52 Ancestors: #45 Louis Turcot and the sad year of 1748

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 45th week of this challenge, I chose Louis Turcot (1678-1748).

Louis is my paternal 7x great-grandfather and is number 646/710 in my ancestor list. (He and his second wife are double ancestors on my father’s mother’s side.)

He was the youngest of eight children of Abel Turcot, a miller, and his wife Marie Giraud, immigrants from France. In March 1706, Louis married Marguerite Lepage by whom he had five children, three sons and two daughters. After Marguerite’s death in early 1716, Louis waited five years before remarrying, in January 1721 in Ste-Famille, Ile d’Orléans, to my ancestor Angélique Plante, who was twenty years his junior.

The couple’s first child, Marie Catherine, was born the following year in March 1722. I’ve previously written about how she presumably married under the name ‘Catherine Plante’; see Mystery Monday: The Real Wife of Joseph Danis.

After Marie Catherine’s birth, Louis and Angélique had eleven more children:

• Basile (born 1723)
• Marguerite Angélique (born 1725)
• Marie Josèphe (born 1727)
• Jean Baptiste (born 1729)
• Marie Thècle (born 1731)
• Louis Hyacinthe (born 1732)
• Marie Isabelle/Elisabeth (born 1734)
• Nicolas (born and died 1736)
• François (born 1737)
• Marie Thérèse (born 1739)
• Amador/Médard (born 1741)

“Vue de Sainte-Famille, Île d'Orléans, avec la côte de Beaupré en arrière plan” (Paul Paradis, 2010)

In 1748, life changed dramatically for the Turcot family of Ste-Famille.

It began when Louis’ wife Angélique was buried there on 10 February. (Her date of death is not stated in her burial record.)

Two weeks later, on 24 February, Louis and Angélique’s 15-year-old son Hyacinthe was buried. (His date of death is not stated in his burial record.)

Five days later, on 29 February, Louis himself was buried. (His date of death is not stated in his burial record.)

Six weeks later, on 13 April, Louis and Angélique’s 24-year-old son Basile was buried. (He died on 11 April, according to his burial record.)

Three weeks later, on 6 May, their 23-year-old daughter Marguerite Angélique was buried in nearby St-François, Ile d’Orléans. (She died that same day, according to her burial record.)

The sacramental register of Ste-Famille for 1748 reports the burial of forty-six of its parishioners. (There were only eight burials the previous year.) Was there an epidemic in the community? Unfortunately, none of the Turcot burial records indicate the cause of death of Louis, his wife or their children. A quick survey of the other burials for that year also does not reveal causes of death.

Five family members – two parents and three children – died within the span of three months.

1748 was indeed a sad year for the Turcot family.

Photo credit: Wikipedia contributors, "Sainte-Famille, Quebec", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sainte-Famille,_Quebec&oldid=604802373 : accessed 28 October 2014).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Mystery Monday: The Real Wife of Joseph Danis

Marriage record of Joseph Danis and Catherine Plante, 1749

In the summer of 1749, twenty-eight year old Joseph Danis married Catherine Plante in St-Michel church in Yamaska, New France (later the province of Quebec). [1] Published sources, like Tanguay's famous Dictionnaire, repeat this information. [2]

Joseph's marriage contract (dated 10 August 1749) and marriage parish record (of 11 August 1749) confirm Catherine’s name and those of her parents, Louis Plante and Angélique Patenaude, and their place of residence.[3]

However, according to a 1957 article in Mémoires, the quarterly publication of the Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française, Joseph's wife was more likely Marie-Catherine Turcot, daughter of Louis Turcot and Angélique Plante. [4]

The article, written by renowned francophone genealogist Archange Godbout, explains that while Joseph’s parents and children are found in the parish registers of New France, Catherine’s parents are not. Although two Louis Turcot existed during the time frame in question, one died probably as an infant, while the other resided in a different location. Additionally, no Angélique Patenaude can be found in the parish registers. [5]

These complications support Godbout’s belief that Louis Plante and Angélique Patenaude are not Catherine’s parents. Godbout concludes by writing that, after much research, the only possibility for Joseph Danis’ wife is Marie-Catherine Turcot, daughter of Louis Turcot and Marie Angélique Plante, who married in 1721.

Joseph and Catherine are my 6x great-grandparents. I have two lines of descent from them through my paternal grandmother Julie Vanasse. I was fortunate to come across Godbout’s article in the Mémoires a few years ago; it’s the only place I’ve seen so far that discusses the presumed real identity of Joseph Danis’ wife.

Sources:

1. St-Michel (Yamaska, Quebec), parish register, 1734-1750, no p. no., no entry no. (1749), Danis – Plante marriage, 11 August 1749; St-Michel parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 5 January 2014).

2. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), III: 238.

3. A. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, Mémoires de la Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française 8 (Janvier 1957): 60.

4. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, 60. The author states that he came to this conclusion after "actives recherches".

5. Godbout, “Joseph Danis et Catherine Plante, 1749”, 60.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.