It is getting a lot easier to look up information at the archives at Wellington Place here.
On May 6, expanded hours began at the archives with a special day of workshops the previous day.
Over 70 people registered for May 5 to hear Lesley Anderson speak about how to use a web tool. Her presentation was Ancestry to Search for Your Family Tree. In the afternoon. Brian Gilchrist gave a talk on The Information – The Internet – The Implication: Why IT is not all on-line.
“Both speakers are very well known,” said archivist Karen Wagner in an interview prior to the event. She said tracing family trees and looking up people’s roots has become very popular these days because of television shows that give advice on how to do it. She also noted that the Wellington County Archives and all 14 of the county’s libraries have free access to the Ancestry tool to help them.
Wagner said the workshops were the first time since the archives opened that it has offered such a large event. She noted there was no space available in the old archives, but now the entire new archives has wireless internet and “genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies.”
She said that is one reason the archives is now open on Sunday from noon to 4pm, the same as it is on Saturdays. The demand is there, and county council recently approved a part time position and Wagner said the Sunday duties would be divided three ways for now.
“It’s definitely going to make the archives open to the public seven days a week.”
She said there is research access on line, but physically visiting the place provides more opportunities for research and researches have the benefit of expert help, too.
“There’s always staff on hand,” she said.
There is more going on, too. Wagner noted that as of May 7, a contract person starts work to digitize Wellington County Historical Society Journals.
She said she expects by August all of those should be available online. The society has been producing the journals for many years. She said those will be “completely searchable using key words.”
As well, that society has also been holding essay contests since the 1940s and those, too, will be available online.
Wagner explained the society had themes like remembering schools, pioneer days and such things as Wellington County churches. There were also essays on pioneers and builders of Wellington County. Those could be invaluable to researchers.
This year’s annual essay competition concluded on April 17 and the topic was My School Days, designed to give a portrait of the education system of years gone by. The winners will be announced on June 4 at the society’s annual general meeting.
Besides the new Sunday hours, the archives are open Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm and Saturdays noon to 4pm.
