Every family has a story worth preserving. Join us for this engaging Active Aging Series to explore your roots, learn how to preserve treasured family records and photographs, and discover the tools and resources available to help you trace your family history. Whether you’re just beginning your genealogy journey or have been researching for years, you’ll gain practical tips, local resources, and inspiration to uncover and preserve your family’s legacy for generations to come.

Thursday, September 10, 2026

1:45 – 2:30 p.m. | How to Preserve Family and Personal Records
Presented by Jia Jia Yong
Community Archivist, City of Edmonton Archives

Join the City of Edmonton Archives for a workshop on preserving your personal and family records. Learn some preservation and storage tips on how to care for your paper records, photographs, and audiovisual materials. And also learn about how you could preserve your records at an archives.

Jia Jia Yong is the Community Archivist at the City of Edmonton Archives. She is dedicated to advocating for and supporting the preservation of the documentary heritage of communities underrepresented in the archives. Through various initiatives such as conversations, tours, events, and special projects, Jia Jia actively engages with the community members to promote cultural safety and ensure diverse stories are preserved and shared.

2:30 – 3:15 p.m. | Finding Family at the Library: EPL’s North of 52 Collection & Online Genealogical Resources
Presented by Christy Travis
Community Librarian, the Lois Hole (Callingwood) Library

Have you ever wondered where your family story began? Whether you’re just starting your family history journey or looking to uncover new discoveries, this session will introduce you to valuable genealogical resources available through the Edmonton Public Library.

Join Christy as she explores the North of 52 Collection (formerly known as the Heritage Collection) and demonstrates how to navigate its newly digitized historical documents. You’ll also take an in-depth look at EPL’s online genealogical databases and learn practical tips for researching your family history with confidence. Christy Travis is a Community Librarian with the Lois Hole (Callingwood) Library. She has worked for EPL for 16 years. Her areas of expertise include adult programming, customer service and community outreach.

3:30 – 4:15 p.m. | Genealogy
Presented by Thea Hawryluk and Ashley Rother
Members of WE Seniors Genealogy Drop-in Program

Learn about what is genealogy; what the difference is between genealogy and family history; when did researching for your family tree become so popular and why do people research today. We’ll give you a brief snapshot of two genealogy journeys. We will provide you with some resources and tools for starting or continuing your own genealogy journey. We like to encourage you to research your ancestors as it’s a fun and, yes, challenging hobby. We’ll also give you some information about the WE Seniors Genealogy Drop-in Program and how they can help. Joining the WE Seniors Genealogy group is one way to share and find solutions to some of your genealogical questions. Each of us has a curiosity and a desire to know more about our past and maybe a unique story to leave to our descendants. It is, after all, a journey of discovery meant to share with our descendants!

Ashley Rother is a member of the Genealogy Drop-in Program. He recognized the need to start building a family tree as procrastination was no longer acceptable. Ashley decided to start his journey by submitting his DNA to Ancestry.ca and exploring those results. Then he started using other tools and resources looking for his ancestors. Recently Ashley gave a presentation “Googling for Grandma” to show how to utilize Google’s full potential as a search engine.

Thea Hawryluk is also a member of the Genealogy Drop-in Program. She enjoys learning about genealogy as well as the history of Alberta even though her ancestors are from Europe. Recently she has given presentations on topics that the members of the program have expressed an interest in such as Cemeteries and Family Research; Homestead Records; Naturalization Records as well as participating in the field trips to the Provincial Archives of Alberta. She also volunteers for the Find-a-Grave website where she visits cemeteries to photograph grave markers and uploads them to the website and fulfills requests from families who are unable to do so themselves. She is also a member of the Alberta Genealogical Society.

Cost: $3.00 for the presentation (includes coffee & snack)

Location: Community Cafe, WE Seniors Edmonton (9629 – 176 St NW, Edmonton)

Please pay at the door.

REGISTER NOW! 

• Call our Front Desk at 780 483 1209

• Send an email to ch****@*******rs.ca  

• Sign up at MyActiveCentre