In celebration of Archives Awareness Week from April 3 to 7, Wellington County Archives staff will be conducting behind-the-scenes tours.
Those interested are encouraged to drop in and take a tour with staff of the processing room and storage vault.
Visitors can ask an archivist how to start researching their family history using www.ancestry.ca, how to preserve family photographs or even how to research a house.
As of April 4 the public will be able to visit the archives website for keyword searchable issues of the Wellington Advertiser Newspaper from 1968 to 2018.
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 and 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 www.wellington.ca/museum.
Access points include names of people, organizations, places, creators, title and subject.
Archives are used by many different 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 documentary history is available for the future.
The archives relies on donations to expand its collection. If unsure about records in the home, office or place of work, the archives encourages residents to contact archivist Karen Wagner before discarding.
The archives are open weekdays from 9:30am to 4:30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5pm.
The Wellington County Museum and Archives is located on Wellington Road 18 between Fergus and Elora.
