Nova Scotia Death Registrations from 1864 to 1974

Civil registration of deaths in Nova Scotia began in 1864, continued to 1877, then lapsed until 1908, when the province resumed record-keeping. Registrations for 1864-1877 are incomplete, and there are two registers for the city of Halifax from 1890-1908. Since October 1, 1908, the records have been maintained without interruption, providing a long-term view of mortality.

Use Cases

• Genealogical research using FirstName, Father Last Name, and Mother Maiden Name to trace family lineages.
• Historical demographic analysis using Birth Year, Age Months, and Gender to study population mortality patterns.
• Public health research using Cause 1A, Cause 1C, and Cause2 to investigate historical disease prevalence.
• Socioeconomic studies using Occupation, Industry, and County to examine mortality disparities across professions and regions.
• Local history research using Burial Place, Undertaker, and Informant Address to reconstruct community practices.

Strengths

• Covers a long temporal range from 1864 to 1974, with specific coverage noted for Halifax from 1890-1908.
• Contains detailed individual-level columns, including cause of death, occupation, and familial relationships.
• Is available on multiple platforms (Socrata, Open Canada), indicating cross-verification and broad accessibility.

Limitations

• The record-keeping lapsed between 1877 and 1908, and the 1864-1877 registrations are explicitly noted as incomplete, creating data gaps.
• Sources conflict on metadata completeness: one Socrata entry lists a license (OGL-CA-2.0) and an organization, while another shows these fields as 'None'.
• Key quantitative details like row count and dataset size are unknown across all sources.

Provenance

Source

Government of Nova Scotia

Collection Method

Civil registration maintained by provincial authorities.

Time Range

1864-1877 and 1908-1974; City of Halifax 1890-1908

Freshness

2026-04-17 15:30:14.002040

Geography

Nova Scotia, Canada