May 2023 MGS Project Update
Submitted by Rick Brown
Projects Chair, Member #1815
Guardians of All Manitoba Cemeteries
We hope to create an index of the records of burials (those without Headstones) in as many cemeteries as
possible. We are working thru all the municipalities to establish which cemeteries they are guardians of. The next stage will be the contacting of churches associated with many cemeteries. We will be calling on members in some areas for assistance.
Cummins Map Indexing
To date we have 65 complete, 22 in progress.
Member Submitted Genealogies (Pedigree Charts)
MGS collected pedigree charts, family group sheets, and biographies from their members for many years. This collection stopped in the mid to late 1980’s, and it has been proposed and approved that MGS resume the collection of Manitoba Genealogies. Three documents have been created to outline the process that MGS will follow regarding this, as well as to address the “binders” of genealogical material that is dropped off from time-to-time at the Resource Centre:
1. Family History Submission Policy
2. Archival Accession Policy
3. Archival Accession Procedure
These policies have been reviewed by the Executive Committee who has made some recommendations. Those recommendations have been implemented, and it is before the Executive Committee for further review. Upon acceptance, these policies will go to the Council for final review/approval.
It is estimated that we have approximately 500 submissions by MGS members that were never indexed. We are looking for indexers to begin indexing the Family History Submissions that were received by MGS members up to December 31, 2022.
WINPAP (Winnipeg Newspapers) indexing 1953 – 1968
The goal is to fill in the blanks in MANI from what MB Vital Stats has available to when MGS began WINPAP Obits. We are looking for indexers to begin the project.
Indexing Local History Books
During the Council meeting on April 22 the recommendation from Projects to revise the Family History Book Indexing was approved.
We are shifting to a 3 stage plan.
· Stage 1 will be the indexing of only the Family Histories heading.
· Stage 2 will be the additional indexing of the family names mentioned in the Histories.
· Stage 3 will be indexing the entire book as was done in the past.
The goal is to put our efforts into stage 1 for as many books as we can. Hopefully this will interest more members to help with the indexing.
Resource Centre Upgrades
The first of our upgrades is completed—our television is installed. We are already working on how this will be used during Doors Open to promote MGS and it’s many resources. This is one of a number of upcoming upgrades to the Resource Centre that you can read about.
Possible Future Projects
Portage la Prairie Obits / Manitoba Liberal Newspaper
Thanks to the Portage la Prairie Library we have an index and typed and photocopied binders. The
problem is that the information is only from the Daily Graphic. As I was researching for an obit for a local
family member who had lived in Winnipeg for some time, I stumbled across a copy of the obit being used
as a picture on an ancestry tree of the family which was sourced from the Manitoba Liberal a weekly
publication (nor sure if it was subsidiary publication). The name is not in MANI, Newspapers, Newspaper
Archive, but is in a local P la P Family History Book.
The library has the Manitoba Liberal on microfilm. It is our hope to find a member or members in Portage
or surrounding area who would be interested in Indexing the microfilm.
Municipalities Data Project
Over the years I have spent too much time searching provincial municipality maps for their location.
We are creating a searchable cross references list of old, pre 2015 and post 2015 maps of southern
Manitoba’s including name of a town within each municipality. In addition, we will have instructions to
access to all the individual municipal maps.
If you are interested in this information, please send your request to projects@mbgenealogy.com