Distributed free of charge to interested subscribers and former members.

 

 

As we enter the holiday season, the Victoria Genealogical Society is excited to offer all the benefits of membership at half the price!  Whether for yourself or as a gift, don't miss out on this amazing deal!  Single memberships can now be purchased for $32.50, Family memberships for $45, and Youth memberships for only $17.50!

Here are just a few of the amazing benefits of joining the VGS: Discounted cost for all VGS workshops and seminars; Free access to speaker series events; Free access to Special Interest Groups (SIGs); Free access to our VGS Learning & Research Centre and lending privileges for our large collection of books and other research materials; Free access to the Ancestry library edition at the VGS Learning Centre.

 

These deeply discounted memberships are valid through May 31, 2025, the end of the VGS membership year. Please visit the VGS Membership Options page to take advantage of this limited time holiday offer.

If you have any questions, please contact our Membership Director in the Contact Form form on our VGS website. 

 

 

 

Most of us know our ancestors only through fading bits of paper: sepia photographs or family recipes, public records, the occasional packet of letters. What does it take to build coherent stories out of such tantalizing fragments of lives? This workshop explores research and writing strategies for constructing family memoirs, drawing on examples from a project set in Miami in the 1920s.

Andrea Kaston Tange is a Professor of English at Macalester University. She has published widely on nineteenth-century British literature and culture, including articles in edited collections and in top-tier journals (such as Victorian Studies and Nineteenth-Century Literature). She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary work with a focus on material culture and daily lives.

Her first book—Architectural Identities: Domesticity, Literature, and the Victorian Middle Classes (University of Toronto Press, 2010)—was very well reviewed. She subsequently developed and co-edited a four-volume collection of primary documents on children and empire for Routledge press. Her most recent articles have centered on visual images and ephemera, and she has been branching out into public writing, including a piece on Victorian Christmas cards in Slate and several on Victorian photography for The Conversation.

Her current projects include a monograph—Imagined Encounters: Public Impressions and Private Lives in the Age of Empire—under revision for a major university press and a book-length work of narrative nonfiction that got its start when she inherited her great-grandmother's 1926 diary.

 

For more information or registration visit REGISTER HERE

 

 

With the publication of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, the year 1843 was a turning point in the story of the celebration of Christmas, as well as the year in which Fort Victoria was first established on Vancouver Island. Several decades later, local author and editor of the British Colonist newspaper, D.W. Higgins, wrote an evocative tale entitled “My First Christmas Dinner in Old Victoria”, reflecting upon his 1860 holiday season in gold rush Victoria.

Join historian Kate Humble to explore holiday traditions in the early decades of colonial Victoria and contemporary Britain, with the twin tales of Dickens and Higgins as literary lenses. 

Kate Humble is an historian who is currently the Superintendent of National Historic Sites for Coastal British Columbia with Parks Canada. She did her graduate work at the University of Toronto, and has held public history and historic site positions such as the Curator of Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse, the Operations Manager at Craigdarroch Castle, Education Curator at the Maritime Museum of BC and Manager of Visitor Experience at the Royal Armouries Museum, UK. Born and raised in Victoria BC, she has also worked with Discover the Past as a tour guide on matters both historical and ghostly since 2004.

 

For more information and registration visit REGISTER HERE.

 

 

About this event

Join Kathie for an introduction to transcriptions of early modern handwriting. This workshop will provide you with an understanding of the different hands (types of writing) seen over the last several hundreds of years and give you some tips and tricks to assist in your transcribing. It will introduce letter forms, abbreviations, numbers, money and dates.

After a presentation on the basics, Kathie, with your assistance, will provide a transcription of a 1594 document.

Both beginners and more experienced genealogists will gain something from this workshop. You will leave the workshop with increased confidence and knowledge in your skills of reading old handwriting. Be prepared for some practice in what you are learning and having fun.

Kathie Ross, PhD, has a post-graduate certificate in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde where she focused her studies on palaeography. She is currently working towards completing the PG Diploma through Strathclyde. Kathie feels her ability to interpret old handwriting is likely assisted by years of trying to read her own terrible handwriting. Kathie has been instructing both online and in-person for almost three decades and loves to help people be successful at their own research. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, her research includes Canada, the United States, Norway, Sweden, England, Scotland and Ireland - all areas where her family genealogical research has taken her.

 

 

 

Location: This is a hybrid event. You may either attend via zoom or in person at the VGS Genealogy Learning & Research Centre (limited seating, register early)

Note: Video recordings of this event will be available online for 30 days to registered attendees only

For more information or registration visit REGISTER HERE

 

 

Join four leading genetic genealogy experts for an exciting DNA Day seminar. Discover how to transform your family history research using the power of all three DNA testing types: Autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial DNA. Plus, learn how to run your own DNA project at Family Tree DNA.

Don't miss this excellent opportunity to learn from these highly respected educators: Blaine Bettinger, Jim Brewster, Mags Gaulden, and David Vance.

Date: Saturday, April 26, 2025

Time: 9 am - 2:30 pm PT

Location: This is event is by zoom only

Note: Video recordings of this event will be available online for 30 days to registered attendees only

For more information or registration visit REGISTER HERE

 

I facilitate two Special Interest Groups. One is Family History 101 and the other is Eastern Europe.

Family History 101 started as a group to help people get started on their genealogy. All were welcome, the newbies, people who had “lost their way”, and the curious. This started out as a weekly meeting, but soon morphed into a monthly SIG. We have a steady group and have drop-ins. We always welcome members with new problems, or as I like to call them, new adventures.

Eastern Europe started up again last September. With the war in Ukraine, people have begun to re-think their ancestry. DNA has given us all a wider scope for our searches. This group tries to dig deeper into their heritage. There are lots of problems with languages, shifting borders, wars, finding documents.

Both groups are very interactive, helping each other. We all bring something different to share with others. We always look forward to meeting new people. Any VGS members who would like to join us are welcome to attend.

 

Learn more about all special interest discussion groups at SIG

- Sarah Hamster, SIG Leader