Although the Land Grants and Homestead Records do relate to the Western Provinces, since many of those who applied for grants were from Ontario, I think this does apply to Ontario, Lorine. Having said that, the Homestead Records are a wonderful way to obtain extra info. We did not have the exact date of my grandfather's death, and ordered the Homestead Record for him. The info contained was wonderful. It gave a description of the land and what was on it, his date of death, the letters from his wife to the executor and subsequent dealings with the land. Our record was larger than most since it dealt with his death, so it cost 30$, but well worth it. I also ordered the Land Grant record for his property, but as Lorine mentioned, there is not much info except land description, name and date. Dawn

On 5 Aug 2007 at 14:07, Dawn Hicks wrote: > Although the Land Grants and Homestead Records do relate to the Western > Provinces, since many of those who applied for grants were from Ontario, I > think this does apply to Ontario, Lorine. Hello Dawn It is very true that residents of Ontario came, and went, to many other locations. For example someone from Ontario may easily have moved to (or come from) New York. Or England. Or Nova Scotia. Or Germany. Or China .... or wherever. That does not make it okay to post about Germany research or New York records or ask for help in England or talk about Chinese land systems. If we started talking about every country that has some tie to an Ontario ancestor, and its customs or records, we may as well call this list the "World-wide- Genealogy@rootsweb.com" list Rootsweb mailing lists have very specific topics, topics that each list admin is expected to adhere to. Rootsweb has hundreds of thousands of mailing lists, each with its own specific topic. Subscribers should always join the list(s) that cover the topics of interest to them. I think that subscribers often fail to understand how mailing lists work, and why each has its own topic. A researcher is always best to post on a mailing list that covers the topic he/she is seeking information on. That saves subscribers on other lists from having to wade through emails on topics of no interest to them. For example, if one of my ancestors from Ontario had moved on to Australia and settled there, it would not be very thoughtful of me to post to Ontario list and ask for help with Australian records. Subscribers have a right to believe that the list(s) they choose will stick to the topic at hand. Otherwise those of us who are subscribed to hundreds of lists would get quite sick of reading everything off-topic that would be posted As well, if my ancestor moved from Ontario to Australia, it would be unwise of me to write to the Ontario list because I am far more likely to get the answers I seek from a list geared to Australia research. So saying that the Western Land Grants have names of those from Ontario in them does not make it okay to discuss them on the Ontario mailing list. If you have a specific Ontario ancestor who went out west and you would like to talk about him or her, of course it is okay to mention that in the year xxxx he/she moved from Ontario to (wherever) and that you know this because you found mention of a land grant in the Western Land Grants. It is *not* okay to write and ask how the western land grants work, where you can find them, or what the system of naming means. That is because none of that applies to Ontario which is the focus of this list. All list admins agree to keep their mailing lists on topic. The topics are given on the rootsweb pages for each list. Just because some list admins choose to ignore their list topic and let anything be posted, does not make it right, nor does it mean that the list admins who insist that their subscribers stay on topic should be villified. I hope this explains my position on the list topic. The topic is " A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical or historical interest in the Province of Ontario, Canada after Confederation in the year 1867" http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CAN/ONTARIO.html I gave a gentle reminder that the Western Land Grants wasn't on topic. That didn't mean the question of on topic or off topic was up for debate or discussion. It's very clear from the given list topic what the parameters for this list are. Lorine List Admin -- Lorine McGinnis Schulze * Olive Tree Genealogy (Ships Passenger Lists) http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ * Naturalization Records http://naturalizationrecords.com/ * Images of Ships Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ otg@csolve.net or olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com

Thanks Lorine. In my particular case, my grandfather went out to homestead and had just sent for my gram, my aunt and my dad. He went to Lethbridge to buy horses, got caught in a blizzard and spent the night outside. He contracted pneumonia and died before my gram and the children even left for AB. My gram sold the land to her father-in-law who was also out there but she never went to AB and died here in ON. I will not post anything further on the subject- too bad however as some people may benefit for another's experience in this discussion. Dawn -----Original Message----- From: Olive Tree Genealogy [mailto:otg@csolve.net] Sent: August 5, 2007 3:20 PM To: Dawn Hicks; ontario@rootsweb.com Subject: From List Admin Re: [ONTARIO] Western Land Grants On 5 Aug 2007 at 14:07, Dawn Hicks wrote: > Although the Land Grants and Homestead Records do relate to the Western > Provinces, since many of those who applied for grants were from Ontario, I > think this does apply to Ontario, Lorine. Hello Dawn It is very true that residents of Ontario came, and went, to many other locations. For example someone from Ontario may easily have moved to (or come from) New York. Or England. Or Nova Scotia. Or Germany. Or China .... or wherever. That does not make it okay to post about Germany research or New York records or ask for help in England or talk about Chinese land systems. If we started talking about every country that has some tie to an Ontario ancestor, and its customs or records, we may as well call this list the "World-wide- Genealogy@rootsweb.com" list Rootsweb mailing lists have very specific topics, topics that each list admin is expected to adhere to. Rootsweb has hundreds of thousands of mailing lists, each with its own specific topic. Subscribers should always join the list(s) that cover the topics of interest to them. I think that subscribers often fail to understand how mailing lists work, and why each has its own topic. A researcher is always best to post on a mailing list that covers the topic he/she is seeking information on. That saves subscribers on other lists from having to wade through emails on topics of no interest to them. For example, if one of my ancestors from Ontario had moved on to Australia and settled there, it would not be very thoughtful of me to post to Ontario list and ask for help with Australian records. Subscribers have a right to believe that the list(s) they choose will stick to the topic at hand. Otherwise those of us who are subscribed to hundreds of lists would get quite sick of reading everything off-topic that would be posted As well, if my ancestor moved from Ontario to Australia, it would be unwise of me to write to the Ontario list because I am far more likely to get the answers I seek from a list geared to Australia research. So saying that the Western Land Grants have names of those from Ontario in them does not make it okay to discuss them on the Ontario mailing list. If you have a specific Ontario ancestor who went out west and you would like to talk about him or her, of course it is okay to mention that in the year xxxx he/she moved from Ontario to (wherever) and that you know this because you found mention of a land grant in the Western Land Grants. It is *not* okay to write and ask how the western land grants work, where you can find them, or what the system of naming means. That is because none of that applies to Ontario which is the focus of this list. All list admins agree to keep their mailing lists on topic. The topics are given on the rootsweb pages for each list. Just because some list admins choose to ignore their list topic and let anything be posted, does not make it right, nor does it mean that the list admins who insist that their subscribers stay on topic should be villified. I hope this explains my position on the list topic. The topic is " A mailing list for anyone with a genealogical or historical interest in the Province of Ontario, Canada after Confederation in the year 1867" http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CAN/ONTARIO.html I gave a gentle reminder that the Western Land Grants wasn't on topic. That didn't mean the question of on topic or off topic was up for debate or discussion. It's very clear from the given list topic what the parameters for this list are. Lorine List Admin -- Lorine McGinnis Schulze * Olive Tree Genealogy (Ships Passenger Lists) http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ * Naturalization Records http://naturalizationrecords.com/ * Images of Ships Lists http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/ships/ otg@csolve.net or olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com