Sylvestre | Metis, Iroquois, Mixed-heritage: Cree | Surname Anchor Post

Each of these posts is dedicated to one surname that is carried by someone connected to indigenous, Metis or mixed-heritage people in Canada.

SURNAME NOTES | SYLVESTRE

Regions:
- Alberta, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Western Canada
Ethnicity:
- Metis, Iroquois, Mixed-heritage: Cree, French
Associated surnames:
- Chausse (Upd. 2023), Connolly, Egon, Fisher / Lile
- Herman, Janvier
- Lafontaine (Upd. 2023), Lafou, Langlade / Longlade, Lemaigre
- McDonald, Montgrand, Nalfwot Billette, Naulttchezh (Upd. 2023)
- Piche, Solomon (Upd. 2023), Tssankmiaze / Tessekwiage
- Wapousweyan, Watchasch.
Misc.: –
- “Jean Baptiste Sylvestre’s narrative. I was born at Mackinaw on All-Saints’ day in 1813, the second year of the American War. My father’s name was Jean Baptiste Sylvestre, who went up with the North-West Company, became a soldier in the British army and fought at Mackinaw. He received his discharge, moved to Drummond Island with the troops, and started business as a fur trader. He came from the North-West to help the British, and joined the force at St. Joseph Island.
- (continued) My mothers’ maiden name was Angelique McKay, a h********* woman of Scotch descent, whom my father married at Mackinaw, where she was drowned when I was about two years old. Just before Mackinaw was given up to the Yankees my mother left in a small sailboat with a company of young people to visit Manitoulin Island, and was only a few yards from the shore when the boom shifted, and, striking my mother on the forehead, knocked her overboard, and she was drowned. The officers and men of the garrison assisted in dragging the lake for her, and did all they could to find her but her body was never recovered.”
- (continued) After moving to Drummond Island in 1816, my father brought me to Nottawasaga River in a large birch bark canoe, with some Indians, on our way to Montreal, to leave me with my grandfather. We went up the river, crossed the portage to Hewson’s Point, Grassi Point, Roache’s Point, where we met a lot of Indians, then to Holland Landing and on to Newmarket. There were only a storehouse and two small log huts at the landing. My father made arrangements with Mr. Roe, merchant at Newmarket, who sent me to school, and then I engaged to drive team for him and make collections all over the country. I met a party of young people in Georgina and played the fiddle all night for them while they danced. My father came to Newmarket with his furs. He met tribes of Indians in the west clothed in deer and rabbit and who had no axes, knives or iron instruments. He traded among the Muskoka lakes and at Sylvestre’s Lake in Parry Sound. He took me with him on one trip. We got short of provisions, and he sent two Indians out for more. They got drunk and did not return. Father was obliged to eat moss from the rocks and kill our little dog to save our lives. At last we reached the Narrows, near Orillia, where Francis Gaudaur, a h*********, lived. Captain Laughton and my father came from Holland Landing across Lake Simcoe to the Narrows, down the Severn River to “Baushene’, (Waubausbene), thence to Penetanguishene to see the channel. [Source: Drummond Island Voyageurs, Ontario Historical Society].