Page 89 - Fortier Family History

Photo Background The full 8x10 photo includes my great grandmother Agnes Finlayson's sisters from left to right: Catherine (married Eli Mijakibinens - Michano), Louise (married Eli Onabigon and then Pete Gagnon) and Flora (married Henry Etchum). It also says on the back, “Doris Michano, daughter of Agnes Finlayson, about 4 years old.” Agnes is not in the picture. Catherine and Agnes of course moved from Longlac to Heron Bay/Pic after getting married. Flora remained in Longlac and I think Louise later moved to Mobert, although she is buried at Pic River. Longlac (Long Lake Ojibway band #58) is where their parents L.V. Nicholas "Nick" Finlayson and his wife Jane Finlayson, nee Souliere lived. They are in the other b&w family portrait from 1895. Remember that Nick's father, John Finlayson and Nick himself both worked for the HBC and were stationed at various "posts" at Longlac, Red Rock, Pic, Michipicoten, and Mobert among others. So it’s difficult to track down where they were living in any particular year and the Algoma Dist. Census was only done once a decade and is full of misspellings of names and missing heads of households who were out on the trap line or were "posted" near another reserve for the HBC when the census taker came calling. What we do know from our oral family history through my great aunt Mary Michano Lees and great uncle Robert Michano is that Doris was Agnes' first daughter, born circa 1916 or 1918. We have two documents for her that have her birth year, one says 1916 the other says 1918, so a two year discrepancy. Furthermore, Agnes had her first child before she married Robert Michano Sr, and his name was Dominique Olivier Finlayson, born May 26, 1916, father unknown. Uncle Bob told me that he was known as Oliver and that he died around 1919. He also told me the biological father was either a “white man” or a “mixed-blood Frenchman” and that Agnes’ father Nick did not like him and chased him away when he came calling for Agnes. During one of my trips to Ontario in 2011 I stopped by to see Uncle Bob at his apartment in Thunder Bay. On the wall was a long painted portrait of a little boy. When I asked him who it was he said it was Oliver. The painting was done from a photograph and a similar one of Bob and Mary’s sister Martha was hanging at my great aunt Mary’s house in Marathon. Oddly, both of these painted portraits have disappeared. The point of all this is that Doris could not have been born in 1916 because Agnes gave birth to Oliver in May of 1916. To me, Doris looks older than four in this picture and I would guess she is closer to 6, hmm a two year difference again. I suspect that this photo was taken at Longlac because Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary both told me that Doris did not come live with them in Coldwell until she was already a young teenager. That would have been around 1935. Uncle Bob was born in 1933 and Mary was born in 1935. After Agnes and Robert Michano Sr got married in 1920 they moved after a short spell from Heron Bay/Pic to Coldwell because Robert Michano Sr was working for the CPR. My great uncle Bob Michano told me he remembered that Doris first lived with them in her teens after they moved to Coldwell. Doris married Ed Fortier in 1936 in Schreiber, ONT, not far from Coldwell and Heron Bay/Pic. On Doris and Ed’s marriage license her year of birth was 1918, but her death certificate records her birth year as 1916. So there’s the two year discrepancy. Uncle Bob told me he recalled that after Doris and Ed got married they were living in Coldwell near his home with his parents Agnes and Robert Michano Sr. He remembered that Doris worked in the back of a store there in Coldwell helping out in the restaurant and he had a vivid memory of Doris walking to his house with a birthday cake for him that she had baked. My uncle Russell was Ed and Doris’ first-born, in August of 1938. He recalls that after WW II started, around 1941-42, Ed and Doris both worked at the newly built Neys, Ontario P.O.W. camp. They stayed in housing at the camp during the work week and then returned for the weekend. They walked approximately 8km along the CPR Tracks from Coldwell to the P.O.W. camp and then returned the same route at the end of the week. Doris’ mother Agnes took care of Russell during the week while they were at Neys. Doris worked in