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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 2000-06 > 0962378061


From: "Charles.Clark" <>
Subject: Re: Help - RCMP
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 11:14:21 -0400
References: <000c01bfe1ea$d8736020$401d883e@pbn-computer>


BARBARA MacQUARRIE wrote:

> Hello List
> My father (in his 80s) has just told me that his grandmother had a
> brother, ??? Duff, born, I think between 1850 - 1860 in Ballymena, who
> served with the Mounties.
> I have no other information about him. Can anybody help point me in
> the right direction, please.
>
> Barbara

I would be heading straight for the files of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, in the Canadian National Archives, at
http://www.archives.ca/index.html Unfortunately you'll have to write or
hire a researcher to get what you want, I suspect, because only a part of
their records are on line, but even a short reply might well have enough
details to get you on your way. I had a hugely successful dip into that
pool, not with the RCMP (Mounties), but with the NorthWestern Mounted
Police, who preceded them in the west.
Briefly, I had a Stewart-Moore family chart with the annotation on it
"Henry b 20 April 1859, d Sept 1908 Major Commission North West Mounted
Police m June 1882 Emily, eldest dau of Butler Giveen, of Cooldaragh, Capt
10th Hussars"
I wrote to the Canadian Archives ( back in the days when the internet was
young), and got a reply saying that they had a file on a Major
Stewart-Moore, but it was just a pension file, with no details of his
career. It had him listed as "Major Henry Stewart-Moore of the Prince
Albert Volunteers, who was pensioned off on 26 March 1885 due to wounds
received at Duck Lake, North West Territories."
Which seemed all very frustrating until I searched the net for "Duck Lake"
and opened up a whole new world. He wasn't a Major in the NWMP at all, but
a private citizen whose only military involvement was with the civilian
militia (the Prince Albert Volunteers) who got shot up very badly in the
fight at Duck Lake which marked the beginning of the second Riel Rebellion
in 1885. Henry Stewart-Moore lost a leg, and was pensioned, as above. And
it wasn't long before the file on him became one of my largest, because he
had been quite a prominent citizen in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in its
earliest days.
And then that led on to .... finding that my grandfather had grown up in
Alberta in the 1880s, something I only vaguely had an inkling of, and
never thought I'd find out anything about. But there are a lot of archives
in Canada, and that also became one of my largest files. All through an
entry on a chart that contained little more than your vague reference.

So, Barbara, for my money, the Canadian National Archives should be your
first stop.
Happy Hunting!
Charlie


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