Nova Scotia
Archives

Originally created to list all the residents of a city, all the residents of a province, all the businesses in a specific community, or all the subscribers to a telephone service, back copies of provincial and city directories have become invaluable resources when conducting family history research.

Directories are useful for developing individual family residency patterns and profiles; revealing past populations and patterns of urban development; profiling specific site-use patterns; determining approximate dates for original house construction; profiling previous occupants of a specific property; and enhancing built-heritage research.

A digitzed version of McAlpine’s Nova Scotia Directory 1907-08 is available on this website.

See also, on this website, Using City, Provincial, Telephone and Business Directories in Archival Research for much more information on finding and using these research tools.

Various Nova Scotia provincial and Halifax city directories are also available in digitized format on the Library and Archives Canada website.

Provincial Directories, 1864-1914, Halifax City Directories, 1869-1999, and various other miscellaneous directories are available either in print or microfilm format at the Nova Scotia Archives. A full list of Directories from Nova Scotia Archives Holdings, located on this website, will provide you with microfilm reel numbers for onsite access and use. See Hours and Location to plan a visit.