Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial Website

Given Remembrance Day is almost upon us, you may be interested in the Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial website.

I think they have done a really good job.  One can search by surname or by advanced search (including rank, service number, conflict, etc to find a Sask soldier that died in active duty during war.

The address of the Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial  is http://svwm.ca/

Do you or family members have fond memories of fishing at Meeting Lake Saskatchewan?  Or perhaps swimming and playing in the water? Did your family rent a cabin there every summer?

My mother in law Yvonne Aumack Miller and I are compiling a history and photo collection of the Aumack Resort at Crescent Beach, Meeting Lake, Saskatchewan in order to preserve this information for posterity. 

“We are actively collecting photos, records and memories of Aumack Resort, Crescent Beach, Meeting Lake, Saskatchewan”

John and Verna Aumack along with Verna’s mother Minnie Moss homesteaded along Meeting Lake shortly after they arrived in Saskatchewan in 1917.   Meeting Lake is about 7 miles from Rabbit Lake and north of North Battleford, Sask.

The Aumack Resort was a booming place in its heydey.  There was a slide in the lake for the kids and a diving board.  Dances were held in the hall.  My mother in law remembers a band called the Half Moon.  The hall also served as a meeting place for church and a movie venue.

There were boat rentals, horseshoes, a golf course, cabin rentals and more.  The Aumack resort operated from the 1920s (or 1930s) to 1959 when it was sold.

WE NEED YOUR HELP - We are actively collecting photos, records and memories of Aumack Resort. 

If you can contribute - please send photos scanned at high resolution.  Please include information about where photo was found in order for us to credit the source and the contributor.

To contribute to the Aumack Resort project please email  Joan Miller  for more information.  Your help in saving this part of Saskatchewan history is greatly appreciated!

Hatfield, Saskatchewan

I started school in a one room school in Hatfield, Saskatchewan.  One room. Eight grades. My class was the biggest grade.

There were three of us.

I grew up on a ‘ranch’,  three quarters of a mile from Hatfield.  Hatfield was a hamlet on the Canadian Pacific Railroad  (CPR) line about 80 miles north of Regina.

My earliest memories of Hatfield included the school, an elevator and a couple of houses.  Mom said the post office was still there when I started school.  I don’t remember but it isn’t the kind of thing that would likely be on my radar at that age.

Our school was Cuthbert School District.   Every little school in rural Saskatchewan was a school district.

I attended Cuthbert for three years (Grades 1,2 and 3) until they bussed us off to the nearby town of Nokomis, six miles north to continue our schooling. This would have been the fall of 1962.

View Map

Hatfield continued as a hamlet for a few years after the school closed, then the elevator was pulled down (Winter of 1967?) .  The elevator coming down often signals the death of these little hamlets or villages.

I guess that is when Hatfield became “a ghost town” or close to it.   There were only two families living there at the time, the Scott and the Lakness families.

I’ve looked for more information about Hatfield at the Saskatchewan Archives (Regina) and while I did find the school district records I couldn’t find information on when Hatfield came to be.

Imagine my delight,  when I recently discovered a book called “Saskatchewan Ghost Towns” by Frank Moore.  I came across this book in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Published in 1982, this slim volume contained information about Hatfield.  It didn’t say much but it gave me more history than I had previously.

• Hatfield was founded in 1907 with the advent of the CPR.  At that time the nearby communities of Govan and Nokomis were fast-growing villages.

• The CPR section house was the first and only building in the community for the first five years.  The grain elevator was built in 1914 by Home Grain Co.

• In 1914, a man named Welch built his family a two story dwelling that served as a store and post office, as well as their home.

• It wasn’t until 1940 that a school, teacherage; community hall and a small residence were constructed.

• By 1950, the residents of Hatfield began moving away.   Eventually, even the community hall closed and the run-down grain elevator was demolished.

I still don’t know how Hatfield got its name.  I presume someone on the CPR railroad named the hamlet.  If anyone knows please comment below.

===> The book Ghost Towns of Saskatchewan is available on line.

There are more photos of the Elevator coming down – The photographer is believed to be Leland Greenfield.

If anyone has a picture of Cuthbert School please leave a comment below.  I’m looking for a photo of my first school.

UPDATE:  How Hatfield got its name:

Location: SE27-28-22-W2.

Hatfield  is a former CP Siding (PO 1914-62) just south of Nokomis close to the junction of highways #15 and #20 .  Named after Hatfield and Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, north of London, England.  The name is Old English for “open land where heather grows.”

Source: “People Places: The Dictionary of Saskatchewan Place Names” by Bill Barry

(Thanks to Xenia for the suggestion and thanks to my sis for the look up.  She collects books like this.)

“I’m trying to locate my grandmother’s information.  She died in the 60′s.  My mother was born 1958 in Regina, SK, was orphaned and doesn’t know very much.  Can you please help?  Thank you.”

My reply:

Saskatchewan Vital Certificates is the official source of all vital records in Saskatchewan.  This includes birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates.   There is a fee for the use of their services.

Another suggestion is to try historic newspapers for Sask – look for either an obituary of your grandmother or perhaps a birth announcement of your mother.  Peel’s Prairie Provinces may have newspapers.  (or google for Sask newspapers or the Regina Leader Post).

Cyndislist also has links to many Sask resources. http://www.cyndislist.com/sask.htm

Dave Obee’s list of Western Canadian Directories is one of the most comprehensive available that I’ve found to date.  I suggest checking it out.

===> Visit Dave Obee’s Western Canadian Directories List

Karen wrote: Hi. I need a copy of my Grandmother’s marriage certificate from 1963 in Moose Jaw. How do I go about getting a copy of that certificate?

Saskatchewan Vital Certificates is the official source of all vital records in Saskatchewan.  This includes birth, marriage, death and divorce certificates.

At the time of writing the fee for a marriage certificate is  $75 (Canadian) and will take between 6 to 8 weeks to process.

==> Visit Saskatchewan Vital Certificates

Manitou Beach, Watrous, Saskatchewan 1920s View of the Arcade Dance Pavilion. Image courtesy of Peel's Prairie Provinces, a digital initiative of the University of Alberta Libraries.

Manitou Beach near Watrous Saskatchewan holds special memories for me.  Every summer in the 1950s and 1960s our family and my mother’s parents, siblings and the cousins would meet at Manitou Beach to picnic and swim in the mineral waters.  The water was so salty you could literally sit in the water and still float.  I loved playing in the water although I still remember the sting of the salt when we got it in our eyes.

There was a mineral water pool there as well (still there in fact although I believe the building has been replaced). 

John Fisher CBC commentator floating and reading a book at Manitou Lake

We also enjoyed the playground with the “twirl around thing” that one could jump on and off while siblings and cousins spun it faster and faster.  I don’t remember what it was called.

My Mom, uncles and aunt talked often of the dance halls at Manitou.   In fact Mom mentioned the other day that one of the old dance halls had horse hair under the floor to put added spring in the floor for the dancers.   Can you imagine how much horse hair that would be?    She remembers one part of the floor collapsing when the hair shifted or disintegrated underneath.

Imagine my delight when I came across old postcards of Manitou Beach on the Prairie Postcard section of Peel’s.  Although many postcards were before my time it brought me back to Manitou and to all those wonderful memories of the cousins gatherings.   Take a look….

===> Visit Manitou Beach postcards at Peel’s Prairie Provinces

Nokomis Saskatchewan Second Avenue c. 1913. Image courtesy of Peel's Prairie Provinces, a digital initiative of the University of Alberta Libraries.

Peel’s Prairie Provinces, hosted at the University of Alberta Libraries, is a rich resource for western Canadian genealogists and family historians.

According to the web site, as of the fall of 2010, the Peel collection contains approximately 7,500 digitized books and over 35,000 newspaper issues (This is over 2.5 million articles). The resources are rich and varied in both images and text, providing an extensive and diverse picture of the Prairie Province experience. Many items date back to the earliest days of exploration and settlement on the Canadian prairies.

A quick search of Nokomis,  Saskatchewan resources (near where I grew up) produced photos shown on this page.

Separate images with captions: Hotel Nokomis; Saskatchewan Hotel; School Nokomis. Image courtesy of Peel's Prairie Provinces, a digital initiative of the University of Alberta Libraries.

We might have entitled this one "a pail full of hoy." Sylvia Nroeokel of Star City, Sask., sent this unusual shot of little Allan Harvey of Nokomis, Sask., and won $3. The Farm and Ranch Review, October 1, 1950, Page 34, Item Pc03404. Image courtesy of Peel's Prairie Provinces, a digital initiative of the University of Alberta Libraries.

Visit Peel’s Prairie Provinces to search for your ancestors in old newspapers, books and images from the three prairie provinces.

UPDATE – Featured Collections at Peel’s include:

Peel’s Prairie Postcards

Henderson’s Directories

Grain Grower’s Guide

The Illustrated War News

A Letter from Louis Riel, “Tres cher ami”

Le Courrier de l’ouest

La Survivance

The Gateway

University of Alberta Newspapers

The Alberta Non-Partisan

The Illustrated War News

University of Alberta Board of Governors Collection

The Magee Photographs Collection

Highlighting a Sask History Resource

My immediate family roots are in Saskatchewan.  My parents were born there as were my siblings and myself.  My grandparents were homesteaders in the province along with one set of my husband’s grandparents and his great grandmother.

Because of our close ties to this province I’m always looking for resources that will aid my genealogy research.

One such resource is the Saskatchewan Settlement Experience.

The Sask Settlement Experience is a beautifully designed website of historical photographic, audio and video content about the settlement of this prairie province.

It features the time line of the history of the province from before 1870 to the 1930s.  This is a wonderful resource for those interested in what homesteading might have been like in the province…Or perhaps for those  with an interest in the fur trade or the Riel Rebellion?   There are photographs from many different eras in the province.

Sections include:

• Aboriginal Peoples

• Steps to a Homestead

• Settlement Patterns

• Life on the prairies

• Agriculture

• Labour and Economic Growth

• Transportation and Communication

• Women

• Education and religion

• Teacher’s Resources

A search on my hometown of Nokomis brought up two entries.  One a photograph of a blacksmith and the other an audio recording of Olga Felskie.

“Born in 1905, Olga’s parents immigrated from Polish Russia in 1900 to settle in the Nokomis area. In this section of the interview Ms. Felskie recalls, with great detail, what it was like to be a student in a small rural school. Olga eventually became a teacher, and her story is an excellent example of how important education was to the immigrants.”

The Saskatchewan Settlement Experience is brought to us by the Saskatchewan Archives and the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society with funding from the Canadian Heritage and Library and Archives Canada through the Canadian Memory Fund/Canadian Cultural Online Program.

==> Go here to visit the Saskatchewan Settlement Experience

Here is the homesteading story of my grandfather William John Irvine as written by my grandmother, Isabel Irvine (nee Woodland).  I’m sure my love of family history originated with her.

“Bill Irvine was born to John and Mary (nee Hunter) Irvine on April 4th, 1892 in Crumlin county, Antrim, Ireland.  He left home when he was 19 years old, landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on April 21, 1911.  He came from Ireland with the John McClughan family who lived near Duval, Saskatchewan, and then worked for a year at Strasbourg.

Bill travelled to Nokomis, Saskatchewan, to file on a quarter section (160 acres of land) for a fee of $10.  Situated 20 miles southwest of Young in McCranny municipality, its legal description was: SW 1/4 15-30-28 W2.

In the fall of 1912, Bill, aged 20, journeyed northwest from Duval through the hills with a team of oxen, pulling a rack loaded with his belongings, including a cat for company.

The homestead was quite hilly and Bill selected the highest hill in the NW corner of the homestead to build his shack.  It was probably the windiest spot around.  He batched, baking his own bread and bannock.  He bought eggs, milk and butter from Mrs. Bertha Ronning until he obtained his own hens and cows.  A slough at the bottom, where runoff was accumulated from the melting winter snow, was used for water.  A shallow seepage well was dug and cribbed to assure year round water after the slough dried up.

After spending three years “proving the land” by breaking the required acres and building a habitation, namely a shack, he was able to register the homestead.  This meant travelling to the land registry in Humboldt with Mr. Ronning, Sr., who acted as a witness.  This was September 2, 1916 according to the diary he started that year.¹

The homestead application of my grandfather appears below.  This is a photo of the microfilm record.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE MORE

William J Irvine Homestead Application
Land Location SW 15 30 28 W2
Stamped Dominion Lands Office December 6, 1912

I, William John Irvine of Strassburg, Sask do hereby apply for an Entry for a Homestead, under the provision of Section ___ in that behalf of the Dominion Lands Act, for the SW Quarter Section of Section number 15 in Township 30, Range 28 of the 2 Meridian.
(2) I am a British subject
(3) [paragraph struck out as not applicable]
Sig:  William John Irvine
Humboldt District

British Subject
Full name signature
Age 20, place of birth Ireland, Co. Antrim,
Last place of residence:  Strassburg Sask
Previous occupation – Farm Labourer
(Note Strassburg = Strasbourg)

Stamp at Bottom of application “Dominion Lands Office Humboldt, Sask.  Dec 11.  $10 (followed initials of officer)”^2.

The two pages that follow the one above contain sworn statements from neighbours Roy Ronning and Oscar Ronning confirming that Bill Irvine did indeed establish a homestead on this land.

The last page is a statement by Bill with the details of the homestead.  This is genealogy gold.

Click here to see all six pages of William J Irvine’s Dominion land grant application.

—-

Sources:

1. Irvine, Isabel Eliza (Woodland).   “Manuscript”.  “William John and Isabel Eliza Irvine”,  1985, p.1.  Privately held by Joan Miller, [address for private use], Calgary Alberta, 2010.

The 11 page recounting of the lives of Isabel and Bill Irvine was written by Isabel when Bill was 93 years old.  Isabel wrote many stories of their homestead life over the years, and Bill kept a diary for 60 years.  (and Isabel wrote on the back of most of the photos!).  This line is a joy to research.

2. Saskatchewan Archives, Regina, File 2842888, microfilm record of original application (which is held in Saskatoon).
Photo permission granted by Sask Archives.