The Genealogical Collection at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies is known as the Katie Peters Genealogical Collection. In 1986 Katie Peters donated her collection of materials she had collected. The biggest portion consisted of 200 binders of family genealogies, 400 binders of genealogical materials such as newspaper clippings and obituaries, about 66,000 index cards, and some church registers. She saw this as her God given ministry. Since this donation of valuable records has been received, the centre has added other genealogical materials, such as published genealogies, and placed it in the Katie Peters Genealogical Collection.
The material is not available for loan and at this point is not in electronic format. Researchers are welcome to come to the Centre and use the materials. The Centre can make photocopies of the materials for a fee.
Unpublished genealogies
The materials in this section are a collection of non-published family histories that are hand-written and sometimes typewritten. They range from a few pages to several hundred stored in three ring binders or duotang binders. Some are copied from other sources with additional information added; others are completely Katie Peters’ work. Some have indices, and other do not. A number of the volumes are collections on a particular family name and contain a number of families, which at the time could not be connected.
Index to genealogies
This finding aid will help you find family names appearing in the first generations of each volume. For example the family name Bartsch would appear of course in the Bartsch genealogy book (number 5) but according to the index, also in the early generations (usually before 1850) of genealogy books number 5, 34, 100.
Published genealogies
This section includes the published genealogies by various authors. This collection continues to grow with new publications. These books are not searchable through the J.A. Toews historical library although other family books such as biographies are in the historical library. The books are arranged alphabetically by the family name dealt with in the book.
