History

The Red Deer Branch is one of 10 Branches of the Alberta Genealogical Society. The AGS was formed in 1973 to promote the study of genealogy and genealogy research in Alberta. Red Deer Branch was formed in 1978 with 14 members with meetings first held in member’s homes and later in a local school. A newsletter, The Tree Climber was first published in 1980. By 1982, monthly meetings which were attracting about 35 members were held at the Red Deer and District Museum and the Red Deer Archives offered space to house the library.

Since 1981, the Branch has collected all births, deaths and marriages that have appeared in the Red Deer Advocate. These have been put together in booklet form for each year and are available in the genealogy library. Branch members have also been active in recording cemetery information in Central Alberta. This information has been added to a CD put together by the Alberta Genealogical Society listing cemetery recordings for Alberta. Other indexing projects for local church records have been completed and are available in the library.

There are presently about 65 members in the Branch. Meetings are held the third Thursday of the month and often include a guest speaker. The Branch also offers beginner workshops as required. Besides monthly meetings, a group of dedicated volunteers meet most Wednesday evenings to work on indexing projects or assist new members with their research.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support of The Philanthropic Centre for Culture, a program of Culture Link; The City of Red Deer; and the Government of Canada through the Cultural Capitals of Canada 2003 award, a program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.