Is your genealogy society looking for a simple idea to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary that won’t cost anything? If so, you may like what a military museum and Library and Archives Canada are doing.
The Royal Canadian Regiment Museum in London, Ontario is commemorating Canada’s 150th birthday year with tweets about “150 significant events” in the RCR’s history, and this is an ideal one to inspire genealogy societies.
Library and Archives Canada has also joined the #Canada150 Twitter world. So far, LAC has tweeted about events that took place #OnThisDay in history.
Tweeting is a zero-cost Canada 150 initiative, and it’s not too late for your society to start your own series of tweets. The good news is you don’t have to tweet every day.
Brainstorm
To start, you may want to put together a small team of volunteers to brainstorm ideas. (Holding the brainstorming session at a local Tim Horton’s seems rather à propos.)
Do’s
- Tweet about historical events and genealogy resources within the realm of your society’s expertise.
- Tweet about everyday life 150 years ago to show how our ancestors lived, worked, played, and travelled.
- Tweet about the immigrants who settled in your area.
- Tweet about history books.
- Tweet about heritage and learning about one’s heritage.
- Tweet about online resources.
- Tweet about writing family history.
- Tweet about significant dates in your society’s history.
- Include links and copyright-free images in your tweets.
- Add #Canada150 to all your relevant tweets.
Don’t
- Avoid tweeting solely about your society. It will bore people. If you tweet often about your society, people will see this as constant advertising and they may stop following you.
To mark the Canada 150, Library and Archives Canada appears to be tweeting every day about an historical moment.
This day in history
RCR has tweeted about what happened ‘On This Day’ (#OTD or #OnThisDay). Google “on this day history” and add the name of Canada or your province in the search field to find ideas. Today in Canadian History is a good place to start.
You can follow RCR’s tweets at @RCRMuseum and LAC’s at @LibraryArchives. The official account of Canada 150 is @canada150th.
For an evolving list of events and projects marking Canada’s 150th birthday, visit 150alliance.ca.
