A 250‑year Métis story told through eleven ancestral lines
Welcome to Our Family‑Line Series, a documentary‑style exploration of one of the largest, most interconnected, and best‑documented kinship networks in Western Canada.
This project traces our ancestry across eleven major family lines — ten rooted in the fur‑trade world of the 18th and 19th centuries, and one Scandinavian‑American immigrant line — each contributing a distinct thread to a story that stretches from Hudson Bay to the Red River Settlement to the Saskatchewan plains and finally into British Columbia. →Skip directly to the Series Index
This is not a simple genealogy.
It is a multi‑lineage Métis super‑network — a rare, large‑scale kinship constellation shaped by:
- Orkney Hudson’s Bay Company labourers
- Cree and Saulteaux matrilines
- Red River Métis communities
- northern inland brigades
- prairie farmers and buffalo hunters
- HBC officers and administrators
- and a Scandinavian‑American migration stream that later converges with the Métis network
Across 13 episodes, this series reconstructs that network using real, verifiable historical sources, including:
- Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA)
- Red River parish registers
- Métis scrip applications
- Orkney recruitment records
- Manitoba Historical Society biographies
- Red River Ancestry reconstructions
- WikiTree Métis project profiles
Each episode is written in a documentary tone, with citations that map directly to the archival record.
Series Structure
OUR FAMILY LINE SERIES (Landing Page)
│
├── Introduction
│
├── Our Methodology
│
├── Our Family Story – 3 Worlds
│
├── Series Index
│ │
│ ├── Episode 1 – The Bird Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 2 – The Thomas Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 3 – The Sutherland Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 4 – The Cromartie Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 5 – The Hourie Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 6 – The Cook–Cocking Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 7 – The Spence Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 8 – The Batt Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 9 – The Park Line
│ │
│ ├── Episode 10 – The Flett Line
│ │
│ └── Episode 11 – The Brager Line
│
├── Our Network Summary (Episode 12)
│
├── Conclusion Reflection (Episode 13)
│
├── Our Kinship Lines
│
└── Our Kinship Clusters
What This Series Reveals
A rare dual‑homeland Métis ancestry
Your lines span both major centres of Métis ethnogenesis:
- The Northern Homeland — Fort Severn, York Factory, Churchill River
- The Red River Homeland — St. Andrews, Point Douglas, White Horse Plains
Few families bridge both worlds so completely.
A dense, multi‑layered kinship web
Your lines do not connect once — they connect repeatedly:
- Flett ↔ Sutherland
- Sutherland ↔ Hourie
- Hourie ↔ Cromartie
- Cromartie ↔ Bird
- Cook ↔ Spence
- Cook ↔ Flett
- Park ↔ Cromartie
- Batt ↔ Spence
- Bird ↔ Brager
This creates a high‑cohesion kinship network, the kind anthropologists describe as foundational to Métis identity.
A prairie kinship cluster of exceptional density
On the Saskatchewan plains, three ancestral lines — Bird, Cromartie, and Brager — converged in a tight homestead cluster, with your immediate family living in the same township group.
This cluster mirrors the density and interdependence of Red River.
A continuous chain of leadership
Your ancestors were:
- interpreters
- missionaries
- buffalo hunters
- HBC officers and administrators
- farmers
- community leaders
- members of Riel’s provisional government
They were not peripheral.
They were central to the story of the West.
A story that continues in British Columbia
Your family’s move into BC is the final chapter of a long westward movement that began in the 1700s.
The Brager line joins this arc through Richmond, where the family lived on Lulu Island and fished out of historic Steveston.
Your BC roots are the living continuation of a 250‑year story.
How to Read the Series
The Family‑Line Series is organized into:
- Episodes 1–11 — The eleven ancestral lines
- Episode 12 — The Network Summary
- Episode 13 — The Conclusion Reflection
- Series Index — A structured list of all episodes
Each episode stands alone, but together they form a single, unified narrative.
Supporting Materials
For readers who want deeper context, the following pages provide the structural and methodological foundations behind the Family‑Line Series:
Introduction
A brief explanation of the family line project’s purpose, scope, and guiding questions. → Series Introduction
Master Narrative
A high‑level overview of the 250‑year story, tracing the movement from Hudson Bay to Red River to the Saskatchewan plains and ultimately into British Columbia. → Our family Story – 3 Worlds
Methodology
An outline of the research process, including the archival systems used:
Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Red River parish registers, Métis scrip applications, Orkney recruitment records, Manitoba Historical Society biographies, Red River Ancestry reconstructions, and WikiTree Métis project profiles. → Series Methodology
Kinship Line Analysis
A structural breakdown and analysis of how the eleven family lines interconnect through time, marriages, shared communities, and overlapping fur‑trade histories. → Our Kinship Lines
Kinship Cluster Analysis
A detailed look at the Saskatchewan homestead cluster, where multiple lines lived within a few sections of each other, forming a dense prairie‑era kinship community. → Our Kinship Clusters
These materials provide the analytical framework that supports the documentary episodes and help readers understand how the network functions as a whole.
Start Exploring
Begin with the Series Index, where you can navigate all 13 episodes in order.
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