52 Ancestors 2015: #4 Dorothée Brassard, a 17th century woman

I’m participating in “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: 2015 Edition” by Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small.

For the 4th week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (Closest to your birthday) and chose Dorothée Brassard (1656-1738).

I found two individuals in my ancestor database who were baptized on my birthday (Raphaël Giroux in 1656 and Jeanne Beauchamp in 1663), but only one individual who was born on the same date as I was (Dorothée Brassard in 1656).

Instead of writing a biographical sketch about Dorothée, I created a table comparing the similarities and differences in our lives. Although I have not included sources for this article, they are available upon request.

My 9x maternal great-grandmother and I definitely have things in common, like our religion and our language, but we also have differences, like the size of our families (by birth and by marriage). Probably the biggest difference in our lives, however, is how Dorothée, a woman who was born in the 17th century, was limited for choices compared to me, a child of the 20th century. Her life was pretty much mapped out for her from birth (marriage and children), while I had the opportunity to go to university and work before marriage.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.