Fathers' Day and My Heritage

In my family, we venerate our elders and founders. I am the fifth generation of our family to live in British Columbia, Canada and there are three more behind me.

Our family here was founded when the first black pioneers came from the USA in 1850, and settled in what is now Victoria, Saanich and on Saltspring Island, BC. My great-great-great-great Grandfather, Charles Alexander moved here with his family from Missouri that year, having been invited along with other 'families of colour' by the then Governor James Douglas. Gov. Douglas was the son of a Jamaican woman and an Irish seaman. Other soon-to-be members of the family arrived that same year and proceeded to settle in the areas mentioned above. The family names read like a Whose Who of society in those days. There is a mural of some of them on the wall of a hotel on Saltspring Island. They came up wealthy, having sold all they had in businesses and land before leaving the States.

Over the next 166 years, we have made our mark on the west coast of Canada. Charles and his wife Nancy, a full blood Cherokee, built their family and a very strong community in what was called the Crown Colony of British Columbia.

They even built the first church in the Province, predating the Roman Catholics by 8 years. It still stands today in Saanich, and is still used. He was the first pastor as well.

The families intermarried with each other, some of the local white families and also the Haida natives in the area. They went into businesses from clothing stores to ice makers up to and including coal mines. Those coal mines supplied the British Navy and most of the steamships that plied their trade between California and Alaska. Later they also supplied the trans-Pacific steamers of P&O and Canadian Pacific.

Jumping forward to today, we are a huge family with many branches, yet unified with the knowledge of what was accomplished by our forebears and our own current members. At our last reunion of the "Clan" in 2015, all branches were represented. I was in charge of the food arrangements, along with some other chefs and cooks in the family. We had just under 1,100 people there and we took over the Saanich Fairgrounds for a 3-day party. Some of the American contingent was not there due to commitments to the military. We had a great time adding to the Family Tree, which consisted of a roll of parchment paper about 24" long and just over 18" in diameter. It was mounted on the walls of the main gathering place and it ran around two of the walls and halfway along the third one above the doors. We had 10 people taking names and adding them to the roll while standing on ladders. We have been informed that the "new" Family Tree will consist of a larger roll of 48" length and probably 36" in diameter. Last time, we added 123 new names, including marriages, deaths and births. 24" vertical is not enough any more, they are copying the current roll on to the new one for our next reunion in 2020. Plans are already being made for that one.

I am, rightly, proud of my heritage and of all those who went before. We were a family here before BC was a province. We helped build it into what it is today, a strong, vibrant and powerful addition to Canada, and a welcoming place of refuge for those who need it. We've been pioneers, loggers, doctors, masons, miners, politicians and entrepreneurs always looking to better ourselves and those around us, whether family, friend or new-found acquaintance.

I look to leave the same heritage and legacy for those who follow me in the generations to come.

Here are Charles and Nancy pictured in 1902. Below them is my great-great-great aunt, Sylvia Stark who live to 106.

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