Ken Belfountain of Les Amis de Grand-Pre tells me that as well as the bell hill near Canning, he’s heard of a bell hill near Berwick. Both bell hills are said to have been so named because, according to local folklore, Acadian church bells were found there. The bell found near Canning is said to have been discovered on a hill. It’s probably safe to assume that the Acadian bell supposedly found in the Berwick area was also unearthed on a prominent rise of ground.

Most of the folklore about the discovery of Acadian artefacts probably have a minimum of truth to them. Embellished over the years as generations of people told and retold the folklore, they eventually are accepted as gospel. Why would your grandfather cherish and pass on a tale that was told to him by his grandfather and his grandfather before him if it wasn’t at least partly true?

Not all tales about the discovery of long-buried Acadian artefacts have been around for generations, however. Some are of recent origin.

Take the bell hill near Canning, for example. When I first heard this story I thought perhaps it was a piece of folklore originating in the time of the Planters. But when following up on this tale, I learned that while the facts are vague, an Acadian bell is said to have been discovered about 75 years ago a few miles north or north-west of Canning in an area quaintly known as Rabbit Square.

In fact, one long-time county resident knows where the bell was found and he knows the approximate date when it was discovered. Lewis Hazel of Bains Road tells me the bell was discovered by men working on the road. “This was back in the 30s I think,” Hazel said. “I can show you exactly where the bell was dug up.”

Hazel confirmed that folklore is right about where the bell was found, a hill on the Rabbit Square Road. He also told me that the bell ended up in a Wolfville church. Eventually, Hazel said, the bell was purchased by people from Montreal and now rests in a museum there.

Mr. Hazel is familiar with most of the byways in the Canning area, having worked as an operator of heavy road equipment for many years. He tells me that during his excavation work he turned up what appears to be the remains of an Acadian church. This is near his home area and he’s willing to point the site out to anyone.

Leon Barron, a collector of local history who grew up near Canning, tells a slightly different version of the bell hill folktale. “I never heard of a bell being found there,” he said. Barron added that he assumed the area got its name because “the hill was shaped like an (inverted) bell.”

Barron told me that a farm that was once located on (or near) the hill was called Bell Hill Farm, apparently in recognition of the folklore. This was also known as the Macoun place. L. S. (Leslie) Macoun married Sir Frederick Borden’s daughter and they operated the farm. When a tea-room was established in Sir Frederick’s residence in Canning it was called the Bell Hill Tea-room, again possibly in recognition of the folklore about the Acadian bell.

If you read history books compiled by professional researchers, I wrote in a 1998 column, you’ll find that for the most part, the expulsion had little or nothing to do with the Acadians refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the British crown.

In this column, I unwisely went on to state bluntly that the expulsion was simply a “massive land grab by New Englanders.” I’m not the only dabbler in history to make this assumption but it wasn’t the wisest thing to say in this nest of New England descendants. One e-mail letter I received after the column appeared called me a bigot and stated that I often take a derogatory attitude when writing about the New England Planters.

I deny this, of course. However, I still believe that the rich lands of the Acadians along the Minas Basin were too much of a temptation for those in power. And, bottom line, the possibility that those lands could be made available be removing the Acadians was a main factor in the expulsion. Of course other factors, perhaps the Noble massacre for example, also contributed to the expulsion.

Recently I received an e-mail from Dr. Daniel Paul with his review of the book A Great and Noble Scheme. The title of the book, which is the story of the Acadian expulsion, is based on a news dispatch from Nova Scotia that appeared in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1755. I quote the dispatch since it reinforces the views in my 1998 column abut the expulsion simply being a land grab:

“We are now upon a great and noble Scheme of sending the neutral French out of this Province, who have always been secret Enemies and have encouraged our Savages to cut our throats. If we effect their Expulsion, it will be one of the greatest things that ever the English did in America; for by all Accounts, that Part of the Country they possess, is as good Lands as any in the World: In Case therefore we could get some good English Farmers in their Room, this Province would abound with all kinds of Provisions.”

This public notice puts it plainly. While it may be a necessity to rid ourselves of our “secret Enemies,” there also happens to be another reason for removing the Acadians – land as good as any in the world.

I mentioned the reaction to my 1998 column to Dr. Paul and he wrote later that he concurs with my observation. “A land grab was a major objective in the deportation,” he said.

“However, Dr. Paul wrote, “I think fanatical anti-Catholic hatred, deeply instilled in both New Englanders and the English was also a major factor. Keep in mind that a Catholic could not run for public office in most of the British Empire until after 1783, when laws forbidding it were repealed, at the insistence of non-French Catholics.

“It’s sometimes forgotten that the English society of that era was among the most racially biased societies that ever existed. Class orientated, open discriminating among themselves was rampant. When it came to Native Americans, most held the opinion that they were animals. It is not unusual to run across a comment from some of their colonial officials about the French and Spaniards in particular, being inclined to cohabit with them and produce half humans.”

“During one of our evening rambles about Grand Pre,” Phillip Smith wrote in 1884, “we came upon a number of hollows partially filled with earth and debris, and overgrown with… weeds and bushes.”

Smith noted that the hollows marked the cellars “on which stood the thatched dwellings of the peaceful Acadians,” the dwellings that were burned during the expulsion period. Such excavations, Smith said, are to be found “in great numbers along the banks of the Canard and Cornwallis Rivers, and in the valley of the Gaspereau.”

Smith is the author of Acadia: A Lost Chapter in American History, published in New York in 1884. I learned about the book from Roger Hetu of the Les Amis de Grand-Pre. Mr. Hetu contacted me about my column on the search for the Grand Pre church bell, later forwarding the website address where extracts from Smith’s book are found. One chapter of Smith’s work deals with folklore about the Acadian church at Grand Pre and its missing bell. Mr Hetu said that it was the basis for a legend about the bell that was later published in 1907 by the Revue Acadienne.

Smith’s description of Grand Pre well over a century ago offers a fascinating glimpse of old Acadia. Apparently, Smith was exploring this area, either as a historical researcher or tourist, and had acquired the services of a guide identified as Pierre. They were in Grand Pre, on an “evening ramble,” when Pierre called Smith over to the “very spot where stood the church (of the Acadians).” It was there that Smith learned about the fate of the church bell.

Standing at what Pierre identified as the site of the church – “a small rectangle marked by a slight rise of earth at the four corners” – Smith was told that the bell was “buried, just before the English came, in a vault built of stone and covered with earth. The vault was walled up in two parts; into one of these they put the bell, and the other was for church treasure.”

At this point, Smith asked his guide if this meant that the bell was still buried there.

The guide replied in the negative. “Some believe that the bell and the church treasure were dug up and carried away by robbers. A great many years ago a strange vessel was observed in the Basin of Minas, and a party of men was seen to leave it about midnight and come ashore here.

“Before daybreak, a terrible storm arose and the next morning nothing was seen of the ship. Some thought that during the night… they heard the sounds of a church bell; but little was thought of it until they observed the earth had been disturbed, and a piece of wood was picked up near this place of a shape sometimes used to support a bell in a tower. From these circumstances they were led to surmise that the robbers had found where the vault was and carried away what they wanted.”

Pierre told Smith that the vessel carrying the bell was lost at sea during the storm. However, he said, his grandfather didn’t believe that robbers were involved. “My grandfather… claimed the contents of the vault were put on a vessel bound to the Gaspe coast, and were intended for a chapel at a village of some Acadians who had taken refuge there; but the ship was lost within sight of land and every soul on board perished.

Both versions of this folktale have the Grand Pre church bell resting somewhere out there on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the front veranda of a rural Kings County home rests a large and very ancient bell. Every year for several decades it has been a family tradition to ring the bell once on New Year’s Eve to mark the passing of the old year. The bell has a loud, clear sound and people who live several miles away in the next community claim they have heard it peal on New Year’s Eve.

If folklore can be accepted as gospel, this bell is rather unique. According to the folklore, this may be the bell that once called the Acadians to worship at the church of St. Charles, the bell that Longfellow said, “softly the Angelus sounded” at Grand Pre.

Folklore has it that the bell came from a French ship and was used in the Grand Pre church. The folklore is hazy on some points but the story goes that bell survived the burning of the church during the expulsion of the Acadians. It isn’t clear whether the bell was found in the church ruins after the Planters arrived or if it was hidden by the Acadians and later discovered. However, according to the folklore the bell survived and eventually wound up being used in a Planter church; the church named in the folklore is said to have been in the Greenwich area.

Eventually the bell was discarded after the church in which it resided was remodelled; apparently, the bell must have been used in the church for well over a century, but again, folklore isn’t clear on this.

How it made its way to an antique dealer in Berwick is a mystery since I assume that a bell with this lineage would have been treasured and preserved by the parishioners of the Planter church. However, I’m only relating the folklore as it was given to me by the family who now own the bell, Readers can decide for themselves if the story is plausible and if any of it could be true. Like a lot of folklore, there often is a kernel of truth in every old tale that has been handed down from generation to generation.

At their request, I’ve deliberately not mentioned the name of the family on whose veranda the bell now sits. Some 30 years ago, one of the members of the family purchased the bell from the Berwick antique dealer whose name was given to me as Elwood Morse. Mr. Morse, who passed along the folklore about the bell to the current owners, unfortunately, is deceased.

While they wish to remain anonymous to the general public, the family has asked me to pass their name along to Les Amis de Grand-Pre so they can examine the bell, and perhaps have someone with the right kind of expertise appraise it. Hopefully, this is the bell from the church of the Grand Pre Acadians. I’ll have a report in an upcoming column.

In the early 1950s a Washington Post columnist with the last name Pearson visited Kentville. He was strolling along a town street one afternoon when a man tipped his hat and said, “Good morning Mr. Pearson.” When the columnist returned home he wrote a piece about being recognised by a total stranger because of a physical feature common to his family, the large “Pearson nose.”

What the newspaper man didn’t know is that to one of Kentville’s best known entertainers, everyone was Mr. Pearson. Al Clarke had the habit of addressing any male he ran into, stranger or acquaintance, as Mr. Pearson. Advertiser editor Harold Woodman heard about the incident, wrote a column about it, and gave everyone a good laugh. But not at Clarke’s expense. Clarke himself, a cheerful, always ready with a funny story kind of gentleman, related the incident many times when he wanted to lighten the moment.

The good morning Mr. Pearson story is one of many tales that make up the Al Clarke legend. Many people still remember Al Clarke, but he is largely unknown to younger generations. There was a time, however, when Al Clarke was a popular Valley celebrity who was hailed for his musical, theatrical and sports promotions.

Born in Canard and a Planter descendant, Al Clarke’s achievements were numerous. In the early 1900s, Clarke, along with Fred Hiltz, pioneered the opening of a silent movie theatre, the Nicklet, on the third floor of the Hiltz block (now the location of the White Family Funeral Home). The Advertiser article celebrating Clarke’s life, published on his death at age 76 in January 1958, noted that he was the founder of Kentville’s “first motion picture house” but it is believed that his movie theatre was the first in this region. Later, circa 1910, Clarke moved the theatre to a new building on Main Street, and the Nicklet eventually became the Empire Theatre, the space now occupied by D. M. Reid Jewellers Ltd.

Clarke and Hiltz added a stage to the original Nicklet and produced theatrical shows. Stage shows were produced at the Main Street location as well, and said The Advertiser tribute, many were American-based productions that first played in Halifax before coming to Kentville. For decades, Clarke produced a series of popular musical variety shows throughout Kings County using local musicians and singers. “Perhaps Mr. Clarke’s most cherished work in the entertainment field,” The Advertiser said, “was provided in the Second World War. He organized amateur groups and presented shows throughout the entire Valley, raising large amounts for the Red Cross.”

Clarke is not as well known for promotion of sports but he was a pioneer here as well. “When the new Kentville arena opened in 1913,” The Advertiser noted, “Clarke and Hiltz sponsored the Kentville senior team of the Western Nova Scotia League. Mr. Clarke promoted many track and field events and road races, and he also brought (Nova Scotia boxing great) Sam Langford here.” Assisted by Clarke (Langford was blind) the boxer made many appearances at boxing matches and other sporting events.

Clarke was a talented singer as well and for many years was a member of the original and famous Clarke-Cross Quartette along with his brother John, and Spurgeon and John Cross.

“Known to everyone as Al,” said The Advertiser, “(Clarke) was one of Kentville’s most popular and colorful citizens. He enjoyed a wide friendship and in the New Ross-Aaldersville area… as throughout Kings his name was a household one.”

A map showing settlements in Grand Pre, the Gaspereau Valley, along the Cornwallis River, in Canard and in the Canning-Pereau area, dated 1714, indicates the Acadians worshipped at three churches in Kings County. In his Kings County history, however, A. W. H. Eaton only mentions two churches, in the parishes along the Canard River and at Grand Pre.

“Ecclesiastically” Eaton writes, “the large district of Minas was divided into two parishes, St. Joseph at Riviere aux Canards and St. Charles, at Grand Pre.” Each place “had a wooden church with a tower and a bell,” Eaton said. There is also a line in Longfellow’s poem, Evangeline, which refers to the Grand Pre church and its bell which “from the belfry softly the Angelus sounded.”

There is a bit of a mystery about the bell of St. Charles church, however. Despite the historical mention by Eaton, it is not known for sure that a bell existed. And if it did exist and once sounded the Angelus as Longfellow states, what became of the bell is not known. All the churches in Minas were put to the torch during the expulsion, along with the houses, barns, mills and smaller outbuildings of the Acadians. It’s possible that if the St. Charles church bell existed, it was either destroyed in the fire, removed and hidden by the Acadians and since lost, or taken by New England soldiers.

All of these possibilities are being investigated by a committee called Les Amis de Grand-Pre (the Friends of Grand Pre) a volunteer group who in their words are “supporters of Acadian activities.” I spoke recently with a member of the group who said that in looking for a project for this year, Les Amis decided to determine if a bell existed, and if it did, to determine what became of it.

“Since at the time, most of the churches in Acadia had some sort of signalling device connected with worship times,” Les Amis member Ken Belfountain said, “it’s possible there was a bell in the Grand Pre Church. The population of Grand Pre was large enough at the time (of the expulsion) to have something like that.”

Belfountain said there are several theories about what might have happened to the bell, presuming it existed. But, Belfountain said, “we haven’t found any records that state the bell was even made. No doubt it would have been made in France. We’re looking at that angle but nothing substantial has been found there either.”

An Internet search for information on the Grand Pre bell is being spearheaded byanother committee member, Roger Hetu. Not surprisingly, the Internet abounds with information about the churches of the Acadians and there are references to some of them having bells. However, Mr. Hetu’s research has failed to turn up evidence that the Grand Pre church, or the church in the Canard area, had bells.

One of the leads being followed is the fact that in California an “Evangeline bell” exists and it may be of Acadian origin. Over time Mr Hetu and Les Amis de Grand-Pre will determine if this is the bell that once called the Acadians to worship at their seaside church in Grand Pre.

Long-time residents in this area are familiar with the story about Jawbone Corner and how it got its name. However, only history buffs know that the locally famous T-junction was once named Hamilton’s Corner and is the site of an Acadian settlement. There are all kinds of historical tidbits like this on Kings County and for all the history nuts out there here’s a quiz on some of the more interesting ones.

1. During the American War of Independence, George Washington contemplated attacking Nova Scotia and it’s believed that an actual plan of action was drawn up. Did the War directly affect the residents of Kings County?

Answer: While no organised military action took place against the province, American privateers roamed the waters off Nova Scotia and made their way up the Bay of Fundy and into Minas Basin. James Stuart Martell, in his work on pre-Loyalist settlements around the Minas Basin, writes that in 1778, American rebels, who were roaming the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin, made their way up the Cornwallis River and plundered Kings County homes.

2. They called it the Silver Link and it was officially opened in 1931. Newspapers hailed it as the widest structure of its kind east of Montreal and newspaper publicity linked it to the Planters. Where is the Silver Link located?

Answer: Over 500 people gathered on October 13, 1931, to celebrate the opening of the bridge spanning the Cornwallis River in Kentville. Newspaper reports say the bridge was decorated with aluminum paint, hence the name, Silver Link. The Silver Link replaced a bridge that had been in place since the late 1890s writes Mabel Nichols in her Kentville history, The Devil’s Half Acre.

3. Opening in the early 1900s, it was the first movie theatre in Kentville and probably the first in Kings County. The five cent admission fee gave the place its name. Who was the movie pioneer?

Answer: The well-known Kentville entertainer, Al Clark, is credited with bringing the first movie theatre to Kentville. Clark’s obituary states that he operated the theatre “in the early 1900s” upstairs in the Margeson block, later the Hiltz Bros. block and charged a nickel admission. Hence the name, the “Nicklet.”

4. A book could be written about the turbulent life of this gentleman. Emigrating to the United States from Ireland, he got caught up in the American Revolution and was forced to leave the country because he was pro-British. After many hair-raising adventures, he arrived in Nova Scotia and settled in Kings County. He opened a large general store in Kentville and dabbled in milling and lumbering, becoming rich in the process. Who was he?

Answer: The Irishman with British sympathies was Henry Magee. When he refused to support the rebel cause in America, Magee was forced to flee to Nova Scotia. He received a land grant on the North Mountain but decided to settle in Horton’s Corner, now Kentville, where he built a home and a general store in 1788. Magee also operated a grist mill and a saw mill. He died in 1806 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery. You can find more details about Magee in volume 4 of Kings County Vignettes (available at the Kings County Museum and local bookstores) Mabel Nichols Kentville history, The Devil’s Half Acre and Eaton’s history of Kings County. Check out my website for an article on Magee.

5. The Mi’kmaq and perhaps earlier native people were here in the Minas Basin before the French arrived in 1604. Is there any evidence that there were European explorers in the Minas Basin before the French?

Answer: Oddly enough, there is. When Champlain was making his second exploratory visit to the Minas Basin in 1606 he discovered “a very old cross, covered with moss and almost rotten” at the head of the Minas Basin. Champlain, in his account of his explorations, observed that the cross was a “plain indication that before this there had been Christians there.” See the introduction to Eaton’s Kings County history, the section on the “Acadian French.”

When you look at the history of the communities, villages and towns of Kings County you’ll generally find family surnames that are synonymous with them. To put it another way, there are usually families that have lived in some of our county villages and towns since the early days and in one way or another have put their mark on them.

An obvious example is the once prominent DeWolf family town who have left their name on a thriving university town. Eaton, in his Kings County history, tells us that naming Wolfville after the DeWolfs was “entirely appropriate,” since “along the… main street lived a considerable group of families” with this surname. Prominent among them was Judge Elisha DeWolf, who according to Eaton was “the leading man of the village.”

Eaton indicates that Wolfville was named “by 1829 or ’30,” but I’ve also seen 1828 mentioned as the year the DeWolf family was honoured. Looking at a provincial directory published about 30 years after Wolfville was named, we find that the DeWolfs are still the prominent family in the town, with several of the family holding public offices. Oddly, the town name was spelled “DeWolfe” when the directory was published in 1864.

Another example of an area being named after a prominent family is Billtown. Eaton’s Kings County history notes that Billtown was settled in around 1770 by representatives of the Bill and Rockwell family. The Bills were Cornwallis grantees and were prominent in the 18th and 19th century as members of the legislature and as civic officers.

Eaton doesn’t tell us when Billtown was named. However, the community is listed in Hutchinson’s 1864-65 directory where it is spelled as Bill Town. The directory lists two Bills as members of the community at this time, William C. Bill and Caleb R. Bill, M.P.P. Members of the Bill family, descendants of the original settlers, still live in the community.

Hall’s Harbour isn’t named after a prominent citizen of the community and is probably one of the few areas in Kings County to honour a scoundrel. However, there are several family names long associated with the community, among them Parker, Simpson, and Neville. Hutchinson’s Directory list four Parkers living in the community at the time and one Nevils. I assume that Nevils was later changed to Neville.

The Eagles family has been associated with this area since 1763 when John Eagell received a grant of 500 acres in Horton. The name obviously was later changed to Eagles and is found as such in Hutchinson’s Directory for areas such as Gaspereau and Wolfville. In 1864 Joseph Eagles was a blacksmith in Gaspereau, and Gideon Eagles a shoemaker.

Ubiquitous, that is, everywhere, aptly applies to the Bishop surname. Few families have had such an impact on this area as the Bishops, unless it’s the Eatons. About a century after arriving in Kings County, members of the Bishop family were established in most major communities. Hutchinson’s Directory lists the Bishops as farmers, millers, teachers, way office keepers, watchmakers, carriagemakers and blacksmiths.

There’s an interesting connection between Kentville’s Oak Grove Cemetery and the War of 1812, Ivan Smith noted in a recent e-mail. “Probably you know of this, but just in case (here are the details)” Smith wrote.

By coincidence, I’ve been planning a column on the historic cemetery and some of the older grave sites there. However, until Ivan Smith wrote I was unaware of any connection between Oak Grove, the War of 1812 and a Liverpool privateer. Oak Grove, as readers may be aware, is “the earliest burial ground of Kentville people,” (I’m quoting A. W. H. Eaton’s history of Kings County) and was established in 1817. The cemetery was given a special distinction when a legislative act was passed in 1845 that provided for its supervision and management. The original cemetery, about half an acre, was part of a land grant of 750 acres given to Benjamin Peck in 1764. Some of Peck’s grant comprised what is now part of downtown Kentville. When Peck died his land was divided between his sons, Benjamin Jr. and Cyrus.

Now to the connection between the cemetery, privateers and the War of 1812.

Ivan Smith tells me that during the War of 1812, one Capt. Barss Jr. commanded the small Liverpool privateer, the “Liverpool Packet.” It was “the most famous privateer ship of all” Smith said, “and within a year (Barss) was rich, and his ship was famous. He captured 33 American ships, mostly off Boston and Salem, bringing them safely to Liverpool.”

Barss’ luck ran out in the summer of 1812. In June of that year, he was forced to capitulate to a superior American ship. Captured off the waters of Maine, Barss and his crew were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Eventually Barss was released, apparently on the condition that he no longer captain a privateer and plunder American ships.

In 1817 Barss and his family moved to Kentville. There he purchased the farm of Benjamin Peck Jr. However, one of the conditions of the sale was that Peck would remain in possession of a small portion of his land. Why he did this is explained by A. W. H. Eaton his Kings County history.

“When Benjamin Peck, the younger, late of Horton, with his wife Mary, deeded his farm to Joseph Barss Jr., he reserved half an acre for a public burying place, in the grove of oaks on the north side of the county road ‘where his honored father and mother and several other persons were buried’, this public burying ground to be perfectly open and free to people of all denominations forever.”

Now you have the connection between Oak Grove Cemetery and the War of 1812 – and the Kentville connection with one of the most famous privateers in Nova Scotia’s history. My thanks to Ivan Smith for bringing this to my attention. If you’d like to read more about Oak Grove Cemetery, Peck and Barss turn to Eaton’s history of Kings County. There are also websites devoted to the career of Joseph Barss Jr.

Barss himself eventually came to rest in Oak Grove Cemetery. He died at an early age, 49, in 1824. His headstone and those of the Peck family can still be found in Oak Grove.

I just spent the better part of the morning looking at lists containing thousands of deceased people.

This isn’t as macabre as it seems at first glance and actually it was interesting reading and to some extent, educational. Loaded into my computer are files with the birth and death dates of thousands of former residents of Kings, Annapolis, Hants and Digby County. The files contain the ages of the deceased at time of death, their marital status, birth place, parent’s names and occupation, and the cause and place of death.

Information such as this is invaluable if you’re tracing your ancestors. In my case, I was looking for information on the children of my great-grandfather. A couple of his offspring were shown as being alive at the time a census was conducted but they didn’t appear in later records. The file told me what happened to one of them. My great-aunt, Esmorilda, succumbed to a mysterious ailment, inflammation, when she was 13, dying in Hall’s Harbour.

As I said, this information is stored on several files in the hard drive of my computer and I can access it with a few clicks of my mouse. You can find the same sort of information by going downstairs into the genealogy section at the Kings County Museum and delving into family history files, census and probate records, birth, death and marriage records, cemetery records, a massive compilation of obituaries, community profiles, history books and that like. Or you can contact the museum, purchase the disc containing thousands of Valley birth and death records and load it into your computer.

With a computer you literally have local history, or genealogy actually, at your fingertips. The Museum has many of the counties vital records on computer discs and for a few bucks you can take one or two or all of them home and at your leisure search for information on your ancestors.

As well birth and death records of Kings, Annapolis, Digby and Hants from 1864 to 1877, other compact discs available at the Museum are Kings County probate records, 1785 to 1950, an index of Kings County Deeds, 1764 to 1951, Kings County Marriages, 1864 to 1909, Kings County Cemetery Records, Kings County Census dated 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901. All of the above are available on separate discs and on one CD called Kings County Vital Statistics. There is also a CD with Acadian Church records and the early Acadian census of 1671 and 1758. This is in English and includes 30 early Acadian maps.

Most of the above discs are fairly comprehensive. For example, the cemetery disc contains records from all 100 of the county burial grounds, complete with tombstone inscriptions, and the marriage disc has nearly 6,000 records giving bride, groom, age, parents, and so on; the probate records disc contains over 25,000 records.

Individual CDs sell for $25. However, you can save yourself a few bucks. The combination disc, Kings County Vital Statistics, is a genealogical bargain at $99. The combination disc doesn’t include Acadian records, however.