Tombstone Tuesday: William Demoskoff

William Demoskoff gravemarker

This past Saturday, June 13, we interred my late father-in-law’s ashes. Pop died earlier this year in January (William Demoskoff (1914-2015)), but we decided to wait until better weather for the committal service.

My husband, his only sister, her husband, their elder son, his wife, and myself gathered for a simple, private graveside ceremony in Grand Forks, British Columbia, on what would have been Pop’s 101st birthday.

We arrived at the Doukhobor cemetery on a bright Saturday morning. USCC (Sion) Cemetery caretakers Walter Hoodikoff and Larry Jmaiff had prepared the site. They also led the committal service that included traditional Russian greetings, recitations and prayers. The ceremony lasted about half an hour.

We replaced the old headstone with a new one that included both names of my parents-in-law.

Bill and Ann’s gravemarker reads:

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors 2015: #23 Anne Jousselot, "serial marry-er"

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

For the 23rd week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (Wedding) and chose Anne Jousselot (ca 1659-1743). 

Looking through my database, I see that some of my ancestors married three or four times, but there’s only one ancestor who married a remarkable five times: Anne Jousselot, my maternal 8x great-grandmother. To paraphrase Amy’s words, Anne is the “serial marry-er in my family”.

French origins

Anne was born about 1659, based on her age (22) on the census that took place in 1681 in the colony of Nouvelle France. [1] She was one of four daughters of Pierre Jousselot and his wife Ozanne Drapeau, who immigrated to Quebec in the 1660s. The family was originally from the parish of St-Pierre in Langon, a commune in the wine-growing region of Bordeaux, in southwestern France. [2]

A marriage contract

On 6 October 1675, Anne entered into a marriage contract with Simon Trillaud, an immigrant from the province of Angoumois, France. Simon was about 32 years old and had been in New France since 1665. They did not make it to the altar, however, because their contract was subsequently annulled and they did not marry. [3]

“Quebec from the Ice”, by James Pattison Cockburn (1779-1847)*

* Image credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1989-260-6.

First marriage

Within a few months, Anne entered into another marriage contract on 27 December 1676 with Joseph Galois from Poitou, France. This contract was successful; the couple went on to make a public promise of marriage (known as fiançailles) that was recorded in Notre-Dame’s sacramental register. The next step toward marriage was the reading of the banns on three occasions during January 1677 at Anne’s parish church. Finally, Anne and Joseph were married on 9 February 1677 at Notre-Dame in Quebec. Their happiness was short lived, though, because Joseph died a few months later at an unknown date. There were no children by this brief marriage. [4]

Second marriage

Widow Anne married Toussaint Dubeau on 23 May 1678 in Quebec. (A marriage contract was drawn up two weeks earlier on the 8th.) Toussaint, a widower with two teenage children, was a master shoemaker from the archdiocese of Paris, France. The new couple was blessed with eleven children: seven sons and four daughters. (I descend from the younger daughter Marguerite Dubeau, who married Jacques Sigouin in 1712.) Anne became a widow for the second time when Toussaint, who was about 52 years old, died in August 1693. [5]

Third marriage

Anne had seven surviving children, with the youngest one only five months old, to care for in her grief. However, she did not remarry for the next few years. Was this decision by choice or were there no men able to take on a widow with children at this time in the colony’s history? Perhaps a change of location from Quebec to nearby Charlesbourg (now part of that city) helped Anne find a husband, because on 20 July 1698, she entered into a marriage contract with André Duval, who was originally from Savoie, France. They married the next day in Charlesbourg’s St-Charles-Borromée parish church. Unlike her first two weddings, Anne wasn’t attended by her father Pierre (he had presumably died in the interval), but by two nephews, sons of her sister Marie (Jousselot) Gervais. A few months later, Anne was blessed with another child, a son Jacques, in January 1699. Life can be cruelly short in 17th century New France and death came twice to the Duval household in 1699: first, Anne’s husband André died that July at the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec and then her infant son of four months passed away that October. [6]

Fourth marriage

Anne remained a widow for the next thirteen years. On 12 June 1712, she and Jean Maranda entered into a marriage contract and married on the following day in Charlesbourg. Jean was about 50 years old; he was twice widowed and the father of fifteen children. He and Anne didn’t have children of their own when he died in September 1724. [7]

“In the village of Charlesbourg”, by James Pattison Cockburn (1779-1847)*

* Image credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1989-262-21.

Fifth marriage

In the autumn of 1725, Anne married Claude Dubreuil on 11 October 1725 in Charlesbourg. Claude, originally from Saintonge, France, was a widower with three surviving (adult) children. His union with Anne lasted five years until his death in October 1730 in Quebec. [8]

Death

Anne was about 71 years old when she became a widow for the fifth time. She survived her last husband by twelve years, dying on 13 January 1743. She was buried the next day in Charlesbourg. [9]

Historian and genealogist Cyprien Tanguay stated that Anne’s fifth marriage was “le seul exemple, dans ce siècle, d’une épouse en cinquième mariage” [“the only example, in this century, of a wife in a fifth marriage]. [10]

Sources:

1. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 610.

2. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 610 and “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 6 June 2015), Marie Anne Jeanne Jousselot [sic], Individu no. 16628.

3. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1091. Simon entered into a second marriage contract in 1676, but it too was later annulled. He finally married in 1688 in Lachine to widow Marie-Charlotte Jolivet, a paternal ancestor of mine by her first husband.

4. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 460. Also, Notre-Dame (Quebec, Quebec), parish register, 1667-1679, p. 150 (penned)/450 (stamped), no entry no. (1667), Joseph Galois – Anne Jousselot marriage, 9 February 1667; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015).

5. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 365. Also, Notre-Dame (Quebec, Quebec), parish register, 1667-1679, p. 159 (penned)/459 (stamped), no entry no. (1678), Toussaint Dubau [sic] – Anne Jousselot marriage, 23 May 1678; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015).

6. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 399. Also, St-Charles-Borromée (Charlesbourg, Quebec), parish register, 1679-1794, p. 22, no entry no. (1698), André Duval – Anne Jousselot marriage, 21 July 1698; St-Charles-Borromée parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015).

7. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 761. Also, St-Charles-Borromée (Charlesbourg, Quebec), parish register, 1679-1794, p. 6 recto, no entry no. (1712), Jean Maranda – Marianne Jusselot (written Marianne Jusselot, indexed Marie Anne Jusselot) marriage, 13 June 1712; St-Charles-Borromée parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015).

8. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 371. Also, St-Charles-Borromée (Charlesbourg, Quebec), parish register, 1679-1794, p. 9 verso, no entry no. (1725), Claude [Dubreül] – Jeanne Jouselot [sic] marriage, 11 October 1725; St-Charles-Borromée parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015).

9. St-Charles-Borromée (Charlesbourg, Quebec), parish register, 1679-1794, page no. (if any) illegible, no entry no. (1743), Marie Anne Juslot [sic] burial, 14 January 1743; St-Charles-Borromée parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 8 June 2015). Also, “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 6 June 2015), Marie Anne Jeanne Jousselot, Individu no. 16628.

10. Cyprien Tanguay, A travers les registres (Montréal, 1886: 122); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/traverslesregis00tanggoog : accessed 7 June 2015). Also, Paul-André Leclerc, “Le mariage sous le régime français (suite)”, Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française 14 (1960); online archives, érudit (http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/302029ar : accessed 8 June 2015), 48.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Church Record Sunday: Marie-Antoinette Chouart's 1661 Baptism Record

Baptism record of Marie-Antoinette Chouart [1]

Three hundred and fifty-four years ago – on 7 June 1661 – my 7x maternal great-grandmother, Marie-Antoinette Chouart, was baptised. She was the fourth and youngest child of Médard Chouart, sieur des Groseilliers by his second wife Marguerite Hayet. 

Although Marie-Antoinette’s baptism record doesn’t state when or where she was born, she was presumably born in Trois-Rivières (on the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec), where she and her elder siblings were baptised.[2] 

Marie-Antoinette’s baptism record, seen above, is in Latin. Here is my attempt at a transcription: 

“Anno Domini 1661, / 7 Junii, Ego Clandius / Joannis Allouez Societatis / Jesu vicut agurs paro- / chi baptizavi cinn cae- / umorrais infantum fae- / mirzam, Medardo Chouart / et Margarita Ayer parem- / tibus. Patrinis fuere Autonius LeMaistre et Maria / Crevier. Marian Antoni / an appellani.” 

I’ve translated the Latin text into English: 

“In the year of our Lord 1661, / 7 June, I Claude / Jean Allouez Society [of] / Jesus residing in this parish / baptised [?] [?] female infant, / Medard Chouart and Marguerite Ayer parents. / Godparents were Antoine Le Maistre and Marie Crevier. [Child named] Marie Antoinette.” 

Sources: 

1. Immaculée-Conception, cathédrale l´Assomption (Trois-Rivières, Quebec), parish register, 1634-1677, p. 290, no entry no. (1661), Marie Antoinette Chouar (written as Chouart dite Desgrozeliers, indexed as Chouar) baptism, 7 June 1661; Immaculée-Conception, cathédrale l´Assomption parish; digital image, “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 3 June 2015). The baptism, marriage, and burial records that appear in this sacramental register are transcribed copies, according to a note on page 1 of the register. 

2. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 6 June 2015), Medard Chouart Desgroseilliers – Marguerite Radisson Ayet [sic], Famille no. 786. 

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors 2015: #7 Marguerite Bouvret – her 1829 burial record finally found

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

For the 7th week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (Love) and chose Marguerite Bouvret (1784-1829).

The ancestor that I love to research is the one for whom I can find records. I especially love it when I find a baptism or burial record that solves a ‘brick wall’. And that’s what happened last week – I solved a brick wall when I found Marguerite’s burial record.

I knew when and where my maternal 4x great-grandmother Marguerite Bouvret was baptised and married, but I couldn’t locate her burial record. I had an estimated date of death for her, though, between 1824 and 1829, but not the exact date or place.

Marguerite was the younger daughter of Etienne Bouvret (Beauvais) by his first wife Marie Elisabeth Gibouleau (Gipoulou). She was born on 12 July 1784 and baptised as “Marie Marguerite” the next day in St-Henri church in Mascouche, which is a little to the north of Montreal. [1]

When she was 23 years old, Marguerite married Joseph Pinault dit Deschatelets on 11 January 1808 in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines. [2] The couple had eight children over the next fifteen years: Marie Marguerite, Angèle (Angélique), Joseph (my ancestor), Victoire, François, Louise, Pierre, and unnamed child of unrecorded gender who died at birth.

I knew Marguerite died between 25 April 1824 (when her unnamed child was buried in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines) and 19 October 1829 (when her eldest child Marie Marguerite married in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines), so I concentrated my efforts on those years and that location. [3]

I searched various databases, including “Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967” at Ancestry.ca and “Inventaires après décès de la région de Montréal, 1791-1840” at Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), but didn’t find Marguerite. I also looked at the images of burial records for Ste-Anne-des-Plaines at Ancestry.ca, but still didn’t find her.

It wasn’t until last week that I realized I hadn’t looked for Marguerite’s “Individu” file at Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH). I don’t know why I didn't look there for her, especially since I’ve used that site for years, but I quickly remedied that situation. It's a good thing that I did, because Marguerite’s file included her death and burial details. At last! I now knew that my ancestor died on 9 April 1829 in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines and that she was buried there on 11 April 1829. [4]

Because PRDH is just a database, I then turned to Ancestry.ca to view the image of Marguerite’s burial record. [5] I was surprised to see that her surname wasn’t Bouvret or one its variations like Beauvais; instead, it was Comptois. For some reason, Ste-Anne’s parish priest made a mistake when he wrote Marguerite’s surname, which would explain how I ignored this entry when I originally skimmed the images of Ste-Anne’s sacramental registers for 1824 to 1829.

Marguerite Bouvret burial record (p. 11 recto), Ancestry.ca

Marguerite Bouvret burial record (p. 11 verso), Ancestry.ca

I’m satisfied that this burial record is the right one for my ancestor Marguerite for the following reasons:

• Her stated age of 45 gives her an approximate year of birth of 1784.
• Her surviving husband’s name is Joseph Pineau, a variation of Pinault.
• Her date and place of burial (11 April 1829 Ste-Anne-des-Plaines) are consistent with when she is last known to be living (25 April 1824 Ste-Anne-des-Plaines) and when she is deceased (19 October 1829 Ste-Anne-des-Plaines).
• No Pineau – Comptois (or variation) marriage appears to exist between 1774 and 1829 in the province of Quebec. [6]

Note to self: next time I’m facing a brick wall, make sure to search all the usual databases and not just some of them.

Sources:

1. St-Henri (Mascouche, Quebec), parish register, 1780-1786, no page no., no entry no. (1784), Marie Marguerite Boves [sic] baptism, 13 July 1784; St-Henri parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 13 February 2015).

2. Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec), parish register, 1808, p. 1 verso, no entry no., Joseph Pinau – Marguerite Bouvret [sic] marriage, 11 January 1808; Ste-Anne parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 22 November 2014).

3. Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec), parish register, 1824, p. 12 recto, entry no. S.23, Anonyme Déchatelet (written as Anonyme Déchatelet, indexed as Anonyme Dectratetet) burial, 25 April 1824; Ste-Anne parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 22 November 2014). Also, Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec), parish register, 1829, p. 28 recto, entry no. M.18, Jacques Legaut – Marie Marguerite Pinault dit Déchatelet (written as Jacques Legaut – Marie Marguerite Pinault dit Déchatelet, indexed as Jacques Lagaut – Margte Pinault) marriage, 19 October 1829; Ste-Anne parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 22 November 2014).

4. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 11 February 2015), Marguerite Bouvret, Individu no. 598141.

5. Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec), parish register, 1829, p. 11 recto, entry no. S36, Marguerite Comptois [sic] burial, 11 April 1829; Ste-Anne parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 February 2015).

6. “Le LAFRANCE”, database, Généalogie Québec (www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 13 February 2015). A search for a marriage for “Pinau” (and Deschatelets) and “Comptois” between 1774 and 1829 proved negative.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Friday’s Faces from the Past: Eugene Desgroseilliers with his brother and niece

Eugène Desgroseilliers (centre) with his brother Donat and their niece Lina, 

about 1955-1957

I love finding photographs that shows my maternal grandfather Eugène Desgroseilliers. I first saw this picture when my Mom’s older sister Madeleine gave it to me in October 2011. Aunt Madeleine was on vacation in British Columbia that year and brought with her an envelope filled with pictures and other memorabilia that she gathered for me.

Two people are identified in the photo, because someone (it’s not Aunt Madeleine’s handwriting, which I recognize) wrote on the back of it:

Oncle Donat & Oncle Ovila’s daughter “Lina”

Whoever wrote these names forgot to add Eugène’s. There are no other details on the back or front of the picture like when and where it was taken. I think it dates to 1955 or 1956, since Lina looks about 3 or 4 years old. Donat and Ovila (not shown in the picture) are Eugène’s younger brothers, while Lina is his niece. The trio presumably posed at a relative’s home in Sturgeon Falls or Bonfield, near North Bay, Ontario. Alternatively, the picture was taken in August 1957, when Eugène travelled from Sarnia to Sturgeon Falls for his brother Joseph’s funeral.

Can any of my Desgroseilliers cousins fill in the blanks for this photo?

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors 2015: #5 Fedosia Savinkoff, possibly a plough woman

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

For the 5th week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (Plowing through) and chose Fedosia N. Savinkoff (about 1848-1927).

Fedosia, known in English as Fanny, was my husband’s maternal great-grandmother. She was born about 1848 to 1852 in Transcaucasia, Russia. [1] Her parents are unknown, but since Fedosia’s middle initial is ‘N’, her father’s name might be Nikolai, Nikita, Nikifor, or Nestor.

In 1875, Fedosia married Wasyl Wasilievitch Cazakoff. [2] The couple had four children: Mikhail (Michael), Gregorii (George), Nikolai (Nicholas) and Pologea (Polly).

Fedosia, Wasyl and their children were part of a group of over 2,000 Doukhobors who left Russia in December 1898 for Canada. According to family tradition, the family sailed on the Lake Huron, which arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia a few weeks later in January 1899. [3]

"Doukhobor women are shown breaking the prairie sod by pulling a plough themselves, Thunder Hill Colony, Manitoba. c 1899"

I don’t know if Fedosia is in the above photo or if she was one of the women that pulled a plough in the early years of the Doukhobors presence in Canada. It would not have been unusual if she had, because when these Russian pacifists first came to the Prairies, many of their menfolk worked away from their settlements in order to earn money. It wasn’t a case of men exploiting women, though, but of women who “took the initiative and proceeded to break the sod for spring planting”. [4]

Fedosia died on 15 November 1926 in Lily Vale District, Saskatchewan. [5]

Sources:

Photo credit: Library and Archives Canada/C-000681.

1. History Coming Alive: R.M. of St. Philips, Pelly and District, 2 vols. (Pelly, Saskatchewan: St. Philips/Pelly History Book Committee, 1988), 1: 382. Fedosia’s approximate years of birth are calculated based on her age on Canadian and Doukhobor censuses. “MacKenzie District, Saskatchewan, Canada, 1906 Census”, database, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 5 April 2009), entry for Fanny Casokoff (age 58); MacKenzie District; citing p. 10, line 11 on Library and Archives Canada (LAC) microfilm T-18359. “Assiniboia District, The Territories, Canada, 1901 Census”, database, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 5 April 2009), entry for Pheodocia Kazakoff (age 49); Kamsack, Assiniboia District; citing p. 6, line 28 on Library and Archives Canada (LAC) microfilm T-6552. Jonathan Kalmakoff, compiler, 1918 Census of Independent Doukhobors (Regina, Saskatchewan: Jonathan J. Kalmakoff, 2002); entry for Fanny N. Kazakoff (age 66), p. 66; Veregin, Saskatchewan; citing Saskatchewan Archives Board, Regina Branch Microfilm Reel No. R.2.46.

2. History Coming Alive, 1: 382.

3. “Doukhobors at Halifax”, The Globe, 21 January 1899, p. 13, cols. 6-7; digital images, The Globe and Mail (http://heritage.theglobeandmail.com : accessed 10 April 2009).

4. “The Role of Doukhobor Women”, database, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Doukhobor-Women.pdf : accessed 27 January 2015).

5. History Coming Alive, 1: 383. Also, “Nadezhda Cemetery – Verigin District, Saskatchewan”, database, Doukhobor Genealogy Website (http://www.doukhobor.org/Cemetery-Nadezhda.htm : accessed 5 April 2009), entry for Fedosia Cazakoff.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.

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.

52 Ancestors 2015: #3 Marguerite Carpentier

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

For the 3rd week of this challenge, I used the optional weekly theme (Tough woman) and chose Marguerite Carpentier (ca 1774-1874).

My maternal ancestor is a ‘tough woman’ to research. I’m really keen to know more about her, because she’s also my matrilineal ancestress in the seventh generation, and I can’t go any further than her.

What I Know:

• Her name. She’s “Marguerite Carpentier” in 1814 (when her daughter Thérèse, my third great-grandmother, was baptized) and in 1874 (at her burial). She was “Marie Carpentier” in 1829 (when Thérèse was married).

• Her approximate year of birth. She was born about 1774, 1776, 1779, 1782, or before 1797 (based on her ages on censuses and her age at her burial) in the province of Quebec.

• Her husband. He’s François Durgey or Doggie or Doyer, who was born about 1769/1770 in New Hampshire. His name might have been originally Francis Durkee, which would have been difficult to pronounce in French once he relocated to Canada.

• Her religion. She and her children were Roman Catholic, while François was Anabaptist.

• Her places of residence. For example, in July 1814, she, her husband and their eldest children lived in Petite-Nation seigneurie, later Montebello, Quebec. The family was still living there on the 1842 and 1852 censuses. By the time of the 1861 census, widow Marguerite lived in her son-in-law’s household in Papineauville, Quebec.

• Her death and burial. She died on 16 May 1874 in Papineauville and was buried there two days later in Ste-Angélique parish cemetery.

What I don’t Know:

• Her birth and baptism.

• Her parents or her siblings.

• Her marriage. It was presumably before 15 October 1810, when her and François’ eldest child (Thérèse) was born, and possibly in Petite-Nation seigneurie, where many of their children were baptized between 1815 and 1829.

Are there any of Marguerite’s descendants out there reading this article? If so, would you be able to fill in the missing bits of her life?

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.