Tombstone Tuesday: Cora Holden

Cora was a younger daughter of François and Julia (Vanasse) Gagnon. She was born on 19 December 1902 in Chapeau (or Chichester), Quebec. She and my paternal grandmother, Julie (Vanasse) Belair, were first cousins.

Like her sisters Mary and Albertine, Cora left their home village in the 1920s to seek work in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. (I’ve written about Albertine and Cora in Sibling Saturday: Albertine and Cora Gagnon.) Here, she married William Guy Holden in February 1927. They couple eventually moved to Timmins in northern Ontario, where Cora’s cousin Julie lived.

Cora died in 1973 and was interred next to her husband William in Whitney Cemetery, Porcupine, near Timmins. My husband photographed their gravemarkers during our visit to my old hometown in May 2014.

Cora’s gravemarker reads:

CORA 

Beloved Wife of William 

1902 – 1973 

Rest in Peace

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Joseph Vanasse’s 1838 Baptism Record

For today’s CRS, I’m featuring a baptism record, since I wrote about burial records for the past two Sundays.

Joseph Vanasse, no. 22 in my ancestor list, is my 2x paternal great-grandfather. A younger son of (Jean François) Régis Vanasse, a cultivateur (farmer), and his wife Josephte Messier, Joseph had eleven siblings – six brothers and five sisters. His older brother Olivier (1832-1914) is also my ancestor (he's no. 20), because his son, Olivier, married Joseph’s daughter Elisabeth.

Joseph was born on 17 October 1838, presumably in the parish of St-Michel in Yamaska, where his parents resided at the time of his baptism. He was baptized the next day (October 18) in nearby St-David, Yamaska County, Quebec. [1] Alternatively, the attending priest travelled to Yamaska where he baptized Joseph in St-Michel church, but recorded the event in St-David’s sacramental register.

Joseph Vanasse baptism record (FamilySearch)

The baptism record (above) reads in French:

“Le dix huit octobre mil huit cent trente / huit nous Pretre curé soussigné avons / baptisé Joseph né la veille du légitime / mariage de Regis Vanasse cultivateur / et de Josephte Mainsier [sic] de la paroisse de St- / Michel dYamaska, parrain Antoine / Vanasse marraine Marguerite Vanasse / qui ont déclaré ne savoir signer.”

In English:

“The 18 October 1838 / we undersigned priest curate have / baptized Joseph born the previous evening of the / legitimate marriage of Regis Vanasse farmer / and of Josephte Mainsier of the parish of St- / Michel of Yamaska, godfather Antoine / Vanasse godmother Marguerite Vanasse / who have declared not able to sign [their names].”

The priest, J. Boucher, curé (curate) of St-David, recorded only the basic details. I wish he had added the relationship between newly-baptized Joseph and his godparents. His father Régis had a younger brother named Antoine, so he might be the godfather. As for Marguerite, she might be his father’s cousin, because Régis didn’t have a sister or an aunt by that name.

Source:

1. St-David (St-David, Quebec), parish register, 1835-1846, p. 65 verso, no entry no. (1838), Joseph Vanasse baptism, 18 October 1838; St-David parish; digital images, “Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979”, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 21 September 2015). Note: To access this browsable-only image, follow this path from the FamilySearch homepage: Search > Records > Canada > Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979 > [Browse] > Saint-David > Saint-David > Index 1835-1876 Baptêmes,...ges, sépultures 1835-1846 > image 170 of 515.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Wedding Wednesday: Gauthier – Meunier

Sixty-seven years ago today, Cécile Meunier, my Dad’s cousin, married Ovila Gauthier on 14 October 1948 in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham (now La Pêche), Gatineau County, Quebec. Father Louis-Léon Binet, Ste-Cécile’s prêtre-curé, officiated at the ceremony.

Cécile was the daughter of my grandfather Fred’s half-sister Priscille Belair by her husband Aldoria Meunier. Born on 1 July 1924 in Masham, Cécile was the eldest of thirteen children. I’ve written about her mother Priscille in Church Record Sunday: Sisters Priscille and Domitille Belair.

I first saw this lovely black-and-white photograph when I visited my Aunt Joan last year. It looks like Cécile sent it to Joan’s parents, Fred and Julie (Vanasse) Belair, her uncle and aunt. Left to right are Aldoria, Cécile, Ovila, and Edmond, his father.

There are two handwritings on the back of the photo. The first one belongs to Cécile, who wrote: “Cela c’est mon père / et le père de mon / marie et moi et / mon marie”. (This one is my father / and the father of my / husband and me and / my husband.)

The second handwriting is Joan’s, who wrote: “Oncle AIdoria Meunier 1948 / Cecile Meunier’s Wedding / Ovila Gauthier son papa / Edmond Gauthier”. (Uncle Aldoria Meunier 1948 / Cecile Meunier’s Wedding / Ovila Gauthier his father / Edmond Gauthier.)

I don’t believe I ever met Cécile and her husband. She died in February 2009, while Ovila, who predeceased her, died in April 1985.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sympathy Saturday: New France Epidemic of 1687

On 25 March 1687, Paul Daveluy dit Larose presented himself at St-Enfant-Jésus church in Pointe-aux-Trembles, east of Montreal. He and godparents Jean Roy and Anne Archambault were there on this late winter’s day for the baptism of his newborn son Jean Paul. [1]

Plan de l’Île de Montréal, 1744. BM5-C-26-050 (extrait).

His wife Elisabeth (née Haguin), my 9x maternal great-grandmother, was home recovering from the birth of her seventh child. With her were her five surviving children, Jeanne, François, Marie Madeleine, Jean Baptiste, and Marguerite. [2] Elisabeth also had four older children, three daughters and one son (Antoine, my ancestor), by her late first husband Antoine Courtemanche dit Jolicoeur.

Within a few months, life changed dramatically for Elisabeth. A trio of illnesses – pleurisy, measles, and malignant fever – soon appeared in the colony. [3] In July, measles broke out among the day-students at the Ursuline convent in Quebec (city) and spread to the boarding students and the teaching nuns. [4] It reached epidemic proportions in Lachine, near Montreal, where deaths were recorded from August to late December. [5]

Rénald Lessard in his Au temps de la petite vérole was aware of the problem of correctly identifying the epidemic. He notes that it was also a concern for the colonial authorities like the Marquis de Denonville (Governor General of New France) and de Champigny (Intendant of New France), who wrote, “Ces maladies ont commencé par la rougeolle Il y a du pourpre et ensuite des fluctions Sur la poitrine”. (These illnesses began with measles, there is typhus and then [presumably dysentery].) [6]

Author and demographer Hubert Charbonneau wrote an article in the mid-1990s about the “grandes mortalités épidémiques” (great epidemic mortalities) in New France prior to 1760. He identified the 1687 epidemic as typhus. [7]

Four members of the Daveluy family succumbed to the epidemic in late 1687. In the span of twelve weeks, Elisabeth lost three children and her husband. [8] First, eldest daughter Jeanne (13) died on 3 October and was buried that day. Then, son François (11) died; he was buried on 9 November. Daughter Marie Madeleine (9) was buried on 25 November. Four weeks later, husband Paul was buried on 21 December. (The burial records of the last three do not indicate a date of death, but it’s likely that they were buried the day they died.) [9]

Elisabeth and her three youngest children were spared. She never remarried, and died in April 1718, thirty years after the fateful year of 1687. [10]

Image Credit:

“Vie montréalaise”, database and digital images, Archives Montreal (http://archivesdemontreal.com/2014/02/03/incendie-a-pointe-aux-trembles-en-1912/ : accessed 8 October 2015), Plan de l’Île de Montréal, 1744. BM5-C-26-050 (extrait).

Sources:

1. St-Enfant-Jésus (Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec), parish register, 1674-1700, p. 78 recto, entry no. B.4 (1687), Jean Paul Daveluy baptism, 25 March 1687; St-Enfant-Jésus parish; digital images, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 8 October 2015).

2. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 8 October 2015), Paul Daveluy Larose DePicardie – Elisabeth Aquin [sic], Famille no. 3965. The list of children in PRDH is different from the one in Jetté, which shows eight children. It appears that the eighth child (Jean Paul) is the same person as the fourth child (Jean). René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 311. The same eight children also appear in Elisabeth’s entry in Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à Marier; 1634-1662 (Orange Park, Florida: Quintin Publications, 2008), 167-168.

3. Rénald Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole: La médecine au Canada aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Québec: Septentrion, 2012), 44, note 138, citing Jeanne-Françoise Juchereau de Saint-Ignace et Marie-Andrée Duplessis de Saint-Hélène (éditées par Dom Albert Jamet), Les Annales de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec 1636-1716 (1939; reprint, Québec, L’Hôtel-dieu de Québec, 1984), 232.

4. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 44, citing Archives des Ursulines de Québec, 1/E9, 1, Vieux récits, 1687, 50.

5. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 44.

6. Lessard, Au temps de la petite vérole, 77, note 285, citing Lettre de Denonville et Champigny au ministre, 6 novembre 1687, ANOM, Fonds des Colonies, série C11A, vol. 9, f. 5r.

7. Hubert Charbonneau, “Les grandes mortalités épidémiques avant 1760”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 46 (été 1995): 129.

8. Youngest child Jean Paul, who was baptised on 25 March 1687, died in 1761, not on 20 December 1687, as seen in Jetté, Dictionnaire, 311.

9. “Dictionnaire”, Paul Daveluy Larose DePicardie – Elisabeth Aquin [sic], Famille no. 3965.

10. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 311.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors 2015: #40 – Joseph Adam and Angélique Bissonnette, 240th wedding anniversary

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

For the 40th week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (October) to write about my paternal ancestors Joseph and Angélique (Bissonnette) Adam, who have a wedding anniversary in October.

Adam - Bissonnette marriage record (Ancestry.ca)

Here a few facts about Joseph and Angélique:

• They are my double ancestors, nos. 166/182 and 167/183, respectively.

• Joseph was a fraternal twin with his sister Marie Charlotte. [1]

• Joseph and Angélique married on 9 October 1775 in St-Michel-de-la-Durantaye (now St-Michel-de-Bellechasse, Quebec), 240 years ago this week. [2] They were married for 49 years.

• They had previously entered into a marriage contract ten days earlier (September 30) in the notarial office of Joseph Riverin. [3]

• They received a dispensation to marry, because Angélique was Joseph’s second cousin once removed. [4]

• Joseph was almost 20 years old and Angélique was 18. [4]

• They were the parents of eleven children, three sons and seven (or eight) daughters, born between 1777 and 1799. [6]

• They have only female-line descendants, because their sons (Joseph, Louis, and Pierre) died as infants. [7]

• Joseph’s occupation: journalier (day laborer). [8]

• Joseph died on 27 December 1824 and was buried in Beloeil, east of Montreal. [9]

• Angélique survived her husband by ten years. She died on 26 December 1834 in Marieville, near Beloeil, where she was buried. [10]

Sources:

1. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 1 July 2014), Ignace Adam – Marie Ursule Lefebvre Boulanger, Famille no. 31064.

2. St-Michel (La Durantaye, Quebec), parish register, 1755-1789, p. 132 recto, entry no. 382, Joseph Adam – Marie Angelique Bissonnet marriage, 9 October 1775; St-Michel parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 October 2014).

3. “Archives des notaires”, digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) (http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/index.html : accessed 4 October 2015), notary Joseph Riverin, Répertoire chronologique, 1773-1777, entry 30 September 1775, Mariage de Joseph Adam et Marie Angelique Bissonnette.

4. St-Michel, parish register, 1755-1789, p. 132 recto, Joseph Adam – Marie Angelique Bissonnet marriage, 9 October 1775. The couple received a dispensation of du troisième degré de parenté au quatre (the third degree of relationship to the fourth).

5. St-Etienne (Beaumont, Quebec), parish register, 1692-1796, page no. illegible, entry no. 1384 (1755), Joseph Adam baptism, 15 August 1855; St-Etienne parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 1 July 2014), and, St-Michel (La Durantaye, Quebec), parish register, 1755-1789, p. 61 verso, entry no. 1151, Marie Angelique Bissonnet baptism, 12 May 1757; St-Michel parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 1 August 2015).

6. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 14 February 2015), Joseph Adam – Marie Angelique Bissonnet, Famille no. 51923.

7. “Dictionnaire”, Joseph Adam – Marie Angelique Bissonnet, Famille no. 51923.

8. St-Mathieu (Beloeil, Quebec), parish register, 1801-1810, p. 4 recto, entry no. M.2 (1805), Charles Messier – Marie Josette Adam (written as Charles Messier – Marie Josette Adam, indexed as Charles Mettier – Marie S?? Adam) marriage, 6 May 1805; St-Mathieu parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

9. St-Mathieu (Beloeil, Quebec), parish register, 1816-1834, p. 177 recto, no entry no. (1824), Joseph Adam burial, 29 December 1824; St-Mathieu parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 29 July 2015).

10. St-Nom-de-Marie (Marieville, Quebec), parish register, 1834, p. 61 verso, entry no. S.97, Angélique Bissonet (written as Angélique Bissonet, indexed as Angelique Bissouel Adam) burial, 28 December 1834; St-Nom-de-Marie parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 29 July 2015).

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Catherine Carre’s 1861 Burial Record

Catherine Carré burial record (Ancestry.ca)

Catherine Carré is my maternal 4x great-grandmother. One of sixteen children of François Carré by his wife Marie Louise Martin dite Ladouceur, Catherine was born on 5 December 1795 in Ste-Rose, a village that is now part of Laval, just north of Montreal. [1]

On 12 February 1816, Catherine married Pierre Sigouin, a local man, in their town’s parish church, Ste-Rose-de-Lima. [2] She was twenty years old, while he was nearly twenty-nine. The couple had twelve children, including Archange (1823-1885), my ancestor.

Catherine died on 2 October 1861 in Ripon, Papineau County. Two days later, she was buried in nearby St-André-Avellin. [3]

The burial record (above) reads in French:

“Le quatre octobre mil huit cent soixante et / un nous curé soussigné avons inhumé dans [le] cimetière de cette paroisse le corps de Catherine / décédée à Ripon le deux du courant à l’âge de / soixante et onze ans environ étaient presents Eloi / Champagne et Moïse Chartrand cultivateurs qui ont / déclaré ne savoir signer.”

In English:

“The four October 1861 / we the undersigned priest have interred in the cemetery of this parish the body of Catherine / died in Ripon the second of the current [month] at the age of seventy-one approximately were present Eloi / Champagne and Moïse Chartrand farmers who / declared they could not sign [their names].”

Although Catherine is not described as Pierre’s wife or widow at her burial, I believe that this is her record.

Sources:

1. Ste-Rose-de-Lima (Ste-Rose [Laval], Quebec), parish register, 1785-1799, p. 16 verso, no entry no. (1795), Catherine Carré (written as Catherine Carré, indexed as Catherine Carre) baptism, 5 December 1795; Ste-Rose-de-Lima parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 23 November 2014).

2. Ste-Rose-de-Lima (Ste-Rose [Laval], Quebec), parish register, 1814-1818, p. 13 recto, entry no. M.2 (1816), Pierre Sigouin – Catherine Carré (written as Pierre Sigouin – Catherine Carré, indexed as Pierre Sigouin – Catherine Carre) marriage, 12 February 1816; Ste-Rose-de-Lima parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 23 November 2014).

3. St-André-Avellin (St-André-Avellin, Quebec), parish register, 1861, p. 81 recto, entry no. S.19, Catherine Carée (written as Catherine Carée, indexed as Catherine Carce) burial, 4 October 1861; St-André-Avellin parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 21 November 2014).

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.