Andrea Lister is a historian, researcher, speaker, editor, and writer and principal of Absolutely Literate, focussed on researching and sharing community history. Andrea was awarded her BA in History from the University of British Columbia and since added Simon Fraser University’s Technical Communications certificate and Editing Certificate to her resume. She is the author of Commitment to Caring: Chilliwack Hospital Auxiliary’s 100 Years and is a former editor of British Columbia History magazine. She is the 2022 recipient of the Maple Ridge Community Heritage Commission Sheila Nickols Award, which recognizes a person who has helped maintain Maple Ridge history, and work that preserves original historic documents.
Projects include: facilitating “Unlock Your Family Story” with Brenda L. Smith for Island Mountain Arts; presenting “Seafaring Ancestors” to Strathcona County Library: Family Tree Trackers; presenting “Ireland in Your PJs” to the Ontario Genealogical Society; copy editor for Voices for the Islands: Thirty Years of Nature Conservation by the Salish Sea; and Escape to Clayoquot Sound: Finding Home in a Wild Place for Heritage House Publishing; research for interpretive signage for the City of Maple Ridge’s Tsuyuki Park; author of “Using University Archives to Find Your Nova Scotian Ancestors” published in the Nova Scotia Genealogist; and editor of heritage award winner Surrey: A City of Stories.
Andrea regularly writes and speaks about researching your family history. She will research anyone, anywhere whether she is related to them or not.. In 2024, Andrea served as editor, fact-checker, and web designer for “Honouring Those Who Served,” a community history project building on two decades of research conducted by historian Annette Fulford. The goal was to discover the stories of the people named on the First World War face of the Cenotaph and other memorials throughout Maple Ridge, British Columbia. The interactive website, designed to enable a greater number of people to have access to the biographies, summarizes the war service of each veteran and their connection to the community.
She learned the ins and outs of making software behave as the Communications Manager of a national software provider for the investment industry. Andrea’s journey through word processing software began with WordStar back in the 80s and then moved to WordPerfect, both DOS and Windows versions and then Microsoft Word. She now teaches others how to use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to tell their family stories. She has also facilitated virtual Annual General Meetings for the Mole Hill Housing Society and the British Columbia Historical Federation.
I worked with Andrea at a software start-up where she got our technical writing / communications department off the ground, eventually expanding it to a small team. Her responsibilities included online help, traditional manuals, organizing trade shows, and managing external audits of our documentation and software processes. Andrea is a self-starter with excellent software and writing skills. If you work with Andrea, you will not regret it. Also, Andrea consistently uses apostrophes correctly and read Eats Shoots and Leaves of her own volition, and liked it! Andrea knows what 'volition' means.
Greg Tomkins, Computer Guy at Broadridge Financial