Family History Friday (FHF): Pictures and Shagonaushequay

One of my ancestors was named Mary Sayer, or at least that was her Christian name. Her Ojibwe name was Shagonaushequay.
The Ojibwe are a Native American tribe that lived, at the time she was born, near the Great Lakes area. Her mother was a full blood Ojibwe named Bwanequay. Her father, John Sayer, was a fur trader from England. It wasn’t uncommon for the fur traders to marry a native woman. First, the native women made great companions. Second, it was helpful in the fur trade, because they could communicate with the trappers, most of which were Ojibwe in that area. Shagonaushequay was married to a man named John H. Fairbanks, also an Englishman. He is a descendant of the Fairbanks who settled in Boston area of Massachusetts, back in the 1600’s. My mom and dad were trying to find the birth and death date for Mary or Shagonaushequay. They weren’t even sure where she was buried. They knew she and her husband lived in a small comminuty called Crow Wing, and they looked in the local archives for any histories of Crow Wing and found a history called “Old Crow Wing”. As they looked through the papers they found some pictures. One of the pictures was an old headstone with the name Mary Sayer written on it. They were able to get her birthday and date of death off the picture. They also found out that she was buried with a daughter. They both died at the same time from TB or something. They had already visited Crow Wing and this head stone was no longer at Crow Wing. We felt like it was a miracle that they found this picture of the head stone that no longer exists. Pictures can be helpful even when we can’t find the information at the location. Happy Family History Friday!
Love, Joy

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