The Cloverdale Library is starting off the new year with genealogy workshops for people wanting to research their family histories.
The branch has one of the largest Canadian family history collections in the country, and offers programs that help people who are searching their family roots.
Start Searching Your Family History is a beginners workshop in five lessons, presented on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It starts on Jan. 11 and continues Jan. 25, Feb. 8 and 22, and March 8.
The five-session series has been developed by writer and researcher Brenda Smith. It looks at how to begin a search. Participants will work with their own materials and support each other, discovering their own motives and setting their own goals for what they want to find out, and how to organize and evaluate their data.
The cost is $100 for the series.
Start Writing your Family History is a communications workshop in five lessons.
This series also consists of five, three-hour classes, and addresses the researcher's need to report and publish their findings.
The participants will work with their own materials, and will discover how to move from gathering information to creating a publishable product.
The cost is $100 for the series, and participants must commit to all five lessons.
The program runs Saturdays from 1:30 - 4:30 p.m., starting Jan. 11 and continuing Jan. 25, Feb. 8, 22, and March 8.
At Using Wills to Link Generations (Feb. 1, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.), one of two workshops that are new this year, join Peter Whitlock, who has over 45 years of research experience, to discover how wills can provide links between generations and reveal family connections that may be impossible to find elsewhere. Cost is $10.
Finding Your Scandinavian Roots (March 1, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) is presented by M. Diane Rogers, who will take participants on a genealogical journey through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
Learn resources, techniques and tools to help locate your Nordic ancestors, and glean effective ways to overcome language barriers and name changes.
The Cloverdale Library is located at 5642 176A Street, Surrey. Pre-register for these programs by calling 604-598-7328 or by emailing familyhistory@surrey.ca. Info at www.surreylibraries.ca.
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