Helping people connect with their history through the Red River Ancestry Genealogy Centre
Inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action as well as the story behind Orange Shirt Day, the people involved with the Red River Ancestry Genealogy Centre have put together information to help residents find information about their Indigenous ancestors.
“We’ve felt that we, as a genealogy centre, could do some of the basic research into what’s available [and help people learn] how you find your missing relatives and set up a display of what we’ve got available and some handouts for people to learn the resources that are out there that they can access,” said Kim Still, volunteer administrator, Red River Ancestry Genealogy Centre.
The event takes place on Sept. 30 and residents can drop in from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
“We’re going to have both the genealogy centre itself and the adjacent room. The adjacent room will have displays and resources, and it will have four main sections. There will be a whole table having a display on Truth and Reconciliation with information regarding logos, the survivor’s flag, and all the national stuff, but also what’s available locally through the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It has a reconciliation department there. In addition, we will actually have on hand the residential school lists as they were produced by the Government of Canada, but those specifically for Manitoba. So, we have a listing of the schools, their locations, and then our listing of the students who passed away there who died at the school,” said Still.
In addition, they will have the St. Peters Reserve pay lists from select years in the 1800s which can identify people as members of that First Nation. The books in Gail Morin’s Métis Families series vol. 1-11 will be on hand and there will be web resources available.
Still said that they felt that this was important as a way to help people understand and connect even if they learn painful information.
“They were our ancestors and the fact is that a lot of it was hidden and they almost disappeared from history. They are still our ancestors, no matter what happened to them. It’s important to keep their memories not only live in our hearts but just documenting where they were. Especially with genealogy, [it’s about] fitting them into your family tree because sometimes they were taken away and almost never heard of again and so they’re lost within individual family trees and their family histories as well,” said Still.
There will also be volunteers available to help anyone who stops by in order to let people know about resources they may not have heard of before.
“It’s going to be an ongoing event. You don’t have to be there at a certain time. It’s drop in and we will show you what we’ve got. In each area we will have handouts and stuff that people can take with them so that they know where to access things. And, if people want to do any research [in person], or get a tour of our centre and see exactly what they can look at as far as what we’ve already got loaded on our computer – on the databases — then we will have somebody in that room. We can do that on an individual basis. We don’t do the research, but we are there to give them the information about where to find resources,” said Still.
Still says that the resources used at this event will be added to the centre’s library so that they are available for generations to come and she encourages people to come to this event if they are interested in learning more about themselves.
“This is going to be specifically to help people understand their heritage and for the Indigenous population within our community, [to learn] their history, and even more [than that for everyone to gain more] history of the Selkirk area in Manitoba,” said Still.
