Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta

Church Registers - First Mennonite Church, Vauxhall-Grantham, Alberta

Several years ago, Anne Harder wrote a short History of the Vauxhall Mennonite Church and the MHSA published it in 2001. And, an even shorter account appears as an entry in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encylopaedia Online (GAMEO).

Among the holdings of the MHSA are a number of records from that church - all of which have some value to genealogists (Vauxhall Mennonite Church fonds).  More work is planned, to get the information publicly available, but at this time indices to the Birth and Marriage records and a full transcription of Burial records has been placed on the MHSA website.

We hope to get information from the Church Register in shareable form before long.  Inquiries are welcome.

In kinship,
Judii for the MHSA

New Genealogy Resources for Sask

Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan (MHSS) has had a limited web presence for a number of years - the Saskatchewan Mennonite Cemetery Finding Aid developed by Al Mierau for the MHSS.

But it was just this summer that the MHSS finally got a comprehensive site online.  It still has a few bugs in it - but it's worth a visit.  Not only do you find out about the organization, but they've already committed to putting more data indices to various Mennonite obituary sources.

In kinship,
Judii for the MHSA 

Immigration of Mennonites to Canada

Between the following websites, the immigration picture for Mennonites coming to Canada is getting more and more complete.

Passenger Lists - 1865-1922 (Library & Archives Canada)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/passenger/index-e.html

• not searchable by name
• full images are online
• no fees to view

Passenger Lists/Immigration Records - 1925-1935 (Library & Archives Canada)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/immigration-1925/index-e.html

• searchable by name, year, etc.
• visitors are directed to use details in index to consult images on microfilms in major Canadian libraries
• no fees to view

Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonizations (1923-1930) (Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta)
http://www.mennonitehistory.org/projects/cmboc/index.html

• searchable by household head's name
• visitors are directed to use details index to request digital copies of records for a $10/record fee
• personalized service
• index to be expanded in the next few months to include other household members and birth years of immigrants
• we can already conduct broader and finer searches for household members and links between records
• index and records also available at Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg

Passenger Lists departing from United Kingdom (1890-1939) FindMyPast (commercial site)
http://www.findmypast.com/passengerListPersonSearchStart.action?redef=0

• searchable by name, year, etc.
• - visitors can get a shortlist of hits that includes full name, age, gender, year of departure, destination country/port for free
• visitors are directed to two links for each: one to transcript and one to image
• each type of link has a different fee
• indexing work continues and current plans are to complete up to 1960 before long; they're making good progress

In kinship, Judii for Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta