GENEALOGY DROP-IN CLASS

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 – The Vital Role of Railways in Immigration and Settlement in Alberta

Thanks to the efforts of Thea Hawryluk, we welcome Les Kozma from The Canadian Northern Society to speak on the role and impact of railways in the settlement of Alberta and Western Canada. Les has been researching various aspects of western Canadian railway development, architecture, and operations for over 50 years. He has authored or co-written five books, numerous formal reports and over a hundred articles.

Railways were the economic engine of the West; and they were transformative – enabling a dramatic shift from a fur trading economy to one of agriculture and industry – impacting the landscape of western Canada, both for the White settlers and for the First Nations people whose lives were irrevocably changed. Railways facilitated the movement of western products to market, returning essentials, manufactured and finished goods from the eastern industrial heartland. This is the story of railways in Alberta, and their influence and impact on the immigration to and the settlement of this province in the seven decades between 1880 and 1950.

Wednesday October 1, 2025 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Genealogy

We welcome Prof. Michael Bowling from the Faculty of Science- Computing Science who will be speaking on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and its growing impact on our society. We will learn about the background and overview of AI, how it has influenced our lives today, and what might be expected of AI in the world ahead. Don Bowling, our member, will provide a demonstration on some of the AI agent programmes such as ChatGPT and how they can be used in genealogical research. Paul Rose will conclude the meeting with some discussion on how AI will influence the future of genealogy and genealogical research, and finally some guidelines and recommendations when using AI generated information.

Wednesday November 5, 2025 – Writing a Family Story or History

Dale Rutherford is a self-published author with a personal reading interest in historical fiction, light romance, mysteries and occasional suspense. (Ironically these are often found evident in family history research – the challenge being to sort truth from fiction.) Dale has written a series of novels on the Muskoka Region of Ontario in addition to short stories. She is currently working on a historical fiction trilogy based on the Abolitionist movement in upstate New York.

Every family has stories begging to be told. As the keeper of your family records, are you wondering about the best way to record these stories? In our November meeting we’ll explore some ways personal and family stories can be chronicled through the written word, video or audio recordings, a collection of photographs, recipes, war medals or combinations of these. If you’re looking to preserve these stories for future generations, gain a deeper understanding of your ancestors’ life journey, or tell your own story, you’ll want to attend.

Wednesday December 3, 2025 –  Diseases and Medications of the 19th Century

In the 19th century, the longevity of life was very uncertain. Along the way through your family history research, have you ever noticed how many people died quite young, that child mortality was quite high, and it was rare to find people who lived into their 80s or beyond? While some progress was made in understanding diseases and developing new treatments, medicine was still largely based on unproven theories and practices like bloodletting and purging. Devastating epidemics of cholera, smallpox, typhus, yellow and scarlet fever were common. Medications and treatments often contained dangerous substances like opium, mercury and cocaine,
antiseptic practices were still not widely adopted leading to high infection, contagious conditions, and high mortality rates.

Paul Rose will be presenting on the topic of Diseases and Medications that our Ancestors faced during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He will look at mortality rates and life expectancy through these years, the diseases that were more common, the remedies and treatments that were available, and the progress that has been made since the nineteenth century.