Genealogy Chat

Sarah .............


Margee and I both live in Canada, and are both, I think, well versed in First Nations beliefs and on how they want to be called. It has been a major part of the history in both US and Canada over the last 20 years. I could bore you silly with all I know and have learnt over the years.

It is a reclaiming of their heritage, not the one imposed on them by the white conquerors of the previous 300 or 400 years.

Neither of us went into the fact that the different tribes actually prefer to be called by their ancestral names rather than even just First Nations.


As far as your family artifacts, such as the herbal remedies book .............. we're not suggesting they are made-up. BUT it is very possible that stories have been attached to them that are, shall we say, embellished.

Many families in England had herbal remedy books from the very early centuries ...... herbal remedies were all that people had up until the 19th century. Herbal remedies were brought back from "foreign parts" by explorers, so British slave owners could have brought them back, Marco Polo, I believe, took some back to Europe from China in the 15th century.

It's easy for stories to become embellished.

A herbalist's business would probably be helped if customers thought his remedies were foreign, exotic, mysterious, alternative.

And maybe they were. Sadly, it looks as if we'll never know, as we can't find anything about Mary's ancestry.
It would have been fascinating to find out.

I live in a city in Ontario which abuts Akwesasne, a Mohawk reservation. I went to school with Mohawk children as did my children. Actually my children's school was trilingual, English/French/Mohawk and the sign at the door read "Welcome/Bienvenue/Shekon"

There are a lot of mixed marriages here, English/Mohawk, French/Mohawk etc but I have never, ever heard the word Mulatto used to describe children of these marriages.