If you are researching Canada in the early 1800s you will want to read the “Red River Story”. As a researcher, I suggest you read the Author’s Note first. This is at the very back of the book. Alfred Silver explains that “Red River Story” is the story about his ancestor, Kate MacPherson. He tells the story of
how he explored original sources in his search of his family history instead of relying on the stories widely published about the Hudson Bay Company or the Selkirk Colony. His story is enlightening and encouraging to any family historian. Alfred Silver expands on the research that took him 25 years to
complete by “fleshing out” the information that he discovered. This makes a delightful, however sometimes hard to read story, of the first English settlers to the Canadian east. He uses flourishing words and mixes in Gaelic phrases. A Glossary of Gaelic phrases is provided for those that want a full
understanding of the story.
“Red River Story” is a dual account of lives; Kate MacPherson as the English immigrant to a new land, and Cuthbert Grant as the half-breed raised by and for the Hudson Bay Company. Personal struggles of each person’s life are given. The story follows Kate MacPherson through the illnesses of the early
passage through stories of developing a homestead including the battle of fires and locusts. Cuthbert Grant is personified as he struggles with his identity as a product of Hudson Bay Company versus a halfbreed not wanting to see his world destroyed and taken over by newcomers.
Reading historical fiction can be an enjoyable means to understand the lives of those that lived before us. By reading the 528 pages of “Red River Story” I learned more about the Hudson Bay Company and the migration of early Canadian settlers than I ever did from reading magazine articles & historical books. ( )