Land Records - Manitoba
With the acquisition of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1869, western lands came under federal control. In 1930, responsibility for Crown Lands was transferred to the provincial governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The federal government retained a copy of the original letters patent issued for these lands which are indexed in the Western Land Grants database at Library & Archives Canada
The actual homestead applications and files relating to the grants were transferred to the Archives of Manitoba. Microfilms may be ordered through inter-library loan. These records are found within the Department of Natural Resources.
Subsequent transfers of title are recorded in the district Land Titles Offices
Letters patent: Letters Patent grant or confirm title to a portion of land.
University of Calgary Glenbow Library and Archives: Archives CPR Land Sales Catalogue:
- Select Access Dataset and download the Excel file; searchable by name and location.
- Database of records of agricultural land sales by Canadian Pacific Railway to settlers in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan from 1881-1927.
Obee, Dave. Back to the Land: A Genealogical guide to finding farms on the Canadian Prairies. (Victoria: D. Obee, 2001). Library Call number 929.3712 OBE 2001
[Note that local history books will often have individualized information on land occupation within the locality. See Local Histories section of this guide.]
Microfilm
Manitoba Land Index 1870-1930 is available on microfiche. See section 6-16 of the Canadian Family History Resources. The fiche is organized by surname or corporate name and is an index of administrative records related to Dominion lands that were made available for settlement through homestead entry. Since records from this index are also duplicated in Library and Archives Canada’s Western Land Grants database, search there first.
If you find an entry on the microfiche index, but not in the online database, copy the information from the fiche and contact the Archives of Manitoba:
Archives of Manitoba
130-200 Vaughan Street
Winnipeg, MB R3C 1T5
email: archives@gov.mb.ca