By Pioneer Staff
If you have ever thought about delving into your family history, a new website offered through the Invermere Public Library could be a great place to start.
The library now has a version of www.ancestry.com available for use in the library. On Wednesday, January 30th, at 6 p.m., library staff are hosting an entertaining and informative talk about how to get started.
The library also features a few new titles on the subject of ancestry. Beyond Belfast is author Will Fergusons story of his two-month hike along the Ulster Way in Northern Ireland.
I was on one of those ill-advised ancestral homeland treks of which we North Americans are so inexplicably fond, he explained. My grandfather was a Belfast orphan, you see, and I thought that somehow I could reconnect with my past by walking through muddy fields for two months on feet so blistered they had come to resemble bubble-wrap.
Another new title is Shaking the Family Tree by Buzzy Jackson, which tells a story of a womans search to find out if her family stories were true. As an historian and a skilled storyteller, she makes her genealogical quest a delightful read, said Ginny Walker from the Invermere Public Library.
Genealogy makes history come alive, she discovered during her own research on her roots.
I knew that my grandfather was born in Belfast and that he never wanted to go back, said Mrs. Walker. I never thought to ask him why when he was alive, but a decade later it was all that I could think about.
I found myself reading everything that I could get my hands on about Northern Ireland, fiction and non, she said. We discovered and were able to meet distant relatives of my grandfather. We visited the graves of his father, mother, and brother in Belfast. We were taken to the boys home where he spent four years. And we met the most amazing people.
To sign up for the introduction to www.ancestry.com , call the library at 250-342-6416.
