Family historians from all walks of life will be particularly interested in the Genealogical Guide and Historic Research sections on the Métis Nation of Ontario’s website.
At the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) 24th Annual General Assembly in Kenora, Ontario, the results of the MNO’s Ontario Métis Root Ancestors Project were released Saturday.
The project — which included the review and compilation of well over 100,000 historical records — identifies hundreds of Métis Root Ancestors from well-recognized historic Métis communities within Ontario.
The online release of Métis Root Ancestors materials will help Ontario Métis complete their genealogies, showing they are connected to a historic Métis ancestor as required by the MNO Registry Policy.
It took more than five years to complete the project and it represents the largest collection of publicly available genealogical information on Ontario Métis.
MNO Acting President France Picotte said, “We are extremely proud to be able to launch this project at this year’s Assembly. We believe this project will many in applying for citizenship within the MNO as well as assist our existing MNO citizens in applying for MNO Harvesting Cards.
“Moreover, we believe these materials will be helpful educational resources and tools in creating greater awareness about Ontario Métis history generally and the rights-bearing Métis communities that the MNO represents today throughout the province.”
The project identifies hundreds of historic Métis Root Ancestors and more than five thousand descendants of these families from seven historic Métis communities within Ontario:
• The Rainy River/Lake of the Woods/Treaty 3 Historic Métis Community
• The Northern Lake Superior Historic Métis Community
• The Abitibi Inland Historic Métis Community
• The Mattawa/Ottawa River and Environs Historic Métis Community
• The Killarney and Environs Historic Métis Community
• The Georgian Bay and Environs Historic Métis Community
The MNO continues to undertake additional historic research for the potential identification of other historic Métis communities in Ontario as well as for new information that may change or expand these existing communities.
The project flows from the direction the MNO received from its citizens and communities in province-wide consultations held in 2010/11 and subsequent direction from the 2011 MNO Annual General Assembly to create “a list of ‘root’ Ontario Métis families that people could simply trace to” and “a compilation of easily accessible source materials relevant to genealogical research” to assist individuals applying for MNO citizenship or Harvester Cards.
This direction was provided to the MNO because, unlike in western Canada, Métis land and money scrip was, for the most part, not issued in Ontario. As such, the extensive Métis scrip records available to the Métis in the Prairies in completing their genealogies do not assist the descendants of many historic Métis communities in Ontario in completing their genealogies in order to obtain citizenship within the MNO. Instead, Ontario Métis rely on different documents that identify Métis families in the historic record.
The results from the project are available on the MNO website. The Genealogical Guide section is especially interesting to family historians from all walks of life.
Thanks to Cindi Foreman for sharing the announcement on the Genealogy à la carte Facebook group.
