Once you’ve looked at the Kitchener (Ontario) Public Library’s new website, History in the Making, you’ll want the local library where your ancestors lived to do the same.
The History in the Making website, launched in spring 2021, is a great resource for genealogists who want to explore the history of the Kitchener and Waterloo Region in southwestern Ontario.
In the description, the library says, “Searching for details about your family’s roots? Curious about the history of your neighbourhood? Interested in learning about the courageous local men and women who served our country? This is where you can get instant access to digitized historic photographs, postcards, soldier cards, recorded interviews and more.”
photos of soldiers, and churches.
The website is easy to browse by category or search.
There are also several Quick Start Searches on the home page: city directories, oral history recordings, postcards, photos, and WWI and WWII soldier information cards.
After my parents married, they lived in Kitchener in the early 1950s. My mother worked as a secretary for the Kaufman Rubber Company.
A search for the Kaufman Rubber Company uncovered a photo of the building, circa 1965-1975.
Note that using quotation marks around the company name limited the search to only that company. Without quotation marks, every reference to a “company” appeared in the results.
Filters, such as decade, material type, place, and subject, also help narrow down the results.
Copyright status is clearly stated in the description of an image.
To learn more about the resources on the History in the Making website, librarian Karen Ball-Pyatt has written the first two blog posts in a six-part series that explores the types of historic materials available on the website. The first blog post is about Soldier Card Project Resources and the second is about the photo collection. The remaining four blog posts have yet to be published.
