Canada, British Columbia, Crown Land Pre-emption Registers - FamilySearch Historical Records

Canada British Columbia

What is in this Collection?
These records include registers of pre-emptions, or purchased land that has not been fully surveyed. The registers summarize the information from the pre-emption certificates. The pre-emptions are listed in numerical order, with an alphabetical index at the back of each volume.

Many people in Canada owned land and thus a very high percentage of the population is named in land records. The availability of land attracted many immigrants to Canada and encouraged westward expansion.

Land ownership was generally recorded in an area as soon as settlers began to arrive. These were often the first records available in an area.

The registers include land petitions, fiats and warrants, land grants and patents, and deeds. The federal homestead era in the Prairie Provinces lasted almost 60 years (1872 to 1930). Homestead record files cover all those years.

The British Columbia Archives has a research guide about the pre-emption process used in Canada.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Land Records may contain the following information:


 * Name and age of landowner
 * Name of spouse
 * Names of children, heirs, relatives, and neighbors.
 * Place where landowner lived previously.
 * Occupation.

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate year of land ownership.
 * The place where your ancestor lived.
 * The names of family members and their relationships.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To see this collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the "Place name" category ⇒Select the “Register Number, Volume Number and Years" category which takes you to the images

Search the collection by image, comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s land record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information found in this record to locate other records relating to the family you're looking for. FamilySearch has an extensive collection of British Columbia Records that can be found here.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Search the Canadian Census to locate your ancestor’s residence.
 * Search for the name of the spouse instead of your deceased ancestor.
 * Check for variant spellings of the names.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Image Citation