Archives Awareness Week at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre

Ontario celebrates Archives Awareness Week the first week of April each year. To celebrate this, the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre is offering FREE admission to the Archives and Research Room from April 3-8, and will feature guided tours and special presentations Sunday, April 2.

“Archives Awareness Week is a wonderful opportunity for us to share some of the most interesting items in our collection,” says archivist Ann-Marie Collins. “It is wonderful to see the surprise on people's faces when they realize the depth of history in Bruce County, and it will be particularly interesting as we celebrate Bruce County's 150th Birthday in 2017.”

Have you ever wondered what an archive is? Did you know that you can discover mysteries about your family history, the history of your home, and more? The Bruce County Archives is the place where county-related public and private records and historical documents are preserved and made accessible to the public.

Staff members at the museum care for these records and enjoy assisting researchers as they explore Bruce County’s stories in the Research Room. Also, thanks to the support of the Bruce County Genealogical Society, the museum is offering the resources of Ancestry.com for searching further afield.

Archives Awareness Week kicks off April 2, from 1-4 p.m., with an informative afternoon celebrating archives, history, and genealogy at the museum and archives. Join the staff for an introduction to DNA testing for genealogy researchers, an update on the Bruce County Historical Society’s Documentary Project (a three-part television series set to air on TVO in 2018 celebrating Bruce County’s 150 anniversary), followed by a guided tour of the Research Room, and a rare behind-the-scenes peek into the archival document storage area. Admission is free, and all are welcome.

For the remainder of Archives Awareness Week, admission to the Research Room is FREE. Visitors are invited to come to the archives and engage with the museum staff in exploring your own history and Bruce County’s stories! You can also view the Archives’ Online Collection at collections.brucemuseum.ca, where researchers around the world can now search local First World War newspapers.

Archives Awareness Week is proudly presented by the Bruce County Historical Society.