Heritage Centre Resource Library

Heritage Centre Resource Library

Discover Local History at Our Heritage Centre Resource Library

Delve into the rich tapestry of our community’s past with our extensive collection of historical resources. Explore family histories, county reference books, local author works, and Nova Scotia history. Our library offers a window into the lives of our ancestors and the evolution of our region.

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Drop-In Mornings: Wednesdays: 9 AM-Noon (until November 13, 2024)

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Appointments available upon request.

The Heritage Centre is located at 10307 Highway #1 (Evangeline Trail), Paradise, NS, B0S 1R0

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Library Holdings

Family Histories

Durling: John Dorland Cremer, Records of the Dorland Family in America, Embracing the Principal Branches- Dorland, Dorlon, Dorlan, Durland, Durling. Sprung from Jan Gerrestse Dorlandt, Holland Emigrant, 1652, and Lambert Janse Dorlandt, Holland Emigrant,1663. Published for the Family, Washington, DC., Byron S. Adams, 1898

Leonard: Charles Bradford Leonard Jr., James Leonard, Ironworker of Taunton Massachusetts, Vol. 1; The First Six Generations of His Descendants. Lulu Enterprises Inc., 2011.

Longley: Robert Dalton Longley, Longley Family: Some Descendants of William Longley, born in England, 1614; a Land Grantee of Lynn Mass. 1638, Died at Groton Mass. 1680. Booklet printed by Ideal Print Shop, North Anson, Maine, 1952. With supplement. Descendants of Robert Dalton Longley

Starratt: Luella A. Marshall, Compiler, Nova Scotia Planters: The Starratts and Their Descendants. Annapolis Heritage Society, 2004

Reference

Ross and Ruth Burgess, MacDonald Museum:

  • Annapolis Township Book, 1998
  • Granville Township Book, 2000
  • Wilmot Township Book, 2002

Paradise Women’s Institute Minutes: 1918-2015 (missing 1938-1941)

Some issues of the New England Genealogical Register.

Local Author

Barbara Bishop, Promises to Keep: A Story of Nova Scotia. Self-published, 2016.

Laura Churchill Duke, Rooted in Deception, Moose House Publications, 2022.

Laura Churchill Duke, Two Crows Sorrow: Love and Death on the North Mountain. Moose House Publications, 2019.

Susan Saunders, Aimee, 1755-1756: Journal of an Acadian Girl during the Grande Derangement. Self-published.

Local and Nova Scotia History

Margaret Conrad, At the Ocean’s Edge: A History of Nova Scotia to Confederation. University of Toronto Press, 2020.

Dianne Hankinson Legard: The Lost Voices of WWII RAF/RCAF Greenwood. Kentville, NS: Gaspereau Press, 2019.

Ruth Holmes Whitehead, Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Communities. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2013.

Paradise Women’s Institute, Paradis Terrestre: A History of the Village of Paradise Nova Scotia, 1991

Brenda J Thompson, A Wholesome Horror: Poor Houses in Nova Scotia, SSP Publications, 2017

Brenda J Thompson, A Wholesome Horror: Poor Houses in Nova Scotia, 2nd edition, SSP Publications, 2021

Brenda J Thompson, Finding Fortune: Documenting and Imagining the Life of Rose Fortune (1774-1864), SSp Publications, 2019

Brenda J Thompson, Enslavers of the Maritimes, Moose House Publications, 2024

Susan Saunders: An Incomplete History of West Paradise, vol. 1, 2020

H. Millard Wright, Otto Strasser in Paradise: A Nazi in Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, 2011

Memoirs, Research, and Reminiscences

Janice (Rafuse) Lawrence, An Upper Granville Diary, Integrity Printing, 2018.

Dean Sabean and Ken Banks, Stories of Marshall’s Cove and the Mountain, T and S Publishing, Kingston NS. No date

David Whitman, Lost in the Woods, The Lure and History of Roxbury, Paradise, Bailey Chase Books.

Victoria Baker, The Croscups’ Painted Parlour, Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada 1990.

Jim Lotz, Green Horizons, The Forests and Foresters of Nova Scotia, Pottersfield Press, Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada,2005.

H.B. Price, A Valley Farm in Nova Scotia, reprinted from the Dalhousie Review, for Department of Natural Resources, a precursor of NS Tourism. No date.

Old Text Books

The Atlantic Readers, Sixth Book, Authorized by the Council of Public Instruction of Nova Scotia, T Nelson and Sons, 1930. (Originally owned by Mark A Leonard and later S.?  Purdy)

Henry Chase Hill, The New Wonder Book of Knowledge: The Marvels of Modern Industry and Invention, The Interesting Stories of Common Things, The Mysterious Processes of Nature, Simply Explained, The John C. Winston Company, Philadelphia, 1936.

Nova Scotia Military History

Ronald E. Gaffney, Battleground Nova Scotia: The British, French, and First Nations at War in the Northeast, 1675-1760, Denver City, Colorado, Lettra Press, Lwrre Pewaa.

A.J.B. Johnston, Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg’s Last Decade, Sydney: Cape Breton University Press, 2007.

Matthew C. Ward, The Battle for Quebec, 1759. Gloucestershire, U.K., 2005.