In 2004, Don McGillivray decided Neepawa needed to start shaking their family trees.

"It all started at a genealogy seminar in Brandon I was at and while looking around at all the people from our surrounding communities, and I thought we should have a crew. I spoke to others in town interested in genealogy and then had guest speakers from the Manitoba Genealogical Society (MGS) come for a meeting to talk to us," McGillivray said.

"We had a choice then to make, join another group or form our own. It was a unanimous vote to be a part of the MGS."

The benefit McGillivray and Norma Forsman, an active member of the organization, said that taking part with the MGS was the access to their library and expertise.
There has been a lot of research and filing completed since the Beautiful Plains Genealogy group started with a total of 32 members, but two major projects McGillivray said they have been working on is a cemetery and obituary project.

"The cemetery project we have been working on over the last four years, Our group went down to the cemetery many, many times and transcribed all the headstones. We wrote everything down, it didn't take as long as expected actually,” McGillivray said. “What took time and still is taking time, is comparing our records to the town's records. The town has the site location, name and date of burial. We are comparing to make sure we or they are right with that info."

What surprised McGillivray and Forsman the most was the number of people buried in the cemetery without headstones.

"You know, there were a lot of people that were relatives of mine, and what really jumped out at me, was the dates on some of these headstones. A lot of people were born in the 1800s. More than I would have guessed,” McGillivray said.
Forsman said she was amazed at age of headstones.

"When you look at the older headstones, it's amazing how much info would be on them. Also, the messages on them rather than rest in peace. It amazes me. There are even still three wooden markers in the cemetery," Forsman said.
The project is coming along with a tremendous amount of information. The group is working hard to get it all recorded so that the information is there for others and for themselves to use.

"What's cool is we can feed people in other provinces information on their relatives from here. We are going to try to keep it updated as much as possible," Forsman said.
The second project, the obituaries, has been a successful one.
"Obituaries are one of the best resources for genealogist. We get the most out of them, than any other source," McGillivray said.

McGillivray said because his favourite source is newspapers, he received a phone call from Mildred Allan from the McCreary municipal office asking if he would be interested in a bunch of boxes she had full of old The Neepawa Press.
"She had boxes full of papers starting from the '80s. It was a great asset to our research," McGillivray said.

The group got together and began cutting birth announcements, obituaries and wedding announcements.

"You can find out so much from these," Forsman said.
"I was wrong about it going quick to get these all cut out, because we all ended up reading the papers and reminiscing and we had fun with it," McGillivray.
McGillivray received a phone call from Cecil Pittman, a local historian, who was archiving copies at the The Neepawa Press and asked if they could use the extra copies.

"We went and took the papers, and now have them all sorted, they were a great gift," McGillivray said.

Currently, there are 16 binders full of obituaries from the Press donated from McCreary, with more to be added.

"Now people can come here and find what they are looking for quickly," Forsman said.

They plan on sorting all the births and weddings next into binders.
Another great resource they have is all the local history books put out over many years.

"They are also a super source for us to use to find out history," McGillivray said.
While filing all this information is time consuming, both McGillivray and Forsman said how much they enjoy learning the stories about each person.
"It really is something else," Forsman said.

For Forsman, her interest in genealogy dates back to high school when a teacher of hers offered her to participate in a genealogy class during her Friday afternoon free time in school.

"I wasn't into sports or anything else the other kids did on free time, so I figured, why not. So, it really all started when I was 15 years old, and it was a hobby thing then, really only having a lot of time for it in the summer. Now, it's a daily thing. I enjoy it, it takes you away from the pressures of the day," Forsman said.

Forsman also believes that genealogy has flourished since the internet has become a very accessible, useful tool for gathering information.

McGillivray's curiosity in genealogy was just that. A curiosity in family history that turned into a passion of wanting to know stories and every little fact he could.
"I think I had such a curiosity because I didn't know my grandparents. There's this quote that always stuck with me. 'If you don't know where you came from, how do you know where you are going.' So, I collected info throughout the years and filed it away, and now I have been active with genealogy for the last 25 years. You just get hooked on it," McGillivray said.

What was one of the most interesting things found for Forsman was a history of her great, great grandmother.

"When going far back throughout my family I discovered that my great great grandmother was a wet nurse to Queen Victoria. That was normal back then and so fascinating," Forsman said.

While McGillivray found out that his family was royalty to the crown.
"They settled in the Mohawk Valley in New York and chose to support Britain and fought against the Americans in war, it's a great story," McGillivray said.
Other members have also had some amazing discoveries in their time of doing genealogy.

"Finding death certificates of relatives and what they died of was incredible," Esther Harland said.

Maxine Woodcock has been able to go as far back as 1780 for a friend who asked for help in searching his family tree.

"I found a will pertaining to my great, great grandfather. It was beautiful and amazing. I danced around the archives," Carol Bray said.

The one thing that genealogy brings together for this group is the stories that come out of all the research they do for the genealogical library and for their own lives.
"It's all about the stories. We all share them, and we can all get ideas and brainstorm how to find out more on something we are searching for," Forsman said.
McGillivray is planning on running another seminar in Neepawa for beginners.
"We did it last year and had a few people come to learn, so i think we will probably do it again," McGillivray said.

"You can always learn something," Bray said.