Soon after the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick yesterday quietly launched digitized Crown land grant records on its website, excitement started to grow on social media.

If your ancestors lived in New Brunswick, this is a collection worth searching.

The New Brunswick Land Grants web section contains information on more than 55,000 individuals and corporate bodies who acquired Crown land between 1784 and 2007.

The quality of even the oldest documents is very good, and they are easy to download.

In the Search box, simply enter a name to see if a relative purchased Crown land. Too many results? Then enter a first name, county name, and/or range of years. The results appear quickly.

Now, doesn’t this make you wish you had more ancestors — if any — from New Brunswick?