52 Ancestors: #48 Jean-Baptiste Lepage, died in 1779, not 1764

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 48th week of this challenge, I chose Jean-Baptiste Pagési (Lepage) dit St-Amand (1692-1779).

Jean-Baptiste is my paternal 6x great-grandfather and is number 266 in my ancestor list. 

An only son among the five children of Jean Pagési (Lepage) dit St-Amand (a French immigrant) and his wife Marie-Catherine Gladu, Jean-Baptiste was born and baptized on 26 October 1692 in the village of Lachine (now part of the city of Montreal). [1] When he was about two years old, the Pagési family moved to Boucherville, where his father died suddenly in April 1695. [2]

On the St. Larwrence [sic] near the village of Lachine, Lower Canada.*

* Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1995-28-35.

On 3 July 1717, Jean-Baptiste and twenty-year old Marie-Anne Ondoyer entered into a marriage contract, followed by their marriage ceremony two months later on 6 September in Quebec. [3] Their son Jean-Baptiste was born a year later in October 1718. He was the first of twelve children that were born over the next twenty-four years. [4]

Many years ago, I found my ancestor Jean-Baptiste in Tanguay’s Dictionnaire. [5] According to this source, he died accidentally in the seigneurie of Beauharnois on 28 November 1764. [6] I entered this information in my notes, and moved on.

Earlier this week, I did some background research for my blog post. I also took the time to search for Jean-Baptiste’s burial record at Généalogie Québec.com. I found the record, and then compared the details. [7] They seemed to match those in Tanguay – name, date and place of death, and date and place of burial. I figured I was good, and again, moved on.

The next day, I searched the Internet for the circumstances of Jean-Baptiste’s death, because neither his burial record nor Tanguay indicated what type of accident he had. I came across a database that said Jean-Baptiste died in Montreal on 14 April 1779. [8] I assumed this date and location were incorrect, since it differed from Tanguay. Just in case, though, I looked for the 1779 burial record at Généalogie Québec.com. I found it. [9] Name, check; date and place of death, check; date and place of burial, check. These details matched those of the Internet search.

What was going on? Which source was correct and which source wasn't?

I was confused for a moment, but then realized what happened. I had trusted one source all these years and hadn’t verified it. When I originally found my ancestor Jean-Baptiste in Tanguay over twenty years ago, I was still a beginner researcher, I didn’t know about genealogical standards, and I hadn’t heard of reasonably exhaustive research. [10]

Thank goodness for having a blog. Writing about my ancestors in a public forum is a good way to ensure that I review the work I’ve previously done, and that I don't forget to move beyond using just one or two types of resources.

So, which Jean-Baptiste died when?

I put the various burial details into a table. That’s when I realized that I had overlooked one important piece of information: their ages. One Jean-Baptiste was 48 years old at his death/burial and the other was 94 years old.

One piece of information was still missing, though. Neither of the men’s burial records indicated the names of their respective wives. I went to the online Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) to see if its databases could help. I located each of their “Individu” file. It turned out that the Jean-Baptiste who died in 1764 was the son of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Anne (Ondoyer) Pagési/Lepage. [11] The Jean-Baptiste who died in 1779 was the son of Jean and Marie-Catherine (Gladu) Pagési dit St-Amand. [12]

I now knew that Jean-Baptiste père (my ancestor) died on 14 April 1779 and that Jean-Baptiste fils (my ancestor’s son) died on 28 November 1764.

Thank goodness I chose ancestor no. 266 for this article. The prep work I did for it became a teachable moment for me: don’t trust only one source and do a reasonably exhaustive research.

Sources:

1. Sts-Anges-Gardiens (Lachine, Quebec), parish register, 1676-1756, p. 43 recto, no entry no. (1692), Jean Baptiste Pagesy [sic] baptism, 26 October 1692; Sts-Anges-Gardiens parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

2. Très-Ste-Famille (Boucherville, Quebec), parish register, 1669-1695, no page no., no entry no. (1695), Jean Baptiste Pagesi dit St Amant [sic] burial, 28 April 1695; Très-Ste-Famille parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

3. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 864.

4. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 30 June 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Pagesi Page – Marie Anne Ondoye Martin [sic], Famille no. 12592.

5. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), VI: 194.

6. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, VI: 194, right column, note (1).

7. Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec), parish register, 1758-1768, p. 170, no entry no. (1764), Jean Lepage dit St Amant [sic] burial, 30 November 1764; Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue parish; digital image, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

8. Genealogy of Canada (http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/genealogie.aspx?lng=en : 26 November 2014), entry for Jean-Baptiste Lepage, ID No. 29759, spouse of Marie-Anne Leber.

9. Notre-Dame (Montreal, Quebec), parish register, 177[7]-1779, no page no., no entry no. (1779), Jean Baptiste Lepage burial, 15 April 1779; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 26 November 2014).

10. The Board for Certification of Genealogists defines this term as “reasonably exhaustive research – emphasizing original records providing participants’ information – for all evidence that might answer a genealogist’s question about an identity, relationship, event, or situation”. Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards, 50th anniversary edition (Nashville, Tennessee: Ancestry.com, 2014), 1.

11. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 26 November 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Page [sic] (1718-1764), Individu no. 121531.

12. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 26 November 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Page [sic] (1692-1779), Individu no. 59741.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #47 Marie Godard, a good life

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 47th week of this challenge, I chose Marie Godard (ca 1629/1634/1639/1641-1684).

Marie is my paternal 8x great-grandmother and is number 1201 in my ancestor list.

When I first chose Marie for this blog post, I didn’t think there was much I’d be able to say. Now that I’ve done some background research, I’ve got more details about my ancestor than when I first started.

Marie’s parents are unknown and her place of origin is unknown. [1] However, it’s possible that she was from Mortagne in Perche, France. As a new immigrant, young Marie worked for Marie Renouard (Regnouard), wife of Robert Giffard, seigneur of Beauport, and Madame Giffard was particularly kind and watchful over Marie. [2]

Marie’s date of birth varies between 1629 and 1641: [3]

• about 1629 (she was 52 years old on the 1681 census)
• about 1634 (she was 50 at her burial)
• about 1639 (she was 28 on the 1667 census)
• about 1641 (she was 25 on the 1666 census)

Her date of immigration is also unknown, but she was likely a teenager when she arrived in or before 1654. That year, she married Toussaint Giroux on September 29th in Beauport, now an eastern suburb of Quebec City. [4] A Jesuit priest named Paul Ragueneau blessed their union that took place in Giffard’s manor on his seigneurial property. [5]

"Vue in the Neighborhood of Beauport, near Quebec" (1840)*

* Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1956-62-99.

Toussaint, a weaver, was five weeks away from his 21st birthday. He had recently received a grant or concession of land from seigneur Giffard. [6] Unlike his wife, Toussaint’s parents and origin are known: he was the son of Jean Giroux by his wife Marguerite Quilleron (Cuilleron) and he was baptized on 2 November 1633 in Réveillon, just south of Mortagne, France. [7]

Marie and Toussaint had twelve children, nine sons and three daughters. [8] I descend from their second, but eldest surviving son Raphaël (1656-1715).

Marie’s early years of motherhood were sad and difficult for her. Her first child, Charles, was born prematurely in the late spring of 1655 and died when one week old. Her fourth child, Toussaint died when he was ten weeks old in 1660, and her sixth child, also named Toussaint, died when he was three weeks old in 1663. Her ninth child, Jean-Baptiste, born in 1668, died when he was a child, because he doesn’t appear in his parents’ household on the 1681 census. [9]

Further pregnancies brought joy to Marie. She gave birth to daughters Marie-Anne and Madeleine in 1666 and 1669, respectively, and then in the 1670s, Marie gave birth to another Toussaint and to daughter Monique; all four children survived. The Giroux family was now complete.

The 1681 census is a witness to Marie and Toussaint’s prosperity: they had three rifles, farm animals, and “53 arpents of land under cultivation”. [10] Life was good for Marie during this time. She also had the joy of seeing three of her children married in Beauport: Raphaël in November 1681, and Michel and Marie-Anne both in August 1683. [11]

The following year, though, Marie’s life drew to a close. She died on 21 November 1684, 330 years ago today (21 November 2014). She was buried the next day in Beauport. The priest noted in his church’s register that, prior to her death, Marie had “recu Les Sacrement de penitence et du viatique et avoir mené une bonne vie”. [12] She had received the last rites, and had led a good life.

Sources:

1. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 503.

2. Soeur Anna Giroux, “Toussaint Giroux, 1633-1715”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 25 (janvier-février-mars 1974): 3-27, particularly p. 26; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

3. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 503.

4. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 502. Although the ceremony took place in Beauport, the event was registered in Notre-Dame’s sacramental register in Quebec.

5. Violette Allaire, “L’Association “Perche-Canada” rend hommage à l’ancêtre Toussaint Giroux, à Réveillon (Orne)”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 15 (juillet-août-septembre 1964): 182-184, particularly p. 183; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

6. Gagné, Peter J., Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à Marier, 1634-1662, (Orange Park, Florida: Quintin Publications, 2008), 156.

7. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 502.

8. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 503.

9. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 503.

10. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters, 157. Also, Giroux, “Toussaint Giroux, 1633-1715”, 15, citing Benjamin Sulte, Histoire du Canada française, 1608-1880, 6 vols.; Tomes IV et V, recensements 1666, 1667, 1681.

11. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 503.

12. Notre-Dame (Beauport, Quebec), parish register, 1684, p. 3 verso, no entry no., Marie Godard burial, 22 November 1684; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 20 November 2014).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #46 Pierre Séguin, a literate man

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 46th week of this challenge, I chose Pierre Séguin (1682-1760).

Pierre is my paternal 7x great-grandfather and is number 630 in my ancestor list. I find it interesting that I not only descend from Pierre through my father, but that I also descend from his elder sister Françoise (1674-1751) and his younger brother Simon (1684-1758) through my mother.

The fifth of eleven children, Pierre was the son of French immigrants François Séguin dit Ladéroute and his wife Jeanne Petit. He was born on 24 August 1682 in Boucherville (across Montreal on the south shore of the St. Lawrence) and baptized the next day. [1]

On 4 February 1704, Pierre married Barbe Filion, a widow, in Boucherville. [2] Two days earlier, they had entered into a marriage contract in the notarial study of Marien Tailhandier. [3]

Séguin - Filion marriage record (1704) [4]

Pierre probably had some education, because he knew how to write his name. Notice his signature (Pierre Seguin) located in the lower right corner of his marriage record in the above image.

Pierre and Barbe were the parents of nine children born between 1704 and 1720: Marie-Françoise, Marie-Elisabeth, Pierre, Antoine-Joseph, Geneviève, Barbe (my ancestor), Antoine, Marie-Jeanne and Véronique. [5]

The Séguin family lived in St-François on Ile Jésus (the island just above the island of Montreal) from 1704 to about 1730 (except for a spell in St-Sulpice in 1711), then in nearby Lachenaie from about 1734 to 1750, when Pierre’s wife Barbe died.

Pierre’s date and place of death are unknown, but was presumably on or about 9 November 1760, because he was buried there on this date in Mascouche. [6]

Whoever was the informant at his burial was a bit ambitious in giving Pierre’s age. The record states that he was 102 years old, but he was actually twenty-four years younger, being only 78 years old. [7]

Sources:

1. St-Enfant-Jésus (Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec), parish register, 1674-1700, p. 40, no entry no. (1682), Pierre Seguin [sic] baptism, 25 August 1682; St-Enfant-Jésus parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 10 November 2014).

2. Ste-Famille (Boucherville, Quebec), parish register, 1696-1717, p. 26, no entry no. (1704), Pierre Seguin – Barbe Filion [sic] marriage, 4 February 1704; Ste-Famille parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 10 November 2014).

3. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 1041.

4. Ste-Famille, parish register, 1696-1717, p. 26, Pierre Seguin – Barbe Filion [sic] marriage, 4 February 1704.

5. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 1041.

6. St-Henri (Mascouche, Quebec), parish register, 1750-1780, p. 25, no entry no. (1760), Pierre Séguin burial, 9 November 1760; St-Henri parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 9 November 2014).

7. St-Henri, parish register, 1785-1799, p. 25, Pierre Séguin burial, 9 November 2014.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

Sunday’s Obituary: Fred Burchill

Fred Burchill was born about 1907 in England. He came to Canada as a home child in about 1916. Once here, he was taken in (adopted) by a couple named Thomas and Anna Nephin of Chichester, Pontiac County, Quebec. I’ve previously written about great-uncle Fred in Freddie Burchill, Home Child.

Fred married Agnes (Aggie) Vanasse, a Pontiac County girl (and my late father’s maternal aunt), in September 1935 at St. Alphonsus Church in Chapeau. The couple, who had three children, settled in Ottawa, Ontario.

I remember meeting my great-aunt and great-uncle only once, when I visited them at their apartment in Ottawa in the late 1970s. It’s a shame that I didn’t know them better, because they were a lovely couple.

Fred died on 8 November 1989 in Ottawa. Aunt Aggie and their children survived him.

Source:

“Fred Burchill”, obituary, undated clipping (1989), from unidentified newspaper; Demoskoff Family Papers, privately held by Yvonne (Belair) Demoskoff, British Columbia, 2014. Yvonne received the original clipping from her Aunt Joan (Belair) Laneville when she visited her home in May 2014.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

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.

Black Sheep Sunday: Antoine Gaboury, would-be rapist

It was on this day – 2 November – in 1668 that Antoine Gaboury was found guilty of attempted rape.

Antoine, my maternal 7x great-grandfather, was born about 1640 (he was 20 years old in 1660) or about 1642 (he was 25 years old on the 1667 colonial census) in La Rochelle, France. [1]

He immigrated to Quebec in the 1650s, where his presence is noted there on 24 February 1660 when he received the sacrament of Confirmation. [2]

By August 1665, though, he was heavily in debt to his creditor Aubin Lambert. [3]

Three years later, an order was issued for Antoine’s arrest in L’Ange-Gardien in the Beaupré seigneurie, east of Quebec, on 23 October 1668. [4] It wasn’t due to his debts, however. His neighbor François Hébert and his daughter Jeanne, who was about 10 years old, brought an accusation of rape against him. [5]

Testimony was heard from various witnesses in Quebec. Justice was swift. Two weeks later, the Conseil souverain declared Antoine guilty of having attempted to rape Jeanne ‘with all his might’. [6]

The sentence: Antoine would be shaved, publicly beaten and sent to the galleys for nine years. [7] Additionally, he was fined “cinq cents livres”, half of which would pay his victim’s expenses for boarding school run by the Ursuline nuns in Quebec. The remainder would go to the poor of the local hospital. [8] His belongings were seized and sold at auction. [9] Finally, Antoine was placed on the first ship leaving for France and handed over to the galley guards to begin serving his sentence. [10]

After his exile, Antoine returned to Nouvelle-France, married Jeanne Migneault, by whom he had two sons and six daughters. [11] He died at an unknown date, but it was before 12 October 1708, because he is described as “deffunt [sic] Antoine Gaboury” in his daughter’s burial record. [12]

For her part, young Jeanne married French immigrant François Labadie in April 1671 and was the mother of eleven children. She outlived her assailant and died in 1727. [13]

Sources:

1. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 446.

2. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 446.

3. Réal Aubin, “Aubin Lambert, un prétendu soldat du regiment de Carignan”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 131 (jan-févr-mars 1977): 25-31, particularly p. 29; DVD edition (Montreal, QC: SGCF, 2013).

4. Robert-Lionel Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France (Ottawa: Leméac, 1972), I: 303.

5. Joachim Hébert, “Une famille-souche – 1ère generation François Hebert dit Le Comte de Roussy et Anne Fauconnier”, Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 173 (automne 1987): 175-212, particularly p. 185.

6. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 497.

7. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 508. A similar sentence (shaved, beaten, exiled for nine years in the galleys) was recently given to Pierre Pinel on 1 October 1668 for having raped two young girls of about 10 and 11 years old. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 303.

8. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304.

9. Joachim Hébert, “Une famille-souche”, p. 185.

10. Séguin, La vie libertine en Nouvelle-France, I: 304, citing Jugements du Conseil souverain, op. cit., 111: 508.

11. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 446.

12. St-Augustin (St-Augustin, Quebec), parish register, 1693-1780, no p. no., no entry no. (1708), Marie Jeanne Gaboury burial, 14 October 1708; St-Augustin parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 1 November 2014).

13. Jetté, Dictionnaire, 618.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #44 Pierre Drouin, from Catholic to Presbyterian, then back again

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 44th week of this challenge, I chose Pierre Drouin (1805-1894).

Pierre is my paternal 3x great-grandfather and is number 38 in my ancestor list.

Background info

Pierre was born and baptized on 12 January 1805 in St-Benoît, northwest of Montreal. [1] He was the second child and eldest son of Pierre Drouin, a farmer, and his wife Agathe Brunet dite Létang. Pierre married Marie Reine Poirier, a widow with two young children, on 2 March 1829 in St-Benoît. [2] The couple had ten children, including first-born twins (a son and a daughter) and Louise (1835-1890), my ancestor. Pierre died on 28 January 1894 and was buried two days later in Quyon, Pontiac County, Quebec. [3]

A few questions

As I was preparing a profile about Pierre for 52 Ancestors, I found myself wondering about certain aspects of his life. That’s when I decided to compile a list of questions instead of Pierre’s biography for this blog post.

1. Why did Pierre leave St-Benoît about 1832, where he was a farmer, and move to Rigaud, in nearby Vaudreuil County?
2. Why did he leave Rigaud about 1834 for Cornwall, Upper Canada to work as a day laborer?
3. Why wasn’t he present at the baptism of his daughter Louise in St-Benoît in August 1836? Was it because he was still in Cornwall?
4. Why did he return to St-Benoît about 1838 when his son Camille was born there in July? (It was a dangerous time to be in this region due to the Patriots’ War or the 1837-1838 Rebellion.)
5. Where did he live in Lower Canada when his children Marie and Joseph were born about 1843 and 1845, respectively?
6. When did he arrive in Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, Gatineau County? (He was present at his stepdaughter’s wedding there in 1848.)
7. Why was his son Moïse buried on 9 April 1862 when he died on 6 March of that year? (His burial record in Masham does not state the cause of death or why there was a delay between his death and his burial.)
8. When did Pierre leave Ste-Cécile-de-Masham for Onslow, a few miles away in Pontiac County?
9. Why did Pierre become Presbyterian? (He was Roman Catholic when his son Moïse was buried in 1862, but Presbyterian on the 1871 and 1881 censuses.)*
10. Why did Pierre and his wife return to their original faith? (On the 1891 census, he was Methodist, while she was RC, but both were RC when they were buried.)

* One reason that Pierre, his wife and their younger son François became Presbyterian was “likely due to sectarianism. In some cases it proved difficult for Catholics to find jobs and uncomfortable for Catholics to settle in certain areas where the population was primarily Irish or Scots protestant.” [4]

Sources:

1. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1799-1805, p. 162 recto, entry no. B.7 (1805), Pierre Drouin baptism, 12 January 1805; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

2. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1829, p. 9 verso, entry no. M.16, Pierre Drouin – Marie Reine Poirier dite Déloge [sic] marriage, 2 March 1829; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 28 April 2008).

3. Ste-Marie (Quyon, Quebec), parish register, 1894, p. 2 recto, entry no. S.2, Peter Deroine [sic] burial, 28 January 1894; Ste-Marie parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 25 October 2009).

4. RonaldDale100, “Re: From Catholic to Presbyterian”, Ancestry Message Boards – Pontiac, message board, 11 November 2009 (http://boards.ancestry.ca/localities.northam.canada.quebec.outaouais.pontiac/3424.1/mb.ashx : accessed 27 October 2014).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

52 Ancestors: #43 Marie Louise Rochon of Deux-Montagnes County

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 43rd week of this challenge, I chose Marie Louise Rochon (1781-1835).

Marie Louise is my paternal 4x great-grandmother and is number 79 in my ancestor list.

She was born on 24 December 1781 and baptized that day “sous condition” in St-Eustache, north of Montreal, in York, later Deux-Montagnes, county. [1] Her baptism record mentions the name of her godfather (Augustin Rochon, presumably her grandfather), but there’s a blank space where her godmother’s name ought to be.

Marie Louise was the eldest child of Augustin Rochon and his wife Marie Louise Cadieux. She had nine brothers and four sisters, including two sets of fraternal twins.

On the morning of 6 January 1800, eighteen year old Marie Louise and twenty-two year old Joseph Poirier dit Desloges and family members arrived at the study of notary Pierre-Rémi Gagnier in St-Eustache. [2] The young couple, who declared they could not sign their names, entered into a marriage contract. One week later, on 13 January, they married in the parish church of St-Benoît, near St-Eustache. [3]

"Carte du comté des Deux-Montagnes dans la province du Québec" [1888]
(Library and Archives Canada)

On the above map of the county of Deux-Montagnes, St-Eustache, lined in blue, lies in the southeast corner, while St- Benoît, lined in red, appears in the centre left of the county.

Marie Louise started married life on her husband’s property in St- Benoît – “une terre de trois arpens de front sur environ trente quatre arpens de profondeur sise au dît lieu du grand Brulé” (a land of three arpents wide by about thirty-four arpents deep located at said site of grand Brulé). [4]

Nine months later, she was blessed with the birth of her first child, a daughter who was named Marie Louise like her mother, her maternal grandmother and her maternal great-grandmother. Over the next sixteen years, Marie Louise had a further six sons and three daughters: Joseph, Hyacinthe, Reine (my ancestor), Jean Baptiste, Marc Alexandre, François, Marie Françoise, Antoine, and Marie Henriette.

Life in St-Benoît must have suited Marie Louise and her family, because not only were all her children born in this rural village, but they (other than three children who died young) also married there.

Marie Louise died on 27 October 1835 in St-Benoît; she was almost 54 years old. Father Chartier noted in her burial record that she had received the ‘sacraments and comfort of the Church’. [5] Her funeral was held two days later there in the presence of family and friends.

Sources:

1. St-Eustache (St-Eustache, Quebec), parish register, 1779-1786, p. 49, entry no. B.300 (1781), Louise Rochon baptism, 24 December 1781; St-Eustache parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 19 March 2010).

2. Archives des notaires du Québec, database and digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/ : accessed 21 October 2014), actes de notaire, Pierre-Rémi Gagnier, 6 January 1800, no. 2980, Contrat de mariage de Joseph Poirier et Marie Louise Rochon.

3. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1799-1805, p. 2 verso, entry no. M.2 (1800), Joseph Poirier – Marie Louise Rochon marriage, 13 January 1800; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 7 March 2008).

4. Archives des notaires du Québec, database and digital images, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/notaires/ : accessed 21 October 2014), Contrat de mariage de Joseph Poirier et Marie Louise Rochon. Joseph’s property was about 2.5 acres wide by 28.7 acres long, according to an online conversion calculator. (Convert arpent to acres - Conversion of Measurement Units (http://www.convertunits.com/from/arpent/to/acres : accessed 22 October 2014).)

5. St-Benoît (St-Benoît, Quebec), parish register, 1835, p. 54 recto, entry no. S.116, Louise Rochon burial, 29 October 1835; St-Benoît parish; digital image, “Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967”, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 19 March 2010).

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.