Alberta, Canada Genealogy

Guide to Alberta ancestry, family history and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Alberta Information

 * The first peoples were indigenous, including Blackfoot, Cree, Dene (Chipewyan), Assiniboine, Sarcee and Stoney.
 * It was part of the territory granted to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670, called Rupert's Land.
 * The expansion of the fur trade and European settlement saw the growth of another group of peoples called Métis, who were the descendants of mixed Indigenous European families.
 * In 1869, the Government of Canada acquired all the land belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company.
 * From 1870 until 1905, the area was part of the Northwest Territories.
 * The arrival of the railway in the mid-1880s opened the area to immigrants from the United States, Great Britain and Europe, as well as migrants from eastern Canada.
 * The Dominion Lands Act was an 1872 Canadian law that aimed to encourage the settlement of the Canadian Prairies and to help prevent the area being claimed by the United States. It echoed the American homestead system by offering ownership of 160 acres of land free to any man over 18 or any woman heading a household. They did not need to be British subjects, but had to live on the plot and improve it.
 * "Last Best West" was a phrase used to market the Canadian prairies to prospective immigrants. It was used to advertise the Canadian west abroad, and in Eastern Canada from 1896 until the start of the First World War in 1914. It was implemented from fear that Americans would stream North and settle the southern parts of what would become Alberta and Saskatchewan. The goal was to encourage families, and therefore make it hospitable for women who could edify and purify the frontier. The program was so successful that little more than nine years later the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed out of enormous North-West Territories of Canada.

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.


 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * Historical Records - databases and record images on FamilySearch
 * Family History Center locator map



For Further Reading

 * How to Recognize your Canadian Ancestor
 * Name Variations in Canadian Indexes and Records