52 Ancestors: #42 Valentin Cole, Catholic convert

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”.

For the 42nd week of this challenge, I chose Valentin Cole (ca 1728-1794).

Valentin is my maternal 6x great-grandfather and is number 466 in my ancestor list.

Born about 1728 in Boston, colonial Massachusetts, he was the son of Jean Cole and Elisabeth Xque. [1]

I haven’t done much research into Valentin’s background or the circumstances of how he came to immigrate to Canada.

His first appearance in Canadian records seems to be in 1753 when, as “Valentin Colle, Anglais”, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. On 21 April of that year, Valentin renounced the ‘heresies of the faith in which he was raised’ and was baptized under the name Jean Baptiste by Father J.C. Noël in the parish church of St-Antoine-de-Tilly, near Quebec, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. [2]

Valentin's baptism record (part 1), Ancestry.ca

Valentin's baptism record (part 2), Ancestry.ca

Valentin’s conversion was likely in preparation for his marriage that took place four months later, on 24 September 1753 in Ste-Croix (located a little to the west of St-Antoine-de-Tilly), to Marie Joseph Martel. [3] Twenty-two year old Marie Joseph, who was from Ste-Croix, was a younger daughter of Paul Martel and his wife Marie Geneviève Houde.

Now known as Jean Baptiste, he and Marie Joseph had five children between 1754 and 1765: Marie Anne, Marie Josephe (who died young), Marie Louise (my ancestor), Jean Baptiste, and Marie Josephe. [4]

Jean Baptiste died on 28 July 1794, and was buried the next day at St-Paul-de-Lavaltrie, east of Montreal. [5]

Sources:

1. Ste-Croix (Ste-Croix, Quebec), parish register, 1727-1796, p. 13 recto, no entry no. (1753), Jean Baptiste Cole – Marie Joseph Martel [sic] marriage, 24 September 1753; Ste-Croix parish; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 October 2014). Valentin’s place of origin and the names of his parents are stated in his marriage record. His date of birth is estimated from his age (66) at his burial. "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28022-16926-74?cc=1321742&wc=9RLF-BZW:22176801,22176802,23163803 : accessed 16 October 2014), Saint-Paul > Saint-Paul > Index 1786-1832, 1786-1877 Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1786-1812 > image 267 of 601, Jean Baptiste Coll [sic] burial.

2. St-Antoine (St-Antoine-de-Tilly, Quebec), parish register, 1751-1754, p. 16 recto, entry no. B.13 (1753), Valentin Colle [sic] abjuration and baptism, 21 April 1753; St-Antoine parish; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 29 October 2011).

3. Ste-Croix, parish register, 1727-1796, p. 13 recto, Jean Baptiste Cole – Marie Joseph Martel [sic] marriage, 24 September 1753. Tanguay states the couple married on 21 August 1753. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), III: 109.

4. “Dictionnaire généalogique des familles 1621-1799”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ : accessed 29 October 2011), Jean Baptiste Col – Marie Josephe Martel [sic] family, record no. 30735.

5. "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," Jean Baptiste Coll [sic] burial.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.