Documents of Historic and Genealogical Importance

The following pages contain original or transcribed documents that have historic or genealogical importance to the Prospect area. They include census records, school records, business directories and tax assessment records. These documents capture the village and its residents at a specific time and place. They were created by government or directly by the hands of Prospectors themselves.

Business/Community Directories

Annual business and community directories were the precursor of the telephone book were and started being published for the City of Halifax and occasionally for communities throughout Nova Scotia starting in the 1860s. The following are transcriptions of the various directories that are available for this period:

• 1864-65: Hutchinson's Nova Scotia Directory (Prospect, Blind Bay, Shad Bay)
• 1868-69: McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory (Prospect)
• 1871: Lovell's Province of Nova Scotia Business Directory (Prospect)
• 1890: McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory (Prospect)
• 1914: McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory (Prospect, Prospect Bay and Prospect Road)

School Records

As school was established at Prospect as early as 1828. Unfortunately a lot of the records associated with the school have been lost. The following are examples of some of the records that have been maintained at the Nova Scotia Archives in RG 14.

Transcribed by Anna MacDonald (offsite: Halifax County Genweb) - note: Ancestry.com has taken Rootsweb down, where the Halifax County Genweb site is located, and has not provided a timeline that would see the website and its content restored. The links below take you to the archives version of the website on the WayBackMachine.

• 12 January 1835 to 3 December 1835 (alternative link)
• 1 May 1836 to 10 November 1836 (alternative link)
• 1 March 1839 to 30 November 1839 (alternative link)

Transcribed by the Prospect Genealogical Wesbite

• 1 May 1846 to 31 October 1846
• 1 May 1848 to 1 November 1848

Tax Assessment Rolls

Every year the people of Halifax County had their real property assessed, much like today, and a tax was levied on their property. In Prospect for the years 1891-1947 these tax assessment records are available. These records not only show the approximate wealth of the heads of households in Prospect, but they are a good genealogical tool to help us pin point who was living in the village at any one time. These records are also helpful because they contain the remarks of the tax collector and in some cases note that someone has removed to another location, "Gone to Halifax," or has died since the last collection of taxes, "Died in 1892". 

The can be viewed at the Halifax Regional Municipality Archives but were once available on microfilm at the Nova Scotia Archives in RG 35, series 'A' - Halifax County Assessment Records.

When taxes were issued by the municipality, much like today, residents got a tax bill outlining how much they paid. Prospect was notorious for withholding its taxes for political reasons and pops up a number of times in the Halifax County Council minutes as being a particularly hard place to collect taxes. A number of these tax bills have survived and are shown below:

• Estate of Henry Duggan, 5 July 1894
• William Shea Jr., 31 August 1895
• William Shea Jr., 18 October 1896
• William Shea Jr. 21 October 1897
• William Shea Jr., 20 October 1898

Probate Records

The Last Testament and Will of many of the residents of the Prospect area have been preserved and are available for researchers at the Nova Scotia Archives in record group (RG) 48. Below is a listing of all identified wills available at the Nova Scotia Archives. Some of the wills have been transcribed and can be downloaded.