52 Ancestors: #25 Etienne Bray

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

During the month of June, I’m focusing on distant, immigrant ancestors. And so, for the 25th week of this challenge, I chose Etienne Bray (1694-1774).

Etienne Bray (Bret) is my 5x paternal great-grandfather and is number 140 in my ancestor list.

He was born on 2 April 1694 and baptised nine days later on 11 April in St-Etienne church of Montagne, in the old province of Dauphiné, located in southeastern France. [1]

Map of France showing province of Dauphiné in pink [2]

Etienne was one of at least three children born to Etienne Bray and his wife Hélène Ergon (Argoud). His father died in May 1696 in Montagne, when Etienne was only two years old. [3] Note that Tanguay’s Dictionnaire is incorrect when it says that Etienne was the son of Léger Bray dit Labonté by his first wife Marguerite Colin. [4]

Previous research estimated Etienne’s arrival in Canada in 1721 as an immigrant. [5] Recent research, however, places his arrival as early as 1717, when he is described as a recrue in the patient register of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Quebec City. [6] Etienne was an infantry recruit with the troupes de la Marine. [7] Also known as Compagnies franches de la Marine, these troops were part of “land forces under the control of the navy”, founded in 1622, “notably for operations in French Canada”. [8] I’ve searched various sources, but I haven’t found Etienne’s regiment or company.

Following his first appearance in Canadian records, Etienne next appears in September 1721 when he serves as godfather to the infant daughter of Pierre Thibault dit Léveillé, and then in August 1722 as godfather to the day-old son of Jean Baptiste Glinel. In June 1723, Etienne is one of twelve witnesses at the marriage of Pierre Lahaise and Elisabeth Poitras. [9]

Troupes de la Marine recruits enlisted for a period of six years, after which time they had the option to return to France or to remain in the colony. [10] Etienne’s enlistment presumably ended in late 1723, because he chose to live in Canada when he married here soon after his term of service ended.

In early 1724, Etienne entered into a marriage contract with 21-year-old Barbe Dazé on 20 February of that year. The following day, the couple married in St-François-de-Sales on Ile Jésus, just north of Montreal, where Barbe was born and where her family still lived. [11]

The couple’s first children were twins, whose gender was not recorded, and who died in January 1726. The younger children born between 1727 and 1744 – Dominique, Marie Charlotte, Etienne, Marie Josèphe, Marie Angélique, Marie Barbe, François (my ancestor) and André – all survived and married in due course. [12]

Etienne died on 29 January 1774 and was buried on 31 January 1774 in Les Cèdres, Soulanges County, Quebec. [13] He was predeceased by his wife Barbe, who died in November 1770. [14]

Sources:

1. Fichier Origine, database (http://www.fichierorigine.com : accessed 16 June 2014), entry for Etienne Bray/Bret, no. 240585.

2. Wikipedia contributors, “Dauphiné”, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dauphin%C3%A9&oldid=612874259 : accessed 16 June 2014).

3. Fichier Origine, Etienne Bray/Bret.

4. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols. (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), II: 455.

5. Fichier Origine, database (http://www.fichierorigine.com : accessed 12 September 2009), entry for Etienne Bray, no. 240585.

6. “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Etienne Bray, individu no. 7572. The note in Etienne’s entry states: Cité le 25-09-1717 dans le registre des malades de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec: “recrue”. Ancestry.ca has records for Quebec’s Hôtel-Dieu, but it is a registre mortuaire, a register of deaths. This register is part of the “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”) database of the Drouin Collection.

7. Fichier Origine, Etienne Bray/Bret.

8. Wikipedia contributors, “Troupes de marine”, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Troupes_de_marine&oldid=603885072 : accessed 16 June 2014).

9. “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Marie Francoise Thibault, baptême no. 10018. Also, “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Etienne Glinel, baptême no. 45763. Also, “Répertoire des actes d’état civil 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Pierre Lahayze [sic] – Elisabeth Poitras, mariage no. 12882.

10. Luc Lépine, “L’impact des noms de guerre des militaires française sur la patronymie québécoise”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française, 52 (printemps 2001): 56; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

11. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 166. Also, “Répertoire des actes d’état civil 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Etienne Bré [sic] – Barbe Dazé, mariage no. 22400.

12. “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Etienne Bray – Marie Barbe Dazé, famille no. 14665.

13. St-Joseph-de-Soulanges (Les Cèdres, Quebec), parish register, 1759-1791, no page no., no entry no. (1774), Etienne Bray burial, 31 January 1774; St-Joseph-de-Soulanges parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection, 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 June 2014). Also, “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, Etienne Bray, individu no. 7572.

14. “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 16 June 2014), Marie Barbe Dazé, individu no. 23649.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.