Important information is also to be found in the four-volume set of vital statistics excerpted from The Presbyterian Witness and Evangelical Advocate by J. and S. McCormick, Middleton, NS. These volumes, all titled Vital Statistics, 1848 - 1887, sort the excerpted information alphabetically, as follows:
In their introduction to these volumes, the compilers indicate that The Presbytarian Witness and Evangelical Advocate was first published in Halifax, NS, on 8 January 1848, and continued to be published for seventy years. It was initially connected only with the Free (Presbyterian) Church, although information was not limited to this denomination. In January 1856, Rev. Robert Murray of the Free Church and Charles Robson, Elder of the Presbyterian Church of NS, took over editorship from James Barnes. They enlarged the paper by creating two sections: religious and secular. Usually the vital statistics were placed in the secular section but on occasion they appeared in the religious section. By 1865 the two sections were amalgamated and the newspaper generally consisted of eight pages.
The four-volume index compiled by the McCormicks offers approximately 70,000 extractions of vital statistics, arranged in alphabetical order according to surname, covering a fifty-year period (1848-1887 inclusive). In the case of marriages, the surname of the bride and groom are both indexed, followed by information relevant to the marriage. Births, deaths, and a small number of biographies are also included. In instances where the compilers felt that an entry required clarification, they placed such notes in brackets within the entry.
Some confusion exists with the page numbering of the newspapers, especially with the earlier publications when the religious and secular sections were numbered identically within the same publication volume and number. To clarify such ambiguity, the date, volume number, number of the paper, and the page number have been included in the source section for every entry. When the McCormicks excerpted vital statistics from the religious section, they put an "R" after the page number in the applicable listing. A sample listing follows:
| BURGOYNE Ellen Elizabeth D. 25
Oct at Mahone Bay, d/o James & Mary Burgoyne aged 1 yr. 10 mos. 25 days. P.W. Sat. 23 Nov 1878, Vol.XXXI No.47, p.376 |
ATCHA is able to look up a specific name and provide single copies to researchers. For more extensive searches or listings researchers should contact the original compilers:
J. & S. McCormick