{"id":2057,"date":"2016-02-06T18:08:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T18:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2057"},"modified":"2016-02-06T18:08:45","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T18:08:45","slug":"an-alberta-homestead-claimant-forgets-his-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/?p=2057","title":{"rendered":"An Alberta Homestead Claimant Forgets His Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

The homestead application file for William Sartorius in Alberta, Canada contained an additional interesting letter from William over forty years after his homestead was completed. Satorius’ file is contained in the\u00a0Ancestry.com<\/em> database\u00a0\u201cAlberta, Canada, Homestead Records, 1870-1930<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sartorius\u00a0wanted to know how old he had claimed to be when he made his homestead application.<\/p>\n

A letter dated 28 September 1951 from Beverly, Alberta, is signed by William Henry Sartorius and says in part, “I wish to obtain a statement as to my age given on a homestead entry made in the year 1904 in the Province of Alberta.” Sartorius also provides the legal description of the property he homesteaded.<\/p>\n

Why Sartorius needed this information is\u00a0not clear, but he did enclose one dollar for the service.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"letter1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Chief of the Lands Division replied from Ottawa, Canada, a few days later on 3 October and told Sartorius that on 7 August 1907, Sartorius\u00a0had given his age as twenty-nine years. The dollar Sartorius enclosed for the service was returned.<\/p>\n

\"letter2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whether Sartorius simply did not remember his age or whether\u00a0he wanted to make certain an age he was giving in 1951 was consistent with the homestead entry is not clear.<\/p>\n

The letter serves as a reminder that people don’t always know how old they are or that they sometimes forget how old they are.<\/p>\n

Or they just can’t remember what age they told who.<\/p>\n

It’s also a reminder that one never knows what may turn up in a record until one actually looks through it<\/p>\n

———————–<\/p>\n

A reminder from our readers:<\/p>\n

These homestead records partially (496 of the 686 reels as of the date of this post) are online at Archive.org<\/em> for free<\/a><\/p>\n

To use this version you need the film (roll) and file number which can be located online at the Alberta Genealogical Society’s website<\/a>. Once you have obtained the film\/reel and file numbers from the society’s website, search for that film\/reel number\u00a0in the \u2018Search this Collection\u2019 box the collection’s page on\u00a0Archive.org<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and it will take you right to the correct reel, then you can use the file number\u00a0to locate the specific images on the roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The homestead application file for William Sartorius in Alberta, Canada contained an additional interesting letter from William over forty years after his homestead was completed. Satorius’ file is contained in the\u00a0Ancestry.com database\u00a0\u201cAlberta, Canada, Homestead Records, 1870-1930.\u201d Sartorius\u00a0wanted to know how old he had claimed to be when he made his homestead application. A letter dated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[198,197],"class_list":["post-2057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alberta-homestead-records","tag-william-sartorius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rootdig.genealogytipoftheday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}