As winter winds blow, it’s the perfect time to start a new project: recording your family tree!
The Yorkton branch of the SGS has monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of each month (except for July and August) at 7:00 PM at the Yorkton Public Library. Any interested genealogists are welcome, no matter what your stage of research. If you are just getting started or have been researching for a while, you will find interested genealogists who can offer ideas and advice on how to proceed, where to find new information, and how to file and store your research. The time to begin your family research is now before family details are lost with time and the passing of relatives.
Many genealogy searches involve finding final resting places of loved ones. Do your research now, and when spring comes, make plans to search out some of these locations. Make a note to take a camera along; old headstones are often in poor condition, and you will want a record of the marker if it is in a state of deterioration. You may also find other headstones bearing names that might require further research. Names that are similar in spelling may be some long-lost relatives, and this could open a new avenue for your research.
And so many stones are so interesting. As you walk between the rows in some quiet country cemetery, you will be able to read many “stories” just from reading the headstones. Most tragic are the stones marking the resting places of children, sometimes several from one family, dying in a short period of time. 2018 is the century anniversary of the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, a vicious flu that often claimed its victims in less than twenty four hours, and took over fifty million people worldwide. Whether these little ones died from this horrible epidemic or something else may be unknown to those of us who stop to ponder their short lives inscribed in stone, but it is still a reflection of the difficult lives they endured as early settlers on the prairies.
If you are trying to locate interred family members, be sure of the names (and be prepared to see different spelling from what you expect) and dates of your relative as you search the headstones. There are often people with the same name, with maybe only slightly different spelling. Is it “Catherine” with a “C” or a “K”? Is the proper name “Bill” or “William”? On a trip to Ellesmere, England, we found at least four headstones in the rambling old cemetery with the same name as our relative; it was only the fact of knowing the exact dates that helped us find the right one.
As you do cemetery research, you may see other unrelated names among the stones, but fascinating nonetheless. For example, a great luminary is buried in Yorkton: Sylvia Fedoruk (1927 - 2012). She was a woman of astounding achievements: renowned in the field of nuclear medicine, and instrumental in the development of the first cobalt radiation unit. She was the first female chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan, the first female member of the Atomic Energy Control Board of Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was lieutenant-governor of Saskatchewan from 1988 to 1994. She was also a great sports fan, especially curling. This amazing lady now rests here. Here’s an example of how an expedition for family research can expand into a chance for education in local and provincial history. Every family has a story: discover yours with the Yorkton branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society!
