looking links - note particularly the census records.
Halifax County Deed Indexes, 1749-1958 - Another FamilySearch collection. Note that this is an "index" and does not show any actual deed information beyond the names of the "grantor" and "grantee" and the year/book/page where to find the deed. These are computer printed indexes and the "year" is shown only by two digits so doesn't really tell if it is 1700, 1800, or 1900 but presumably if you know the name, you will probably know the time period. This would be useful probably only if you intend to visit the registry to locate a copy of the original deed. On the main page click BROWSE ALL which will open a list where you can select from a time period. After that, you're on your own but most are alphabetically arranged by grantee surname.
Halifax Explosion - A List of Those That Died - This is a searchable site if you have a name, or select the "Database List" to scroll through the alphabetical list of 1782 names.
Halifax Funeral Home Records, 1939-1969 - Lists of deceased persons with dates of death.
Halifax Historical Council Minutes - Starting from 1841, you can find minutes of council meetings for Halifax city, county, Bedford, and Dartmouth.
Halifax Municipal Archives - Not much available online but might be something interesting.
Hillcrest Cemetery, Lunenburg - This Nova Scotia Archives site contains a recording project from 1970 where attempts were made to record the names and photograph all surviving pre-1867 grave stones. It includes also some from the older French cemetery. Click the "Virtual Exhibit" button for the list and pictures.
Local Cemeteries near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia - This is a list of cemeteries only on this funeral home site, not a list of graves.
Lunenburg Academy Yearbook, "The Seagull" - Forty years of yearbooks of this former school in Lunenburg are available online from 1935 to 1974. These yearbooks often have fascinating local historical articles written by the students. The link here goes to the 1935 issue. To see other issues, just change the year at the end of the web link.
Lunenburg County Cemetery Burial Index - This site is quite out of date now but it is useful for pre-2000 information.
Lunenburg County Genealogy FaceBook Group - If you are on FaceBook and looking for Lunenburg County information, there are people here who may be able to help. It's a private site so you have to become a member to view or post.
Lunenburg County GenWeb Project - Links to genealogy sources for Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. In particular, I would recommend you to check the Church Records page - download the Excel spreadsheet index at the top for a great searchable database. I've only viewed a few of these resources so far. Looks like not updated since 2010.
Lunenburg County Land Grant Maps - These are some maps from the late J. Christopher Young's book "Maps Associated with Lunenburg County Family History" and shows the locations of the lands granted to the original settlers of Lunenburg. For a map of the Lunenburg town lots that were granted, see this Nova Scotia Archive page. However this isn't much help if you don't know the lands your ancestors were granted. For that, see the Family Search link for Nova Scotia Probate Records above - you might get lucky and find your ancestor's name listed. I did.
Lunenburg County Map - A nice map showing many communities in the county.
Lunenburg County Personal and Family Genealogy Sites - Being an old RootsWeb database, some of these may no longer work.
Lunenburg County Place Names - From Chris Young's web site, a list of communities in Lunenburg County, and indicating the current names of places that have changed.
Lunenburg County Will Extractions - Not the actual wills but names and dates and some information including heirs extracted from the wills. Some go back to 1762. Here is another site that has an index of probated wills from 1770 to 1999 (not many very old ones) and again it is not the actual will (and no extracted information) but the reference index that would enable you to find it at the office in Bridgewater (note the pricing is out of date.)
Lunenburg Town Maps - Some interesting historical maps - 1770 - 1888 - 1890
Lunenburg Township First Families, 1750-1784 - This is an interesting compilation by the late Dr. J. Christopher Young of the names of the original families that settled the town of Lunenburg and various documents where these names are found. Some are linked to other pages on this site, some reference documents you may have to find elsewhere.
McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory 1907-1908 - Searchable directory of 1,556 pages!
Nova Scotia Archives - There are some things here that can be useful for genealogy.
- Census Returns, Assessments and Poll Tax Records, 1767-1838 - This may be of use however be warned that these early documents contain very little useful information. Often only the head of the household is named.
- Historical Maps of Nova Scotia - Maybe you are looking for a map of an area where an ancestor lived.
- Virtual Archives - Various interesting information whether or not useful for genealogical purposes.
Nova Scotia Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, 1759-1960 - This is a searchable database for divorces. There is no information other than the names and usually (but not always) a year. HOWEVER there is also a collection on FamilySearch that may be quite useful. You can find that HERE. Scroll down the page a bit and you will see a list of files - note the camera icon at the right of each line. Click the camera, open the file and look around. Some of these are duplications of each other. Open one of the first three files (all the same) and the first 230 pages are an alphabetical list of divorces in typed format. After that you can see numerous very old original divorce documents, some in handwriting before typewriters were invented. The other files contain more original divorce documents. These of course are not searchable and no easy way to find one (or sometimes read the handwriting.)
Nova Scotia GenWeb Project - Another site by Gail Edwards. Many interesting reference links.
Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers - A selection of various old newspapers free to view online. This is by no means complete and some have missing issues but you may find it useful.
Nova Scotia Probate Records, 1760-1993 - This is a huge FamilySearch collection (it says almost 1.4 million images). I did find some valuable documents here showing my 5th Great Grandfather's land grants so it is a useful file but not easy to find anything. Click the link BROWSE ALL and the next page will give you a list of counties so you can narrow down the county where you wish to look. Within each county, a page will list the individual types of files that are available and within year groupings. Once you open that file however, you are now on your own to flip through page after page hunting for whatever you can find. (I found our original land grants in the "Allotment books" file for Lunenburg County.)
OBITUARIES - To make it easier to find, I have grouped a number of obituary sites into this one entry.
- Halifax Chronicle-Herald Death Index 1961-1992 - This link will take you to Dwayne Meisner's web site. You will need a free login to access this page. This index was taken from a CD (no longer available) published by the Chronicle-Herald newspaper. Please note this index will show the publication date of an obituary only ... it does not include the actual obituary. However if you do not know a death date, this index will give you a close approximation based on the publication date of the obituary. To see the actual obituary, you would need to go to the Halifax Central Library to access their newspaper archives, or you can use their online request to obtain a copy of the obituary. Provide the name and publication date. I have used the online request and they were reasonably quick to email a copy. HOWEVER Dwayne's site does include some births / marriages / engagements / anniversaries / deaths from 1992 to 1998 that were transcribed which you can search from a link on that page.
- Annapolis and Lunenburg County - This Annapolis genealogy web site now has an obituary section. While they indicate it focus primarily on Annapolis County, it now includes the collection of Rosemary Rafuse of many Lunenburg County obituaries transcribed from the Bridgewater Bulletin and Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
- Nova Scotia Obituaries - A private site and requires a free login to see anything. Obituaries start at March 2010. Many of these may still be available elsewhere online at funeral home web sites, etc.
- Nova Scotia Acadian Obituaries - This is an old site, not updated since 2006, and is mainly for Acadian names but there are others here as well. Have a look, you might find something useful, I did.
- Rootsweb Obituaries (August 1997 to December 2000) - This site has quite a number of obituaries copied from local newspapers for Lunenburg, Queens, and Halifax counties. These appear to be obituaries related to people connected to Lunenburg County. There is no index so you need to know the month the obituary would have been printed. The link will take you to August 1997 which is the earliest available. Note that the web address for this page ends in aug97.txt. To go to another month just change the "aug97" part to the month and year you want to find. December of 2000 is the last month available here.
- Marjorie's Place - Notes - This is a private genealogy site but this Notes page has a good number of obituaries.
- Canadian Obituaries (CanadianObits.com) - This may be a good site for obituaries that you can't find elsewhere. I've found some here but it is my last choice to look. The search function is really clunky and difficult to narrow down to the correct obituary.
- Necrologie Canada - This is primarily a French Canadian site for obituaries but there are some English results. I didn't find it particularly useful myself but it may be, depending on where your relative lived.
- CurrentObituary - A useful site for locating obituaries in the US from recent years.
Passenger Lists 1750-1752 - Arrival of the "Foreign Protestants"
Queens County GenWeb - Various useful information, looks like another Gail Edwards site but doesn't look like there has been any updates since 2010.
Riverport, Lunenburg County - There are some locally written histories of this area archived from a discontinued web site.
- The History of the Village of Riverport - Written by Martin Wentzell (~1964), revised by Jean Mosher (~1985)
- Early Settlement in the Riverport Area - Contributed by Joan Dawson (2004) |(Includes some of the above document.)
Royal Gazette (Nova Scotia) - May be useful if you are looking for an estate notice. If found it will tell you the community where the person lived. The database is not searchable so you will have to look at individual issues within which you can use the PDF search. Issues are available from 2006.
South Shore Genealogical Society - Genealogical information on Lunenburg and Queens Counties, Nova Scotia. There are some links to other family sites on this page (some of the links no longer work).
Thomas Raddall Research Centre, Liverpool - This FaceBook site may be an interesting site for anyone researching Queens County or just looking for interesting articles.
The Wizard's Cove - The late noted genealogist, Dr. J. Christopher Young (also a cousin of mine) had a very good web site titled The Wizard's Cove that contained a wealth of useful information particularly on Lunenburg County, and after his death, it had been hosted on another site which also had some good information but that site is now gone too. The WaybackMachine site has archived it but their archives don't always get everything so it's hit or miss what will still work. The 2006 version is here but some pictures are missing. An earlier 2002 version which seems to have more pictures is here.
Other Provinces:
Library and Archives Canada
Births, Marriages and Deaths: Civil Registrations - This site has pages for each province or territory with information on where to look for various vital statistic information.
Newfoundland and Labrador:
The province does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
FamilySearch Collections - Some Newfoundland census reports (1921, 1935, 1945) are available here as well as some church and vital records. In the "Collection Title" box, type "Newfoundland" and select from the drop down list that appears. Not all records for all areas are available and some may not be searchable.
Newfoundland's Grand Banks - A non-profit web site with a variety of information. Not the easiest site to navigate and most records are arranged by location so you need to know where someone lived to find anything. BMD's are all pre-1900.
Prince Edward Island:
Island Imagined - A collection of historic maps of Prince Edward Island
Island Newspapers - A collection of various newspapers of Prince Edward Island - searchable.
PARO Collections Database - A searchable database of the provincial archives. No original documents can be viewed but the information provided could be useful.
Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society - A bit of information that is searchable by person's name but no original documents are available.
The Island Register - A collection of various genealogical information.
Royal Gazette - May be useful if you are looking for an estate notice. If found it will tell you the community where the person lived. The database is not searchable so you will have to look at individual issues within which you can use the PDF search. Issues are available from 1999.
New Brunswick:
New Brunswick Provincial Archives - Research births, marriage, and deaths in New Brunswick. Or search all archive databases here.
Quebec
The province does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
Genealogy Quebec - A private site of the Drouin Institute - Subscription access only. It is described as "Genealogy Quebec is home to tens of millions of historical and genealogical records and images. These varied documents focus mainly on Quebec, but also on Acadia, New Brunswick, as well as parts of Ontario and the Northeastern United States."
Ontario:
The province does not make available any online databases of historic vital statistics. However FamilySearch has a microfilm database of birth records for 1869-1912 here. It is not easy to find anything and requires a lot of flipping through images to locate a specific record.
OntarioGenealogy.Com - This appears to be a private site with possibly many useful links however it requires a user login and some parts of the site are subscription only.
Manitoba:
Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency - The database is searchable but only basic information appears to be in the results. Original documents cannot be viewed but can be purchased.
Saskatchewan:
Genealogy Index Searches - Searchable database providing limited information. No original documents can be viewed but may be purchased.
Alberta:
Provincial Archives of Alberta - Not the easiest site to navigate but you might find some useful information.
Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes - These are only indexes with very minimal information from which you can purchase an original document. However even the most basic of information can sometimes be useful. These databases are not searchable and require flipping through multiple pages to find anything. It's hard to notice the index links on this site so use these shortcuts and scroll down to the table near the end of the page.
British Columbia:
Royal BC Museum - Historical births, marriages, and death records.
Nunavut:
The territory has existed only since 1999. Prior to that it was part of the Northwest Territories.
Northwest Territories:
The territories does not make available any online databases of historic vital statistics.
Yukon:
The territory does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
A Guide to Who Lies Beneath Whitehorse Cemeteries - You may not have any relatives in the Yukon but I came across this PDF book about some of the people buried in the Pioneer and Grey Mountain Cemeteries. It makes for great reading even if you are not related to them.
Western Canada Land Descriptions
In Canadian census records for the western provinces, rural locations are often described with the municipality name and then the property location with a series of numbers such as ... Section 12, Township 27, Range 22, Meridian 3. Unless you understand the numbering system in use at that time, this is rather meaningless. This Saskatchewan page gives a good explanation of what the numbers mean. Once you understand that, then go to this Legal Land Converter page and enter the numbers in the appropriate boxes and click the Calc button. You need to know Section/Township/Range/Meridian ... all 4 of these must be entered. Quarter is optional. The result give you map coordinates and also a variety of links. The Leaflet Satellite link gives a quite good view of the property. You may get a couple of free results with the Land Converter but it will then require you to purchase credits. Alberta has a free conversion site for that province on the Alberta Geological Survey site. It works very similar. When you get the latitude & longitude coordinates, enter them on Google maps with a minus in front of the longitude like this example ... 53.3832054, -112.6593140 (This is just north of the town of Tofield.) If you switch to satellite view, you can see the land quite well ... most of it will appear in square sections.
Births, Marriages and Deaths: Civil Registrations - This site has pages for each province or territory with information on where to look for various vital statistic information.
Newfoundland and Labrador:
The province does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
FamilySearch Collections - Some Newfoundland census reports (1921, 1935, 1945) are available here as well as some church and vital records. In the "Collection Title" box, type "Newfoundland" and select from the drop down list that appears. Not all records for all areas are available and some may not be searchable.
Newfoundland's Grand Banks - A non-profit web site with a variety of information. Not the easiest site to navigate and most records are arranged by location so you need to know where someone lived to find anything. BMD's are all pre-1900.
Prince Edward Island:
Island Imagined - A collection of historic maps of Prince Edward Island
Island Newspapers - A collection of various newspapers of Prince Edward Island - searchable.
PARO Collections Database - A searchable database of the provincial archives. No original documents can be viewed but the information provided could be useful.
Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society - A bit of information that is searchable by person's name but no original documents are available.
The Island Register - A collection of various genealogical information.
Royal Gazette - May be useful if you are looking for an estate notice. If found it will tell you the community where the person lived. The database is not searchable so you will have to look at individual issues within which you can use the PDF search. Issues are available from 1999.
New Brunswick:
New Brunswick Provincial Archives - Research births, marriage, and deaths in New Brunswick. Or search all archive databases here.
Quebec
The province does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
Genealogy Quebec - A private site of the Drouin Institute - Subscription access only. It is described as "Genealogy Quebec is home to tens of millions of historical and genealogical records and images. These varied documents focus mainly on Quebec, but also on Acadia, New Brunswick, as well as parts of Ontario and the Northeastern United States."
Ontario:
The province does not make available any online databases of historic vital statistics. However FamilySearch has a microfilm database of birth records for 1869-1912 here. It is not easy to find anything and requires a lot of flipping through images to locate a specific record.
OntarioGenealogy.Com - This appears to be a private site with possibly many useful links however it requires a user login and some parts of the site are subscription only.
Manitoba:
Manitoba Vital Statistics Agency - The database is searchable but only basic information appears to be in the results. Original documents cannot be viewed but can be purchased.
Saskatchewan:
Genealogy Index Searches - Searchable database providing limited information. No original documents can be viewed but may be purchased.
Alberta:
Provincial Archives of Alberta - Not the easiest site to navigate but you might find some useful information.
Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes - These are only indexes with very minimal information from which you can purchase an original document. However even the most basic of information can sometimes be useful. These databases are not searchable and require flipping through multiple pages to find anything. It's hard to notice the index links on this site so use these shortcuts and scroll down to the table near the end of the page.
British Columbia:
Royal BC Museum - Historical births, marriages, and death records.
Nunavut:
The territory has existed only since 1999. Prior to that it was part of the Northwest Territories.
Northwest Territories:
The territories does not make available any online databases of historic vital statistics.
Yukon:
The territory does not make available any online databases of historical vital statistics.
A Guide to Who Lies Beneath Whitehorse Cemeteries - You may not have any relatives in the Yukon but I came across this PDF book about some of the people buried in the Pioneer and Grey Mountain Cemeteries. It makes for great reading even if you are not related to them.
Western Canada Land Descriptions
In Canadian census records for the western provinces, rural locations are often described with the municipality name and then the property location with a series of numbers such as ... Section 12, Township 27, Range 22, Meridian 3. Unless you understand the numbering system in use at that time, this is rather meaningless. This Saskatchewan page gives a good explanation of what the numbers mean. Once you understand that, then go to this Legal Land Converter page and enter the numbers in the appropriate boxes and click the Calc button. You need to know Section/Township/Range/Meridian ... all 4 of these must be entered. Quarter is optional. The result give you map coordinates and also a variety of links. The Leaflet Satellite link gives a quite good view of the property. You may get a couple of free results with the Land Converter but it will then require you to purchase credits. Alberta has a free conversion site for that province on the Alberta Geological Survey site. It works very similar. When you get the latitude & longitude coordinates, enter them on Google maps with a minus in front of the longitude like this example ... 53.3832054, -112.6593140 (This is just north of the town of Tofield.) If you switch to satellite view, you can see the land quite well ... most of it will appear in square sections.
United States:
American Ancestors - A site of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. You can get some free information but others may be limited to paid subscribers.
American Battle Monuments Commission - Find information on American service persons who died in World War 1 or 2.
The Ancestor Hunt - This link to their Resources page may be of interest. This site is basically a collection of links to various free genealogical resources such as Newspapers, Yearbook, other records, etc. and may be of use if researching people in the US in these areas. You might want to check out some other pages on this web site too (menu's in top right). There are quite a few ads on some of the pages so don't click on them by mistake!
Census Records - This is very useful. Most of these are normally only available to paid Ancestry members but here you can search for free via FamilySearch. The census for 1890 is not available - most of those records were lost in a fire. Select the census year ...
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950
Massachusetts State Census: 1855 1865
CensusRecords.com - This is a private site allowing you to search over multiple census records. Searching is free but as of September 1, 2021 you must go to FindMyPast.com to access the records with a paid subscription.
Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers - "Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963". I searched "Corkum" and got 400 results although some were duplicates of the same story in different papers and some didn't actually include the word Corkum.
Connecticut Vital Records - This site is an index providing names, dates and locations ... no original documents.
CurrentObituary - A useful site for locating obituaries in the US from recent years.
FloridaGravestones.org - If your relative died and was buried in Florida, you may be able to find a picture of their tombstone here.
Fold3 - I'm am including this one here because it can be useful if you are looking for information on US relatives. I have found a few useful documents here, military service, etc. However nothing is free - you need a paid subscription to see anything. If it finds anything, it shows you a low resolution "preview" which is usually unreadable. You can do a free search but a window pops up to block whatever it finds when you move the mouse over the screen if you are not logged in. (Hint - Do you use your "Snipping Tool"? It's really useful. I keep it on my Taskbar. To put it there, click Start, then Windows Accessories, right-click on Snipping Tool, then More, and then Pin to Taskbar. Now if you find a useful document on Fold3 (I've found Naturalization Cards - they are small enough to still be readable) and if you move your mouse to the far margin of your screen, that blocking pop up disappears and you can see the document although the preview resolution is not very good. If it is sufficiently readable, drag your mouse along the edge of the screen - stay off the screen so the pop up doesn't appear - all the way down and click the Snipping Tool icon on your taskbar. When the Snipping Tool bar opens, drag your mouse again staying against the edge of the screen to the Snipping Tool bar and click the New button. Wait a moment until the screen fades a bit indicating it is ready for you to "snip". Now you can move the mouse over the screen without getting the pop up. Carefully select the portion of the screen you want and when you release the mouse you have a copy of what you just "clipped" which you can then save somewhere. It takes a bit of practice. PS - You didn't see this here!!!)
Kentucky Births, Deaths, Marriages - This is a private site but free downloadable databases with various starting years but up to 1999. Some are Microsoft Access databases (.mdb ) and some are .csv files. Click on the "download" link which takes you to a file directory.
Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841 - 1910 - Search for birth, marriage, death records.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - This Search page looks like it may access some useful information.
Omnia - I found this site and have no idea what it is (it is an Ireland web site) and it may not look particularly useful to you but I was surprised to find a few useful documents there. Just type a name into the search box and see if anything turns up - probably not but you might get lucky! I found a few US Naturalization Cards there (same as on the Fold3 site but these were free and easily readable).
OnGenealogy.com - A variety of links to resources here, maybe a bit hard to track down what you need, but have a look around. A lot of them seem to go back to FamilySearch sites but this one looked interesting to me as I have a lot of relatives in Massachusetts.
New Jersey Death Index - This is not a government site but a private site by the organization "Reclaim the Records". You can here search New Jersey deaths for selected years (not all available) from 1901 up to 2017. These are indexes not the actual death certificate documents and may or may not be useful to you.
Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation - Ellis Island in New York was a major port of entry for immigration into the USA from 1892 to 1954. Prior to 1890, individual states regulated immigration and in New York State, a major entry point was Castle Garden in the Battery. This site could not handle the growing number of immigrants so Ellis Island was opened January 1, 1892. In 1897 however a fire burned the wooden structure to the ground and destroyed most immigration records back to 1855. It was soon replaced in 1900 with a fireproof structure. Read more on the Ellis Island History menu link. The link above takes you to a search page where you can enter a name to see if your relative immigrated through this facility. I entered "Corkum" and got 531 results! You can see some basic information in the search results however if you create a free login, you have access to much more detail including some original documents. (Some of the passenger manifests may also turn up on the FamilySearch site.)
The Ancestor Hunt - Recently found this site and haven't reviewed it yet but looks like there may be access to various useful information here.
Unified Census E.D. Finder - If you know where a relative lived, you can narrow down the search to their Electoral District using this site to locate their census record.
U.S. Naturalization Records - This site has links to various US State naturalization sources. I have not used this site so cannot make any suggestions.
United States Social Security Death Index - This is not an official site but it does have basic information (birth and death dates) on deceased persons who had US Social Security numbers. Useful for finding a little information on US relatives. If you know the actual birth date it is best to search starting with the year. If not, best to Search by Name but be warned there are many people of the same or similar name so it may take some digging that way. If you do not know either the birth or death date, it will be impossible to find the right person in this database!
Washington State Archives - There's a lot of stuff available on this site.
American Battle Monuments Commission - Find information on American service persons who died in World War 1 or 2.
The Ancestor Hunt - This link to their Resources page may be of interest. This site is basically a collection of links to various free genealogical resources such as Newspapers, Yearbook, other records, etc. and may be of use if researching people in the US in these areas. You might want to check out some other pages on this web site too (menu's in top right). There are quite a few ads on some of the pages so don't click on them by mistake!
Census Records - This is very useful. Most of these are normally only available to paid Ancestry members but here you can search for free via FamilySearch. The census for 1890 is not available - most of those records were lost in a fire. Select the census year ...
1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950
Massachusetts State Census: 1855 1865
CensusRecords.com - This is a private site allowing you to search over multiple census records. Searching is free but as of September 1, 2021 you must go to FindMyPast.com to access the records with a paid subscription.
Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers - "Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1777-1963". I searched "Corkum" and got 400 results although some were duplicates of the same story in different papers and some didn't actually include the word Corkum.
Connecticut Vital Records - This site is an index providing names, dates and locations ... no original documents.
CurrentObituary - A useful site for locating obituaries in the US from recent years.
FloridaGravestones.org - If your relative died and was buried in Florida, you may be able to find a picture of their tombstone here.
Fold3 - I'm am including this one here because it can be useful if you are looking for information on US relatives. I have found a few useful documents here, military service, etc. However nothing is free - you need a paid subscription to see anything. If it finds anything, it shows you a low resolution "preview" which is usually unreadable. You can do a free search but a window pops up to block whatever it finds when you move the mouse over the screen if you are not logged in. (Hint - Do you use your "Snipping Tool"? It's really useful. I keep it on my Taskbar. To put it there, click Start, then Windows Accessories, right-click on Snipping Tool, then More, and then Pin to Taskbar. Now if you find a useful document on Fold3 (I've found Naturalization Cards - they are small enough to still be readable) and if you move your mouse to the far margin of your screen, that blocking pop up disappears and you can see the document although the preview resolution is not very good. If it is sufficiently readable, drag your mouse along the edge of the screen - stay off the screen so the pop up doesn't appear - all the way down and click the Snipping Tool icon on your taskbar. When the Snipping Tool bar opens, drag your mouse again staying against the edge of the screen to the Snipping Tool bar and click the New button. Wait a moment until the screen fades a bit indicating it is ready for you to "snip". Now you can move the mouse over the screen without getting the pop up. Carefully select the portion of the screen you want and when you release the mouse you have a copy of what you just "clipped" which you can then save somewhere. It takes a bit of practice. PS - You didn't see this here!!!)
Kentucky Births, Deaths, Marriages - This is a private site but free downloadable databases with various starting years but up to 1999. Some are Microsoft Access databases (.mdb ) and some are .csv files. Click on the "download" link which takes you to a file directory.
Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841 - 1910 - Search for birth, marriage, death records.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - This Search page looks like it may access some useful information.
Omnia - I found this site and have no idea what it is (it is an Ireland web site) and it may not look particularly useful to you but I was surprised to find a few useful documents there. Just type a name into the search box and see if anything turns up - probably not but you might get lucky! I found a few US Naturalization Cards there (same as on the Fold3 site but these were free and easily readable).
OnGenealogy.com - A variety of links to resources here, maybe a bit hard to track down what you need, but have a look around. A lot of them seem to go back to FamilySearch sites but this one looked interesting to me as I have a lot of relatives in Massachusetts.
New Jersey Death Index - This is not a government site but a private site by the organization "Reclaim the Records". You can here search New Jersey deaths for selected years (not all available) from 1901 up to 2017. These are indexes not the actual death certificate documents and may or may not be useful to you.
Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation - Ellis Island in New York was a major port of entry for immigration into the USA from 1892 to 1954. Prior to 1890, individual states regulated immigration and in New York State, a major entry point was Castle Garden in the Battery. This site could not handle the growing number of immigrants so Ellis Island was opened January 1, 1892. In 1897 however a fire burned the wooden structure to the ground and destroyed most immigration records back to 1855. It was soon replaced in 1900 with a fireproof structure. Read more on the Ellis Island History menu link. The link above takes you to a search page where you can enter a name to see if your relative immigrated through this facility. I entered "Corkum" and got 531 results! You can see some basic information in the search results however if you create a free login, you have access to much more detail including some original documents. (Some of the passenger manifests may also turn up on the FamilySearch site.)
The Ancestor Hunt - Recently found this site and haven't reviewed it yet but looks like there may be access to various useful information here.
Unified Census E.D. Finder - If you know where a relative lived, you can narrow down the search to their Electoral District using this site to locate their census record.
U.S. Naturalization Records - This site has links to various US State naturalization sources. I have not used this site so cannot make any suggestions.
United States Social Security Death Index - This is not an official site but it does have basic information (birth and death dates) on deceased persons who had US Social Security numbers. Useful for finding a little information on US relatives. If you know the actual birth date it is best to search starting with the year. If not, best to Search by Name but be warned there are many people of the same or similar name so it may take some digging that way. If you do not know either the birth or death date, it will be impossible to find the right person in this database!
Washington State Archives - There's a lot of stuff available on this site.
European Sites
DENMARK
Danish National Archives - You probably need to know at least some Danish to get good results although the web pages are available in Danish, English and German. The Danish Demographic Database section may be your best source.
GREAT BRITAIN
FreeBMD - A FreeUKGenealogy Project site. "An ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records ... for the period 1837-1992". This is not a government site.
FreeCen - Another FreeUKGenealogy Project site. This one has census records.
FreeReg - Another FreeUKGenealogy Project site. This one has church parish registers.
General Register Office - This government site will allow you to search for births and deaths for England and Wales after Sept. 1837 but you will need a free login. (Note the credit card fields are not for the login - only if you wish to purchase something.) However if not familiar with it, you should get some background first. My thanks to WikiTree for identifying this site and they have some very good advice on how to use it. You should read the instructions here on WikiTree.
Genuki - The web site describes itself as "GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland. It is a non-commercial service, maintained by a charitable trust and a group of volunteers." (I know nothing about this site but have listed it as a possible reference only.)
ProbateSearch - "This is the place to search for wills or probate records as it gives a date of death and last place of residence- you may get lucky! It is worth searching up to a couple of years after the death date, as the index has the records listed under the year of probate, rather than the year of death." (Comments per WikiTree).
ScotlandsPeople - This is a Scottish government site. A login is required (free) with which you can search numerous database indexes in Scotland. This is an index search only which will give you some information on Scottish records however in order to see the actual document you need to purchase credits.
UK BMD - I think this site is just a collection of links to other sites. I didn't see any actual information available here (and no search feature) so listing just in case it may help find something.
WikiTree - England County Places and Resources - This is a page on WikiTree which lists a number of resources for England, which might be helpful.
IRELAND
Irish Genealogy - A free site with access to various genealogical records.
National Archives of Ireland - You can search the census records at this page.
NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM
Dutch and Belgian Archives
Danish National Archives - You probably need to know at least some Danish to get good results although the web pages are available in Danish, English and German. The Danish Demographic Database section may be your best source.
GREAT BRITAIN
FreeBMD - A FreeUKGenealogy Project site. "An ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records ... for the period 1837-1992". This is not a government site.
FreeCen - Another FreeUKGenealogy Project site. This one has census records.
FreeReg - Another FreeUKGenealogy Project site. This one has church parish registers.
General Register Office - This government site will allow you to search for births and deaths for England and Wales after Sept. 1837 but you will need a free login. (Note the credit card fields are not for the login - only if you wish to purchase something.) However if not familiar with it, you should get some background first. My thanks to WikiTree for identifying this site and they have some very good advice on how to use it. You should read the instructions here on WikiTree.
Genuki - The web site describes itself as "GENUKI provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland. It is a non-commercial service, maintained by a charitable trust and a group of volunteers." (I know nothing about this site but have listed it as a possible reference only.)
ProbateSearch - "This is the place to search for wills or probate records as it gives a date of death and last place of residence- you may get lucky! It is worth searching up to a couple of years after the death date, as the index has the records listed under the year of probate, rather than the year of death." (Comments per WikiTree).
ScotlandsPeople - This is a Scottish government site. A login is required (free) with which you can search numerous database indexes in Scotland. This is an index search only which will give you some information on Scottish records however in order to see the actual document you need to purchase credits.
UK BMD - I think this site is just a collection of links to other sites. I didn't see any actual information available here (and no search feature) so listing just in case it may help find something.
WikiTree - England County Places and Resources - This is a page on WikiTree which lists a number of resources for England, which might be helpful.
IRELAND
Irish Genealogy - A free site with access to various genealogical records.
National Archives of Ireland - You can search the census records at this page.
NETHERLANDS & BELGIUM
Dutch and Belgian Archives
Other Miscellaneous Sites:
50 Free Genealology Sites - This list is provided by Family History Daily (see below) and while I recognize and have used some of them, there are many others there also that might be of use depending on what countries/locations you are researching.
Ancestry Message Boards - This may be useful if you are looking to connect with other people who may be able to provide you with some answers to your research.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Census Records (Worldwide) 1914-1960 - Not sure what you might find here. This is a FamilySearch collection. A couple of my Corkum's came up in the search but didn't see any actual source documents. The information might be useful to assist in looking elsewhere for proper sources, or give you a few names you might not have known about.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Search for your relatives who died during the wars.
Bob Hegerich's Database - Bob is a distant cousin in the US. He has been researching his family connections for over 25 years and he has over 300,000 names. I've found his database to be very useful for my research. Who knows, maybe he has a relative of yours too. (Note, login is not required.) As with anyone's personal database, there are likely some errors so you need to do your own research.
DeepL - Translation app. For translations this site has been recommended by a German genealogist on WikiTree. He says it is better than Google Translate. I have tried it on some complicated German documents and while Google Translate did reasonably well, DeepL sometimes did better with more understandable grammar and some better translations of difficult words. Give it a try if you need something translated. You can use it free on the web site or download Apps for Windows/Mac/IOS. There is also a paid version but the free one worked fine for me.
Everyone Remembered - This is a project of the Royal British Legion to document those who served and died in World War 1. If your ancestor died during military service in World War 1, try finding him/her on this site.
Family History Daily - This looks to be an interesting and informative site for articles related to genealogy in general. I haven't had time yet to look through it but thought it worth including in my list.
Family Search, International Genealogical Index - This looks like a very comprehensive search for deceased people. A test on just the surname "Corkum" got nearly 5,000 results.
FamilyTree Magazine - Not a research site as such but might be useful articles that will help in your research.
Geographic.org - If you are looking at a census and there is a street name but the handwriting is difficult and you cannot be sure of the name of the street, here's a solution that I found. Type in Google search "Streets in (name of the town or city)" and in the results look for the one called "Geographic.org". That will give you a list of the streets in that location today. [NOTE: I've found that sometimes there may be some streets missed in this list. If you don't see a street name, try Google maps. The street may exist.]
In my situation I was having trouble reading the names of some streets on the United States census reports. Google Maps couldn't find them because I was obviously misspelling them. Then I found this site. Going down the list I could find one that appeared to match up with the difficult handwriting. Looking at this site it has a lot more apparently to offer. Have a look around. If you start at the home page, you have a number of options. The one most useful to me is "Street View, Street Maps". Selecting that one takes me to a page with a list of countries. Select the country you want (in my case United States). The next page was a list of states, (the one I wanted was Massachusetts). Then a list of counties within that state, and then a list of the towns and cities within the county, and finally a list of the streets within that town or city. Select the street and you may get a street view but maybe just a satellite view. (Unfortunately in one case I didn't find the street I wanted so I can only assume that street in 1940 no longer exists today.)
German Genealogical Word List - Many Lunenburg County families came from Germany. If you find a German language document that needs translation, there are a variety of online translators, some where you can enter complete blocks of text and others where you can just enter a word or phrase but they all have problems with some words and context so when I tried to translate a historical article, I had to compare a variety of results and pick the most logical phrases and sentences from each of them. Especially if you are dealing with "old German" such as the 1700's the language and meaning of some words has changed so the translators could be quite wrong. And then I found this site which helped with a few of the words that gave the translators a lot of trouble. So if the translation doesn't seem to make sense, try looking up individual key words here.
German Word Translations for Civil Archive Research - A list of terms that you might find in reference to legal documents.
LocateFamily.com - This is an interesting site in that it will search for a living person and if found, return their address and phone number if one listed. I searched "Corkum" and got 2,950 results (some are duplicates, including 3 results for me!) Might be useful if you are trying to find a living relative.
My Ancestors Were From Germany, and I Don’t Speak German - This is a page of links from FamilySearch and while I have not reviewed them yet, it looks like a very good list of sites if you need help with German documents.
Olive Tree Genealogy - It describes itself as a place to locate free US and Canadian genealogy records. They also have a blog site where there are various topics posted some of which may be of interest to you.
RootsWeb WorldConnect - A collection of various GedCom files. you can search by person's name.
SteveMorse.org - There are a lot of tools on this site, many that could be useful in genealogy searching. "One-step web pages by Steve Morse. This site contains tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets, and numerous other applications. Some of these tools fetch data from other websites but do so in more versatile ways than the search tools provided on those websites."
Understanding Colonial-Era German Names in Genealogy (3:42) - A short clear explanation of why some variations in German names you may find in documents.
Understanding Historical Dates and Calendars for Genealogical Research - This MyHeritage article gives some explanation about the various calendars used in different time periods and countries, some of which are still used today. The key one that may impact your research in North America is the change from Julian to Gregorian first used in 1582 but not necessarily at the same time by each location. Both dates were still used around the time my ancestors came to Nova Scotia in the early 1750 ... Europe had changed before Britain, likely because the Gregorian calendar was first used in Catholic countries. When researching ancestors around those time periods, you may have conflicting dates depending on the calendar system used.
United States, Passenger Lists of Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada, 1906-1954 - A FamilySearch collection which may be useful in tracking some relatives who went from Canada to the US. Original source documents are available. I found a few Corkum's here.
Using FamilySearch to Find Images Referenced on Ancestry - This may be useful to you in tracking down original document images when no image is available on the source page as long as you have a film reference number. It's a bit of a convoluted process but seems to work - watch the video.
WikiTree - Check this web site for your relatives/ancestors. It has a large database. Wikipedia describes it as "WikiTree is a free, shared social networking genealogy website that allows users individually to research and contribute to their own personal family trees, while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system." The President and founder is Chris Whitten who is a distant cousin. Information here is posted by various individuals so be careful of the accuracy unless you can independently check sources.
World Biographical Encyclopedia - Type in a name and see what comes up. Surprisingly I found a few people listed here. There may not be much information but might be of some use.
Wreck Site - While this isn't really any "genealogy" site, if any of your relatives served aboard any ship that was lost at some point, you may be able to find information here about the ship. I found a bit of interesting ship information here.
Ancestry Message Boards - This may be useful if you are looking to connect with other people who may be able to provide you with some answers to your research.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Census Records (Worldwide) 1914-1960 - Not sure what you might find here. This is a FamilySearch collection. A couple of my Corkum's came up in the search but didn't see any actual source documents. The information might be useful to assist in looking elsewhere for proper sources, or give you a few names you might not have known about.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission - Search for your relatives who died during the wars.
Bob Hegerich's Database - Bob is a distant cousin in the US. He has been researching his family connections for over 25 years and he has over 300,000 names. I've found his database to be very useful for my research. Who knows, maybe he has a relative of yours too. (Note, login is not required.) As with anyone's personal database, there are likely some errors so you need to do your own research.
DeepL - Translation app. For translations this site has been recommended by a German genealogist on WikiTree. He says it is better than Google Translate. I have tried it on some complicated German documents and while Google Translate did reasonably well, DeepL sometimes did better with more understandable grammar and some better translations of difficult words. Give it a try if you need something translated. You can use it free on the web site or download Apps for Windows/Mac/IOS. There is also a paid version but the free one worked fine for me.
Everyone Remembered - This is a project of the Royal British Legion to document those who served and died in World War 1. If your ancestor died during military service in World War 1, try finding him/her on this site.
Family History Daily - This looks to be an interesting and informative site for articles related to genealogy in general. I haven't had time yet to look through it but thought it worth including in my list.
Family Search, International Genealogical Index - This looks like a very comprehensive search for deceased people. A test on just the surname "Corkum" got nearly 5,000 results.
FamilyTree Magazine - Not a research site as such but might be useful articles that will help in your research.
Geographic.org - If you are looking at a census and there is a street name but the handwriting is difficult and you cannot be sure of the name of the street, here's a solution that I found. Type in Google search "Streets in (name of the town or city)" and in the results look for the one called "Geographic.org". That will give you a list of the streets in that location today. [NOTE: I've found that sometimes there may be some streets missed in this list. If you don't see a street name, try Google maps. The street may exist.]
In my situation I was having trouble reading the names of some streets on the United States census reports. Google Maps couldn't find them because I was obviously misspelling them. Then I found this site. Going down the list I could find one that appeared to match up with the difficult handwriting. Looking at this site it has a lot more apparently to offer. Have a look around. If you start at the home page, you have a number of options. The one most useful to me is "Street View, Street Maps". Selecting that one takes me to a page with a list of countries. Select the country you want (in my case United States). The next page was a list of states, (the one I wanted was Massachusetts). Then a list of counties within that state, and then a list of the towns and cities within the county, and finally a list of the streets within that town or city. Select the street and you may get a street view but maybe just a satellite view. (Unfortunately in one case I didn't find the street I wanted so I can only assume that street in 1940 no longer exists today.)
German Genealogical Word List - Many Lunenburg County families came from Germany. If you find a German language document that needs translation, there are a variety of online translators, some where you can enter complete blocks of text and others where you can just enter a word or phrase but they all have problems with some words and context so when I tried to translate a historical article, I had to compare a variety of results and pick the most logical phrases and sentences from each of them. Especially if you are dealing with "old German" such as the 1700's the language and meaning of some words has changed so the translators could be quite wrong. And then I found this site which helped with a few of the words that gave the translators a lot of trouble. So if the translation doesn't seem to make sense, try looking up individual key words here.
German Word Translations for Civil Archive Research - A list of terms that you might find in reference to legal documents.
LocateFamily.com - This is an interesting site in that it will search for a living person and if found, return their address and phone number if one listed. I searched "Corkum" and got 2,950 results (some are duplicates, including 3 results for me!) Might be useful if you are trying to find a living relative.
My Ancestors Were From Germany, and I Don’t Speak German - This is a page of links from FamilySearch and while I have not reviewed them yet, it looks like a very good list of sites if you need help with German documents.
Olive Tree Genealogy - It describes itself as a place to locate free US and Canadian genealogy records. They also have a blog site where there are various topics posted some of which may be of interest to you.
RootsWeb WorldConnect - A collection of various GedCom files. you can search by person's name.
SteveMorse.org - There are a lot of tools on this site, many that could be useful in genealogy searching. "One-step web pages by Steve Morse. This site contains tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets, and numerous other applications. Some of these tools fetch data from other websites but do so in more versatile ways than the search tools provided on those websites."
Understanding Colonial-Era German Names in Genealogy (3:42) - A short clear explanation of why some variations in German names you may find in documents.
Understanding Historical Dates and Calendars for Genealogical Research - This MyHeritage article gives some explanation about the various calendars used in different time periods and countries, some of which are still used today. The key one that may impact your research in North America is the change from Julian to Gregorian first used in 1582 but not necessarily at the same time by each location. Both dates were still used around the time my ancestors came to Nova Scotia in the early 1750 ... Europe had changed before Britain, likely because the Gregorian calendar was first used in Catholic countries. When researching ancestors around those time periods, you may have conflicting dates depending on the calendar system used.
United States, Passenger Lists of Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada, 1906-1954 - A FamilySearch collection which may be useful in tracking some relatives who went from Canada to the US. Original source documents are available. I found a few Corkum's here.
Using FamilySearch to Find Images Referenced on Ancestry - This may be useful to you in tracking down original document images when no image is available on the source page as long as you have a film reference number. It's a bit of a convoluted process but seems to work - watch the video.
WikiTree - Check this web site for your relatives/ancestors. It has a large database. Wikipedia describes it as "WikiTree is a free, shared social networking genealogy website that allows users individually to research and contribute to their own personal family trees, while building and collaborating on a singular worldwide family tree within the same system." The President and founder is Chris Whitten who is a distant cousin. Information here is posted by various individuals so be careful of the accuracy unless you can independently check sources.
World Biographical Encyclopedia - Type in a name and see what comes up. Surprisingly I found a few people listed here. There may not be much information but might be of some use.
Wreck Site - While this isn't really any "genealogy" site, if any of your relatives served aboard any ship that was lost at some point, you may be able to find information here about the ship. I found a bit of interesting ship information here.
Family Histories:
There are some sites that I have come across that has extensive genealogy histories of various local family names. Here are links to those I've found so far. (Names with * include some who have married Corkum's.)
Books:
BALTZER*: The Baltzer/Balsor Family in North America
BECK*: Family of Johann Michael Beck of Baden and Nova Scotia by Don Shankle
HIRTLE*: Elsie Thoresen Collection (This is a huge collection of documents)
HUBLEY*: The Complete Hubley Book - Part 1 (Chapters 1 - 3) Part 2 (Chapters 4 - 5) Part 3
LOHNES*: Lohnes Family of Hesse, Nova Scotia and USA by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Schenkel Family of Switzerland, Nova Scotia and USA by Don Shankle
WILKIE*: Wilkie Family of Scotland, Virgina and Nova Scotia by Don Shankle
Web Pages of Family Descendant Lists (varying lengths or completeness):
BECK*: Descendants of Johann Michael Beck (~1729) by Don Shankle Register
BRUHM*: Descendants of Johann Melchoir Bruhm (1723) by Don Shankle
COLP*: Descendants of Jacob Andreas Kolb (1711) by Don Shankle
CONRAD*: Descendants of Matthias Konradt (~1540) by Don Shankle Register
COOK: Descendants of Johann George Berchtold Guck (~1732) by Don Shankle (a short list)
COOK*: Descendants of Anton Koch (?, Arrived in 1750) by Don Shankle (a short list)
CORKUM*: Descendants of Johannes of Gorinchem (~1525) by Don Shankle Register
DAUPHINEE*: Descendants of Jean Joseph Dauphine (~1700) by Don Shankle
DEMONE*: Descendants of Francois Joseph Dimon (1720) by Don Shankle
FALKENHAM: Descendants of Christoph Karl Falkenhayn (1723) by Don Shankle (a short list)
FRALICK*: Descendants of Hans George Froelig (~1718) by Don Shankle
GERHARDT*: Descendants of Johannes Gerhardt (1724) by Don Shankle Register
HARTMANN*: Descendants of Peter Hartmann (1712) by Don Shankle
HEISLER*: Descendants of Hans George Haussler (~1688) by Don Shankle Register
HUBLEY*: Descendants of Jacob Ulrich Hubly (~1719) by Don Shankle
HUNTER*: Hunter family of LaHave - Descendants of George Hunter (~1775) by Don Shankle (a short list)
LOHNES*: Lohnes Family of Nova Scotia - Descendants of Johannes Lohnes (1719) by Don Shankle Register
LOHNES*: Descendants of Hanss Lohnes (1540) by Don Shankle Register
MELVIN: The Loyalist Melvin's of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia by Howard Storm Brown
MOSSMAN: Descendants of Hans David Mossman (1714) by Don Shankle
MYRA: Descendants of Johann Jacob Maurer (1708) by Don Shankle (a short list)
RAMEY*: Descendants of Fredrich Rahmy (~1760) by Don Shankle
RICHARDS*: Descendants of Thomas Reichardt (1727) by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Jacob Schenkel (~1515) by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Hans Jacob Schenkel (~1696) by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Hans Ulrich Shenkel - Son of Hans Jacob, by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE: Descendants of Hans Heinrich Schenkel (1735) - Son of Hans Jacob, by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE*: Descendents of James Harris Shankle (1886) by Don Shankle Register
SMITH (or SCHMIDT)*: Descendants of Adam Schmidt (?, Arrived in 1750) by Don Shankle
VOLCKER*: Descendants of Johannes Volcker (1640) by Don Shankle Register
WILE*: Descendants of Johann Jacob Weil (~1694) by Don Shankle Register
WENTZELL*: Descendants of Wilhelm Wentzell (~1705) by Don Shankle Register
WILKIE*: Descendants of James Wilkie (~1680) by Don Shankle Register
Books:
BALTZER*: The Baltzer/Balsor Family in North America
BECK*: Family of Johann Michael Beck of Baden and Nova Scotia by Don Shankle
HIRTLE*: Elsie Thoresen Collection (This is a huge collection of documents)
HUBLEY*: The Complete Hubley Book - Part 1 (Chapters 1 - 3) Part 2 (Chapters 4 - 5) Part 3
LOHNES*: Lohnes Family of Hesse, Nova Scotia and USA by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Schenkel Family of Switzerland, Nova Scotia and USA by Don Shankle
WILKIE*: Wilkie Family of Scotland, Virgina and Nova Scotia by Don Shankle
Web Pages of Family Descendant Lists (varying lengths or completeness):
BECK*: Descendants of Johann Michael Beck (~1729) by Don Shankle Register
BRUHM*: Descendants of Johann Melchoir Bruhm (1723) by Don Shankle
COLP*: Descendants of Jacob Andreas Kolb (1711) by Don Shankle
CONRAD*: Descendants of Matthias Konradt (~1540) by Don Shankle Register
COOK: Descendants of Johann George Berchtold Guck (~1732) by Don Shankle (a short list)
COOK*: Descendants of Anton Koch (?, Arrived in 1750) by Don Shankle (a short list)
CORKUM*: Descendants of Johannes of Gorinchem (~1525) by Don Shankle Register
DAUPHINEE*: Descendants of Jean Joseph Dauphine (~1700) by Don Shankle
DEMONE*: Descendants of Francois Joseph Dimon (1720) by Don Shankle
FALKENHAM: Descendants of Christoph Karl Falkenhayn (1723) by Don Shankle (a short list)
FRALICK*: Descendants of Hans George Froelig (~1718) by Don Shankle
GERHARDT*: Descendants of Johannes Gerhardt (1724) by Don Shankle Register
HARTMANN*: Descendants of Peter Hartmann (1712) by Don Shankle
HEISLER*: Descendants of Hans George Haussler (~1688) by Don Shankle Register
HUBLEY*: Descendants of Jacob Ulrich Hubly (~1719) by Don Shankle
HUNTER*: Hunter family of LaHave - Descendants of George Hunter (~1775) by Don Shankle (a short list)
LOHNES*: Lohnes Family of Nova Scotia - Descendants of Johannes Lohnes (1719) by Don Shankle Register
LOHNES*: Descendants of Hanss Lohnes (1540) by Don Shankle Register
MELVIN: The Loyalist Melvin's of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia by Howard Storm Brown
MOSSMAN: Descendants of Hans David Mossman (1714) by Don Shankle
MYRA: Descendants of Johann Jacob Maurer (1708) by Don Shankle (a short list)
RAMEY*: Descendants of Fredrich Rahmy (~1760) by Don Shankle
RICHARDS*: Descendants of Thomas Reichardt (1727) by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Jacob Schenkel (~1515) by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Hans Jacob Schenkel (~1696) by Don Shankle
SHANKLE*: Descendants of Hans Ulrich Shenkel - Son of Hans Jacob, by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE: Descendants of Hans Heinrich Schenkel (1735) - Son of Hans Jacob, by Don Shankle Register
SHANKLE*: Descendents of James Harris Shankle (1886) by Don Shankle Register
SMITH (or SCHMIDT)*: Descendants of Adam Schmidt (?, Arrived in 1750) by Don Shankle
VOLCKER*: Descendants of Johannes Volcker (1640) by Don Shankle Register
WILE*: Descendants of Johann Jacob Weil (~1694) by Don Shankle Register
WENTZELL*: Descendants of Wilhelm Wentzell (~1705) by Don Shankle Register
WILKIE*: Descendants of James Wilkie (~1680) by Don Shankle Register
Other History Books & Documents Related to Nova Scotia:
Here are a few online books related to history in Nova Scotia that I've recently come across which may be of interest to you (in alphabetical order).
- Halifax Military Heritage Preservation Society - Various Research Papers
- History of Halifax City by Thomas B. Akins (1895)
- History of the County of Lunenburg by Judge Mather Byles DesBrisay (1895)
- Merry Hell, The Story of the 25th Battalion (Nova Scotia Regiment) - Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914 - 1919
- Seniors Interviewing Seniors - Valuing and Sharing Rural Narratives - Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute, 2015 (Learn about life in the early 1900's.) THIS WAS A VERY GOOD BOOK BUT IT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE WEBSITE ... link now not working.
- Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor - A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799 by Allan Everett Marble (Note this Google book "preview" blocks some of the pages from being viewed, not downloadable.)
- The Impact of a Century of Irish Catholic Immigration in Nova Scotia (1750-1850) - by Sr. Mary Liguori (University Thesis)
Collections of Sites:
These are just sites that list other sites (something like this page of mine you are now viewing). I include only for information - most I have not looked at.
DNA: Should Siblings Test? - Lastly if you have been thinking about a DNA test, this item may be of interest to you.
- Blupete's Favourite Links - A selection of links, mostly Nova Scotia by Peter Landry, a Dartmouth Lawyer. Some other interesting items under the History link (left menu).
- Can-Genealogy, Nova Scotia - Various links, also links to other parts of Canada (see bottom of page).
- CanGenealogy - By Dave Obee (who wrote the DNA article below), this site has a lot of potentially useful Canadian links.
- Canadian Genealogy Records Online - An interesting mix of links.
- Cyndi's List - Many links to various information. For Canada, click here.
- Dwayne Meisner - Quite an eclectic variety of links.
- German Genealogy - various links for finding Americans (and some Canadians) of German descent.
- Nova Scotia Genealogy Network Association - Numerous links for Nova Scotia information.
- Nova Scotia Genealogy Records Online - Various links, also links to other parts of Canada (see right menu).
DNA: Should Siblings Test? - Lastly if you have been thinking about a DNA test, this item may be of interest to you.
Find People in the USA - If you type a living American relative's name into your favourite web search, you will get numerous web sites telling you they can find these people and give you all kinds of information about them. This can be useful if you are trying to find where a living relative lives. You can get a small amount of information for free at these sites (some are better than others) however all of these sites want to sell you information which may or may not exist. These sites are geared for finding living people however occasionally you will get results for recently deceased as well. The more information you can fill in the blocks obviously the better the search. WARNING: I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THESE COMPANIES AND DO NOT SUGGEST YOU PAY ANY MONEY OR PROVIDE ANY PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION - I TEND TO BE SUSPICIOUS ABOUT THESE SITES. Free results if anything found may include age, towns where the person may have lived, and names of other persons who may be related. This isn't much but at least it could help narrow down your further search a bit.
Have a look at this web blog article I found. I looked at some of his suggestions (again, don't pay for anything). It's been a long time since I tried these so results may have changed but I found "TruePeopleSearch" gave a surprising amount of contact information as did "Pipl" - I didn't try the others. Most sites only find people in the US. Seems like there is a surprising amount of information on people available in the US (for a fee) - so much for any privacy in today's electronic world. At least here in Canada we have not gotten to that point yet.
Have a look at this web blog article I found. I looked at some of his suggestions (again, don't pay for anything). It's been a long time since I tried these so results may have changed but I found "TruePeopleSearch" gave a surprising amount of contact information as did "Pipl" - I didn't try the others. Most sites only find people in the US. Seems like there is a surprising amount of information on people available in the US (for a fee) - so much for any privacy in today's electronic world. At least here in Canada we have not gotten to that point yet.
All links on this page were verified working as of December 22, 2021