Marie Louise McKenzie

https://www.britainexpress.com/scotland/Highlands/churches/alexande...

SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE OF AVOCH
Alexander Mackenzie was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in 1764, the son of a tacksman, a sort of middle class between the large landowners and the poor subsistence farmers. In 1773 his father Kenneth sailed to North America and Alexander followed in 1774 and they settled in upper New York State.

Mackenzie became fascinated with the possibility of finding an overland route to the Pacific Ocean and in the process open up new markets for the fur trade. In 1789 he set off on his first expedition, following a river that flowed out of the west end of Great Slave Lake.

Mackenzie's account of his voyages made him an international celebrity and he was knighted by George III in 1802 in recognition of his explorations of the Canadian north. He returned to London in 1808. His memoirs were translated into Russian, German, and French and Napoleon is known to have read them.

Mackenzie's private life was tangled; he had a relationship with a woman of the Metis nation but seems to have left her in 1794 after they had two children together. A son died in 1809 at Fort Vermilion but a daughter named Maria was sent to Sir Alexander's sister in Scotland to be brought up.**

• * yet to be established whether married; details on issue of the union limited to Julie/Julia as of May 2024.

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https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/metis

Metis

(especially in western Canada) a person of mixed indigenous and Euro-American ancestry, in particular one of a group of such people who in the 19th century constituted the so-called Metis nation in the areas around the Red and Saskatchewan rivers.