The People's History - an Opportunity to Share Your Stories

We all know that New Westminster is B.C.'s oldest community and was our province's first capital. There are many fascinating stories that haven't been published but now is your opportunity to share your family's stories.

This year, you can become part of BC history. The Royal BC Museum wants your story – and your help in spreading the word about The People’s History Project, a website where people from across the province can share memories and stories of British Columbia from a personal point of view.

Filled with photographs, text, audio and video submissions, The People’s History Project is accepting story submissions until Jan. 11, 2009. Then it will live on in the BC Archives as an electronic time capsule of BC history as seen through the eyes of British Columbians in 2008 – the province’s 150^th anniversary year.

You can make a big difference to this project. Here’s how:

Share your stories and photos
Share your own story about arriving, growing up, working or living in BC. Visit the website at www.freespiritbc.ca/peopleshistory, or call 250-381-4305 to record your story in your own voice. Your submission can be as simple as a family photograph.

Thank you for helping the Royal BC Museum record The People’s History for all British Columbians to share.

To learn more about the project, visit the website, or call or email them:
The People’s History Project
On the web: www.freespiritbc.ca/peopleshistory
Email: peopleshistory@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca
Phone: 250 381-4305

Follow the links below to read some of the stories they’ve already received:

Close Encounters of a Hairy Kind
It had started snowing again, and after I had I trekked along uphill for a ways, I noticed another set of tracks had joined the trail. Who on earth, I wondered, would be dumb enough to be out here in this wilderness in this weather (besides me, that is). Must be a bear, I thought, however, on closer inspection, I saw that the prints, deeply impressed into the new snowfall, seem to be made by a two-legged critter . . . [read full story]

A Christmas Gift
Frantically the cook bundled herself and her baby in warm clothes, and, with remarkable intuition, grabbed a bag of flour from the counter where she had been making donuts. Off they hurried to the site of the disaster. Remarkably this courageous woman was able to work her way down to her injured husband. There she applied flour to his massive, hemorrhaging head wounds. This simple act helped the clotting process. Doctors would later say her first aid actions may well have saved his life . . . [read full story]

The Best of Intentions
She struggled making her way along the road pulling the sleigh but still no sign of George, no beams of light from the car bouncing off the winter black trees. She paused tucking the blanket carefully around Arline again. She had to keep going but by now the cold was seeping deep into her bones and slowing down her progress . . . [read full story]