Record Atlas
5 eras · 1604–2026 · 32 places

Acadia — the Maritimes

Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal), Halifax, Louisbourg, Île Saint-Jean. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.

Where researchers lose records here

1713–1755 — THE TRAP, in two halves. Mainland Acadia became British in 1713 and its people did not move; Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island stayed French until 1758 and 1763. Same families, same generation, two sovereigns and two archives.

1755–1764 — THE TRAP for every Acadian line. The deportation scattered the population to the thirteen colonies, to England, to France, to Saint-Domingue and eventually to Louisiana. A family that vanishes from Nova Scotia in 1755 is not dead and is not in Nova Scotia — look in the Massachusetts town records, in the Poitou and Belle-Île registers in France, and in the Louisiana church registers from 1765.

Whose archive this ground was

YearsWho held itWhose archive that means
1604–1713 France — Acadie Généalogie Québec / the Drouin Collection · Library and Archives Canada · FamilySearch

Catholic parish registers from Port-Royal, thin and interrupted — the colony changed hands between France and England seven times before 1713.
1713–1755 Britain — Nova Scotia; France keeps Île Royale and Île Saint-Jean Généalogie Québec / the Drouin Collection · Library and Archives Canada · FamilySearch

THE TRAP, in two halves. Mainland Acadia became British in 1713 and its people did not move; Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island stayed French until 1758 and 1763. Same families, same generation, two sovereigns and two archives.
1755–1764 Britain — the Grand Dérangement Généalogie Québec / the Drouin Collection · Library and Archives Canada · FamilySearch · National Archives Catalog (NARA)

THE TRAP for every Acadian line. The deportation scattered the population to the thirteen colonies, to England, to France, to Saint-Domingue and eventually to Louisiana. A family that vanishes from Nova Scotia in 1755 is not dead and is not in Nova Scotia — look in the Massachusetts town records, in the Poitou and Belle-Île registers in France, and in the Louisiana church registers from 1765.
1764–1867 Britain — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Library and Archives Canada · Généalogie Québec / the Drouin Collection · FamilySearch

Acadians permitted to return, to different land. The Loyalist influx after 1783 doubles the population again and brings a second body of American records with it.
1867–2026 Canada — the Maritime provinces Library and Archives Canada · FamilySearch · Find a Grave

Provincial civil registration from the 1860s onward, each province on its own timetable.

The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.

See the whole span, 1604–2026, on the map →

The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.

32 places on this ground

1856 FamilySearch collections reach this ground

Ranked with the regional ones first — a collection for a province is usually a better lead than a national index, though the national index is often where a name is actually written down. A free account opens the images.

…and 1796 more.

All record regions · The map