Searching for the Orcadian Metis links

April 24, 2023 at 7:02 pm

Thousands of Orcadians made the journey to Hudson’s Bay in Canada and now Dr McEwan is set to research the families they had with native women.

A call has gone out for anyone with an interest in Orcadian Canadian heritage.

Dr Yvonne McEwan will be visiting Orkney as part of the Scottish-Metis Cultural Alliance and will be the Orkney Family History Society’s guest speaker at an open meeting this Tuesday night.

The Metis make up a distinct cultural group in Canada and they trace their heritage back to their mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Named after the French word for “mixed” the group in fact includes a great number who trace their ancestry to Scotland through men who were employed in the fur trade.

This trade at one time drew 60 per cent of its workers from Orkney and Dr McEwan is keen to discover what links the islands have to Canada.

Other than the open meeting she hopes to visit several of the Orkney museums.

Anyone who is interested in the topic, or knows of mixed Orcadian and Canadian heritage will be welcome at the meeting, held in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall at 7.30pm on Tuesday night.

Alternatively they should contact the Orkney Family History Society.