The following information is taken from an online newsletter published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. I'm not sure I've seen it on this list and wanted everyone to know this source is available. Diane LeBlanc Delbridge ----snip---- An Acadian Parish Remembered: The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702–1755 Numerous documents and records must have been created by the several parishes of old Acadia. In Nova Scotia today, however, the only associated materials to have survived and remained in the province are two original pre-Deportation parish registers from Annapolis Royal. The Public Archives of Nova Scotia has made these two registers from St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, available online as a searchable database. They cover the years 1702–1755, and serve as the official surviving record of baptisms, marriages, and burials within the parish at Annapolis, up to the time of the Expulsion. For family historians who can trace their ancestry to Port-Royal, these two registers provide tangible links to the last generations of Acadian French living there before the Expulsion. In addition, many entries include information for families or individuals who had migrated from Port-Royal to newer communities such as Beaubassin (Amherst, NS) on the Isthmus of Chignecto, La Hève (LaHave) on Nova Scotia's south shore, and Les Mines (near Wolfville, NS) — the latter node of settlement centered around Grand-Pré, perhaps the best-known of all Acadian communities. The register entries — over 3550 of them — provide the names of individuals, along with the dates of their baptisms, marriages, or burials. Parents and godparents at a christening, and witnesses to a marriage, are almost always identified. In addition, supplementary details such as the exact date of birth (versus the later date of baptism), the name of the person who blessed the infant (often done immediately after birth), or specific details regarding place of residence for those from outside the parish, are frequently provided. All these various pieces of information have been extracted from each entry in the two registers and entered into a fully searchable electronic database. The end product contains information for 2,579 births, 552 marriages, and 421 deaths within the parish. In addition, every page within the two registers — over 900 in all — has been digitized and electronically correlated with the database, so that for each transcribed/translated search result, researchers may link to and view the exact entry from the appropriate register. For more information about the registers and to search the database, please visit http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/acadian/.

-----Original Message----- From: dlddvm@ix.netcom.com [mailto:dlddvm@ix.netcom.com] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2003 8:13 PM To: ACADIAN-CAJUN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [ACADIAN-CAJUN] Port Royal registers The link given below has been great. I've been following my Martin ancestors from the beginning of the years covered on this site to the end. Since I really haven't been researching long, this would be the first time to actually follow families. It has been thrilling to watch the births of children and exciting to watch them get to marriage, sad to see the children who do not make it and to see the elders pass on. Then the grandchildren come and grow. It has been interesting to see who their friends were and to see some of my Breaux relatives marry into the Martin family. This makes it so much more real for me. What a great site! Thanks Margaret Martin Broussard For more information about the registers and to search the database, please visit http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/acadian/. ==== ACADIAN-CAJUN Mailing List ==== http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=topics.ethnic.acadian-caj un This is a link to the Acadian-Cajun Message Board at RootsWeb. ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237