The Moose Jaw branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society will celebrate its 50th anniversary this fall, but there won’t be any in-person activities to honour the occasion.
The genealogy society normally meets in an upper room at the Moose Jaw Public Library, but the building has been closed to the public since mid-March due to the pandemic. Therefore, the group has not held regular gatherings to discuss the plans for the anniversary with members.
However, the executive board communicated with each other recently and decided the celebration should be cancelled, explained president Marge Cleave.
“I’d rather do that and be safe. A lot of our members are seniors and we don’t want to expose anyone to anything … ,” she remarked. “It is kind of sad to not be able to invite everybody to come to a celebration, but we got to be safe.”
Once the group can reconvene, it will hold a small party that will feature a cake and other sweet delights.
When the branch decided to cancel the anniversary celebration, the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society head office stepped in to offer a hand, Cleave said. Specifically, it agreed to organize a Zoom meeting so that speaker Linda Yipp could give her presentation. The plan is for Yipp to speak online on Saturday, Sept. 12, with likely a presentation in the morning and another in the afternoon.
The branch and SGS plan to send out more information closer to that date.
While the branch has not held meetings in nearly six months, its members have been busy with their family trees, said Cleave. During the initial phases of the lock-down, many members contacted her to ask for help to find information. While the Moose Jaw Genealogy Society has some of the information, the archives at the library contain most of the information for which people were looking.
“I think I find a lot more people (are) doing their DNA,” she continued, “which is keeping everybody really busy. Whether it’s through Ancestry(.com) or 23andMe, I’m finding a lot more are doing their ancestry (that way).”
Using DNA can connect people with ancestors they may never have known they had. It can also release many secrets that were hidden over the years, Cleave added. Yet, it’s nice to find those ancestors — such as grandchildren — who share the same genetic makeup.
