Red River Ancestry

erinmillions wrote:

gnstill wrote:Hi Erin; nice to hear from you!

Confusing – Are you concluding that Joseph FINLAYSON (b-1830) was a child of Nichol FINLAYSON and Nancy DAVIS (b-1816), daughter of Nancy HODGSON and John DAVIS (1785-1824)??

My apologies for the delayed reply.

I am concluding that sometime after John Davis's death in 1824, Nancy Hodgson Davis had a relationship with Nicol Finlayson that resulted in the birth of Joseph Finlayson (b. 1830). Nancy Hodgson Davis would have been about 40 yrs old at the time.

This makes Joseph Finlayson a half-brother to George, Matilda and Nancy Davis (and the other Davis siblings).

The evidence that I am basing this conclusion on is two letters in the Davis Family papers (Finlayson correspondence file) in the Archives of MB. These two letters are from Flora Finlayson, wife of Joseph Finlayson, to Matilda Davis at her Oakenfield School. In both letters, Flora addresses Matilda as 'sister'. If Nancy Hodgson Davis is the mother of Joseph Finlayson, this would make Flora and Matilda sisters-in-law, hence the "Dear Sister" in the letters.

The notes on the Nicol Finlayson entry state that the elder Nancy was at Ft Albany in 1829, so that would seem to support the evidence from the letters.