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When you get to the end of the
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1861 Census of Nova Scotia - Digby County - Polling Districts 1-12 - Roll: M-882
The 1861 Census of Canada is a collection of five provincial censuses. The first national census wasn't held until 1871, because confederation didn't occur until 1867. In 1861, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island only recorded the names of the heads of households, while New Brunswick, Canada East and Canada West recorded the names of everyone in the household.
The census for Digby County is divided up into twelve polling districts. Unfortunately, no place names were listed. I was able to correctly determine the place names for each poll district by reading the book "Report of the Secretary of the Board of Statistics on the Census of Nova Scotia, 1861", that was published in 1862. The table below is from the book as well. You can see the book that has been digitized by Google. I have included the count of males and females in the households. This helps the researcher work backwards from later censuses that list the names of all household members. I have also attempted to transcribe all the names with the common spellings used today.
Taking its name from the Township of Digby, which had been named in honour of Rear Admiral Robert Digby who dispatched the Atlanta to convey loyalists from New York in the spring of 1783 to Conway, which became known as Digby, Digby County was established in 1837. Previously, from August 17, 1759, when Nova Scotia was first divided into counties, this area had been part of Annapolis County. Twenty-four years later, in 1861, Digby County was divided into two districts - the District of Digby and the District of Clare.
Click the buttons below to see the complete Digby County census records for 1861.
Click here to return to the Nova Scotia census map.