Sault Ste. Marie woman helps set the record straight for people seeking answers on Indigenous ancestry

There has never been more focus on who is Indigenous and who is not as more people seek answers about their ancestry.

The truth, says Noreen Kruzich of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., can be found, but not easily, and not in current genealogical platforms which focus on immigrant history.

The former journalist and member of the Ontario Genealogist Society specializes in navigating the tools that can shed light on Indigenous ancestry, which include lists of treaty annuity payments, residential school records, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and even fur trade documents.

Those coupled with DNA testing can provide the answers people seek.

She has spent more than 20 years contributing to museum exhibits and doing research for films such as Trick or Treaty and Colonization Road as well as helping individuals.

These days, she's dealing with many people who want to find out if there are Indigenous people in their family tree, including offering sessions at the Sault Ste. Marie library where there is a waiting list.

She says there are various reasons they come to her.

"Individuals come to me because perhaps they've been adopted out, they've lost a parent early in life, or they've been lied to because the family was ashamed of being Indigenous," she says.

Others want to know more about their families so they can connect with their culture and heritage

"They're feeling like, as my partner says, who is First Nation and grew up First Nation, he's like a stranger to himself," says Kruzich.

"He really didn't feel he was complete because he didn't know who his ancestors were and what they had been through. So people come to me to really honestly just feel more completed so that they can move on with their lives." 

However, Kruzich, who calls herself an advocate for Indigenous rights, says she often has to put the information she finds in context for people.

"It's important that people understand, just because they have Indigenous heritage back in their ancestry does not mean that they're First Nation or Métis and it hasn't given you the experiences such as someone who's actually lived through this in their lifetime," she says.

Kruzich says the truth found in genealogy helps thwart claims from people who may perpetuate lies about their claims to be Indigenous.

When put in context though, she says, a remote Indigenous link can lead people on a personal journey of reflection and education.

That is a journey that a Sudbury woman has started to explore.

Judi Straughan says she became interested when her cousin started delving into the family tree, revealing that her great grandmother was a Cree woman in Manitoba.

Straughan says there was only one picture of her in the family albums.

"A mixed marriage was frowned upon, and I think there were a lot of them, especially maybe in Manitoba," she says."And I think it might have been some kind of, I don't know whether to use the word shame, but it just wasn't something that people were proud of."

Straughan remembers asking her uncle about the picture and who the woman was, and he told her it was someone who came over and rocked the babies on the porch occasionally.

Through research, it was determined the woman was her great grandfather's second wife.

She says she found her great grandfather's headstone, which had been provided by an uncle and it was well-kept and upright, however, it was not the same for her great grandmother's.

"I could hardly find hers," says Straughan. "Hers was buried. It had been flat on the ground and the earth had grown over it. And I searched and searched, and I thought this feels awful."

Straughan says she has no intention of promoting the family history for her own benefit, but says it helps her feel more whole.