The Canadian history of my family, the Mutches, extends back to well before Confederation, and takes in communities across the country.
My great-great-great-great-grandfather, Alexander Mutch, was born in Scotland in 1756 and came to North America with the British army, to fight in the American Revolutionary War.
He survived (his brother did not) and was given land on St. John鈥檚 Island (known to the Mi鈥檏mac natives as Epekwitk; to the Acadians as Ile Saint-Jean; and today as Prince Edward Island).
He had two wives and 15 children. I am descended from his first son, James. Alexander is buried in a churchyard adjacent to the Trans-sa国际传媒 Highway in P.E.I.
My great-great-grandfather Solomon lived and worked throughout the Maritimes, with fishboats and lobster processing plants. He died at 102 and is buried in Burnaby.
His son, Edwin Wallace (E.W.) must have been a restless spirit. He grew up in the Maritimes, fishing and boatbuilding, but joined the North West Mounted Police in 1879 (Sir Charles Tupper provided a reference) and was posted to Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan.
After release he homesteaded in the Qu鈥橝ppelle Valley with his wife Laura, and was asked to give advice to Gen. Frederick Dobson Middleton during the Riel Rebellion as E.W. had been in the vicinity of Duck Lake at the time of the massacre.
From there he returned to Newfoundland to help his father with his cannery. E.W. moved west again in 1890, first to Vancouver, then Seattle (where my grandfather was born on July 1, 1894), but news of the gold strike in the Yukon had him heading north in 1897.
He hiked the Chilkoot trail and built boats on Lake Bennett to take them on to Dawson City. He returned to Seattle in 1898 and brought Laura and their three children to Dawson, where he worked in trading and assaying.
E.W. left the North in 1905 and made his last move to what he described as 鈥渁 little piece of heaven鈥� 鈥� Penticton 鈥� where he became an orchardist. My grandfather (also Edwin Wallace) and father Murray were also orchardists in the Okanagan Valley and it is where I grew up, and still call 鈥渉ome.鈥�
When I read the stories of the lives and travels of my ancestors I marvel at their spirit and energy and even more appreciate the vastness and magnificence of our country. 鈥� Jacqueline Mutch