Ohsweken Genealogy Society

03/16/2026

We had another great meeting on Saturday….a full house. Lots of questions and answers, and some new people. Love meeting new people. A big thank you to those who brought more pictures and mounted them on Bristol board for our upcoming event. It’s always exciting to see these pictures from long ago. We are still looking further more stories. You can email them directly to me if you like. We need just something simple; one page; a memory or something interesting about a family/friend; something to be proud of; or something to chuckle about. I know everyone will enjoy reading them. I will begin to mount everything soon.
Penny

03/15/2026

If you received a post saying our May event “Reuniting of Relatives you never knew you had” was cancelled, please ignore it. There were two listings and I tried to cancel one and now it won’t let me do anything to get rid of it. Rest assured, our event is still happening May 9 & 10. Sorry about this confusion.

03/07/2026

Hi my name is Gary Batiste, My Grandmother is from Six Nations, her name was Mabel Assance, my fathers name was Leander Batiste, I grew up on Lockport NY, and Olcott Ny as a child, I was hoping I had some relatives that might be distant that remembers any of them please contact me on Facebook or messenger.

03/07/2026

Ohsweken Genealogy Society is hosting our first genealogy event ever, May 9 & 10, and it is fast approaching. It will be two full days of traditional story telling and information. We have speakers and information tables from the Mohawks of Bay of Quinte at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, The Survivors Secretariat, Indigenous Knowledge Centre, and the Brantford Public Library, as well as guest speakers Michael Doxtater and Diane Hill. If you bring any old digitized pictures you need cleaned up, Ohsweken Genealogy will be set up to help you with that. There will be museum displays following our history, past and present, as well as story-boards complete with family genealogy charts. Sunday will be children's day, so we can encourage the sharing of our family stories throughout the generations. Everyone will be given nametags with their surnames written on, so that you can find your relatives. Come join us - learn and share - and
REUNITE WITH THE FAMILY YOU NEVER KNEW YOU HAD!
Pre-registration required:
https://forms.gle/5MpBwhYAXnYTTbUz7

03/07/2026

The weekend of May 9 & 10 is fast approaching, and we are still collecting family pictures (with names) and stories for our big Genealogy event. I will be bringing bristol board to our meetings for those who would like to mount their pictures (copies that you are willing to part with). Stories can be about memories of your family, or stories they used to share with you, or about happy times you shared together, etc. Only one page each per story is needed. If you cant make it to our meetings, then you can send your pictures and stories to me via email (just message me and I'll send you my email address), and I will print them for you. Make sure you tell me who is in the pictures. Everyone loves looking at the pictures when they are brought to our meetings - lots of smiles and memory sharing. We hope to carry this on through our genealogy event in May. Our relations want and need to be remembered, and we need to be part of the remembering. All items are protected from others profiting from our info under Caveat of Indigenous sharing of culture and art.
Our next genealogy meeting and potluck is March 14, 1-4, at Woodland Cultural Centre. We will be having a short presentation on the two Johnson families of Six Nations, and an added presentation about the Chew family of Tuscarora Lewiston, since they are connected. The rest of the meeting will be for sharing of genealogy and working on our picture displays.
See everyone then.

Send a message to learn more

02/14/2026

This is a shock and a shame. What is wrong with the elected council? With there being no support for our library, it’s no wonder our group has been struggling to find a place of our own.

02/02/2026

Just a reminder that due to Valentines Day our meeting this month is a week earlier. So, our meeting will be this coming Saturday 1-4 at Woodland Centre. We will be having a talk on the life of Phoebe Alberta Johnson. See everyone then.

01/11/2026

Happy 2026 to everyone. We had our first meeting of the new year, and it was so great to see old faces and new. A special thank you goes out to Mika and Laura from the Survivors Secretariat for helping to digitize pictures for those who brought them. It was a busy day, and we got some more pictures mounted on Bristol board for our May event, and helped some more people with their family searches. We still need your stories, whether they be traditional ones, family ones, or memories of “grandma’s teachings”. I look forward to our next meeting Feb 7, a week early because of Valentines Day. See everyone then.

12/27/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BVv6XS8Rq/?mibextid=wwXIfr

At the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum in Massachusetts, you’ll step into a vivid Wampanoag village scene that shows daily life as it looked long before modern times. You see wetus, tools, fishing gear, weapons, baskets, and clothing that explain how people lived, worked, hunted, and raised families on Cape Cod. The exhibits focus on real skills and daily routines, not myths. A powerful section called “400 Years Ago,” created by the tribe in 2020, tells the story of the Mayflower landing, which happened just 24 miles north of here. You learn how the first years of English settlement deeply changed Wampanoag life. The story is told from a Wampanoag point of view, showing survival, loss, and strength. You leave with a clear picture of a people who are still here today.

12/23/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1C8zS1a7Rf/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In the mid-1700s, when European powers fought for control of North America, there was one voice they could not ignore, a Mohawk diplomat named Hendrick Theyanoguin of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

He represented a people who had governed themselves for centuries under the Great Law of Peace.
He carried not just his own authority, but the authority of an entire Confederacy, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and later Tuscarora, united long before the United States existed.

When Hendrick entered a treaty council, colonial governors expected compliance.
Instead, they met a diplomat who understood their politics better than they understood his.

He reminded them of past promises.
He exposed contradictions in their documents.
He spoke openly of broken agreements and lands taken without consent.

At one council, when British officials claimed they sought “friendship,” Hendrick rose and answered:

“You say you are our father, but we have always considered the King to be our brother.
Fathers take land from their children. Brothers share it.”

The room fell silent.

He demanded fair trade terms.
He insisted on boundaries.
He rejected treaties written to confuse or distract.
And he reminded the British that the Haudenosaunee were not subjects. They were allies.

His words shaped policy far beyond the longhouse councils where he first learned to speak.
British officials rewrote treaty language because of him.
Colonial governors reported to London that negotiations were impossible without Mohawk consent.
Even Benjamin Franklin later studied Haudenosaunee diplomacy while drafting ideas for federal union.

Hendrick died in 1755 fighting alongside the British at the Battle of Lake George, keeping a promise he had made as an ally, not as a subordinate.

But his influence did not die with him.

The treaties he negotiated, the protocols he defended, and the political balance he maintained shaped relations between Native nations and colonial powers for decades.

He proved something rare in his time.

That a single voice, if rooted in an ancient, sovereign tradition, could stand before empires and not bend.

12/09/2025

There has been a last minute change to our venue location fit this coming Saturday’s meeting. Instead of the Woodland Centre, we will be meeting in the dining room at the Mohawk Institute. For those requiring handicap access, there is a ramp and elevator. Sorry for any inconvenience.

12/09/2025

The Christmas season is here, and our December meeting is this coming Saturday the 13th. I will be bringing craft supplies, and hopefully people will be bringing copies of family pictures they wish to share at our upcoming genealogy event in May, and we will be mounting them for display. I will be wonderful to share the season with all our relatives past and present. We will also be offering help to anyone wishing to write a family memory or story for the same event. Of course we will still be sharing our genealogy information, as well. It will be a busy day. See everyone then.