Genealogy at TLSARL 4
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….
Tags: 1815 Group, Angus Matheson, Christian Matheson, digital photo archive, Genealogy, John Pritchard Polson, Kildonan Presbyterian Church, photographs, planning, Planning Ahead, Red River Genealogy, St. Peter's Church, TLSARL Genealogist
