Anyone interested in joining a TLSARL trip to Scotland in the summer of 2012? We are still planning, but need to know who is seriously interested so we can plan destinations according to descendant interests – there’s no point in going to Kildonan if no one from the Kildonan descendants is on the tour, right?

Essentially, the tour will be a pilgrimmage to our ancestors’ homes and other significant places in their lives in Scotland. We will also visit places that reflect various aspects of their lives there and the history of their local parishes.

Please, send me an email through the Contact Us Form noting your ancestors’ names and the places you’d be interested in visiting. This will also place you on our email list for the event.

Thank you!

Again, I return to the AGM at the end of September this year. The newly elected Vice President of TLSARL, Roy McLeod, stopped me as I was entering the venue. He’d found some articles written by my great-aunt in a couple of old copies of Saskatchewan History, and kindly, he gave them to me. Imagine my excitement when I found her contributions were (an annotated copy of) a journal her aunt kept while on a canoe trip made in the 1920s!

One of the participants in the forum I set up for Red River Descendants mentioned an ancestor, and I remembered collecting something on him some time ago as he was a relative of my own, too. I was able to send her the quote I’d extracted from a 1927 article in another Saskatchewanian historical society’s bulletin.

Another person who signed up at the forum mentioned she had a book on one of her Red River ancestors. It was one I didn’t have in my library, so I ordered a copy…. It came in yesterday, and I will write more about it when I finish going through it, of course!

One of the best ways to learn more about the shared history of the Red River Settlers and their descendants, to learn more about specific people within that group, and to learn where to find more material about them is to network with other researchers.

There are several ways to do that:

• Visit the blog here and read about our history – and discuss it through comments (free).
• Join TLSARL, if you are a descendant, get our quarterly Newsletter and participate in our Reunion every year (small annual fee – Contact Us for more information).
• Join the Red River Settlement, Rupert’s Land (Manitoba, Canada) forum at GenealogyWise (free).

You will meet people who are deeply engaged in their history, people who are just starting to explore their Red River roots, and undoubtedly you will acrue some new relatives! Discussing your stories, sources and knowledge with others will help deepen and re-enforce your understanding of your own history as well as bring others closer to theirs.

I realised after publishing the last dog entry that I had forgotten to mention what my plans for our new puppy, Stella, were! So just in case anyone was following the entries in order to find out….

I have two somewhat unusual hopes for Stella.

First, I am an avid knitter. In my reading I have learned that both the Newfy and Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog grow excellent wool for spinning. I’m hoping to brush enough out of her to try it out on the needles.

My second aspiration is to train Stella for draught work – not so different from our Selkirk Settler ancestors, perhaps! I’m hoping she will help me haul all the firewood home once I cut it into stove lengths. This will be a project for next fall.

*  *  *  *  *

I’m hoping that some of the readers out there also are writers. If any of you have an interesting story to tell about the Red River Settlers (pre-1836) or their descendants, if you have some knowledge of life in the settlement or RRS history that you think others would like to learn about, please jot it down and send it to me via the Contact Us form. If you have photos to go with, please let me know. Please use “Guest Writer” as the subject.

I will make one day a week – Saturday – open to guest writers. Perhaps you have a story about the achievement of one of your ancestors. Maybe you visited an historical site associated with the RRS and were moved in some respect by the experience. Do you have a burning question about some aspect of RRS life, and hope that someone else might have a good answer? If you have a photo you need identified and think another descendant may be able to help… send it in!

If you feel self-conscious about your writing skills, please don’t let that stop you. Just let me know that you’d like me to polish your entry before I put it up, and I will be happy to help!

If you would like to be a regular contributor, please let me know. I would be happy to share the load with someone interested in writing on a regular basis.

Christian Matheson & Angus Matheson, 1815 Group

The Digital Photo Archive is one of the projects I would like to see underway in the Genealogy department of TLSARL.

Genealogy can be a very dry subject. Purists might feel that it should be confined to the collection of vital statistics. I hold a radically different view. To my way of thinking, any information that can be gathered about an individual gives us a better understanding about who they were and how others within their community and through history saw them. Portraits in particular tell us a lot about the people we study – not just what they looked like, but what they wore and, depending on the photo, what they did and how they did it, even where they did it. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Our archive is woefully short of such rich sources. It should be a haven for them.

Descendant gravestone, Kildonan Presbyterian Churchyard, Winnipeg

Why? Well, in addition to providing researchers with valuable information, a photo archive also allows other relatives to see their ancestors. It might also be that those other family members in that photo get identified by someone who knows who they are, but otherwise would never see the picture. And what if the family collection is lost in a flood, fire or falls into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand what they have? How many of us have seen lots of photos or old albums at antique shops, for example? Or worse yet, the collection gets thrown out because whoever ends up with it doesn’t know any of the subjects?

Even if we don’t have the originals, at least we have copies that may be valuable references for future researchers. And today, it’s really easy to make good copies at little to no cost, and to send them by email!

If you are interested in contributing photos, paintings or sketches with Red River Settler or descendant

St. Peters Church

connections, please contact me via the form in the Contact Us page of this site. I will tell you what format I need the scanned file in, etc. If you’d like to donate originals or photographic copies to TLSARL, I can also tell you how to go about it. If you have photos in which there are unidentified people with Red River connections, perhaps I can help solve the mystery. I am also interested in historic photos of important buildings, homes, and artifacts (spinning wheels, furniture, etc.) connected to settlers. Family portraits of current descendants are also welcome – after all, in a few generations there will be researchers wondering what you looked like, how you dressed, what you did and where….

Some people at TLSARL might be very comfortable with how we are now. There are a lot of really good things about the organisation and the people who are members. Absolutely. I don’t know who you people are, actually, I would be pretty surprised if you really are out there. I don’t believe that there is anyone in our Association who hasn’t got an opinion on how we should do something better or different or not at all. That’s just human nature, and guess what?

But I would also be very suprised if we any of us had the same vision for change as any other member, or even if most of us give it that much thought except when we get the Newsletter or meet at the Reunion.

I’m not really a radical, but I am kind of (another ‘oh, dear’ moment). I am beginning to feel very strongly that TLSARL thinks too small. We need to think, well, maybe not REALLY BIG just yet, but at least biGGER.

If you read my entry about Archives – if you didn’t, here’s your excuse (The Question of Archives – Sept. 29) – you may have noticed one of our problems was that we didn’t have a permanent location designed to protect our archive. In fact, we don’t have an office or library, either. We have nowhere where the public can come to meet us on a day to day basis. According to the legislation that set us up as an Association, we are not allowed to spend over $10,000 for a building for the purpose of holding our offices, etc.

Hmmm… I guess it’s been awhile since we gave some serious thought to having a physical presence anywhere….

For very obvious reasons, a permanent home is something our organisation should have on its list of important goals for the future. Some members would say that this is WAY beyond our means. Yes, way. It is.

But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be thinking about it. That we shouldn’t be planning toward it. We were a hundred years ago in 1910 when that building budget was set. What happened to our goals and dreams?

Why do we only focus on advertising our Annual Reunion to members? I know ANY descendants would be welcome. We ALL want to meet new people who are a part of our community, as well as reuniting with those we already know. I can’t be the only one who sees the problem here.

If our Newsletter only goes out to members, then where do other people who are interested in us get to find out about us? How do ‘lost’ descendants find us?

Why don’t we have charitable status so people can donate and receive a tax receipt? So we can FUNDRAISE effectively? The people who asked this at the AGM have made a very important point.

None of these postings are meant to criticise current or past members and Executive. They are meant to get us all thinking about TLSARL. And I do know that some steps are being taken to address these issues already – we aren’t sitting at Executive meetings contemplating navels and grain futures. We do have a long way to go, though, and many of us have been travelling the road for a long time. Sometimes we need a little input and inspiration – even a little muscle – to get out of the rut our wheels have spun for us. ‘Cause sometimes, we get a little tired, and being creative gets hard when you’re tired.

Those of you who are not members of TLSARL but have been reading the last few entries might be forming some opinions about us as an organisation. I kind of hope that members who are reading are also thinking a bit more about who we are and where we are headed.

On the down side of the Reunion this year, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be as many people there as there were last one. I may be wrong, but I seem to see fewer people each year now, and certainly fewer than there were attending when I was young(er). They seemed a lot more crowded when I attended as a child, teen and university student years ago. Yes – I was one of the youngsters that was engaged as a child, but mostly because my heritage was lived in my home; my parents found ways to interest me from day one, and the Annual Reunion was a big trip into the city for us, too – an EVENT.

We aren’t alone in facing the problem of diminishing membership. Actually, our membership is staying pretty constant. Consider who we are, though, and you see the problem. The number of descendants increases every generation. Instead of being an organisation that is increasingly irrelevant to the next generation, we actually have MORE people in each generation to whom we should be very relevant indeed. So why doesn’t our membership increase, at least proportionately?

That’s an interesting question with a multitude of answers (feel free to supply a few).

I’ve been thinking that TLSARL is a wee (that’s my Scottish heritage kicking in as it does from time to time) a wee bit introverted. We were set up to be that way: membership is limited to actual descendants and their spouses. I don’t have a problem with that, exactly, and I know there are members who feel very strongly about maintaining that standard – I’ve heard you! And I respect your point of view. Who has a better interest, after all, in preserving our history, and in making certain that the Settlers’ stories are told? Who best to guard and grow our heritage – indeed, who else is capable of the latter in particular?

BUT… There are a lot of people out there who are interested in our history because it’s… well… interesting! And who are we to keep them from it? I don’t think we’re trying to, in fact, if you asked any of us I’m sure you would find we’d be delighted to foster your interest, non-members! But (again, because it’s a ‘but’ worth emphasising) that introverted aspect of our Association may be hurting us here, members. We really are focussing on us right now, rather than on sharing our heritage with others who are interested. And not just in sharing it with them because they are interested, but in engaging them in it because they want to help us preserve that heritage, or because it touches on their own in some way.

So, how does a ‘closed’ society like ours engage ‘outsiders’?

Yes, folks. I think we might be wise to think about this issue a bit more, too, if we want our organisation to grow.

I was soooo tired when I arrived at the Annual Reunion last Sunday. And it wasn’t the driving – mom got us there. No, I was tired because I write and write and try to keep this thing fresh every day… and I fail. I just don’t seem to be able to find the inspiration that allows me to say something about the RRS and TLSARL every day. And I write, and write and hardly anybody writes back. I know people are reading. They phone or email me and tell me <Hello! This is a BLOG! Comment! Give me a purpose in this function of mine!> (By the way… the <> means I didn’t write that out loud. So you can’t take offense, Okay? I DO appreciate the fact that you’re reading this! I’d just appreciate it more if you left a comment! ) ) I was tired because I think that I’m trying to get people interested enough to comment but they aren’t, so, therefore, I am not engaging them in the way I want (Word of the week: engage). I was failing. And I was tired of the effort involved in failure.

When I got home Sunday night, I realised that that morning I hadn’t known what tired was. By the time I got home, I’d hit the wall. <SPLAT>

That was a good <SPLAT>, and I’m really sorry that none of you aside from my mother heard it.

I think that having the AGM at the Reunion made this Annual Reunion the best one I’ve been at in a very long time. It got people talking. Suddenly the people on the Executive, who have been running things for years and years on their own, for the most part, with little constructive feedback from anyone other than ourselves, got to tell people face-to-face what they were doing. Members got to SEE who we were. And members got a chance to ask us questions on the spot, throw in their comments and give us ideas and … wow. See why the authors of our constitution told us we must have an AGM every year, and the importance of having a significant number of members present for it?

I was talking to people for hours because now they knew who I was. I learned about an heirloom broach a lady at my table was wearing and asked her to get it photographed and write its history up for the newsletter. I really hope she does! Another lady told me about a little table with a drawer that the had and a chair. Ditto the Newsletter. (I’d be visiting these folks if I lived anywhere near them and writing it up myself!). I even learned about a washstand at Ross House that might have belonged to my grandmother at one time! And my head was spinning with family stories and attempts to determine whether the people I met were related and in what degree (I’m the TLSARL Genealogist).

I noticed other Executive members were similarly occupied whenever I had a moment to look around the room.

We’ll have a great deal to discuss at our next Executive Meeting later this fall….

And look at how many posts I’m getting out of this Reunion! And they’re all about things people were talking about and interested in….

Am I fired up, or what!

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about where we are at TLSARL as an organisation. Others have been doing that, too – one of the comments at the Reunion was that we need to get more younger members.

It was a Past President that made this comment, and she is so very right! But I’m not sure that her proposed solution of purchasing memberships for sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren is a solution at all. It merely boosts the membership numbers. It might serve a purpose in introducing descendants to their history, true. And that is a starting point!

I think, though, that the reason there is more grey (and hidden grey) hair among us than natural tints is that we are not engaging the minds and hearts below more youthful coiffures. The real solution to getting more young people as members lies in finding ways of engaging them in their history.

First of all, I guess, we need to make them aware that they have a history. Then we need to show them that that history is interesting, and has had a major role in making them who they are today. And in giving them that enviable hair colour…. Then we need to show them how they can be involved in preserving and growing that knowledge so that, in another 200 years time, their descendants will know more about them than we know about our ancestors of 200 years ago. After all, we are interesting people, too, aren’t we? I am! The people I met (and re-met) at the Reunion are, too! <TOOT TOOT>

Let’s start thinking about that. Let’s start looking at what engages youth today, and how we can throw ourselves into their paths. Let’s start looking at what we do now and how we could modify our association to be more appealing to youth, while maintaining a thriving older group of members, too. Changing doesn’t mean losing what we have, but rather adding to it in a positive and healthy manner.

And lets think about what we mean by ‘young members’. At the AGM, when the Newsletter was indicated as the medium through which we engage young members, I gasped, “But our Newsletter isn’t geared toward children at all!” The response was that ‘young’ meant teens and up – mostly up. I was thinking How do I add a Children’s Page without increasing the page-count and increasing the postage rate and…. Because ‘young’ MUST mean children. It’s in childhood that we form our interests, likes and dislikes….

Another of the issues raised at the Annual Reunion/AGM this year was what the Association should do with its accumulated historical artifacts and documents, etc., specifically, a time capsule placed in the care of the City of Winnipeg Archives after it was removed from the plinth placed in 1912 at Portage and Main and intended for a memorial statue of Lord Selkirk, and several carousels of photographic diapositive slides and related notes that were used in school lectures given by Anne Henderson in the 1960s.

This issue pressed one of my buttons (oh dear!). I didn’t say anything at the meeting because I didn’t really think it was the time or place. There are perhaps those who think this isn’t either. But <swallow> here it is…

One opinion seems to be that these items should be placed immediately in the hands of the Manitoba Archives. Supposing, that is, that institution would like to have them. That was the opinion expressed at the AGM.

For me, the key word here is ‘immediately’. ‘Immediately’ is the word I take issue with, particularly in the case of the slides and related notes. But the issue has wider implications when we start applying our decision to other records we both obtain and create as an Association. And here’s why:

We have two very active Executive members, the Archivist (you can see where this is going already, can’t you?) and the Genealogist, who require a quality, working archive in order to do their work properly and efficiently. Both of us (even clearer?) require ready access to these materials. Due to the nature of TLSARL as an Association of dispersed descendants, we both live at some remove from the Manitoba Archives (I’m in Ontario, and the Archivist is in BC.).

I recognise the importance of preserving these items in Archives that have a controlled environment and personel with the expertise to care for these treasures, and also of the importance of making certain of these items available to researchers. I am a wholehearted supporter of Museums and Archives! I also believe that our original documents and artifacts belong in these institutions, particularly if they have special significance.

Here’s the ‘however’…. This is our history, and we are the historical orginisation that is actively and continuously working with this history. We should have COPIES of the material that is relevant to our work and research in our possession and at our disposal. We should be busy collecting more photographs and stories about our ancestors. We should also have an inventory of that material we do have in our own archive. As we do not have a building or office space of our own, storage of this material can present problems. Currently, however, we have that problem well in hand (because so much of our collected material has been deposited in the Manitoba Archives without our retaining copies, our working archive is VERY small).

Having these copies in our possession also serves another purpose. Should disaster ever occur and the Manitoba Archives flood or burn or blow up or whatever, all of our collected history is not lost, and we can help them rebuild their collection (Think of St. Mary’s Isle and the loss through fire of the Douglas (Lord Selkirk) family archive, the main primary source of inrofmation concerning our ancestors. At least 20,000 odd pages were saved because the National Archives of Canada had sent people over to make some copies.). I recognise that the likelihood is that it will be our collection that gets hurt first. And I’m not comparing us to the NAC. We do have a responsibility to ensure the preservation of our history – it is our mandate, in fact as TLSARL. And having a solid working archive of our own is a big part of that.

Members may have noticed some changes over the last few years at TLSARL.

Our Executive meets twice a year to discuss what individuals have been doing in their department, ways to make TLSARL more visible to the public, ideas for celebrating our Bicentennial in 2012, and other projects. We are a small group, many of whom have been working behind the scenes for years.

Since the general membership only congregates once a year, and that usually for a meal with little time left to discuss more general TLSARL concerns as a group, Executive members rely on personal contact with other members. Although we are doing the best job we think we can, it is possible that we are becoming too introverted in our planning, focussing on projects that are important to us, but not in the eyes of the members. Maybe that’s not the case at all.

This year, we are reinstating an AGM, incorporating it with the Annual Reunion. This will become an annual opportunity for members to bring up issues they feel should be receiving more attention, to encourage Executive members they feel are doing a great job, and for people who are interested in getting involved in the Executive to come forward.

Some of the big changes members will have noticed are an expanded Newsletter, the revamped and more interactive website, increased presence at public events, more variety in Reunion venues and formats, and more research on the subject of our collective past.

If you were building the agenda for this year’s AGM, what issues would you like to see addressed? Are there areas of interest you feel need more or less attention? Is there an area of expertise you have and could contribute to make TLSARL more alive and well rounded?