Here is the second entry on Nova Scotia Municipal Histories. The first entry was made on May
24, 2025. That musing outlined ten municipal histories; this musing covers but three. What is
interesting is that these three are much larger volumes than the first ten. And, in fact, the two
largest of these represent more rural regions that have been written by a passionate author, who obviously spent years researching and then self-publishing the books. A labour of love that relegated the time and dollars spent out the back door! The readers of these books should bow in deference to these authors, who most likely saved them many hours, days, weeks, months and years of researching their cherished family trees!
When people are undertaking genealogical history for their families, they gravitate to family histories, county histories and municipal histories. I find that in Nova Scotia the preference is for family histories, such as the McClelland’s or Smith’s, followed by municipality histories as they are more focused than county histories. We have sold more municipal histories than the others. The purchasers are either family researchers or people who now live in the municipality of interest.
The Story of Dartmouth; by John Patrick Martin, B.A., LL.D, Town Historian of Dartmouth, Historian of the Charitable Irish Society, a Vice-President of the Nova Scotia Historical Society; with a Foreword by Dr. Thomas H. Raddall; Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; privately printed for the author, Dartmouth, 1957. Printed and bound in Canada. Signed by the author on the title page, dated Dec. 1957. Signed by the author.
Its 550 pages are replete with stories and statistics, together with accounts of places and of
people that influenced the growth of the community during two long centuries. Interspersed
throughout the book are black and white photographs.
The book was reprinted in 1965 and again in 1981. All editions of this monumental work on the City of Dartmouth are very scarce.
This first edition I only acquired last week. I have sold copies of the reprint. The most fascinating thing I have found with this book, is that there used to be a railway crossing the Narrows, back in the late 1800s. See the photo.
Our Mountains and Glens: The History of River Denys, Big Brook and Lime Hill (North
Side), Cape Breton, Nova Scotia; Rita Heuser Farrell; self-published, R.R.3, Truro, Nova
Scotia, 1993.
Widowed in 1976 and retired in 1984, Rita turned her time and energy to the production of this history of her native community. Commencing research in 1985, entailing thousands of miles of travel and countless interviews, the project has been nevertheless extremely rewarding – both from a sense of accomplishment and from the many, many newly formed friendships which developed during these eight years – contacts which would otherwise never be made. The author’s sincere wish is for these efforts to be a source of please for all, be they residents, descendants, or casual readers.
The book is well illustrated with black and white photographs. The first 52 chapters are family- oriented, rich with genealogy information on families primarily of Scottish descent. The final 30 chapters are centred on the communities. A very high-end and expensive production for small rural communities – obviously a labour of love. This book is extremely rare and as this book is posted on the internet it is the only copy available.
This book acquired in February 2024 was sold last month.
Western Shore, Gold River, Martins Point; by Willa J. Kaizer; self-published, no date but
circa 1991.
This book basically covers the shore of Nova Scotia between Chester Basin and Mahone Bay.
The book is not dated but there is a date of 1991 on the pedigree charts. The author who grew up in Westend Shore died in 2021 at the age of 99.
The naming of shorelines in Nova Scotia is quite confusing. The bottom shoreline of the
province pretty much runs in a straight line from Yarmouth right through Cape Breton. The shore from Yarmouth to Halifax is called the South Shore, but continuing on its path after Halifax it is called the Eastern Shore. And right in the middle of the South Shore is a village called Western Shore.
This book is not page numbered in total but page numbered in sections, sort of. In total, some 900 pages of history, photos, pedigree or family charts, and then 544 pages of genealogies of 26 families. See the listing in the photos. The Hiltz family has 46 pages of detail while the Cleavelands have but 5. The average is 20 pages per family. For those 26 families, this book has the family charts as well as the incredible detail in the genealogy section. This book will save a family tree researcher an enormous amount of time.
But, which family should have this book. It is really the family tree and genealogy of the region. But, it will likely be some current family member deciding to acquire the book. I hope they share the data.
This book is extremely scarce and at the moment this copy will be the only one available on-
line.
We should not have this book for very long.