Happy New Year! The Yorkton branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society will be holding their next meeting on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 7:00 PM at the Yorkton Public Library. New members are always welcome! Whatever your stage of research, whether you have gone back generations or are wondering how to get started, you are welcome to attend!
Researching a family tree is a labor of love that can take a long time, and it is never really over. There are always new things to discover! This new year, start a project that your family will treasure: information about your own family. Write down every family member as far back as you are able; then start making calls or writing letters to your oldest relatives and ask them to try and fill in any gaps you may have in your information.
Dig out that dusty box of old photos in your closet and start going through them. If you can, label them with the names of the people in the photos, the year (more or less) that the photo was taken, and the location of the picture. Don’t think that it is not worth doing unless you have “old” pictures from pioneer times. Photos from the 40’s and 50’s are the “pioneer photos” for a young person who is a teenager today! Televisions, record players, rotary dial phones, record albums and so many more items were new and wonderful back then, and have already been eclipsed by amazing technology that continues to change at lightning speed. Photos that show some of these items will be weird and wonderful in coming years! And don’t overlook the 60’s and 70’s, which encompassed so many changes in home and family.
Writing down family genealogy is more than listing who is related to each other. Write down family milestones like getting a new car (what was it and how much did it cost?); getting a color television; getting your first microwave oven. These things that we take for granted now were at one time new and amazing to every family. Stories like this fit into the context of your family and make family history more vivid and alive.
You may think that your children are not interested in family history. Not so. Perhaps they may not be totally mesmerized right now, but as years go by an appreciation for their roots will grow, and the time will come when they will thank you and treasure what you have recorded, and by then they will be adding their own stories. And so the circle of life continues.
There are many websites that can help you in your search for family information. You can log on to www.ancestry.ca which has billions of records; and check out Library and Archives Canada at www.bac-lac.gc.ca for births, marriages and deaths recorded in Canada. Start closer to home and visit the site of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society at www.saskgenealoy.com or Saskatchewan Archives at www.saskarchives.com. Once you begin looking, you will find an abundance of sites that will help you with your own individual search.
If you are new to genealogy, it may seem intimidating to get started. But begin slowly by recording what you know, and work back from there. Not only will you learn more about your family, but you will also have the chance to build ties with relatives as you talk and share special memories and information.
The Yorkton branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society would like to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year! Make 2016 the year of discovery for your family!
Every family has a story; discover yours with the Yorkton Genealogical Society!
