Alberta Homesteads How To

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.

• I have the legal description (section, township, range, meridian) of the homestead - Jump to Step 4
• I have the GPS coordinates - Jump to Step 3
• I can find the homestead on a map - Jump to Step 2
• I have the name of the homesteader - Jump to Step 4

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, you can use can Bing Maps to 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'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.

From here we can see Jay's homestead quarter was located at 53.567103, -112.662568 (Latitude, Longitude).

Step 3: Converting GPS coordinates to a Legal Land Description

For the conversion we will use a free tool.

1. Click here to open the converter at Bentek Systems.
   Convert
2. 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.
3. Click Convert.
4. The Legal Description should appear in the results box.

Example: The coordinates of the approximate center of a homestead quarter (53.567103, -112.662568) were entered in the image above and the Convert button produced a result of 15-12-053-19W4.

The Legal Description includes the following values (in order):

• Legal Subdivision
• Section
• Township
• Range
• Meridian

Example: Using the results above we have the Legal Description 15-12-053-19W4 for the quarter centered at 53.567103, -112.662568.

• Legal Subdivision 15 => Part NE (Using the conversion table/image above.)
• Section 12
• Township 53
• Range 19
• Meridian W4

This can be recorded as "NE-12-53-19 W4" or stated as "The north-east quarter of section 12, range 53, township 19, west of the 4th meridian."

Step 4: Search for the land grant and hopefully an original image

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 only 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 Land Grants

Example: We will use the Section (12), Township (53), Range (19) and Meridian (W4), a homestead section east of Edmonton.

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.

Example: There are four results for the search above, one for each part (quarter) in the section.

Once you have the correct result click on the Item Number.

Example: If you select the first result above you are presented with the following:

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..."

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 our CPR Land Sales Search to see if they purchased land from the CPR.

Unfortunately I do not know of any free online source for HBC or school land sales.

Step 5: Search the AGS homestead index

The Alberta Genealogical Society 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.

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)

Search for the homestead record here:

Search AGS Homestead Index

Example: 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.

The search produces the following results:

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

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 box at the top of the results, enter the Film number found in Step 5, and press enter.

Search Internet Archive

Example: For Jay we enter the File No. 2060 found in Step 5.

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 very poor compared to the method below.

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.

Example: Now we start looking for Jay's name or the File No 557732. Spoiler: Jay's records start on page 997 or so.

Here is a small clip of one of the many documents for this 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:

• Zoom in A LOT, until the writing is very clear on your screen.
• Right click the first 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.

Notes:

Check all the downloaded images for quality as you go.

You may need to increase the zoom and try the download again if the details are not crisp.

You may have to zoom more than one click to increase the downloaded file quality. The file size should increase.

At some point you will likely find increasing zoom makes the file bigger, but does not really increase the quality.

Step 7: Converting Legal Land Description to GPS Coordinates

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

1. Click here to open the converter at Bentek Systems.
   Convert
2. Select the LSD (Part), SEC (Section), TWP (Township), RNG (Range), and MRD (Meridian) in the top row.
3. Click Convert.

Example: 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. The coordinates can also be entered into the search box of most online map sites, like Google Maps or Bing Maps.