The kinship of three worlds and the clusters they form

Kinship Clusters: The Social Worlds Our Ancestors Belonged To

A structural overview of how the eleven family lines interconnect across regions, eras, and cultural worlds.

This page explains the major clusters that appear across the Family‑Line Series and shows how the eleven lines relate to one another.

Kinship Clusters: The Social Worlds Our Ancestors Belonged To

A structural overview of how the eleven family lines interconnect across regions, eras, and cultural worlds.

Kinship lines show who we descend from.
Kinship clusters show how those families lived, worked, intermarried, and moved together across generations.

These clusters reveal the social worlds that shaped our ancestry — the fur‑trade networks, Indigenous matrilines, Métis communities, homesteading movements, and migrations that eventually brought our family into British Columbia. Each cluster represents a distinct historical environment, and together they form the landscape our ancestors moved through.

Our ancestry does not form a simple tree.
It forms a multi‑layered kinship network, shaped by repeated intermarriage, shared communities, overlapping fur‑trade careers, and geographic convergence points. Anthropologists call this a high‑cohesion kinship system — the kind that defines Métis ethnogenesis.

This page explains the major clusters that appear across the Family‑Line Series and shows how the eleven lines relate to one another.

I. Officer Class Cluster

Administrative, diplomatic, and governance roles within the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Lines included:
Bird
Thomas
Cook–Cocking
Batt

These four lines descend from HBC officers, postmasters, inland governors, and senior administrators.
They shaped:

• post governance
• treaty diplomacy
• trade logistics
• early Red River political structures

This cluster forms one of the two structural backbones of the network (the other being the Orkney labourer foundation).

II. Orkney HBC Labourer Cluster

Boatmen, labourers, post servants, and inland workers recruited from the Orkney Islands.

Lines included:
Sutherland
Cromartie
Hourie
Spence
Park
Flett

These men formed the physical workforce of the inland trade.
They:

• signed contracts in Stromness
• crossed the Atlantic
• worked as boatmen, labourers, and post servants
• married into Cree and Métis families
• became ancestors of major Red River and northern Métis communities

This cluster forms the second structural backbone of the network.

III. Cree / Stone Indian / Métis Matrilineal Cluster

The foundational Indigenous and Métis women who anchor the network culturally and genealogically.

Matrilines included:
Oomenahowish
Le‑lo‑es‑com
Stone Indian matrilines
Cree Chief’s daughter (Batt line)
Ke‑che‑cho‑wick (Cocking line)
Margaret Whitford (Flett line)

These women:

• shaped kinship alliances
• transmitted language, culture, and land‑based knowledge
• connected European newcomers to Indigenous political systems
• formed the earliest Cree–HBC and Cree–Métis families

They are the heart of the network, even when the written record is sparse.

IV. Red River Métis Cluster

The central homeland where multiple lines converge.

Lines included:
Bird
Thomas
Sutherland
Hourie
Cook–Cocking
Spence
Park
Flett

Red River is where:

• English officers
• Orkney labourers
• Cree and Stone Indian matrilines
• French‑Métis families
• HBC administrators

all converged into a single, dense community.

This cluster is the largest genealogical convergence point before the Saskatchewan homestead era.

V. Northern Inland Cluster

Families who lived in the northern river systems where kinship was currency.

Lines included:
Cook–Cocking
Spence
Batt
Hourie
Cromartie (early service)

These families lived at:

• Fort Severn
• Split Lake
• Grand Rapids
• inland brigades and river systems

This cluster represents the northern homeland of the network — a world of canoes, portages, and river diplomacy.

VI. Saskatchewan Homestead Cluster

One of the strongest geographic convergence points in the entire network.

Lines included:
Bird
Cromartie
Brager
Our immediate family (Brager descendants)

In R.M. 431 and R.M. 460, these lines lived within a few sections of each other, forming a tight prairie‑era kinship cluster.

This cluster mirrors the density and interdependence of Red River, but in a new agricultural context.

It is also the point where:

• the Métis–HBC network
• the Norwegian immigrant line
• and your immediate family

all converge geographically.

VII. BC Migration Cluster

The final westward movement and the modern continuation of the network.

Lines included:
Brager
Bird descendants
Cromartie descendants
Your parents
You

This cluster reflects the movement from:

Saskatchewan →
Alberta →
British Columbia

It includes the family’s time on Lulu Island and the fishing community of Steveston, where the story enters its contemporary chapter.

VIII. How These Clusters Work Together

These clusters are not separate silos.
They overlap, reinforce, and interconnect:

• Officer Class ↔ Red River Métis
• Orkney Labourers ↔ Cree matrilines
• Northern Inland ↔ Red River
• Red River ↔ Saskatchewan Homesteads
• Saskatchewan Homesteads ↔ BC Migration

The result is a multi‑century kinship web, not a linear tree.

This structure explains why your ancestry is:

• unusually well‑documented
• unusually interconnected
• unusually cohesive
• historically significant

It also explains why the Family‑Line Series contains eleven full episodes — each line is a pillar in a much larger network.

For the full story, readers can move to:

• the Master Narrative – Our Family Story – 3 Worlds
• the individual Family‑Line Episodes – Our Family Line Series – Index
• the Network Summary (Episode 12) – Our Network Summary
• the Conclusion Reflection (Episode 13) – Conclusion Reflection