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ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
It's taken more than a year but a project that's traced the genealogy of all of the families in Fort Liard and their connections to one another is nearing completion.

A photo of elder Frank Lomen is among those that hang in the Fort Liard community office. Lomen is one of the elders who was interviewed for the Acho Dene Koe Elders Community Connection. His family is one of the largest in the community. - photo courtesy of Roslyn Gardner Firth

Roslyn Gardner Firth, the Hamlet of Fort Liard's manager of wellness and recreation, started the Acho Dene Koe Elders Community Connection in October 2010. The idea for the project came from a community member who'd been talking to elders. The elders had expressed a concern that the younger generations in Fort Liard might not be aware of how the families in Fort Liard are related, said Gardner Firth.

The elders were concerned about the health of the community, in making sure relatives don't accidentally marry too closely, she said.

To trace the family trees of the approximately 15 family groups in Fort Liard Gardner Firth and Adilene Marcellais, who acted as a translator, went to the community's elders.

Willing to share

"They were very interested," she said.

Gardner Firth said most of the elders supported the project and were willing to share their knowledge about their family. In addition to interviewing elders, members of the second generation – the elder's children – were also asked for information.

There were a few key people in the community who knew a lot about the makeup of the families in Fort Liard and who were instrumental in the success of the project, said Gardner Firth.

With all of the gathered information, Gardner Firth was able to construct family trees for all of the longstanding families in Fort Liard. Most of the trees start with the oldest living generation although some elders were able to add their parent's names. Each tree is between three to four generations long.

"It's been very challenging," said Gardner Firth.

"It's been very interesting."

All of the information is currently in a genealogy program on a computer. Before the end of January, Gardner Firth plans to print the information for each family and post it outside the library so family members can check for any mistakes or omissions.

Once the information has been reviewed, it will be turned into a book. Each family will have four to five pages in the book, including a chart of the family tree and then pages with information on dates of births and deaths and marriages. Gardner Firth also hopes to permanently display the information in a family tree chart format in either the library or the community hall.

To keep the information up to date Gardner Firth said she expects it will be reviewed once a year so that changes such a births can be added.

In addition to making younger people aware of the family connections in Fort Liard, Gardner Firth said the project has also been great from a general interest point of view. Gardner Firth said whenever she talks to people in the community about the project they are always interested in it.

Irene McLeod was excited to hear that the project is almost finished.

McLeod, a clerk and interpreter at the Fort Liard Health Centre, said staff at the centre had previously started to create family trees using the paper drop sheets used on examining tables to write the information on. A lot of new nurses come into the community and after hours there is no support staff available for interpreting, she said.

The family trees were started as a way for nurses to see what family members they could contact when a patient came in that they needed assistance with. When Gardner Firth started her project the health centre donated its gathered information.

"I'm glad she went through with it," said McLeod.

McLeod said she hopes students in the school will look at the family trees and possibly make friends with people and visit elders they didn't realize they were related to.

"Just be proud of who they're related to and where they come from," she said.

As part of the project, the elders were also filmed speaking about their lives when they were younger. A film that runs for approximately 20 minutes was created from the interviews. Some of the elders were very forthcoming and had great stories to tell, said Gardner Firth.

"It's a great film," she said.

The Acho Dene Koe Elders Community Connection was funded with $21,000 from Heritage Canada, a federal government department.

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