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.

A special dance known as the “Red River jig” we have never seen any one but a native of the country do to perfection. The music was always the violin played to the vigorous accompaniment of the foot, and we have known men carry with them an extra pair of moccasins, so that when one pair was worn out on the rough floor they might not be at a loss.

- Rev. R. G. MacBeth

The Red River Jig goes hand in hand with the fiddle music that is now so strongly associated with the Métis of Manitoba. Yet it was a combination of cultures at Red River that gave rise to the famous dance. One can hear the French Canadian overtones in the music as well as the Scottish. I’ve never seen anyone but a Métis dance it myself, yet I know it was a dance at which the Scottish settlers excelled.

At the 90th birthday celebrations of Eliza (Matheson) Lamb, she retreated to a room to chat quietly with her great-niece about the old days. Soon John McNab joined them.

“Is she telling you about the old days then?” he asked the young woman, knowing how much his old friend loved to do just that. “Did she tell you what a fine dancer she was? Eliza here was the best dancer in all Red River. She could dance the Red River Jig the whole night long with a teacup on her head and never spill a drop!”

(references: Rev. R.G. MacBeth. p. 54, Kathleen Campbell.)

Have any of you ever, in your travels, been somewhere and felt a deep sense of either belonging or connection to that spot?

Sutherlanders, I am told, are noted for two gifts that run strong in them as a group. One is deep faith, the other is their sixth sense.  For me, that sixth sense takes the form of being able to stand in a place and feel its history, or sense that human activity took place there. This has proven a useful gift in my archaeological career. It has also given me a deeper sensitivity to my own history and that of my ancestors.

As a result, I have found several locations where I have felt a connection with my ancestors. The most powerful experience in this vein I had in Scotland, in the Strath of Kildonan, Sutherland, in the township of Aultbreakachy (there are a number of different spellings for this place).

Although I have found documentation that shows that my family lived at Aultbreakachy at the time of the Kildonan evictions (during the Highland Clearances), there is nothing to indicate which of the eight or nine croft houses was theirs. I was able to find the ruins of seven of those cots when I visited the township site in 2006.

I walked all over the site, looking at all the buildings, trying to imagine life inside of them, the children playing around them, the effort of eking a living from the soil in the surrounding area, and cutting the peat out of the hills above to fuel their winter fires.

I found myself drawn to one of those ruined buildings – only the foundations and up to two feet of the walls have survived the last two hundred years – and I walked to the wall between the byre and the living quarters to sit. Suddenly, I began to weep. I sat there for half an hour, unable to stop the flow of tears, unable to block the sense of grief and loss, unable to dismiss the sense of anxiety that overwhelmed me in that spot.

There is no way that I can prove that that was the Matheson croft, the home of my 4g-grandmother Jean (Polson) Matheson and her unmarried children. But because of what I experienced there, that ruined croft, at the very least, represents their last home in Scotland to me.

September is a busy month for the descendants of Selkirk Settlers! The 2012 Bicentennial Committee (not connected to TLSARL, although we have a representative on the committee) will hold its Annual Selkirk Settler Parade on the 12. The keynote speaker will be TLSARL President Bill Matheson, by the way.

Then on the 27th comes the event that we all look forward to: The Lord Selkirk Association of Rupert’s Land Annual Reunion. This year we are also having the annual general meeting in hopes of getting more input from general membership. So,I thought I’d talk a bit about our Annual Reunion/Meeting this week.

I’ve been going to the Annual Reunions for a long time – more than half my life, although I missed a few when my Dad could not be left at home alone anymore. I always looked forward to them as a youngster, for a number of reasons. First, it was a chance for me to come to the big city for a day. Then there was the opportunity to see members of the family I hadn’t seen for a long time. We never knew who would be there until we arrived. I always like eating. And sometimes the talk or entertainment was really interesting (other times it was just interesting).

When I was in University, I went with the Taylors – Mrs. Gladys and her grandson Ken and his then fiancé Monique. As I recall, the event was usually held at a Church on Bannatyne. I remember other venues, too, including some rural community halls, Government House and Lower Fort Garry, where this year’s reunion will be.

One of the talks I remember best was a slideshow/lecture about the steamboats that used to ply the Red. I remember meeting a new relative at one of the Lower Fort Garry reunions. She was the only one other than my mother and I who stood up when John Pritchard’s name was called on the Roll. I remember how nervous I was when I gave my own presentation in 2006.

I know there are lots of others who have been coming year after year, too. So, I’m opening the forum! What reunions were your favourites, and why?