History will live on the computer with a Saskatchewan Homestead Index Project.
Families researching their homestead background and communities preparing local history books are expected to find it easier once the project is completed in 2005, in time for the province’s centennial.
Homestead records from 1870-1930 are available on microfilm in the Saskatchewan Archives in Regina and Saskatoon. But this new project is typing the 360,000 names and land descriptions into a database that will be on the internet and published as a compact disc.
Last year, the public checked more than 9,000 homestead files at the archives, said Marge Thomas, executive director of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society that is heading the project. For more information, contact the society at 306-780-9207.
