fonds F0667 - Charles Denney fonds and Metis genealogy files

Charles Douglas Denney, 1901-2002, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He began teaching in 1920, and taught at various schools throughout Alberta, including in Edson, Tofield, Cereal and New Dayton until 1939. In 1927 he married Mildred Kate Sherlock, 1896-1973, who was also a teacher. They had one daughter, June (Hurd).

From 1940 to 1943 he was Supervisor of Cooperatives and Credit Unions for the Alberta government, after which he was an assessor with the federal income tax office, 1943-1951. He started his own income tax and accounting office in Edmonton in 1951. He was very active in the Amisk Waskahegan Chapter of the Historical Society of Alberta, and in 1973 organized the Alberta Genealogical Society.

In 1967 he began doing genealogical research on his wife's family, which was descended from several of the Lord Selkirk Red River settler families. The project grew, and by 1985 he had compiled family history files on over 1200 families with roots in Red River, predominantly Metis and fur trade families. In 1974 he married his second wife, Elsie Elizabeth Lillian Wilson Colby, 1906-1996.

For further information see Allison Kydd's article "Charles D. Denney : Edmonton's Keen Observer of History Celebrates his 100th Birthday" in Legacy. -- vol. 6, no.1 (Spring 2001), p. 38-39.