In celebration of Archives Awareness Week from April 7 to 11, Wellington County Archives staff will be conducting behind-the-scenes tours.
The public is invited to drop in and go for a tour or ask an archivist how to start a family history, how to use www.ancestry.ca, how to preserve family photographs, how to research a house and what resources are available at the Wellington County Archives.
The county archives is dedicated to appraising, selecting and acquiring the archival records relating to the history of Wellington County, its people, places and organizations.
The historical records housed in the archives’ environmentally-controlled storage area can take many forms including:
– textual records such as diaries, local history books, assessment rolls and voters lists;
– graphic records such as photographs and slides;
– architectural drawings and maps or plans; and
– microforms of Newspapers which are microfilmed to reduce the handling of the fragile originals as well as audio visual records such as films, videos and audio cassette tapes.
Due to the rarity of the records, the collection must remain non-circulating.
The Wellington County Archives conserves, arranges and describes these archival records according to accepted archival principles and makes these records available through our website www.wellington.ca/museum. Access points include names of people, organizations, places, creators, title and subject.
Archives are used by many different user groups including genealogists or family historians, individuals working on building histories, students, and professionals such as lawyers, surveyors and engineers.
Archival records relating to Wellington County need to be preserved to ensure that our rich documentary history is available for the future. The Archives relies on donations to expand its collection. If you are unsure about records in your home, office or place of work, please contact archivist Karen Wagner before discarding.
The archives are open weekdays, 9:30am to 4:30pm and Saturday and Sunday, 1pm to 5pm on Wellington Road 18 between Fergus and Elora.
