Writing Your Family History for Future Generations
Seniors' Social Club
Friday, June 12
10:00am - 12:00pm
Central Branch
AuditoriumJoin us for our new monthly program designed especially for older adults! Each session offers learning, connection, and hands-on fun—plus refreshments in a welcoming space. 55+
Give your descendants a legacy of words and stories. Drawing on her own research journey that took her to Latvia, where she uncovered life-changing information, Shelly Sanders will help you create your own family’s historical narrative.
Here’s your chance to learn how to find relevant ancestral details and write compelling stories that will endure for generations.
In this workshop you will:
1. Learn how to navigate ancestry websites to search records from all over the world, including Census information, marriages, deaths, passports, travel documents, voter lists, and a worldwide burial registry.
2. Interview seniors in your family—questions to gently probe for stories, names and any other family information.
3. Photos—how to mine information from old photos. What to look for and how to interpret key details in photos.
4. Begin the writing process with a chronological outline to ensure you stay on point! Shelly will provide tips for creating this outline and for writing your story. She will ease you into the writing process through exercises designed to stir your creativity and curiosity.
5. Resources and online classes available to improve research skills, learn search methodologies, navigate archives, and enhance your capabilities.
6. Publish your ancestral memoir with photos and stories, through sites like Canva. Memoirs are the perfect gift for families and can be created and purchased directly from online sites.
Please bring a notebook and pen to the session.
Registration is required.
Please review the guidelines and frequently asked questions on our Program FAQ.
Need to cancel? Please let us know.
If you have to cancel your spot for any reason, you can do so by:
1. Logging into MyEvents using your library card. If you did not register with your library card, you will need the reference number you received in your confirmation email.
2. Phone your local branch, or email oplreference@oakville.ca. Please have ready the program title, program date, and names of registered individuals.
Central Branch
Central Branch is the largest of Oakville Public Library’s seven locations. Located in downtown Oakville, it spans three floors of adult and children’s collections, the local and family history collections in the Oakville Room, with spacious meeting and study spaces. Central Branch also serves as the library’s administrative headquarters and shares space with Oakville Galleries. Just steps from Sixteen Mile Creek and Lake Ontario, the branch offers scenic views and a welcoming environment for learning and community connection. With a new facility slated for 2028, the new Central Branch is set to become a landmark building for Downtown Oakville. Guided by community insight, the redesigned library branch will offer flexible and accessible spaces that celebrate Oakville’s history, support lifelong learning, and promote community connections.