About this Blog

I was doing some family history research, and got tired of finding sites that offered a search, and then asked for cash before providing the full results. Fortunately I found many good FREE sites out there. On this site I will share those free sources, and offer a few tips and some lessons learned.

Alberta Homesteads

Alberta Homestead Records

 There is free information online, including a number of images of the original documents, for those who homesteaded in Alberta.  On this page I will explain how to find these documents, provide some tips on getting the best quality images downloaded, and help you locate the land.
Step 1: Start with what you know.

 You will need to know at least one of the following to get started. Locations are best as they eliminate issues with alternate spellings or transcription errors.

 Follow the first option below that matches the data you already have.

 For the examples below we will use the homestead of Jay Van Buskirk, located near Chipman, Alberta. References to the example will be highlighted the same as this paragraph.
Step 2: Finding the GPS coordinate of a known homestead location

 If you can find the homestead location on an online map, such as Bing Maps or Google Maps, you can get the GPS coordinates. Once you have found the homestead on the map the GPS coordinates are only a click away. If you are selecting a quarter section of land click near the middle of the quarter for best accuracy.

 I know Jay Van Buskirk's homestead was located on the quarter SW of the intersection of highway 16 and secondary highway 834, so I will click near the centre of that quarter section on the map.
Bing Maps:
  • Right-click on the homestead location
  • The coordinates are at the bottom of the menu that appears

    GPS Coordinates for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead (Bing)
Google Maps:
  • Click on the homestead location
  • The coordinates will be shown in a window at the bottom of the map
GPS Coordinates for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead (Google)

 From here we can see Jay's homestead was located at 53.566938, -112.662545 (Latitude, Longitude).
Step 3: Converting GPS coordinates to a Legal Description.

 For the conversion we will use a free tool from Bentek Systems.
  • Click here to open the converter.
  • Enter the Latitude and Longitude. If you are using results from Step 2 the Latitude is the positive number, and the Longitude is the negative number. 
  • Click Convert.
  • The Legal Description should appear in the results box.
We have the GPS coordinates from Google found in Step 1, so we will select Decimal Degrees, enter the coordinates ( 53.566938, -112.662545 ) and click Convert.

Sample search terms and results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead


 The Legal Description includes the following values (in order):
  • Legal Subdivision
  • Section
  • Township
  • Range
  • Meridian

 Homesteads were allocated as Parts (commonly called Quarter Sections or Quarters), so for our purposes the Legal Subdivision (4 Legal Subdivisions per Part) returned should be converted to a Part (Quarter) as follows:
  • 1,2,7,8 = SE
  • 3,4,5,6 = SW
  • 9,10,15,16 = NE
  • 11,12,13,14 = NW

 Using the results above we have the Legal Description 15-12-053-19W4, so Jay's homestead was located at:
  • Legal Subdivision 15 => Part NE using the conversion above
  • Section 12
  • Township 53
  • Range 19
  • Meridian W4
This can also be stated as NE-12-53-19 W4.


Step 4: Search for the land grant, and hopefully an image of an original document.

Library and Archives Canada has a database of Western Land Grants (1870-1930).
  • If you already know the location (section, township, range & meridian) leave the name and remarks fields blank, and enter only these location fields.  If your meridian is a number, add a W before the number.
  • If you are searching by name do not fill in the remarks or location fields. 

 You can search the database here:
Search
For this search we will use the Section (12), Township (53), Range (19) and Meridian (W4) we found for Jay's homestead in Step 3.

Sample search terms for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead

 If you searched by location you will likely get 4 results, as each section was divided into 4 parts (quarters). If you searched by name you could have many more. If you searched by name and did not find the expected result try using only the surname, variations on the spelling of the name, or given name only.

 As we searched for Jay's homestead by location we have 4 results as expected.
Sample search results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead
Once you have the correct result click on the Item Number.

For Jay we click on 332253 and get the following results:
Sample detailed results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead

 The page that appears will give you the following information:
  • Name
  • Part
  • Section
  • Township
  • Range
  • Meridian
  • Folio
  • Liber
  • Microfilm Reel Number
  • Item Number
It may also provide an image of the original document, and possibly maps of the area.  If the images have numbers on the top click each number to see the different images.  To save the image to your hard drive right click on the image and choose "Save Image As..."

 We have most of this information already, but we have found an image of an original document and two map sheets for the area.

 If you found the data: Proceed to Step 5.

 If you were unable to find the data: You can try searching by name instead of location in Step 5, but it is quite possible they were not homesteaders. Many of the land sections were not available as homesteads because they were:

  • Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) land
  • Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) land
  • School Lands

You can try the CPR Land Sales database at the Glenbow Museum, and if you find a Land Description there you can find it on a map using Step 7. Unfortunately I do not know of any free online source for HBC or school land sales.

Step 5: Search the homestead index.


 The Alberta Genealogical Society have created a searchable index of homesteads in Alberta.  Here we hope to find a PAA Ref. and Film number that will lead us to more original document images. You should already know the legal description of the homestead so I strongly suggest entering only the location information as there can be errors in the names as some of the originals are hard to read.

Search for the homestead record here:

 Enter only the following information for best results:
  • Sec. = Section
  • Twp. = Township
  • Rge. = Range
  • W of the = Meridian (only enter the number, not the W) 
For this search we will again use the Section (12), Township (53), Range (19) and Meridian (4) we found for Jay's homestead in Step 3.
Sample search terms and results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead (click to enlarge)



Once you have found the record, you should have the following information:
  • Surname
  • Given Name
  • Sec. (Section)
  • Twp. (Township)
  • Rge. (Range)
  • W of the (Meridian) (add a W in front of the number, all meridians in Alberta are west)
  • Placename (often blank)
  • PAA Ref.
  • Film
  • File
Again we already have most of this information for Jay, but we now know the PAA Ref. is 'Acc. 1970.313' so there should be more document images to find. We note the Film 2060 and File 557732 and proceed to Step 6.

 If the PAA Ref. is Acc. 1970.313: Proceed to Step 6.

 If the PAA Ref. is NOT Acc. 1970.313: I do not know of any online source for these original documents so you will need to visit the Provincial Archives of Alberta in Edmonton to search the microfilm and print copies (a small per page fee applies for printing), be sure to bring the information you found above. If you are unable to visit in person you can contact the Provincial Archives of Alberta or the Alberta Genealogical Society and ask about their homestead research services (fees apply). Proceed to Step 7.
Step 6: Try to find more original homestead document images.

 The Internet Archive has images of the original documents for many Alberta homestead files for Acc 1970.313. Unfortunately I don't know of any online source for other Accessions, so if the homestead you are researching is not Acc 1970.313 skip to Step 7. 

 Unfortunately there are almost 500 files each containing a couple thousand pages for Acc 1970.313.  The good news is Step 5 provided the information we need to narrow this down to the correct file, so you will only have to look through one of those files.  Open the search link below, locate the 'Search this collection' box on the left side of the page, enter the Film number found in Step 5, and press enter.
Search
For Jay we enter the File No. 2060 found in Step 5.
Sample search term and results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead

 This should return one result, click on the title to open the document.

NOTE: Do not bother downloading the PDF of the entire document, unfortunately the quality is poor compared to the method below.
Sample search results for Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead

 Click on the fullscreen icon
to go to full screen so things will be easier to read.  Now zoom in (magnifying glass with a +) until the pages are readable.

 The good news is all documents related to each homestead should be on consecutive pages, and should begin with an image similar to this one.  


 These images include the name and the file number. Hopefully the files are ordered by file number, if so you can use the file number to narrow down your search. If not there is an index at the end of the file that may help you narrow the search. If all else fails you can flip through all the pages until you find it.

 Once you have found the file I recommend creating a bookmark of the first page in your web browser.


 Now we start looking for Jay's name or the File No 557732. Spoiler: Jay's records start on page 997 or so.
Small portion of one of the documents related to Jay Van Buskirk's Homestead

 If you would like to save a copy of the pages to your computer you will get a better image by doing the following:
  • Press the zoom in button (magnifying glass with a +) until it will no longer zoom in.
  • Press the zoom out button (magnifying glass with a -) once. I find the highest zoom more difficult to read.
  • Right click each page you want and select "Save Image As..."  Remember there are 2 pages shown in the default view, and you will need to save each of them (left and right) separately.
  • Continue to use the navigation arrows to move to the next pages and save them as above until you have saved all the pages you need.
Step 7: Convert the land location to GPS coordinates and locate it on a map.

 If you want to find out where this property is located we can find it using the Legal Description. For this step we will use another free tool from Bentek Systems. 

You can do the conversion here:
  • Select the LSD (Part), SEC (Section), TWP (Township), RNG (Range), and MRD (Meridian) in the top row.
  • Click 'Convert'.
Once you enter the location and click "Convert" it will provide the GPS coordinates.  You can also click "Map" to see the location. You can zoom in on the map for a more detailed look.

 For the purpose of this example we will pretend we don't already know where Jay's homestead was located. For this search we will once again use the Part (NE), Section (12), Township (53), Range (19) and Meridian (W4) we found for Jay's homestead in Step 3. We enter these values, click 'Convert' to see the GPS coordinates, and then click 'Map' to see the location.

Sample search terms and result for Jay Van Buskirk's homestead location



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