Church Record Sunday: Marguerite Bertrand’s 1846 Burial Record

Marguerite Bertrand, no. 203 in my ancestor list, is my 5x maternal great-grandmother. She is a younger daughter of Pierre Bertrand, a former soldier from the province of Languedoc in France, by his wife Marie Joseph Gauthier. Marguerite, born on 22 November 1771 in St-Constant, Laprairie County, Quebec, had four brothers and nine sisters. [1]

The day after she turned 24 years old, Marguerite married Louis Charles Longtin on 23 November 1795. [2] Louis Charles, who was also born in St-Constant, was a cultivateur (farmer). The couple had a small family: one son and three daughters, born between 1797 and 1804 in St-Constant.

Louis Charles died in June 1813. Marguerite survived him by three decades, dying on 14 January 1846. Although her burial record gives her age as 80, she was only 74 years old. Marguerite was buried two days later in St-Constant, in the presence of her son-in-law, Toussaint Page (Lepage), my ancestor. [3]

Marguerite Bertrand burial record, part 1 (Ancestry)

Marguerite Bertrand burial record, part 2 (Ancestry)

The burial record (above) reads in French:

“Le Seize Janvier Mil huit cent quarante six / Nous Prêtre soussigné avons Inhumée dans le Cime[tière] / de cette Paroisse le Corps de Margueritte Bertrand / Agée de Quatre-vingt ans Décédée du Quartorze Courant [Epouse] / De feu Charles Longtin de cette paroisse. Présens, Tou[ssaint] / Page, Michel Gagné, Antoine Emare et Pierre Emard, qui / n’ont su signer.”

In English:

“The Sixteen January 1846 / We the undersigned Priest have Interred in the cemetery / of this parish the body of Margueritte Bertrand / Aged of 80 years Died the Fourteenth [of the] current [month] [Wife] / of the late Charles Longtin of this parish. Present, Tou[ssaint] / Page, Michel Gagné, Antoine Emare et Pierre Emard, who / could not sign [their names].”

Sources:

1. St-Constant (St-Constant, Quebec), parish register, 1767-1772, p. 8 recto, no entry no. (1771), Marie Margueritte Bertrand (written as Marie Margueritte Bertrand, indexed as Marie Marguerite Bertran) baptism, 22 November 1771; St-Constant parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 7 January 2016).

2. St-Constant (St-Constant, Quebec), parish register, 1795-1800, p. 15 verso, no entry no. (1795), Louis Charles Longtin – Margueritte Bertrand (written as Louis Charles Longtin – Margueritte Bertrand, indexed as Louis Charles Longtin – Marguerite Bertrand) marriage, 23 November 1795; St-Constant parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 7 January 2016).

3. St-Constant (St-Constant, Quebec), parish register, 1846, p. 2 recto, entry no. S.5, Margueritte Bertrand (written as Margueritte Bertrand, indexed as Marguerite Bertrand Agee de Quatre) burial, 16 January 1846; St-Constant parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 7 January 2016).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.