It’s not one she always knew, but when, in the 1980s, her uncle began collecting the genealogical evidence he needed to apply to become a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, she began to learn it.
Griffin grew up in Ottawa, but is descendant of a long line of Chapeau residents.

“My grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, and great-great-great-grandmother were all from that island,” she said.

“My third great-grandmother wasn’t actually born on that island. She’s Indigenous from Nippissing, and they settled there and eventually became farmers, instead of voyageurs.”

Griffin has a cottage five minutes from Chapeau, and spends at least half of every week there, through the warmer months.

She said the historical and contemporary presence of Indigenous people in and around Chapeau is not very well documented, in part due to pressures on the Algonquin people living in the Ottawa Valley to assimilate or be relocated.

“They were either sent to the reserves at Pikwakanagan or Kitigan Zibi, or they hid amongst the general population and didn’t go. And that’s what my people did,” Griffin said.

Learning the story of this choice to hide, as Griffin put it, and the trickle down effects of this decision on many generations of her family, is part of what drives Griffin’s genealogical digging. A big part of this digging is simply speaking with anybody she crosses paths with on Allumette Island about who they are and what they know about their ancestors.

“I’ve met people on the Island who are related to Indigenous people that I wasn’t aware of,” Griffin said. “My third-great-grandparents, they had 14 children, so all of those children are Indigenous. And they have descendants everywhere.”

She’s done four separate DNA tests, to maximize her potential of finding the distantly-related family member whose roots also go back to Allumette Island.

In May of this year, one such family member reached out to her from Germany, where she had moved for work.

“She came to Chapeau to meet because she said ‘Of all my DNA cousins, you were the only one living on the [Algonquin] territory, and I’d like to meet with you.’”

Griffin said the two really connected. They visited the gallery in Chapeau, the genealogical society in Pembroke, traveled to Oka, Que., to see the church where their fourth great-grandparents were married, and visited the Indigenous graveyard in Kanesatake.

“It was really a journey of discovery for both of us.”

Now, every Friday afternoon, Griffin is setting herself up in the headquarters of the Pontiac Genealogical Society, located in the Chapeau Regionale Gallerie, welcoming anybody and everybody who is interested in digging into their own stories.

“I’ve done my research, and I know my story, and I just like sharing it with people and then giving them the opportunity to learn how to find theirs,” Griffin said.

From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. every Friday afternoon from now until about October, Griffin will be available at the gallery to chat genealogy and guide people through the collection of historical documents and family trees the gallery inherited last fall when the Pontiac Genealogical Society was moved there from its former home in Mansfield’s George Bryson House.

“I figure we might as well share the information we have now and get people interested and get them to come in, instead of just waiting for people to show up to talk genealogy,” Griffin said.

One of the resources available are the three books local historian Helen Davis has written about the people of Allumette Island, published between 2006 and 2017.

Davis is now the treasurer of the genealogy society, and a volunteer at the gallery.

“The goal is to continue the research that the previous research group had done in the past,” she said, regarding the Friday afternoon sessions.

“I think it’s a great idea because then people are aware that we are continuing doing genealogy on different families in Pontiac county. They can come to us, and then we can help them out.”

Griffin said she is excited to help people discover the lives and stories of the people who came before them.

“I think it’s important to remember your people, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. It’s good to know the story. It’s all about truth and reconciliation.”

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