Métis Marriages: McDonell & Ferris

Métis couple, Annie McDonell and Walter Ferris, were married on July 28, 1864, in the Mattawa region.

Annie McDonell was born around 1844 in Moose Factory to Mary Ann (nee McKay) and Alexander McDonell, a lifelong Métis Hudson’s Bay Company employee whose career and connections spanned the Métis Homeland, including the Swan River, Lac la Pluie, and Abitibi Inland regions. By 1848, Annie and her four siblings had relocated to the Mattawa region with their parents, where they became integrated into the local Métis community.

Walter Ferris was born around 1842 to Hudson’s Bay Company employee Frederick Ferris and Mary Ann Nancy Good. Like his future wife, Annie, Walter spent many of his early years in the Abitibi Inland region, before moving with his Métis family to the Mattawa area by the 1860’s.

Following their 1864 marriage, Walter and Annie deepened their families’ connections within the Mattawa Métis Community, while also maintaining generations-old bonds with Métis families from other regions. Walter, for example, was baptised by the Mattawa priest in 1873, with Joseph Dufond and Eliza Loysa Atkinson of the Abitibi Inland Métis Community’s Atkinson-Moore family serving as his godparents. In 1878, Walter also became the godfather of Charlotte Jane Atkinson and later witnessed the 1896 burial of Sara Mary Moore in Mattawa.

Annie and Walter raised eleven children in the Mattawa region, born between 1867 and 1896 who, like their parents, understood the importance of strengthening kinship ties between Métis families and communities through marriage, witnessing, and other meaningful acts.

In 1899, for example, Annie and Walter’s children, John Alexander and Jane Marie witnessed the marriage of fellow Métis, Margaret Turner. John Alexander later married Marie Angelique McDonell in 1905, with their marriage witnessed by Alexander and Florence Atkinson. In 1907, John Alexander returned the gesture, witnessing Florence Atkinson’s marriage. In 1918, Annie and Walter’s daughter Mary Virginia Ferris married fellow Mattawa Métis Community member John Lemuel McIsaac.

By the 1901 Mattawa census, the Ferris family was enumerated within a cluster of Mattawa Métis families, underscoring their strong and growing relationships within the Mattawa Métis Community. In 1905, Walter was listed as an accredited guide for Mattawa in Rod and Gun Magazine, highlighting the family’s deep local knowledge and enduring connection to the Mattawa area.

See Our Sources

• McDonell-McKay VMFL

• Ferris-Good VMFL

• Atkinson-Moore VMFL

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