52 Ancestors: #50 Marie Catherine Deniger, married three times

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 50th week of this challenge, I chose Marie Catherine Deniger (1715-1774).

Marie Catherine is my maternal 6x great-grandmother and is number 413 in my ancestor list.

The youngest child of Jean Deniger dit Sanssoucy and his wife Marie Catherine Surprenant, Marie Catherine was born and baptized on 28 July 1715 in LaPrairie, opposite Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. She had four elder siblings: Marie Marguerite, Laurent, François and Antoine. [1]

Marie Catherine married three times.

First marriage

On 21 November 1735, Marie Catherine married Charles Tougas dit Laviolette in LaPrairie. Twenty-eight year old Charles was a widower, whose only child by his first wife died soon after birth. Marie Catherine was expecting their fifth child when Charles died in April 1743. Two months later, a little girl was born, but she died when she was six months old. [2]

Second marriage

On 18 January 1745, Marie Catherine married Jacques Charland in LaPrairie. Jacques, who was almost twenty years older than Marie Catherine, was also a widower. Seven of his fifteen children were living when he married. History repeated itself when Jacques died in August 1747 while Marie Catherine was expecting their second child. Their daughter, who was born seven weeks later, survived to adulthood. [3]

Montreal waterfront in winter (1848/1849)

Image credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R9266-162.2R Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana.

Third marriage

Marie Catherine married for the third and last time on 13 July 1750 in Montreal. Her new husband, Jean Baptiste Antoine Boulard dit Melançon, was a French-born soldier. Not only was he almost four years younger than Marie Catherine, he was also a widower with four children. Together, Marie Catherine and Jean Baptiste had five children, all daughters, but only the two eldest survived. [4]

To recap, Marie Catherine had

• three husbands (two of whom predeceased her) and
• twelve children (seven of whom died in her lifetime).

She was also

• stepmother to twelve children (eight by her second husband and four by her third husband).

A few months after her 59th birthday, Marie Catherine died on 11 December 1774. She was buried the next day on 12 December (240 years ago today) in Montreal. [5]

Sources:

1. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 27 July 2013), Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Individu no. 92580. And, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 27 July 2013), Jean Baptiste Deniger Sansoucy – Marie Catherine Surprenant Sansoucy, Famille no. 9692.

2. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Individu no. 92580. And, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 27 July 2013), Charles Tougas Laviolette – Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Famille no. 19654.

3. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Individu no. 92580. And, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 27 July 2013), Jacques Charland – Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Famille no. 24301.

4. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Individu no. 92580. And, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 27 July 2013), Jean Baptiste Antoine Boulard Melancon – Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Famille no. 28031. And, Fichier Origine, database (http://www.fichierorigine.com : accessed 9 December 2014), entry for Jean-Antoine Boulard [sic], no. 240509.

5. Notre-Dame (Montreal, Quebec), parish register, 1772-1776, p. 16 recto, no entry no., Marie Catherine Dénigeay [sic] burial, 12 December 1774; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 9 December 2014). And, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), Marie Catherine Deniger Sansoucy, Individu no. 92580.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.