Hi Julia I am trying to trace where my father and family lived near Moose Jaw when they came to Canada in the early 1900's. I have two school report cards, one for October and one for April,however there isn't any year. He was in grade three at the time these report cards were made. The information on the report cards is as follows: Petrolia S.D. No.591, N.B. Mills, Teacher, Pupil's Name....Allan Bridgeman.

It would greatly be appreciated by our family and myself if you could furnish us with information re: the location of the school and also where their home was located.

I cannot thank you enough for all the work and time you went to trying to help me find my father. The 1916 census of Saskatchewan has my Grandparents and four family members listed. The census shows that they immigrated from England to Moose Jaw in 1913 and my Grandfather, William Henry Bridgman, arrived in Moose Jaw in 1910. Our name is actually spelt without the "e". Their address on the census is shown as:District: Moose Jaw, District #: 23, Sub-District Description:Township 15,ranges 26 &27, and township 16, ranges 27,28,29 and 30,west of second meridian, Meridian:W2, Range # 26, Family # 21, Page #2, Line # 45, Microfilm:T-21931, Reference: R233-47-9-E,Item #1081631.

I was wondering if there would be any school records from this era stored that I could access and if there are any traces of where the school was. I have two of my Dad's report cards.

Again, Thank You and all the best
Phil Bridgman

Some additional information:
The census places your grandfather at township 15 range 26 west of the 2nd meridian within the larger enumeration area. This location is closest to Baildon.

Petrolia School District 591 was located on the southwest quarter of section 18 township 16 range 25 west of the 2 meridian. Moose Jaw would be in the provisional district of Assiniboia West, NWT before Saskatchewan became a province in 1905.

Nearby placenames
Moose Jaw locates at SE section 5 Township 17 Range 26 West of the 2nd Meridian
Baildon Section 11, Township 15, Range 26, West of the 2nd meridian - 1907-12-01 which may have been a post office open in a homesteader home until the store opened up which looks like it was at Sec.24, Twp.15, R.26, W2
Archive 23, 15, 27, W2
Burdick
Pasquia SW 28 16 25 W2
Antar NE 4 16 26 w2
Colwyn SW 32 16 26 W2

The school records are all held in paper copy at the Regina Archives, that is where the Department of Education (now called the Ministry of Education) submitted their records when the one room schoolhouses were finishing up and converting over to consolidated schools. However, that being said, some schoolhouses sent their records to the new consolidated school where they remain, and others sent them to the local museum, and some records unfortunately burned if the one room schoolhouse had been caught in any prairie fire (which was common in the early 1900s and which in fact gave rise to Local Improvement Districts (LID) to build fire guards; these LIDs are the precursors to Rural Municipalities (RM)

Saskatchewan Provincial Records are going to be coming online from the archives onto Family Search

In the meantime, this is how to contact the Regina branch of the provincial archives.

For more information:
Title Warm prairie winds
Published Moose Jaw, Sask.
Author Red Lake and District History, 1983
Look up volunteers
Title Fifty years with the Baildon Municipality : 1912-1962
Author Council of Baildon Municipality No. 131.

Neighbouring School Districts:
McCargar SD 2147 community came together between 1908-1917 for their schoolhouse support
No dates for Enterprise SD 2164 as of yet
Petrolia SD 591 was organised between 1901-1962
Cataraqui 1012 between 1904--1959
and Newberry 410 between 1895-1904
The Sukanen museum has on their grounds the Spicer school #1687 (SE 1 15 25 W2 ) moved in from Tilney (SW 4 15 25 W2)

School District Maps
1925 Waghorn's railway map for Saskatchewan

1924 Rand McNally (Railway) Map Legal Land Description information, Township Range Meridian