Hello from Toronto! My name is Alanna Sanderson and I am so pleased to find your site and quite enjoy the history you incorporated. With the dawn of Ancestry.ca I find few folks put much effort into their ancestry other than importing other peoples trees, but that's humans for ya.
I was born in Winnipeg Manitoba and lived there until I was 9 and then again in 1999-2000 as an adult. At that time the Metis Ancestry project was well underway and a number HBC records had been transcribed and entered into a searchable database. The Metis Resource Centre had an office back then, now just a Facebook page, and if you had enough information you could request an ancestry book. Gratefully I still had a second cousin alive, Ruth Stoyka nee Moar, in her 70s who knew my great-grandparents when they were living. She introduced me to Clare Letendre (my 3rd cousin on my great-grandmother's side) and from there I was able to provide birth and marriage dates and order my ancestry book.
On the Sanderson side, my report/book stops at James Thomas Sanderson. I have since, with a lot of research, wading through bad penmanship, and the help of a lovely woman named Serena Willis, progressed this line to a Sandysone/Sandeson in England. There still is much source work to do but it is much easier now than back in the 1990s.
James Thomas is my 3rd Great Grandfather. I descend from his marriage to Nancy Whitford and their child Robert Sanderson
aka Robert Sandison (Baptised 14 DEC 1834 Died May 1892). On 20 MAR 1857 at St. Helen's Church in Fairford, NWT, now Manitoba, Robert married Elizabeth Sabiston (Born 10 APR 1831 in Lake Nipissing Died 16 SEP 1917) and created Great Grandfather Robert James Sanderson (16 SEP 1862 in Fairford, Northwest Territories, now Manitoba and died 6 Mar 1946 in the R.M. of Grahamdale, Manitoba, Canada). He married Catherine Ann Letendre (Letender) in Fairford in 1883. I can confirm at least 13 births from this union, one being my Grandpa Allen who came along in 1908. Grandpa Allen and his wife Bertha Dumas (I did not know her, but her story is quite scandalous) had 4 Children. Only one is still alive, I think. My father, Jerry passed away in 2003 and I did not have any children so that ends our little stub.
My sources for James Thomas Sanderson are as follows.
Notes for JAMES THOMAS SANDERSON:
[Brøderbund Family Archive #118, Ed. 1, Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s - 1900s, Date of Import: Jul 14, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.118.1.74572.19] *I no longer have this CD or the Family Tree Maker program but this lead me to the book.
Individual: Sanderson, James
Event: Born
Year: 1784
Province of record source: Manitoba
Comments: Métis.
Source: The Genealogy of the First Metis Nation, The Development and Dispersal of the Red River Settlement 1820-1900.
(this book is now online and searchable:
http://www.ourroots.ca/index.aspx
Author: D.N. Sprague and R.P. Frye
Publisher: Pemmican Publications
Publication place: Winnipeg, MB
Publication year: 1988
Volume/Page(s): 104
More About JAMES THOMAS SANDERSON:
Baptised: February 13, 1826, St Johns Red River Settlement
Church: Protestant
Interred: November 29, 1873, St Johns Red River Settlement