The land files for this project are held by the Provincial Archives of Alberta (PAA) and the British Columbia Archives and Records Service (BCARS). Research of them was conducted at these institutions. The analysis of the files held by BCARS proved relatively easy as all of these were in hard copy (they have since been microfilmed) and held together in one series (GR 436-Series I). There are about 800 of these files, and, in general, they are in chronological order and have now been microfilmed. On the other hand, those files held by PAA (Accession# 70.313) total about 5,900, and are on 16mm microfilm, some of these are of poor quality as the records were filmed in 1957 by the Alberta Department of Lands and Forests with apparent undue care. Also, the Alberta files (nearly 85% of the whole) are not held together as one series but are interspersed with the rest of the land files for the entire province.

To access the Alberta files, it was necessary to first examine the microfilmed land location registers for the area to determine which quarter-sections in the region were filed on before 1915 (Accession# 74.32/241, 284-388 – see Appendix--- for a sample page). With all of these quarter-sections listed, the file number registers for the area then had to be consulted to discover the seven digit reference numbers for each of these files (Accession# 74.32/24 and 82.170/206 & 207 – see Appendixes--- and--- for sample pages). Each file number was then recorded onto a specifically designed data input form on which all of the other information would be entered. (See Appendixes--- and---). As a check, every quarter-section in these file number registers was reviewed to ensure that all the land applied for prior to 1915 (every file up to #3300000) was covered. The approximately 5,900 input forms were then sorted according to file number. The Peace River Country files on microfilm were then examined one-by-one in numerical order with all of the non-Peace River Country files in between bypassed.

As the files were examined, the relevant data in them was recorded onto the data input forms. (See Appendixes--- and---). Each file pertains to one quarter-section of land. Due to cancellations and abandonments, therefore, many of the files hold information on more than one applicant. Also, as many applicants wound up filing more than once, information on such people is frequently held in two or more files. Each completed form (and each record in this database), however, contains information on one separate application for land, whether proven up, canceled or abandoned. Since what constituted a single farm often encompassed several quarter-sections, the details with respect to individual farms will have to be calculated by reviewing all of the entries filed by a particular applicant, and, in some cases, those of his wife and children and possibly other family members. For statistical purposes, an abandonment and a re-filing for a different quarter (or, indeed the same quarter) are considered as two separate applications. However, if, as sometimes happened, an applicant filed for a quarter-section as a homesteader, and then chose to officially abandon it in order to obtain it with scrip, this was not recorded as an abandonment.

Approximately 4% of the files were found to be either missing or misidentified or documents in them lost, not completed, damaged, or had deteriorated. In a few cases, the recorded information was obliterated because of the inferior microfilming process in 1957. Therefore, after the input forms were filled out, local histories and other information sources in various libraries and archives were checked to verify data and gain information that was missing or not included on the files. Ultimately, however, a small portion of the information sought (perhaps 3%) could not be recovered. In almost all of these cases, this applied to abandoned or canceled applications and not to those that were eventually proven up.

When all the data was recorded, calculations were made on each form concerning the length of time from when each successful applicant filed for his or her land to when title was granted. This should NOT be seen as the length of time an applicant took to prove up his or her land, for many other factors affected this. Some applicants, for example, undertook military service in World War I, and were given time off to do this. Other applicants from Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who had not yet become Canadian citizens, were not allowed land entitlement during the duration of the war. Still others, who were not British subjects, ended up filing late for naturalization and so had to wait until they were naturalized until they could gain title. Many applicants had to take employment away from their land to finance their homesteads and were allowed to do so for six months in every year until title was granted.

With the completion of the data entry forms, local histories and other information sources were consulted to verify certain details and provide additional information that had not been included on the land files. For example, a homesteader might have indicated that s/he came from Indiana but did not indicate which community. Local histories often disclose this. Unfortunately, however, information on only about 15% of the successful land settlers up to 1914 is included in the local histories and not all of this information is trustworthy, for it was often taken from distant memory. Whenever information in the local histories conflicted with that in the land files, reliance was made on the land files, the documents filled out by the land agents in direct contact with the applicants.

Further verification was made from other primary sources, such as the Grande Prairie Herald, a detailed index which is held by the Grande Prairie Public Library, and the Loggie collection of Peace River Country biographies held by the Glenbow-Alberta Archives. Use was also made of the 1901 national and 1906 western prairie census, as well as the Western Land Grants database held by the National Archives. It was discovered that personal names often had varying spellings, particularly with immigrants from eastern Europe. In cases such as this, reliance was made on the land file, for here the applicants were required to sign their names, even though some did so with an "x". Also, it should be noted that, among the pre-1910 applicants for land, many indicated different ages for themselves when applying for land than they did when speaking to the census takers in 1901 or 1906.

After as much verification as possible, information from the data entry forms was entered onto the database which was specifically designed by the Grande Prairie Regional College to run on Microsoft Access. When this was completed, each database record was checked against the original data entry form, and information was reviewed by two professional historians of the Peace River region. Following this verification, information on the database was migrated to Microsoft Excel, with both versions copied onto CD-ROMs. The program has also been published on the Lobstick website where individual records can be consulted, although the overall database cannot be manipulated. Online access to the records is by the name of the applicant or by the legal description of the land. Researchers should remember that the information on individuals in these database records pertains only to details disclosed up to the time when land title was either granted or denied.

The information from the land files was retrieved by Dr. David Leonard, who gleaned and reviewed it between 1996 and 2003. He made his data entry forms available to the Monkman Homestead Preservation Society in 2002 in order that the Society might enter the data onto a database especially devised by Chris Levoir of Grande Prairie Regional College. With a generous grant from the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation, the information was entered onto the database during 2002-03. As this was being done, Lynda Boyd of the Society checked the information against biographies in the various local histories of the region, while Dr. Leonard checked various archival sources, all of which resulted in additional information being entered onto a number of the records. Dr. Leonard also checked certain entries against the 1901 national and the 1906 prairie census, as well as the National Archives’ Western Land Grants database. When data entry was completed in February 2003, verification was undertaken by Dr. Leonard and Dr. Campbell Ross of Grande Prairie Regional College. After corrections were made, the whole was presented to Lobstick for publication in both on-line and CD-ROM format. After a review by the editor, Dr. Scott McAlpine, publication proceeded.

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