Documents which are commonly found in homestead files:
- Application for Entry
- Application for Patent
- Notification of Patent
- Declaration of Abandonment
- Application or Notice of Cancellation
- Statutory declarations
- Homestead inspector’s reports
- Correspondence and administrative documents, related to the status of grants, seed grain indebtedness, claims for improvements on abandoned or cancelled entries, etc.
- Documents related to special land grants including: NWMP/Militia grants; South African scrip; military service information particularly related to First World War soldier grants; land colonization companies; and Doukhobor or Mennonite land reserves
- Documents related to Métis scrip
Documents which are occasionally found in homestead files:
- Wills or letters of administration
- Passports
- Copies of naturalization certificates
- Documents related to Indian reserves
- Form K (Certificate of Right to Apply for Letters Patent): Prior to 1947 persons barred by law from securing naturalization in Canada for various reasons were issued certificates in Form K so they could apply for patents to homesteads. Form K did not give British subject status to the person to whom it was issued.
Information that may often be obtained from an Application for Entry:
- The name and signature of the applicant (signature in two places)
- Type of land grant: homestead, pre-emption, purchased homestead
- Land location
- Place of birth of applicant
- Number of males, females, and children in the family. In later years it will also include the ages of these individuals. No names are given.
- Last place of residence
- Previous occupation
- The land location of any other homesteads the individual had held previously but cancelled
- Date of entry
Information that may often be obtained from an Application for Patent:
- Type of land grant: homestead, pre-emption, purchased homestead
- Land location
- Age of applicant and post office address
- Citizenship status of the applicant
- Date of entry
- Date that the applicant built their house and the dates of residence
- Dates that the applicant resided on the homestead
- If they were absent from the homestead, where were they residing and what was their occupation (this can provide information about where other family member resided)
- Other quarter sections of land owned by the applicant (land location, when they obtained ownership, how it was acquired, buildings on it, residence)
- Number of individuals in the family (no names are given) and the dates that they resided on the homestead
- Number of acres broken and cropped each year
- Type and amount of livestock owned by the settler
- Name and signature of the applicant
- Information about the house (value, size, building material)
- Amount of fencing that has been built
- Information about any other buildings on the quarter
- Information about any mines or minerals on the quarter
- Information about any other homestead entries
- Information about any mortgages or liens on land, possibly connected to relief or seed grain loans received
- On both the pre-emption document and purchased homestead document it will give the land location of the homestead quarter
- If the applicant was not always a British subject, there will be a stamp to indicate the date the homestead inspector saw the naturalization certificate and the date of naturalization (located near the date)
- The names of two neighbours who witness the homesteader’s statements about proving up the homestead.
Information that may be obtained from the Notification of Patent:
- Date patent was issued
- Postal address of homesteader
