Métis Marriages: Longlade & Secord

The marriage of Alexander Longlade and Marie Sophie Secord on August 22, 1886, reflects a broader pattern of endogamy–Métis marrying Métis–that sustained community life in Georgian Bay throughout the nineteenth century. These unions reinforced kinship networks, cultural continuity, and shared responsibility within an already interconnected Métis society. 

Marie Sophie Secord was born around 1870 in Tiny to Benjamin Secord and Sophie Beausoleil, a Métis woman deeply rooted in the Georgian Bay community. Like several of her siblings, Marie Sophie was raised within this close-knit network, where family ties, shared ancestry, and collective experience shaped daily life. 

Alexander Longlade, born in 1863 in Tiny to Louis Longlade and Madeleine Lacombe, was likewise raised in the Métis community of Georgian Bay. One of eleven siblings, Alexander grew up surrounded by extended family and long-standing relationships that connected Métis households. 

Alexander and Marie Sophie established a family grounded in common values, bringing up their children within the very same kinship networks that had defined their own early lives. Although Marie Sophie’s death in 1909 marked a profound loss, their marriage and descendants remain part of the enduring legacy of Métis families in the Upper Great Lakes, illustrating how endogamy supported continuity, resilience, and identity over time.

See Our Sources

• Beausoleil-Giroux VMFL

• Longlade VMFL

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