All TLSARL members and Red River Settlers’ Descendants are invited to attend!

For more information, contact George through the Contact Us Form.

Anyone interested in joining a TLSARL trip to Scotland in the summer of 2012? We are still planning, but need to know who is seriously interested so we can plan destinations according to descendant interests – there’s no point in going to Kildonan if no one from the Kildonan descendants is on the tour, right?

Essentially, the tour will be a pilgrimmage to our ancestors’ homes and other significant places in their lives in Scotland. We will also visit places that reflect various aspects of their lives there and the history of their local parishes.

Please, send me an email through the Contact Us Form noting your ancestors’ names and the places you’d be interested in visiting. This will also place you on our email list for the event.

Thank you!

Restricted to Descendants of Original Selkirk Settlers. Contestants must be 18 years of age or less.

Topic:

Fort Douglas and Its History

Maximum word count:

1000

Format:

Typed on letter-size white paper, with title and page no. of total pages (1 of 2) at top of each page. Name of entrant must not appear anywhere on the essay, but on a separate page together with title and contact information and line of descent from an Original Selkirk Settler.

Entry Fee:

$10, which includes one year’s membership in TLSARL.

Entry Deadline:

15 August, 2010.

Prize:

$50, winning essay read at the Annual Reunion & AGM and published in the TLSARL Newsletter

Entries must be postmarked no later than 15 August, 2010, and sent to: Mr. Roy McLeod, 349 Kingsford Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R2G 0J5.

Fort Douglas, painted by Peter Rindisbacher 1822. National Archives of Canada C-001938

I wrote about Donald Gunn and his egging expedition for the Smithsonian a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned in the first entry that someone had requested a copy of his book History of Manitoba from the Earliest Settlement to 1835. As I didn’t have the book in my own Red River collection, I decided I’d like to obtain a copy.

I couldn’t find a first edition anywhere. I don’t normally purchase print to order books, but I saw that Cornell University Library had scanned and published a facsimile reprint. I hate these types of reprints because the quality of reproduction, especially of any pictures, is generally horrible. But in this case, I really only wanted a copy to read. If I found a first edition after fulfilling my customer’s request, then maybe I’d spring for a copy to replace this one.

The book arrived last week, in paperback format. I’m really very pleased with it. It was scanned from a relatively clean library copy, and the reproduction is excellent. I would highly recommend this edition to anyone who would like a copy for a reasonable price (mine was just under $50 CAD. First editions are going for at least six times that price.). Email me through the Contact Us page if you would like me to find you a copy. I will donate a portion of the purchase price to TLSARL.

At some point I will do a few blog entries on aspects of this work. As Donald was an original settler, much of what he wrote about is an eyewitness accounting of events, so this will be of particular interest to members!

Again, I return to the AGM at the end of September this year. The newly elected Vice President of TLSARL, Roy McLeod, stopped me as I was entering the venue. He’d found some articles written by my great-aunt in a couple of old copies of Saskatchewan History, and kindly, he gave them to me. Imagine my excitement when I found her contributions were (an annotated copy of) a journal her aunt kept while on a canoe trip made in the 1920s!

One of the participants in the forum I set up for Red River Descendants mentioned an ancestor, and I remembered collecting something on him some time ago as he was a relative of my own, too. I was able to send her the quote I’d extracted from a 1927 article in another Saskatchewanian historical society’s bulletin.

Another person who signed up at the forum mentioned she had a book on one of her Red River ancestors. It was one I didn’t have in my library, so I ordered a copy…. It came in yesterday, and I will write more about it when I finish going through it, of course!

One of the best ways to learn more about the shared history of the Red River Settlers and their descendants, to learn more about specific people within that group, and to learn where to find more material about them is to network with other researchers.

There are several ways to do that:

• Visit the blog here and read about our history – and discuss it through comments (free).
• Join TLSARL, if you are a descendant, get our quarterly Newsletter and participate in our Reunion every year (small annual fee – Contact Us for more information).
• Join the Red River Settlement, Rupert’s Land (Manitoba, Canada) forum at GenealogyWise (free).

You will meet people who are deeply engaged in their history, people who are just starting to explore their Red River roots, and undoubtedly you will acrue some new relatives! Discussing your stories, sources and knowledge with others will help deepen and re-enforce your understanding of your own history as well as bring others closer to theirs.

I realised after publishing the last dog entry that I had forgotten to mention what my plans for our new puppy, Stella, were! So just in case anyone was following the entries in order to find out….

I have two somewhat unusual hopes for Stella.

First, I am an avid knitter. In my reading I have learned that both the Newfy and Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog grow excellent wool for spinning. I’m hoping to brush enough out of her to try it out on the needles.

My second aspiration is to train Stella for draught work – not so different from our Selkirk Settler ancestors, perhaps! I’m hoping she will help me haul all the firewood home once I cut it into stove lengths. This will be a project for next fall.

*  *  *  *  *

I’m hoping that some of the readers out there also are writers. If any of you have an interesting story to tell about the Red River Settlers (pre-1836) or their descendants, if you have some knowledge of life in the settlement or RRS history that you think others would like to learn about, please jot it down and send it to me via the Contact Us form. If you have photos to go with, please let me know. Please use “Guest Writer” as the subject.

I will make one day a week – Saturday – open to guest writers. Perhaps you have a story about the achievement of one of your ancestors. Maybe you visited an historical site associated with the RRS and were moved in some respect by the experience. Do you have a burning question about some aspect of RRS life, and hope that someone else might have a good answer? If you have a photo you need identified and think another descendant may be able to help… send it in!

If you feel self-conscious about your writing skills, please don’t let that stop you. Just let me know that you’d like me to polish your entry before I put it up, and I will be happy to help!

If you would like to be a regular contributor, please let me know. I would be happy to share the load with someone interested in writing on a regular basis.