Let鈥檚 start near the beginning, with my fifth great-grandfather, Jean Etienne Wadin. He was one of the original four partners of the North West Company.
He married Marie Joseph Deguire, a First Nations woman. They had, among others, two daughters, Marguerite, who married James Douglas鈥檚 boss, Dr. John McLoughlin, the Hudson鈥檚 Bay Company factor in charge of a territory that ran from Alaska to San Francisco, and over to the cordillera.
Another daughter, Veronique, married John Bethune, a loyalist and the first Presbyterian minister in Lower, then Upper sa国际传媒. His sons did well, for instance one of them succeeded John Strachan as the Bishop of Toronto.
Their daughter Anne married Henry MacKenzie, a partner in the North West Company, brother of Roderick, who founded the first European settlement in Alberta, and first cousin of Alexander, the well known explorer. He managed Alex鈥檚 affairs for him while he was away from Montreal. He also owned the first industrial complex in the country, Isles des Moulins, in Terrebonne.
Their daughter Catherine married Frederick Phipps Stow, son of the receiver of customs in Dover during the Napoleonic wars, the first of the family鈥檚 numerous civil servants, and part of an organization that established a tradition of efficiency, duty, and probity in that lasted for centuries in Britain and its dominions.
Their daughter Mary married William Shutt, whose brother Frank was made a Commander of the British Empire for his work as second in charge of the Experimental Farms and introducer of chemical fertilizers to the country.
Their son Donald was one of the country鈥檚 first three microbiologists, who did much to clean up Ontario鈥檚 milk supply. (He was also a genealogist, long before this was popular.)
Their daughter Veronica (named for Veronique, as are two of my grandchildren) had the job of babysitting her cousin, Norman Bethune, when his family came to stay with her every summer. I was in China a few years ago and was amazed at how famous he is there. Every child has to study his story in Grade 4. She married Arthur, a civil engineer who had much to do with the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific railway.
That gets us down to my uncle Ken, who was a civil engineer whose career took him to every continent except South America. He was responsible for building the Trans-sa国际传媒 Highway through the national parks.
So there you have it. There are many other civil servants, ministers, scientists, inventors and doctors in the family history, but their stories are not as significant as those of the people I have written about. They were just part of the fabric of the country that made it a good place to live. 鈥� Anonymous