Tag Archives: Saskatchewan

Family Name Repeats

Joseph the son of Joseph the son of Joseph One of the challenges of tracing a family tree can be the repetition of names. Collecting and sorting data can lead you into a maze of repeated names, as every couple … Continue reading

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A Walk on the Dark Side

When Hugh McKervill was in training to become a minister in the United Church of Canada, he was sent in the summer of 1955 as a student minister to the people of the Smoky Burn-Battle Heights-Papikwan area (at the edge … Continue reading

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Clearing the Land

My Uncle Fred (Dad F) sold his farm back about 1958. This was the original home place, the farm he’d inherited from his father, Thomas Forsyth. The impression I gleaned over the years was that Dad’s health was bad after … Continue reading

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Women and Work on a Prairie Homestead

In the mid 1800s in the large Eastern American cities, some young women were pushing for the right to higher education – and meeting stiff opposition.  Some educators claimed that a basic Grade 8 education was all girls could handle. … Continue reading

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Laundry Day in the Log Cabin

Monday Was Wash Day According to the Laws of Feminine Paradigms, Monday was Wash day long before the prairies filled up with settlers. Homestead wives brought this tradition from their far-off motherlands and planted it into the cultural soil of … Continue reading

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Uncle Danny Vance — Obit

Joseph Daniel Vance was born December 27, 1914.  He was born at Spy Hill, Sask., the son of Allen and Emily Vance who were originally from Ontario. They moved to Pathlow, Sk, and later to Melfort where Danny resided until … Continue reading

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The Box Social

In the latter 1800s and early 1900s many young single men came to the Canadian West to make new lives for themselves and were now proving up homesteads in the prairie provinces. A lot of them endured isolated, frigid prairie … Continue reading

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Arthur and the Organ

Nine-year-old Boy Carries 200 lb Organ 17 Miles Across the Prairie Arthur’s dad had been a gentleman back in merry old England. Had his branch of the family fallen on hard times or had he just decided to try making … Continue reading

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Cousin Stanley Smith Killed in Tornado

Cousin Stanley Smith Killed in Tornado by Linda C Butler Told by Charlie Vance In 1963 near Spy Hill SK, Stanley Smith went to visit a neighbor and a tornado came, picked up the house and carried it into the … Continue reading

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Building a Home

HOMESTEADING IN THE CANADIAN WEST: ‘Hit or Miss’ Choosing Like our great-grandpa and grandpa Vance, a number of Easterners came to friends or family out West and from there they looked around and chose the quarter section (160 acres) they wanted … Continue reading

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