Year Book of British Columbia - 1903 (Edited by: R. Edward Gosnell)

Cat No.:   CA0166:

According to its introduction this is either the second or the third publication in this series depending if you consider the addition of a 1901 updating appendix to the 1897 original to be a second edition or not. Whatever edition it is, it remains one of the most detailed and informative sources of information about life in British Columbia 100+ years ago. It is a difficult book to describe in a few words because of the breadth and depth of its subject matter. Perhaps a listing of the major headings from its contents list might help:

Introduction, Physical Characteristics, Agriculture, Mining in British Columbia, The Fisheries, Forest Wealth, Educational, Provincial Health Laws, Taxation and Assessment, Municipal, Our Indians, Towns and Cities, Census of British Columbia, Railway Enterprise, Game of British Columbia, Labour and Wages, Political Information, Trade and Navigation Statistics.

There is a no nonsense style about this book so descriptions and text is brief and to the point and where applicable the facts are provided in tabular form allowing quick access to all the details. Parts of the book that struck me as being of great interest to genealogists were the descriptions of the different geographical areas which included discussion of the major industries and agricultural enterprises resident and the Towns and Cities section which listed all the significant population centers in the province which identifies its relation to the surrounding centers and the reasons for its existence.

The book contains 394 pages of printed text and the list of illustrations shows there should be an additional 136 (+ 3 not listed for a total of 139) photographs. Unfortunately the book seems to have been mined for prints for framing and 11 pages have been lost, carrying a total of 29 photographs. There are still 110 photographs left however and they show as wide a range of subjects as the text. There are pictures of the natural features such as rivers, waterfalls and lakes, pictures of mines and mining, pictures of bears and hunters, several wonderful pictures of the aboriginal people and two pictures of New Westminster, one in 1864 and one in 1902. We see a lot of pictures from old books and these are some of the best I've seen from this era. It's worth getting this CD for the pictures alone.

The book is presented in our normal PDF format, fully supported with bookmarking and with searchable text. We recommend Adobe Reader V4, or later, for maximum compatibility.

We have made up a sampler of this book and placed it on our British Columbia Downloads web page so you can see for yourself what a mine of 100 year old, BC information this book is. A MUST for anyone who wants to know what life was like for their ancestors living in the province at the end of the 19th century. You can also reach the Sampler by clicking on the following link Sampler. You can return to this page by closing the Sampler Page when you are ready to purchase.

Review all our Free Samplers by clicking on FREE DOWNLOADS.

No. of CDs is:  1 ;   Format is:  PDF ;   Searchable?:  YES;

FastFind:  No;  ISBN No.:   1-897338-55-4;