Volunteers and Visitors

The operation of our Centre continues to be dependent on an enthusiastic and hard working group of nearly 20 volunteers.  They give their time, expertise and energy to accomplish a great variety of tasks that relate to archival and genealogical research.  Recently this has also included rearranging our archival holdings for entry in the InMagic indexing program.

We were pleased to have Waylon Klix work with us this summer on a grant from the Federal Career Placement program.

We recorded more than 1000 visitors during 2005, with additional inquiries and requests coming by e-mail and telephone.  Most people are interested in family research but others are interested  in our Mennonite people and their various institutions.  Others come to check out our library books or to purchase books that we have for sale.

Acquisitions

•  We have received over 30 Family Histories and autobiographies, making a total of more that 300 in our collection.
•  Another 43 EWZ Microfilms, mostly from Dr. Tim Janzen.
•  In connection with our Cemetery Tour we received the South Poplar Cemetery Lists and Greendale Cemetery Minutes dated 1947.
•  After the death of Cornelia Lehn we received some of her family records and writings.
•  Copies of the Jakob C. Reimer Dairies translated by son Edgar Reimer.
•  A variety of other items that have been added to our collection.

•  Extracting and indexing genealogical information from Mennonite periodicals and EWZ microfilms has continued during this year as has the scanning and cataloguing of photographs.
•  Arranging the documents in our collections for entry in the InMagic program has taken up a great deal of volunteer time.

The Genealogy Workshop took place November 12, 2006 with presenters Dr. Tim Janzen on Genealogical Resources for the Low German Mennonite Researcher and Glenn Penner on The Mennonite DNA Project.  There were 27 participants for this interesting and informative workshop.

Personal Comment

 My personal thanks to the MHS of BC Board, to the Volunteers and to Office Manager, Mary Ann Quiring, all of whose encouragement and support during the last 12 years has been much appreciated.

Volunteer List
 

Erna Block Verna Crofton Marie Doerksen Mary Epp Nellie Epp

Hugo Friesen  Jake Geddert  Dolores Harder Ed Hildebrand Lydia Isaak

Agatha Klassen Jean Neufeld David Nickel Helen Nickel Vi Ratzlaff

Helga Rempel  Erica Suderman  Ethel Suderman  Frank Toews  Mary Woelk

Hugo Friesen, Archivist