Descendants of Alexander Sutherland and Catherine McPherson (The Point Douglas Sutherlands)

Greetings,

I just recently joined GenealogyWise and thought I'd add an intro to the Red River Group.

I am a descendant of Catherine "Kate" McPherson and Alexander Sutherland who came over with the 1813 and 1815 Selkirk Settlers respectively. They married approximately 1817 and Alexander was granted Lot #12 of the settlers lots along the west shore of the Red River. Despite this, he somehow arranged to purchase a larger area of land on Point Douglas where they farmed until the flood of 1852. In order to differentiate themselves from the other Sutherland families settling in the area, they became known as the "Point Douglas Sutherlands".

Alexander and Kate's only child John was a member of the Council of the Assiniboia and Convention of Fourty, the resulting Provisional Government as Collector of Customs, the province's first High Sheriff and would eventually be appointed as one of the two first Senators of Manitoba to the Dominion. John and his wife Janet McBeth had fourteen children in total spurring several different lines of relations. Written references to John can quite often be found with the initials "P.D." (for Point Douglas) after his name to help distinguish him from other prominent "John Sutherlands" of the Kildonan area.

Of John & Janet's children, I am descended from their oldest son Donald who farmed in the "Suthwyn" area of Springfield, Manitoba. Donald and his wife Christie Matheson also had several children, some of which moved west to Vancouver Island and some to the Okanagan area of British Columbia.

A couple of my goals are: to discover more about Alexander's acquisition of his property at Point Douglas and to learn more about his military background (He was known to have been a soldier in a highland regiment and was wounded during the Battle at Corunna, Spain in 1809, but which regiment is not yet clear to me). I am also hoping to find out what became of Catherine's bible that she carried with her to church without exception. Her spinning wheel, Alexander's Violin and a few other historical family items can be found at the Manitoba Museum, however the bible seems to have fallen through the cracks sometime after the late 1930's.

I hope to touch base with as many other descendants as possible, however, enough of my rambling for now.

Thank you all for listening,

Darren