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Learn how to research your family history with Tim Weisgarber at Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Library) in the exhibition BLACK PRAIRIES. For everyone.
Learn how to research your family history with Tim Weisgarber at Dunlop Art Gallery (Central Library) in the exhibition BLACK PRAIRIES. For everyone.
Tim Weisgarber (he/him) is an amateur genealogist with 10 years of experience uncovering family histories, tracing ancestral roots, and bringing hidden stories to light. His passion for genealogy was sparked by his own adoption journey and years of overhearing family stories, driving him to piece together his ancestral puzzle through historical records using online genealogy databases, census data, and immigration records.
Tim is always eager to learn, share, and help others navigate their own family histories. His presentation will guide attendees on how to begin a genealogy search, utilizing both online and in-person resources, along with practical tips to maximize efficiency.
Christina Battle, William “Billy” Beal, Anna Binta Diallo, Cheryl Foggo, Judah Iyunade, Richard Allan Thomas, Chukwudubem Ukaigwe, NASRA, Frank B. Jamerson fonds
BLACK PRAIRIES honours more than one hundred years of Black/African-Canadian cultural production in the Prairies, spanning the 1920s to the present, with a focus on lens-based media. The exhibition includes newly commissioned contemporary artwork, original glass plate negatives by early 1900s Black Manitoban photographer William “Billy” Beal, and archival photographs from the City of Edmonton’s Frank B. Jamerson fonds.
Beal’s glass plate negatives, taken between 1915 and 1925, document homesteading life in western Manitoba from the perspective of a lone Black man living in an all-white rural township during the early 1900s. Meanwhile, the photographs in the Frank B. Jamerson fonds, created by unnamed photographers, depict everyday Black life in and around Amber Valley, Alberta—a historic community formed during the Great Black Migration of 1910. This migration saw African-Americans fleeing racial violence in the United States to seek refuge in the Canadian Prairies. The selected photographs in this exhibition capture the first thirty years after the migration, reflecting the experiences of the first generation of Black migrants in the region. The contemporary artists in this exhibition foster important dialogues about personal histories, a changing climate, and collective experiences in the region.
Additionally, the exhibition includes the newly created short film For Caesar by filmmaker Cheryl Foggo. The film features Leander Lane, the great-grandson of Julius Caesar Lane, a founding member of the Shiloh People, the historic African-Canadian community in Saskatchewan.
BLACK PRAIRIES provides space for communal grounding and reflection on the ongoing and ever-expanding continuum of Black life and Black cultural production in the Prairies.
Image: Rosa and Mary, Amber Valley, Alberta c. 1940, black and white photograph, 5 x 6 cm. Frank B. Jamerson fonds, courtesy City of Edmonton Archives.
