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Nancy's Alberta Search Tips

Here are a few suggested resources I find useful to share with others searching for Alberta connections. 
I am the co-ordinator for the Wheatland County GenWeb, Calgary GenWeb, Manitoba GenWeb and Can-SK-Yorkton mailing list.

Land Locations: Have a place name and need a legal description?
Land Locations:  Have a legal description and want to find the location?
  • One can search the Alberta GenWeb site for part of a land location.
    • Legal descriptions are included in the place name indices at the Alberta GenWeb site. When searching that site, don't put blank spaces between the township, range and meridian numbers, but be sure to include the hyphens between the township, range and meridian. Do include the W for the meridian. (i.e., 25-24-W4)  I usually leave out the section numbers, just in case there is no specific place name in that section. But if you include the section and get no results, then repeat the search without the section numbers. The results will include the section numbers of places in the township, so you can see which places are near. http://users.rootsweb.com/~canab/
  • I also discovered that you can use Google to search in the same manner, using the hyphens and no spaces, etc. But place quotes around the description, i.e., "25-24-W4" http://www.google.com
  • There is a huge 1905 Canadian National Railway map that has range and township numbers, which is useful if you have a general idea of a location. http://www.rootsweb.com/~canmaps/cnr/AlbertaCNR.html
  • This is an excellent site that illustrates the township/range system: http://www.rootSweb.com/~cansk/Saskatchewan/homesteadlocation.html
  • Note: There are two main sources for early land records giving names and legal descriptions. Be sure to check both.


City Directories:  Don't forget the Peel Bibliography on microfiche!

If you live near a Canadian university library or archives, there may be copies of Bruce Baden Peel's Bibliography of the Prairie Provinces microfiche collection. This is a major reference work for Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. This includes copies of city directories up to 1953 for the main cities of the prairies. Search for "Peel Bibliography" as a title at this link to the WebCat online catalog of the University of Calgary. You can then search to see what directories are included for which towns.  (Even though this link is for U of C, the information will be the same as in  other university library catalogs.) 

People:  Looking for Alberta people names of the past, but unsure of location?

Census

Alberta 1891 & 1901 census links
http://users.rootsweb.com/~canab/1891index.html

1906 census
http://www.afhs.ab.ca/data/census/1906/index.html

Books

Alberta Heritage Digitization Project: Local History books online ... search with the surname as a keyword in these digitized books.
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/

OUR ROOTS: More provincial digitized local histories...Alberta and beyond.
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/search.asp

Alberta GenWeb Local History Book Index...includes some books not yet digitized.
http://users.rootsweb.com/~canab/lhb/lhbindex.html

Web Sites:

Search Alberta GenWeb site for the surname (doesn't include above link)
http://users.rootsweb.com/~canab/index.html

Search Alberta Family History Society site for the surname--will include names in their cemetery database, too.
http://www.afhs.ab.ca/

Alberta Rootsweb Mailing List: Search the archives 
http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CAN/ALBERTA.html

Alberta Message Boards 
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.canada.alberta


Glenbow Archives in Calgary --  search the various databases by surname
http://www.glenbow.org/lasearch/searmenu.htm

Stockmen's Memorial Foundation Library at Cochrane--
Has a canceled brand link -- can click on first letter of surnames; place of residence is given after the name. This is not a complete listing of names, however.
http://www.smflibrary.ca/brand.html
 


National Archives sites:

Cemetery Databases

Assuming a person died in Alberta, and that there was a tombstone in a cemetery, and that was transcribed, one could write to the Alberta Genealogical Society and request a search of their computerized database (not on-line).  It will cost a few dollars, but may well be worth it.  http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/abgensoc/

Medicine Hat 
http://www.city.medicine-hat.ab.ca/cityservices/cemetery/listing.html

Drumheller 
http://www.drumhellermail.com/bixby/dmindex.html

Index of Southwestern Alberta Obituaries 1970 - 1984 (Lethbridge area)
http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Local_History_Links/Obits/Obits_index.html

Index of Southwestern Alberta Obituaries 1885 - 1959 (Lethbridge area)
http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Local_History_Links/Obits_to_1959/Obits_to_1959_Index.html

Calgary Obituaries since 1997 
http://members.tripod.com/~PutneyS/obitsjun.html

Internment net for Alberta 
http://www.interment.net/can/ab/index.htm

Obituary Daily Times: Many Canadian newspaper obits indexed.
http://obits.rootsweb.com/

Also, many Albertans retired/moved to British Columbia, so it is worth searching the BC vital records site for death registrations.
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/textual/governmt/vstats/v_events.htm#indexes

Early Manitoba vital statistics: Lots of folks passed through Manitoba on their way west. 
http://web2.gov.mb.ca/cca/vital/Query.php

A few other cemetery databases...

Churches:  Looking for names of churches in a particular area of the province? 

Search this site for a listing of churches in various places of Alberta.  Some have web sites or e-mails. 
http://www.christianinfodirectory.org/



As a LAST resort...You have a name and place, but there's the brick wall. 

Many of the provincial local history books do not have on-line indexes. You might send an email to the local library asking that your message might be given to someone who is an expert in the area local history who could provide suggestions for finding information about your ancestor. As a courtesy to the librarian, I recommend this only after exploring as many other resources as possible. It has been my experience in tracking my ancestors' migration across the prairies that there are always a few helpful old timers in the villages that know something or someone that might help. This approach works best for villages and hamlets.
http://www.cd.gov.ab.ca/building_communities/public_library/map_directory/listings/index.asp

A municipal officer might also be helpful in locating a knowledgeable local historian or cemetery records.
http://www3.gov.ab.ca/ma/cfml/profiles/



Online phone/address directories:  Can search nationwide at these urls.
 Infospace | Canada411 | Telus



For Adoptees:  The best place to start
CanAdopt http://www.canadopt.ca/

It is always appreciated to receive a "thank you" if someone has replied to your queries.
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