MacNaught History Centre

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The MacNaught History Centre and Archives is a place where local residents and visitors to the province can research their own family histories, as well as gain a better understanding of the unique history of Summerside and Prince County. Towards this objective, an agreement has been entered into with the PEI Genealogical Society making available the society’s extensive publications and genealogy research materials.

The transcripts of the handwritten census records for the whole of Prince Edward Island taken in 1881, 1891, and 1901 are available, along with a valuable database that lists in alphabetical order, the name of every person living in P.E.I. during those years. Cemetery transcriptions arranged by lot from all the headstones in the province are kept here, along with a surname index for monumental inscriptions in Prince County. A surname index for the second of PEI’s three counties is anticipated for 2004. In addition, the Genealogical Society has made available on microfilm, the Master Name Index which is a collection developed over the last 25 years of over 400,000 cards bearing helpful data for family researchers.

With the cooperation of the Public Archives of PEI and the local newspaper The Journal-Pioneer, the MacNaught History Centre is also building an extensive library of newspapers and other publications on microfilm. Other resources include a library of community histories and a collection of material gathered by the Summerside and Area Historical Society. We also have some transcribed obituaries of prominent citizens of the past, a small database on business owners in the early days of Summerside, and are in the beginning stage of developing family files.

For details about the holdings in the Archives, refer to the section on Collections. For more information about the Genealogical Society of PEI, please visit their website.