Kathy Jones’s grandmother told her to let sleeping dogs lie when she started researching her family history.
Jones, president of the Qualicum Beach Family History Society, will present Beginning with Genealogy on Feb. 23 as the first Saturday Speaker of 2019 for Vancouver Island University’s ElderCollege.
Jones understood her grandmother’s advice as soon as she uncovered a well-kept family secret about her paternal grandfather and her great-grandfather, who was a master mariner from Cornwall.
Jones will also tell about a trip to Scotland to search for information about her maternal great-grandfather. She wandered into a garden shop that bore the family name, met a cousin inside whom she’d never known of, and was subsequently taken on a tour of the stately homes and gardens where her great-grandfather had worked. She even found her great-grandfather’s name carved on a garden wall.
Jones was always interested in family stories, but started researching her family 20 years ago when a distant cousin contacted her brother asking for family history.
“Once you get into genealogy you are hooked,” Jones said.
Her talk will cover how to research information needed to find census rolls, birth, marriage and death records and newspapers articles, including obituaries, online and from information in library archives.
VIU Saturday Speakers present on select Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon at Nanoose Place, 2925 Northwest Bay Road. Presentations are open to the public. Admission is $10 cash at the door with free admission to those under 18.
To learn more, visit viu.ca/eldercollege or call 1-866-734-6252.
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