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Cape Breton Island was a distinct colony from 1784 to 1820, and these records were administrated separately until 1847. Time and a variety of record keeping practices created the distinct series of records known as Cape Breton land petitions and other material, (1787-1843) within the Nova Scotia Commissioner of Crown Lands records.

This database serves as an entry point to 3,340 petitions and related documents (which may include maps, plans, surveyors reports and similar documents). Here, the records are searchable and viewable online. Land petitions and memorials often had multiple people's names attached to them, which made searching for specific individuals a challenge. This updated resource makes it much easier to locate records related to individual people or places, increasing accessibility to these valuable documents.

For land records relating to Nova Scotia as a whole, with occasional overlap with Cape Breton, please see the Nova Scotia Land Papers 1765 to 1800 database.