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.

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.