McPhee's Prairie People
How the western provinces invented the cultural mosaic
McPhee's Prairie People
I am working on a historical census map of ethnic block settlements before 1950. Click to sign up for my contact list, and you'll be the first to know when it's out:
My very first job in school, and my first introduction to ethnic history, consisted of a few summers at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, a large pioneer village a short drive out of Edmonton. Actually, I'll readily admit that I'm more Manchak than McPhee.
It's a story repeated over and over in black-and-white photos and small-town museums throughout Western Canada: these were the Ontarians, these were the Romanians, these were the Métis, a quarter of one, an eighth of the other. Plenty of distinction still exists today, but what I find almost more impressive is how easily the average prairie resident can be convinced to start talking about all the different sides of the family tree.
With some old-school archival work and some modern technology, I am doing a historical deep dive into the ethnic block settlements that give the Prairies their unique character. Prairie People will be a data-driven map of the human tapestry of Western Canada, to the interest of any family history researcher or map lover. I have already fully digitized the ethnicity section of the 1936 Census of the Prairie Provinces, which you can see at the top of this page.
Like many of my passion projects, it's hard to guess when it will be finished, but if you sign up for my contact list here you'll be the first to know!