by Frank Bucholtz/Special to Aldergrove Star
Members of the Alder Grove Heritage Society are preparing for their third Community Heritage Day event.
The event takes place at the museum, on 271st Street at 32nd Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 13.
A wide variety of events are planned during the day. There will be indoor and outdoor museum exhibits. Demonstrations will be given by members of both the Abbotsford Spinners & Weavers Guild and the Langley Spinners & Weavers Guild. The Navy cadets food trailer will be on site.
Also on hand will be the Waceya Métis Society.
The highlight will be copies of new archival material that will be on display for the first time.
Society president Tami Quiring said the exact nature of the material is being kept under wraps, but “I can say these items are a very important part of Aldergrove’s history.”
There will be an activity area for children, and a limited number of heritage colouring books will be available for children to take home with them. These will feature scenes from Aldergrove’s early days.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: From the attic to online: how the Alder Grove Heritage Society is digitizing history
The society is hoping to have a good number of photos from the Aldergrove Star photo collection in albums, so that visitors can look them over. The museum has 50,000 photos from The Star in its collection, that were donated by the Langmann family, longtime owners and operators of The Star. It also has almost a complete collection of Star editions, going back 70 years.
Some copies of early newspapers may be on display at the event – details are still being worked out.
Former Star editor Kurt Langmann donated 29 rolls of microfilm, containing a complete collection of Star editions from 1957 to 1991, to the society last year. These are in the process of being digitized so that they can be widely available to people online.
READ MORE: Alder Grove Heritage Society looks to locals to ID those in historic photos
Also on display will be information about projects in progress, such as the quest to update the Roll of Honour (among other things) and how people can get involved. Quiring says she is also hoping to have a large early settler family tree that shows how many of the early families were connected through marriage.
In her research into this, she has found that the three most well-known families – Jackman, Shortreed and Vanetta - are all interconnected through marriage.
The increasing interest in family genealogy is yet another thing that the Aldergrove museum can provide answers for.
Is there more to the story? Email: newsroom@aldergrovestar.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.