Cavendish Alberta - Looking for a needle in a haystack

[porcelayne ladye]

Hello Jacquie and Lilybell
I emailed abgensoc re Homestead records a couple of weeks ago no reply yet but they must be very busy with people worldwide wanting their help.

I have also contacted a couple of Researchers in Canada received a reply today from one lady who wants $25 an hour to check locality of Cavendish for me said it would take her 2 hours.

She said she could not estimate how many hours it would take to check Homestead records to find what I wanted and what was my ceiling of maximum cost? Sounds as though it might be scarily high costs. I have given her full quarter section township range and meridian numbers.  Also gave her for Land Grants volume folio and microfilm reel numbers and she said this too could take a few hours. Could not let me know cost at present time.

I then found I could apply online via Provincial Archives of Alberta for copies of Homestead Records if I had full details. Filled in all fields but when it came to my home telephone number and my postal/zipcode there was not enough space to fill in as these two fields were required and needed to be filled in and would not let me proceed any further.

I have emailed them to see if this service is available for UK it does have a drop down for all Countries in the World plus an additional cost for International post. But they too might be very busy and it might take some time for them to reply.

Look forward to hearing from you.  A very frustrated porcelayne ladye knowing the information I want is out there but I cannot get access.


Kind Regards

porcelayne ladye

[lilybell]

Hello,

I had thought of telling you to try Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness for Alberta but checked their site and there is no one in Edmonton searching Alberta Archives.

I have sent for land records from Saskatchewan through their archives and have waited about 4-6 weeks to receive them so I'm thinking Alberta may be about the same depending on how busy they are.

As to wether they send out of country I'm thinking proably not, but one can only ask.

If you send me a Private Message  I have a suggestion to put to you.

Lilybell

[porcelayne ladye]

Hello Lilybell
Many Thanks for your reply have just sent you a Private Message

Kind Regards


porcelayne ladye

[ssc1958]

Here's some additional info that I've found

It would be very unlikely to have a postal address though as the person living on the farm would probaby have to pick up their mail at the closest post office (the farming areas where I have lived didn't get their mail delivered to their farm).

I searched the Canadian Postal Code database and discovered that the closest post office to Cavendish is Bindloss, AB.  In searching the Waghorn Guides, Cavendish had a post office until at least 1948.  Waghorn's guides can be found at  http://www.rootschat.com/links/06si/ 

The following CNR map is the best I could find that would show where the homesteads were located  http://www.rootschat.com/links/06sj/ .

One potential reason for them leaving the homestead could be the difficulties farming in that particular area.  The Our Future Our Past website has a collection of local history books.  I browsed through a number of them for the area and could not find any reference to the Newman brothers, however I did find a book called "We'll all be Buried Down Here : the Prairie Dryland Disaster,  1917-1926", http://www.rootschat.com/links/06sk/  apparently the area had severe drought and pestilence for a number a years and many of the homesteading families moved away (upwards of 50%).

I have also found some additional  Canadian immigration records for a number of Frederick Newman's subsequent to 1910 on ancestry.  Additonal information such as his father's name and place of birth would reduce the number of possiblities.

Hope this information is of help to you.

Regards,
SSC

[KN]

I contacted AbGenSoc probably about a year ago, and waited a long time for a response.  But when it came it was really worth waiting for!

I think that all the lovely researchers are volunteers and follow up our enquries just because they're interested.

They found me the original homestead application forms, and then various death-related documentation,  all for a donation to their funds.

Also have a look at this posting

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,374633.msg2484446.html#msg2484446

which, after a bit of fiddling about, really does work!

KN