'To look back at that old house': Why old aerial photos of Sask. farmyards are bringing some to tears

Preserving homestead history WATCH: A homestead aerial photo roadshow is connecting people with their family’s past.

A collection of photos is serving as a time machine, allowing people to get a glimpse of family farmyards long since lost to time.

“I was very interested to see if they had photographs of where I grew up,” Lillian Donahue said.

She is one of many who converged on the Homestead Aerial Photo archives roadshow at the Prince Albert Historical Museum.

Her family farmed near Saint Isidore-de-Bellevue.

Donahue was fortunate enough to find photos of their farm taken in 1954 and 1962 in the aerial photography company's archives.

As an added bonus, she also found a schoolyard photo from where members of her family taught school.

“I found it very touching because your childhood memories are some of your best times — at least they were for me,” Donahue said.

Only one of their farm buildings remains today but it’s collapsing, so she said the photo means a lot to her.

Many of the small farms in the area disappeared as farming moved to larger operations, Donahue said.

“It’s very nostalgic. It gives me back a time that was really important to me,” she said.

“To look back at that old house where my grandmother and I would hang out and she would show me flowers, and she loved birds. It just brought all that back to me.”

Homestead Aerial Photo owners Kim Bessette and Eileen Deringer say many people are overcome with emotion when they see their family's homes.

“We do have a tendency to go through boxes of Kleenex at shows,” said Bessette.

He says it's rewarding to reunite people with a piece of their past.

“A lot of people who have lived on the farm for many years don’t even recognize it from the air,” said Bessette.

“Being the flight was taken so low, with virtually no flight restrictions 40 to 60 years ago, you’re going to see people in the photo and a lot of detail of that farm yard, so it becomes a very emotional process. It isn’t uncommon for men and women to drop a few tears at our booth.”

Bessette purchased the business in 1993. He says the original owners took aerial photographs of a large majority of the rural areas in the three Prairie provinces, parts of British Columbia, Ontario and a portion of the Maritimes.

Over one million aerial photos of farm yards, rural school grounds, gas stations, churches, towns and cemeteries are in their collection.

The photos were taken from a low-flying plane. Bessette says when the business first started one man flew the plane and took the photos.

As the business grew, there was a pilot and a photographer. The team would fly the grids of rural municipalities and photograph yards.

He said while people expect seniors to be the bulk of their business. younger generations are seeking photos for various reasons.

Bessette still takes aerial photos upon request with a drone. He says reasons vary, some people have asked him to take photos of old yards before they get cleared off to make way for farmland.

All of the negatives are stored in their office in Calgary. People interested in searching for a particular homestead or a land location can submit an application through the company's website.

Homestead Aerial Photography will be in Prince Albert July 13 - 14. They the archive will head to the Ag in Motion Farm Show in Langham July 19 - 21.