Church Record Sunday: Marie Elisabeth Martel’s 1816 Burial Record

Two hundred years ago this month, my paternal 4x great-grandmother, Marie Elisabeth Martel, died.

Marie Elisabeth Martel burial record (Ancestry)

Marie Elisabeth was born on 16 August 1733 in St-Antoine-de-Tilly, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, near Quebec City. She was the eldest child of Joseph (Louis) Martel by his first wife Marie Légaré.

When she was 16½ years old, Marie Elisabeth married Pierre Jean Boileau (Bouleau) on 7 January 1750 in Ste-Geneviève (now Pierrefonds), just west of Montreal. The couple had four children (the two youngest died when infants) before Pierre died in June 1760.

Widow Marie Elisabeth remarried on 7 January 1761 in Ste-Geneviève. Her second husband, François Janvry dit Belair, was a French-born soldier. Their six children, including my ancestor Pierre (1772-1848), were born in Ste-Geneviève.

Marie Elisabeth died on 13 May 1816. [1] She was buried the next day in Ste-Geneviève. The priest recorded her age as 86, but she was three months shy of her 83rd birthday.

The burial record (above) reads in French:

L’an mil huit cent seize quatorze mai je soussigné ai inhumé dans le / cimetière le corps de marie elisabeth martel femme d [blank space] janvry / habitant de cette paroisse décédé d’hier agée de quatre vingt six / ans munie des Sacrements furent presents pierre [pilon?] forcier louis / lalonde et antoine Demers qui n’ont su signer [signed Dumouchelle ptre]

My English translation:

The year one thousand eight hundred sixteen fourteen may I undersigned have interred in the / cemetery the boy of marie elisabeth martel wife of [blank space] janvry / settler of this parish died of yesterday aged eighty six / years provided with the Sacraments were present pierre [pilon?] forcier louis / lalonde et antoine Demers who did not know how to sign [their names] [signed Dumouchelle priest]

Source:

1. Ste-Geneviève (Pierrefonds, Quebec), parish register, 1812-1823, p. 90 verso, no entry no. (1816), Marie Elisabeth Martel burial, 14 May 1816; Ste-Geneviève parish; digital images, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

Copyright © 2016, Yvonne Demoskoff.