Stories of my Ancestors

WATCH OUT MCDONALDS

2011-12-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Did you ever have an Auntie Mame? You know what I mean. The wild, madcap Aunt. The fun Aunt.
I did.
My darling Aunt Gertie. I hadn't seen her in many, many years but it seems like just last week she had me laughing my head off.
She would make you put on wigs and act silly. She would drive like a maniac down the highway yelling at the top of her lungs "Watch out McDonalds" (taken from an old tv commercial)
She would dress in the most....interesting ways and we always wondered what she would have on when she was coming over.
Her sense of humour was quick and saucy. I can't even repeat here some of the stuff she said on here but I will tell those stories for years to come.

So with a sad heart I say goodbye to my mother's sister more commonly known with love in our family as Dirty Gertie...rest in peace Widow Brown.
Gertrude Champagne - March 24, 1928 to December 24, 2011

2011-12-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

I am using this post as a guest book. I would love to hear from you. Leave your general comments here.
(Please ignore the date as this is the only way to keep this post at the top)
Check out my other blog at http://www.familytreesmaycontainnuts.com

THANKSGIVING WISHES FROM CANADA

2011-11-24T07:12:00.001-08:00

A LIFELONG CAREER–VIC LEMIRE

2011-10-18T07:35:00.001-07:00

My brother has been involved in hockey his whole life. He was a goaltender and has played for a couple of US universities as well as one here in Canada. He played on the Brandon Wheat Kings team and also for the Vancouver Junior Canucks team.

After leaving university he began running his own very successful hockey schools around the world even running them in Japan, Minnesota, & Florida.

He had a couple ground breaking creations he made for his hockey schools, using his background in mechanical engineering.

Here is a newspaper article about his reflex tunnel to measure the abilities and weak points of his goaltending students. They could improve their reaction times without fear of being hit by a real puck. Brilliant. Remember this was before computers were available to regular people.

You can click on the picture to read the article in a larger size.

How about you? Do you have any inventors in your family?

WE NEED YOUR VOTE

2011-10-07T06:59:00.001-07:00

I need you to help out a local charity and it will cost you nothing but a few minutes of your time to vote online.

This is one post I would like to see go viral amongst bloggers. I would love it if you would share it. If you do share it ask your readers to share it too. You can tweet it or Facebook it right from the web page. Please. Share. It costs nothing.
In the Vancouver East side there is a lot of poverty. Without getting into politics or discussions of parental responsibilities lets try to help this School win a large grant. How do you do that? Simply vote for their project to win. You do this online by signing in with an email address and then searching out their project by number. 11733…. you can vote for them everyday for 15 days straight. If they make it on to the next round we will hope for your support again.
Here is a link to their page http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11733
Here is a bit of their information taken from the voting site:
“Admiral Seymour Elementary School is located in Vancouver's Downtown East Side and is one of our city's needy inner city schools. Seymour's population is made up of 133 students enrolled in 7 divisions, including a district class for students with special needs. (Learning Disabilities + Behaviour Disorders) The demographics of our learning community are diverse; over 70% of our students speak another language at home other than English, which amounts to 42% of our population qualifying to receive ESL support, 32% of our students are aboriginal, and 25% of our students have been identified with having special learning challenges such as learning disabilities, behavioral challenges, medical diagnosis etc. Many of our students do not have designations that warrant ministry funding for support from counselors, art therapists or expressive art therapists. However, they are our most vulnerable children. The ones who are perpetually filled with sadness and anxiety. These are the children who seem to be falling through the cracks.”
I know how kind and generous all of you are. Please take a moment to vote for this project and remember to vote each day for 15 days or up to the cut off date. Please…….thank you.

DOMAIN NAME SCAM

2011-10-02T11:31:00.001-07:00

I received a letter in the mail today from the Domain Registry of Canada, advising me that my registration for familytreesmaycontainnuts.com will expire in February, 2012.
My domain names are not registered with this company. I use another company. I have no idea how they got my home address.
I did a search right away on this company and came across a good post at Six Pixels of Separation. I suggest you have a look at the post and make any decisions you have on the direct marketing scam for yourself with your own research.
The letter doesn’t say I am registered with Domain Registry of Canada it says this:
You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, (Lori here: yes of course we do), and now is the time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Registry of Canada. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customer and friends to located you on the Web. (Me again:well yes it will…but the expiration date is between me and Go Daddy and not this company)
Spread the word people. this company likely has a US version as well. This is a scam from Domain Registry of Canada. Scam, SCAM, can you say SCAM!!!!
And thanks again to Six Pixels of Separation for the information.

ZEPHIRIN CHAMPAGNE

2011-06-05T13:27:00.001-07:00

My grandfather, Zephirin Champagne, Metis. I find this to be such an odd photo and I don’t know why.

It would have been taken in Manitoba most likely but they did spend time in North Dakota.

HOW WOULD YOU SOURCE THIS?

2011-06-04T09:56:00.001-07:00

I have this newspaper clipping for my Grandmother’s obituary. I don’t know where it came from although I would imagine it was from Windsor, Ontario where she lived and died.

So how would you experienced genealogists site this source? I can say it is a newspaper clipping but what else?

Octavie Carriere Champagne was widowed 14 years before she died.

Here she is with her eldest daughter, Denise. Denise went on to marry Pierre Lavoie but they had no children. Denise was widowed in middle age and never remarried.

OUT OF THE BLUE

2011-03-23T06:38:00.000-07:00

I came home from work yesterday to an email from a young woman asking for the password to access my online family tree.
I am always cautious with these requests as I don't want the tree thieves to swoop in and copy the tree in order to sell the information via CDs. I love to share the tree with family members though, no matter how far removed from my actual line.
Turns out her father is actually my first cousin. I have tried a few times through the years to locate him or his brother. All I knew was their names and where they lived as children. I had a copy of a newspaper clipping of a photograph of them with their father, my uncle, at a parade many years ago.
I have my email address out there in so many places and I am so glad I do. I have kept the same email address for years.
Have you ever tried to contact someone online only to find out that their email address is no longer in use.
Have you changed your email address? Did you update the message boards out there with your new one? What a shame it would have been had my email address been incorrect. This person would not have been able to contact me.
So go and check out what email address you have out there. You may be missing out on contact with a family member.

RED RIVER SETTLEMENT MAP

2011-01-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

click on map to enlarge

This map of the Red River Settlement in Manitoba is from the Metis Resource Centre http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/ Most of my mother's family lived in the St. Boniface sections with some also in St. Norbert and St. Vital.

AFRO=LOUISIANA SLAVE INFORMATION

2010-11-24T06:08:00.000-08:00

Although this site doesn't pertain to my family tree I thought I would mention it here in case anyone else might be able to use it.
I have been indexing some estate records for Low Country Africana from Footnote on South Carolina but today heard of another database that may be of use to people researching their families.
AFRO-LOUISIANA HISTORY AND GENEALOGY 1719-1820 is available.
In an email notice from World Vital Records it says:

Distinguished New Orleans writer and historian, Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, has dedicated her time and expertise to discover and reveal the background of 100,000 slaves who were brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries. Documents and archives collected from France, Spain, Texas and Louisiana uncover African slave names, genders, ages, occupations, illnesses, family relationships, ethnicity, places of origin, prices paid by slave owners, and slaves' testimony and emancipations.
Because the French and Spanish proprietors of Louisiana kept far more detailed records than their British counterparts at slave ports on the Atlantic coast, the records show precious historical data as well as valuable genealogy data. The Afro-Louisiana dataset given by Dr. Hall is a priceless treasure that genealogists and historians alike will treasure for centuries to come.

If you are interested in these records you can access them at this link:
http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=laslave

WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH

2010-11-11T06:51:00.000-08:00

OUT OF THE CLOSET

2010-11-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

I just heard about the museum in San Antonio, Texas that took down a wall and found a bunch of historical items in the closed closet.
There were roughly 200 items in there.

Not the actual photos.

There was a bible printed in the 1600s.
There are various items relating to the civil war era including a letter written by Joseph Wood to his sister in 1861 about the Confederate troops taking over San Antonio.

U. S. Grant

Not the actual photo

Also in the closet were World War II posters, including some from Canada and the Philippines, and a rare group of Japanese posters, a Union officer's photo album with family papers and images of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Photos of the Alamo, local missions and street scenes of San Antonio from the 1920s also were found.
They don't know why the closet was closed off but they are going through the library meeting minutes to see if they can find out whose brilliant idea it was to hide this stuff away.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debcll/4102584182/

Not my closet. No really it isn't.

One day someone will have to sort through all my special stuff in my closets...and drawers...and shelves...and counters. I wonder if they will view it with the awe and delight that I am sure the workers in San Antonio did when they found their treasure.

This post will also be on my other blog.

GUILTY OR INNOCENT - EMMANUEL BEAUGRAND DIT CHAMPAGNE

2010-11-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

I have posted here before about Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne. Luckily for me I was contacted by a distant relative (hey there Susan) who also has him in her tree. She gave me some information about him and I was able to find a copy of the text she quoted.
These are Sessional papers from the Government of Canada regarding his character after the Northwest Resistance/Rebellion.
Emmanuel was taken in leg irons and handcuffs as seen here after the battles. What to do when you may be executed for taking part in a fight to protect your land and families. Were they coerced into participation by threats? Damned if you do and damned if you don't I guess.
What I do know by reading this is that regardless of his position during the fighting he tried to be a decent human being.

NAMES OF OTHERS IN THIS DOCUMENT: Joseph Arcand, Pierre Henri, Ignace Poitras (the elder), Ignace Poitras (the younger), Pierre Parenteau, Moise Parenteau, Jospeh Albert Monkman, Maxime Dubois, Alex. P. Fisher, Patrice Tourond and Francis Tourand.

DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE LOVED?

2010-10-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have a brother. I have a brother that I don't know if he is dead or alive. We didn't have a fight or anything like that. In fact the last time I saw him was for a huge family celebration that he had come back into our lives. Alas he is gone again and none of us know where he is.
I miss my brother. I love my brother. There is a big hole in my heart where he should be.
My brother is a brilliant guy as it runs in the family. He created a great business for himself throughout the years and was quite successful. I was always so proud of him.
He played hockey as a youngster. He was a goalie and he was good. At one point he was on an NHL hockey team's farm team. He lived and breathed hockey his whole life. He played for 3 universities. He also played in the Western Hockey League for the Brandon Wheat Kings.
He has published a few books on goaltending. Goaltenders Are Not Targets was his first. Off The Post was another.

My brother used to make hockey masks back in the day when they were not very fancy. He would make them in his basement and many a young goalie had one made. This is pretty old school but at the time they were impressive.

He was a hockey coach and ran his own goalie schools all over the world. He has even taught hockey in Japan. He had run local schools here and schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He coached in Florida too I think but by this time he was no longer in contact with us.
So what happens when someone in your family chooses to no longer be a part of your life?
What happens when we search for our ancestors and we have that one elusive person who we can't account for? Why did they remove themselves from the family? Were they asked to leave? Were they as missed as my brother is by all his siblings?

YOU HAVE TO GET SNOOPY

2010-07-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

I recently found this photo of my grandparents, Rosana Pinard (1877-1946) and Joseph Omer Lemire (1867-1950). They lived in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. I never knew them as they died before I was born.
The photo was found while I was snooping through my sister's big box of photos. She had a bunch of interesting ones in there and I think we were both surprised that this one was in there.
My point is that if you don't get snoopy you may miss out on some great finds. Ask your relatives if you can see their photos. They may not know what they have or they may not even care.
I borrowed several to copy and I made sure I gave them back to her the very next time I saw her...today. You may even have to use a camera to photograph the pictures instead of taking them out of someones home. Not many people would let you I am sure.

BLOOD RESERVE CENSUS 1901

2010-07-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Blood Reserve was Canada's largest reserve at one time. The Blood were also known as the Kainai.
This census from 1901 shows names that would not necessarily be accurate. Were these names given by the people themselves or were they written by a census taker using his own criteria for naming? Many were very insulting and I didn't use a photo of those pages. This is why I question how the names were arrived upon. You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

Some of the names are:

Long Time Pipe Woman
Crop Ear Wolf
Taking Gun in Night
Bruised Head

These are not insulting at all but I assure you on subsequent pages there were many that were. I could be wrong but I don't think they referred to themselves in some of those derogatory terms.
There is a beautiful book by George Webber about this reserve called People of the Blood.

ORGANIZATION IS KEY

2010-07-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

flickr.com/photos/82325649@N00/2775149207

I used to have lots of time to work on family trees. Since going back to work full time however things have obviously changed. When I found a little extra time this weekend I started going back through the emails I had saved into my family tree folder.

Over the last several months (and some longer) I have saved emails from distant relatives who have contacted me and are sharing pictures and pedigrees with me. I would have had the time to add them into my tree but first I will have to check out the information for myself and find some sources for each and every person. This will take a lot of time.

I really appreciate the generosity of these people (keep it coming) but I feel badly that I haven't updated things with these new found family members.

How about you? Do you have stacks of data just waiting to be proved before you add it to your tree? Have you ever added stuff in without checking and then found it all to be incorrect? YES!!!! Have you sent information to someone and then noticed they never added it to their trees?

JEAN BAPTISTE MALATERRE

2010-06-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

I came across this notation years ago and kept it even though Jean Baptiste Malaterre is not related to me that I know of.
"On July 12, 1851, a small band of Métis buffalo hunters from Saint Francois-Xavier on the Assiniboine River in the Red River Settlement encountered and on July 13 and 14 fought and defeated some hundreds of Sioux warriors on the first slope of the Grand Coteau of the Missouri southeast of Minot in what is now North Dakota. This was the most formidable, as it was the last, of the encounters between the buffalo hunters of Red River and the Sioux of the American plains.
It did not end well for many but for Jean Baptiste it was especially violent.

MAL À TERRE Jean-Baptiste
d. and s. 13 Jul 1851*
Witnesses Pascal Breland, Charles Montmini
* Burried near the rivière des Chayenne, killed by the Sioux, feet and hands cut, scalped, with a broken scull, his brain lying on the ground. He had gun wounds, 67 arrows and three knives sunk in his body. The exact quote: «Nous soussigné avons inhumé près de la rivière des Chayennes le corps de l'infortuné Jean Baptiste Mal à terre, massacré le même jour par les Sioux. Il fut retrouvé les piés et les mains coupés, la chevelure levée, le crâne cassé et la cervelle répandue sur la terre et ayant dans le corps en outre des trous coups de fusil, soixante sept flèches et trois couteaux plantés."

MHS Transactions, Series 3, 1959-60 seasonMHS Transactions were originally published by the Manitoba Historical Society on the above date. We make online versions available as a free, public service. As an historical document, Transactions may contain language that is no longer in common use and which may offend some readers. They should not be construed to represent the views of today’s Manitoba Historical Society.

THOMAS BRUNEAU AND ADELAIDE LANDRY

2010-05-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

My second great grandparents, Thomas Stanislaus Bruneau and Adelaide Landry were married in 1857. In 1860 the St. Boniface church which held so many records for the area, burned to the ground and pretty much all was lost.
Some 27 years later Thomas Bruneau swore out a statement declaring their marriage information likely to establish claim for Scrip payment for Metis of the area.

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e001/e000011114.jpg

"I Thomas Bruneau of the Parish of St. Peter, Rat River in the county of Provencher, and Province of Manitoba; farmer; make oath and say, that on or about the twenty fifth day of January A.D. 1867, I was joined in the Holy ~~Hands~~ Bonds (thanks TK) of matrimony with Adelaide Landry; at the Parish of St. Boniface; Red River Settlement, by the Reverend father Beremont; who was then acting as Parish Priest. That subsequently through fire; the records of the said Parish of St. Boniface were destroyed, and no records now to be found to establish my said marriage."

his

Thomas X Bruneau

mark

Sworn before me at
Winnipeg in the county Selkirk this 17 day
of September a.d.1880
S. Macdonald

PHOTOS FROM LONG AGO

2010-05-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

I thought you might enjoy these old photos. We family historians are all about the old stuff aren't we? You can click on the arrows at the bottom of the slide show to advance the pictures. There are a lot of them.
You can see them full screen by clicking that option at the top of the slide show.
TIME GONE BY

By the way...I have been on those roads shown....The Fraser Canyon and the Bella Coola road. The Fraser Canyon has improved a lot since that photo was taken but the Bella Coola road...no so much. Shriek!!!

SHARE A SLICE OF YOUR LIFE - FIRSTS

2010-05-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

Share A Slice of Your Life has asked us to write about a first in our lives or the lives of our ancestors. This is a new site and you should head over for a peek and maybe join in.

I know many of you have seen this story before but I couldn't think of a bigger first than this one.

I am re-posting this story of my 11th great grandfather who was the first apothecary in New France. His family was the first family to come intact from France to live in the new country.

The other first for this meme is is the fact that it is my blogoversary here. 1 year anniversary. You know what? I didn't even remember. Teena in Toronto noticed and sent me good wishes. Thanks Teena.

Louis Hebert was a very important man in the early history of New France (Quebec). He was my 11th. Great Grandfather and here is what I know about him.
Louis was born about 1575 in St. Germain, d'Auxerre, France apparently living in a house near the Louvre. He was also married in France but came to New France without his family.
Louis Hebert was an apothecary. This would be like a herbalist/pharmacist at the time.
In 1606 Louis Hebert sailed with Samuel Champlain to Port Royal, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. There is a river and an island named for Hebert. In the summer of that same year they sailed to the southwest looking for suitable sites for settlement. The area they were attracted to is now Gloucester, Massachusetts. Louis was known for cultivating land and they planted a clearing there to test the soil fertility. He planned to bring his family there.
At one point in this expedition Louis, Samuel Champlain and others leaped from their ship in the middle of the night to aid some of the men from the ship who against orders did not stay on board and were now being attacked by the inhabitants of the area. They returned to France in 1607. I will continue this story with the return of Louis to New France in 1610 in another post.

addendum: this post has been previously published on my other site Family Trees May Contain Nuts

PROCLAIMATION - GENERAL AMNESTY

2010-05-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am Metis. My mother's family were from Manitoba and several of them fought with Louis Riel in the Rebellion in the North West Territories.
Some of these brave men were granted amnesty as they were said to have been "misguided" while others had to serve out their sentences.
You can click on the pictures to make them big enough to read.

ANCESTOR APPROVED AWARD

2010-04-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

I received this award from A Rootdigger and I really hope my ancestors would approve of my research into their lives. A Rootdigger has a few sites and is very interested in German ancestry.

Now I need to tell you about things about my ancestors that have surprised, humbled or enlightened me. Oh my what to choose? Here we go.

I was surprised to find out that my 11th Great Grandparents were the first official family to settle in New France. (Quebec) Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet both have statues erected in their honour in Quebec.
I was really surprised when one of my sisters was sent a photo randomly from her sister in law of a trip she was on back in the 60's. There is my sister on her way to Nova Scotia and she is sitting on the edge of Louis Hebert's statue. This was 40 years before I did our family history and we had no idea we were related to him.
I am humbled by the sacrifice of all my ancestors but most of all by my Metis ancestors who fought so bravely to try and save their land and their homes during the Louis Riel Rebellion.
I was humbled by my Grandmother who had given birth a minimum of 12 times. How did you survive something like that? How do you care for them all? Feed them? Oh and the many that didn't survive. How do you bury so many like some of my ancestors had to do.
I have been enlightened by all my ancestors. I had no interest in history before I started researching but now find many things to interest me about the past. A storm or drought from the past now has real meaning to me.

I will have to end at 5 due to time constraints or I will never get this posted. I will pass this on to the following bloggers with no pressure to take part at all. I know how busy you all are.

Now I know I am supposed to give this to more than 3 but honestly it looks to me as if all of you already have this award. As I have mentioned to these bloggers I know all of our ancestors would approve heartily of our research into their lives.

A NEW CONUNDRUM FOR RESEARCHERS

2010-03-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/265900118/

Genealogists have always come up against brick walls. They hammer away brick by brick to find their elusive ancestors. To find that piece of information that will get them to that next step, next generation.

So here is the conundrum for future researchers. You are looking at a family and there are two children in the family. They are 2 months apart in age. You start to question this because one surely must be adopted. You hunt and hunt for an explanation but sure enough the records show they are that close in age. You look for a sibling of the parents who may have died leaving their baby with their brother or sister. Nope. No luck.

I was just watching the news and they showed a family who had twin boys. One of these babies was born prematurely, the other was carried for 2 more months and was delivered then. They were born 63 days apart.

Oh how we are going to pull our hair out over these puzzles.

MOURNING JEWELRY

2010-03-06T10:30:00.000-08:00

I was contacted by the wife of a distant cousin (Hi Chris) about a piece of jewelry she received that had been in her mother's possession. It was called a mourning ring. There was a name inscribed inside of it with the deceased's death date and age.

She looked all over her family tree and can find no connection to the name and we have both done research to try and find out who this woman was but we have found nothing. Zero.

The custom was to bequeath these rings to your friends and loved ones after your death. They were often made with black stones and had the deceased's woven hair under a piece of crystal. Sometimes pearls were added to symbolize tears.

They also put hair into brooches and necklaces and some created pieces that were all woven hair. Women sometimes had little containers on their dressing tables to hold the hair that they removed from their hair brushes. I think Cass at This Old House has one or told me about them?? I can't remember for sure.

All of these photos are from the Colonial Williamsburg site. They have an amazing site filled with history and genealogy info. I envy those of you who may have visited there.

This ring with the two colors of hair are engraved "George and Martha Washington" and are believed to hold their hair.

Sometimes engraved in these rings were the Latin intials AET that refers age at death or OBT which refers to the date of death.

Do you have any of these heirlooms in your home? Can you share any information or history about them?

(© The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 2010
Note: "Colonial Williamsburg" is a trademark name and a registered service mark of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material, including but not limited to downloading, printing, and performance (i.e. display.) Any individual who uses copies of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation World Wide Web site text and/or images (http://www.history.org; http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org; http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.net) for purposes in excess of "fair use" as defined by the copyright law may be liable for copyright infringement.
Any use of text and/or images which is not defined as educational or fair use requires written permission from The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Content of this web site may not be used for commercial purposes.)

BLOGGER'S BEST FRIEND AWARD

2010-01-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

Hummer @ Branching Out Through the Years has given me this award. What an honour. Really. What I like most about blogging is the sense of community. The fact that she felt I had been a good friend to her is so nice.

ADDENDUM: JAN. 27, 2010

Sandra @ I Never Knew My Father has also passed this award on to me. You ladies are so kind. Thank you Sandra. I am really glad I have made a bit of a difference in blogland.

So meet 'Bandit' "A Blogger's Best Friend Award". Give this award to your most loyal blog readers. Thus, the award should be given to a follower of yours who takes the time to comment regularly on many of your posts. In addition his or her blog should be creative, funny and always entertaining. Upon receiving this award, pass it along to two fellow bloggers who fit this criteria. Wow. Like I said an honour.

Well I don't post a lot on here so there isn't much for my followers to leave comments on.

I will start with Josette @ My Grama's Soul and then Lucie @ Lucie's Legacy. I hope you ladies accept blog awards because you certainly do deserve them.

HAPPY 101 AWARD

2010-01-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

Either everyone has run out of blog friends to give these to or I am a very lucky blogger. I was given this award by three different people yesterday.

Bill West @ West in New England , Frances @ Branching Out Through The Years and Becky @ Grace and Glory . No technically Bill and Frances gave me the award on my other site Family Trees May Contain Nuts but I will be lazy and write one post to put on both my sites.

As it usually goes with these awards we are required to tell something of ourselves and to pass them on to others. This list is 10 things that make me happy. I will skip over the obvious ones of family and friends and try to come up with some different ones.

I am happy when the dog does not pee on the floor in front of company.
I am happy when I am not stopped by a train while on my way to coffee group. This is a bone of contention in our community. I mean I am talking my first cup of coffee for the day here. Move it.
I am happy when my husband remembers to call after a day of snowmobiling in the mountains to tell me they made it back to the cabin safely. Maybe I should be more worried about getting a phone call in the morning after all these guys have been back at the cabin for the night to make sure they survive the evening festivities.
I am happy that my sisters can sing just as well as I do. Read this any way you like.
I am happy when I hear a basketball bouncing either on pavement or in a gym. I don't get that nearly enough anymore.
I am happy it doesn't snow often here in the Vancouver area. We are not supposed to get much snow here but last year was a doozy, snowing every day for over a month. So far this year we are good. Abnormally high temperatures here yesterday.
I am happy that I have tall people in my house to reach things for me. Second shelf is too high for me. Of course if these tall people would put things where I can reach them I wouldn't need their help. Hey...it occurs to me that all the alcohol is in the cupboard above the fridge. What's up with that?
I am happy that I am such a good driver because everyone else out there drives like an idiot.
I am happy that I have so many unfinished projects in my life because I will have to live forever to get them done.
I am happy that my family and friends actually know how crazy weird I am and they still love me. I know this because they all emailed me a warning when the government announced they were going to lock up all the crazy weird people in the city. "Run little buddy, run" was what they all said.

Now I am supposed to pass this on to 10 people. Yikes. So many of you don't post awards. Let me think. I try not to tag the same people over and over again. I will have to stop my list at 8 today. If you prefer not to join in just know that you were thought of.

Hey don't go yet...did you leave me a note?

RESEARCHING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX

2009-12-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

Percy English

1897-1959

Some time ago while researching my husband's side of the family I had pretty much exhausted all the avenues to find more family members. Most of his ancestors did not have surviving children. He did have some half siblings though significantly older than him, from his father Percy. I was in contact with one of their sons in particular who told me of the many family items he had and was going to share with us.

And then a year went by and nothing came. Finally I heard from him again and he told me of his health issues following a bad car crash. He would be sending the information though, he promised. Another year or so passes and when I hear from him again he assures me he wants to send me some things but there has been some flooding in the basement you know and he hopes things were not damaged.
I have offered to pay for the cost of sending these items but have yet to hear back from him again. This makes me sad. My husband never knew his father who died when my husband was only 4. These things would mean so much to him. I consider this avenue to be a lost cause.

On the other side of the coin I found one of my husband's half siblings who are actually around the same age as his mother. I spoke with this man who in New York who really didn't know who I was talking about not knowing anything about my husband, his younger half brother. He did mention that their sister lived in Texas now so that is where I was going to try next.

Armed with her name, age, married name from her second marriage and state I went looking. I did find her divorce records from her first husband but that led me nowhere. I didn't know if she had any children. Next my search was for her current husband. Texas is a big state by the way.

I made a lot of cold calls to people with the same last name, luckily not a very common one and "met" a lot of really nice Texas folk. Some were going to phone around to the others they knew of so I didn't have to call long distance from Canada. No connections were made but I really did feel the kindness of strangers here.

And then I found what I needed. My husband's half sister had written a memorial poem to her deceased husband that was presented at the hospital where he had been an organ donor. There was a list of this man's children, her step children. I hit the phone listings again and now knowing what city they were in, narrowed down my search rather quickly. A couple of phone calls later I was speaking to one of these step children and she took down all my information and contacted the woman I was looking for. Within an hour I had a phone call from my husband's half sister. Thirty years older than him and knowing nothing of him, just his brother. It took a lot of explaining but finally she understood the details and was elated.

This dear woman has sent us photos of their grandparents, uncles and aunts and an actual recording of their father's voice. She has told us all kinds of family stories. We email back and forth and hopefully will meet in person one day soon.

You have to keep digging and looking in unusual places. If you can't find the person in question make sure you look for other connections such as step children or previous neighbors who may still be friends with the person you are looking for.

MANITOBA RECORDS

2009-12-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

I came across this site last night and it just goes to show you that you need to revisit your research over and over again. You never know what will show up. (http://www.shsb.mb.ca/paysriel/outils/frs-outlnk-voyageurs.html)

The site is in French but I read enough French to know that I have to get written permission to use the pictures on my site. You can copy them for personal use without permission however.
I saved about a dozen photos of my ancestors starting with my grandfather Ziphirin Champagne. This is a different photo that I already had.

There were other photos of my great grand aunts and uncles. Many slightly distant cousins a few times removed. And also a group photo with the Metis Council. There were 4 or 5 of my family in that picture but the quality of the complete picture is very poor so I really can't see their faces.
If you have family from Manitoba you should have a look on this site to see what they have in their archives. The following is the translation from that site:

This project was carried out thanks to l' financial aid of the government of Canada, by l' intermediary of the Public records of Canada and the Canadian Council of the files and l' Association manitobaine of the files like l' financial aid of Culture, Inheritance and Manitoba Tourism

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY FUN

2009-11-14T19:39:00.000-08:00

This is my first foray into Saturday Night Genealogy Fun hosted by Randy Seaver @ Genea-Musings .
I often see the topics and don't have anything to add to them but this Saturday night is different. Here is the topic for this week.

What is the Nicest Thing another genealogist did for you, or to you, in the last week or so? (If you have no examples for this past week, go back in time - surely someone has done a nice thing for you in recent years!).

I don't have anything recent but several years ago I was contacted by my second cousin, Maureen. I didn't even know she existed as I was very early into my research. We agreed that the connection was there in the family tree and exchanged notes and details. I thought I had won the lottery because she had so much more information than I did.

Then it came. It came in the mail. A large manila envelope heavy with family photographs. Photographs of people who I had never seen before. My family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandparents. Oh my, the photos it contained.

You can get information and details, dates and places and names but when you see a photo of your blood family from a time long before you were even born it changes you. It connects you to a whole world of people. It grounds you and it is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in the genealogy world.

Thank you Maureen.

I was so lucky to meet Maureen in person for a lovely lunch. She lives about 5 hours away from me. When I look at her I see my mother and my aunts faces too.

MARIN BOUCHER- 8TH GREAT GRANDFATHER

2009-11-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

Genealogy is synonymous with sharing I think. How lucky for me to find the site of a generous researcher, Michel Robert.
Michel has done a great deal of research that includes one set of my 8th. great grandparents. He was even in France and has photographed the original home of theirs from the 1500's.
His web site is full of interesting genealogy research, photos and facts. I really had little on my relative other then an approximate birth date in France and the names of both his wives and 8 of his children. He generously allowed me to use his photographs in this post.

La Barre home of Julienne Baril and Marin Boucher. Handed down in her family.

Marin Boucher was born around 1589 in Mortagne, France. He married his first wife Julienne Baril in February of 1611. Their son Francois married Florence Gareman in 1641 making them 7th great grandparents. I don't have the names yet of any more of their children but Michel says there were

After the death of Julienne in 1627 Marin still lived in the house in France that had been handed down through the Baril family. I don't have any records of the other children from his first marriage but Michel states there were 7 in all baptized in St. Langis all said to be from La Barre which is how the family house was referred to noting the great grandfather of Julienne whose surname was Barr.

Being left with young children it was imperative Marin marry again and he chose Perrine Malet. With her he had 7 children one of which became one of my 7th great grandmothers, Madeleine Boucher.

St. Langis, church where Marin Boucher's children were baptized.

I have had this happen several times in my tree where I am connected not only through a married couple but also through more than one of their children who end up connected to me down the line. Inbreeding at it's best.
There is much more I could add but I don't want to simply post a copy of Michel's own research. He has worked very hard on gathering so much personal information. You should have a look at his site, Genealogy of New France in North America. It is bursting with information, maps, passenger lists.

KREATIVE BLOGGER AWARD

2009-11-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Linda @ Flipside is a sneaky one for sure. Yesterday I awarded her blog the Kreative Blogger award in recognition of her many interesting and creative posts on her site. She has done amazing research on her family trees and posts such interesting things.
Now Linda knows I have two blogs and she turned around and gave the award right back to me for this blog. Ha, sneaky I told ya!

Well thank you Linda. It is appreciated. I will list the 7 things asked for but I will not select 7 more recipients as it was hard enough the last time. Not that there aren't many who deserve it but there are many who have award and tag free blogs.

7 Things About Me

I am so into genealogy that I will look for stuff for anyone.
I often solve brick wall in my research in the middle of the night when I roll over in bed.
I had an uncle who did nothing but research every day in the archives in Ottawa and never shared a word of it with any of the family. (okay not really about me I know)
I have to use a calculator to work out dates and ages because I can't do math in my head. Even simple ones.
I proved we were Metis when I did my mother's side of the family. It was not something they were proud of in the past but my sisters and I are very proud.
I have developed an interest in history since starting genealogy because now I can relate it to real people. I think this is something the schools could use to their advantage.
I think people who do genealogy are always the most generous, kind people out there. They share such fabulous information and photos with complete strangers. I like to think I am the same.

METIS VETERANS MEMORIAL

2009-11-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

I post this with the permission of the Metis National Council. I think it is an important honour for our Metis veterans who have served our country. Lest we forget.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Métis Veterans to be Honoured at Juno Beach
Ottawa, ON -- Métis Nation veterans, youth and dignitaries will travel to the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-sur-Mer, France next week to dedicate a memorial to Métis who served in the World Wars.
“We all owe a debt to the Métis Nation citizens who fought, who were wounded and who died defending their people, their country and world freedom,” said Métis National Council President Clément Chartier. “This memorial will help ensure their service and sacrifice will not be forgotten.”
The memorial will include an exhibit highlighting Métis culture, the contributions of Métis soldiers, aircrew and sailors during the World Wars and will feature a Red River Cart, one of the most widely recognized symbols of the Métis Nation.

Over a dozen Métis veterans will be joined at the Remembrance Day, November 11, 2009 dedication ceremony by President Chartier, David Chartrand, Manitoba Métis Federation President and MNC Minister for Veterans Affairs, and the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and non-Status Indians.
"I am proud to participate in this historic event, where the sacrifices made by Métis servicemen and women are receiving the attention they deserve," said Minister Strahl. "I look forward to the November 11th special dedication service at Juno Beach Centre where on behalf of all Canadians, I will thank Métis veterans for the contributions and sacrifices made during the two world wars, the Korean war and the battle in Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions around the globe."
President Chartier is thanking Minister Strahl on behalf of the Métis Nation for his support, along with the Office of the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Veterans Affairs Canada for their assistance in making the memorial possible and providing resources for Métis Nation veterans and youth to participate in its dedication ceremony. He also thanks the Juno Beach Centre for their help and cooperation.
The renowned Métis dance team, the St. Ambroise Youth Steppers, will perform at the dedication ceremony, and join several other Métis youth as part of the delegation. David Chartrand, MMF President and MNC Minister for Veterans Affairs said it is important for Métis youth to be part of this important event.
“Our youth can learn a lot from the thousands of brave and selfless Métis Nation citizens who answered the call to serve during the World Wars,” said Chartrand. “The sacrifices made by Métis at Juno Beach, and on battlefields around the world, is a legacy future generations of Métis Nation citizens will remember with pride and gratitude.”
The dedication ceremony will be held at 3:00 pm, local time (9:00 am EST), November 11, 2009 at the Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Mer, France. Media are invited to attend, and are asked to contact Greg Taylor, MNC Communications, (613) 296-9263 or gregt@metisnation.ca for more information.
The MNC represents the Métis Nation in Canada at the national and international level. The Métis Nation’s homeland includes the 3 Prairie Provinces and extends into Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northern United States. There are approximately 350,000 – 400,000 Métis Nation citizens in Canada, roughly a quarter of all Aboriginal peoples in the country.

Métis National Council
350 Sparks St., Suite 201
Ottawa, ON K1R 7S8
www.metisnation.ca

A STORY OF MY MOM

2009-10-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

This is a story about my mom. Although parts of this story may seem sad it is actually isn't. I learned a lot from my mom. She died when I was 25, before my kids were born. She had always had a pretty rough life and seemed beaten down a good portion of the time. We will go back to the year 1969, Christmas time. I was 13.

One of my sisters and my brother chipped in their money to send my mom and me from British Columbia back to Ontario to visit our eldest sister who lived there with her husband and kids. They didn't have enough money for a plane so we were traveling by train. They also didn't have enough money for a berth so we were going to sleep in our seats. For 3 nights.
The food at the diner counter was pretty rough looking. The only thing they had that seemed decent was some pea soup. Breakfast, pea soup. Lunch, pea soup. Dinner, pea soup. My mother finally had enough of this but had such a tight budget I didn't know what she could do.

image courtesy of J E Matheson

She brought me through the train cars, past the luncheon counter further and further until we got to the dining car. Train travel back in those days, when you had the money was very elegant. The tables were set in a fashion that would give Bill or Susan a run for their money on Tablescape Thursday for sure.
She hustled me over to one of the beautifully set tables. The table was set with icy cold water filled crystal glasses, crystal dishes filled with olives and celery and other tidbits to nibble on. White linen napkins starched into perfect folds. A silver basket lined with a white napkin held some yeasty warm breads and the butter pats were close by molded into shells on their silver plates.

"Quickly" she said. "have some bread and butter" She tore some bread and managed to get the crumbs on the tablecloth. On purpose.
"Have some olives and celery" she said while drinking from the crystal glass.
Slowly down the aisle way came the conductor. He was chatting with the patrons. I ate some olives. Closer he comes, I drink some water. Finally he reaches our table. He asks my mother to see her ticket expecting (or not) to see a first class ticket which would entitle us to be in the elegant dining car.
She hands him our tickets and he says, of course, that we are not supposed to be in the dining car.

Really? she asks. Oh my I didn't realize that. The conductor eyes the table in front of us. They would have to completely redo the table if we left. He decided that we could stay and we ordered our dinner. I think the only thing I recognized on the menu was a steak so that is what I had. I don't remember what my mother had but she enjoyed every bite of it.

Well this story almost has a happy ending. Remember this was the first solid food I had eaten in a couple of days. The train was shaking back and forth. I could feel it slowly coming back up and I excused myself quickly from the table. I raced out of the dining car and into the first bathroom I could find. I threw up my entire dinner as the train jolted me from side to side. It was a colossal mess and I took off back to our car as fast as I could. I was so embarrassed.
The next morning I went to get some pea soup from the luncheonette and they were all out.

(I have also posted this on my other site:Family Trees May Contain Nuts)

MY GRANDPARENTS

2009-10-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

I have always said it is easier to get information on my family members back in the 1700's than it has been for the 1900's.

My grandfather, Ziphirin Champagne was born July 28, 1876 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He married Octavie Carriere on May 21, 1907. He was 30 years old and she was 18, having been born February 12, 1889 in DeSalaberry, Manitoba. I have his date of death as September 11, 1944 in Ontario. This was before I was born. I cannot find a death date for her.

I have no recollection of my grandmother but I have a vague recollection of my mom and my aunt cleaning out her suite in an old house. I could be mistaken about that. I would have been about 4 or 5 years old. I recall hardwood floors and a bunch of 78 rpm records in an empty closet.

I have few stories about them. My grandfather worked on the railway for a time. He was known for his big hands and was a bit of a security guard on the trains tossing people off. Though not an educated man Ziphirin could speak English, French and Cree being of Metis heritage. My grandmother was apparently a rather unhappy woman but with 12 children that lived, at least for a while, and many more who didn't I think I would be miserable too. Too many mouths and too little food. It was a very hard life. One that was shared with many others.

My grandparents family lines crossed in many areas. They were first cousins once removed through Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne, grandfather to Ziphirin and great grandfather to Octavie. They were also second cousins through two different lines. In total they are related 16 different ways that I won't go into here. It is a wonder that my entire family doesn't have two heads or something.

A NOTE FOR SANDY

2009-10-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hi out there to Sandy who has left a couple of comments on my Picasa web album in reference to Alida Pickle. I can't leave a reply comment for some reason so how about you email me directly and we can see if I can come up with some info for you. I don't have your email address either.

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT

2009-09-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

The most amazing thing happened today. I received an email from one of my sisters. I know that is amazing in itself but stick with me here. She sent me some photos that she received from her sister-in-law that were taken in the early 1960's.
My sister was on a trip with her husband and his mother from Ontario to Nova Scotia to visit her brother in law in the navy. Their trip took them through Quebec. They sat down in front of some statues and had their picture taken. She never thought anything of it again until this week, over 40 years later, when she was sent the picture in an email.Isn't she pretty? That is my big sister on the left and her dear mother in law on the right. Nothing unusual here is there? Until you look at the statues and read the inscription. I have written about these people immortalized in these monuments before. They are our 11th great grandparents, Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet.
The odd thing here is that we didn't know this until a couple of years ago when I discovered our connection and added them into our family tree.

I am so excited about this. I actually had shivers up my spine when I saw the old photo.

SHARING RESEARCH

2009-09-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

I received a comment in a previous genealogy post from Kathleen in Western Australia. She had done a search for a family name and it brought her to my site. Now I did have the names of the people she had searched for in my tree as they were my great great grandparents. What I did not have was the line she was searching for.
I did a few preliminary searches in the usual places and still wasn't finding anything. When dealing with Metis history the best place to go when you are stumped is Our_Metis_Roots@yahoogroups.com where you will find the most informed researchers. They constantly amaze me with the information they have collected and they are always ready to share.
Rod MacQuarrie came up with the answers both Kathleen and I were looking for and he did it in about 60 seconds. I have seen him respond so many times to others questions with very detailed and well sourced records. He includes everything on the people in question. Parents, children, military records, work records. You name it. Rod is not the only person in this group that jump to answer questions. There are many others doing great research and sharing it generously.
I always say genealogists are the most generous people always willing to help a fellow researcher.

FRANCOIS JACQUES BRUNEAU

2009-09-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

Francois Jacques Bruneau is my 3rd. great grandfather also in my mother's line. Francois was a child of a "a la facon du pays" union between Antoine Bruneau and an Aboriginal woman, likely Cree. This refers to a union "as was the custom of the country" where there was likely no religious sanction of the marriage due to the remote areas where they lived and the non-catholic wives. He was born in December of 1809 in Lac Vert, Saskatchewan or Rupert's Land as it was called.
Francois was not baptized at the time of his birth but traveled to Quebec with his father when he was 4 years old and was baptized on October 28, 1814 in the Basilique Notre Dame, Montreal.
In 1822 Francois was in the Red River Settlement in Manitoba and was attending a school directed by Abbe Jean Harper. He was going to enter the priesthood which made the Bishop Joseph Norbet Provencher especially happy because Francois spoke Cree and could be very helpful in dealing with the aboriginals. In 1829 he changed his mind and became a teacher instead.
He married Marguerite Harrison, also Metis, in 1831 and left teaching for farming. The census reports for the area during the 1832-1849 span show his assest growing steadily. He and Marguerite had 8 children that I know of but others say they had 11.
He became considerably well off in comparison to others in the area at the time. His interests turned to civic affairs and in July of 1843 he appeared before the Council of Assiniboia to request a distillery giving the Metis somewhere to sell their grain surpluses as well as requesting changes to the police force at the time. These requests were granted.
Bishop Provencher urged the governor of Rupert's Land to name French Canadians and Metis to the Council of Assiniboia and had him look at Francois qualifications. He was recommended as "a man of sound standing in the settlement of fair education". This was again to facilitate relations with the Metis, French and Aboriginals.
In the fall of 1850 he was named as a magistrate in one of the judicial districts and in 1851 was made a judge. He earned between 12 and 25 British pounds for his service yearly.
Francois Jacques Bruneau died June 26, 1865 during the typhoid epidemic followed two days later by his wife, Marguerite.

Note that the age for Francois say 55 years. It is hard to read and looks like 3s.

ANDRE CARRIERE- VOYAGEUR

2009-09-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Andre Carriere is my 3rd great grandfather in my maternal line. Andre was born March 31, 1779 in Boucherville, Quebec to Joseph Carriere and Marguerite St. Sauveur.

Like many men of the day Andre worked for the Hudson Bay Company's North West Company. They were trappers and riverboat men. The term used at the time for the boat men was voyageur. His work with them started around 1811 and continued until 1831.

One of vessels used at the time was a birch bark canoe that used 10-12 paddlers and could carry a payload of about 4 tons. These men paddled all day long to get to their destination. Being referred to a a voyageur was a professional term and not just a boatman. A lost load would be an expensive error.

Canoe Manned by Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall, Ontario, 1869

Frances Anne Hopkins/Library and Archives Canada/C-002771

Shooting the rapids, in a master canoe. Painting by Francis Ann Hopkins (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C2774f).

Andre Carriere married Angelique Daigneault (Dion, Lyon) but this was not necessarily a Catholic marriage but probably "a la facon du pays" or according to the custom of the country. These men often started new families in the bush so to speak with native women. Angelique was Metis, her mother being Cree and her father from Quebec. They had at least 7 children and as it goes in these times of small communities two of their sons are my second great grandfathers. Moise Carriere married Josephte Beaugrande dit Champagne and Daniel Carriere married Dorothee Landry.

HELENE DESPORTES

2009-08-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

When going so far back in time to learn about your ancestors the information available is often unproven and conflicting.

Take for instance my 8th. Great Grandmother, Helene Desportes. With my French heritage there seems to be a lot of firsts that happened in New France (Quebec). I have mentioned Louis Hebert and Marie Rollet being the first official family of NewFrance before. Now Helene Desportes was said to be the first white child (non aboriginal or Metis) born in New France. Helene was born to Pierre Desportes and Francoise Langlois. The date of her birth varies from 1619,1620,1621, 1622 or not even born in New France at all depending on what source is checked.

The next likely child who would have been the first born would have been the child of Anne Hebert and her husband Etienne Jonquet born in 1620. According to Samuel Champlain Anne Hebert died in child birth previous to 1620 and with no further mention of her child it was presumed stillborn. So this takes us back to Helene.

The historian Benjamin Sulte (1841-1923)¹ maintains that Guillemette Hebert was the first born Canadienne because he assumed that Marie Rollet had come to Acadia with her husband Louis Hebert in 1606 but this has been refuted and she is said to have come from Paris in 1617.

It is believed that Helene's father, Pierre came to New France with Abraham Martin (as in The Plains of Abraham) who was married to Marguerite Langlois, the sister of Pierre's wife, Francois Langlois. Pierre could read and write and held some standing in the community. He signed on behalf of the inhabitants of New France in appeal to the King of France. .

When Helene and Guillaume Hebert's marriage contract was drawn up in 1634² her parents did not sign as witnesses. They had 3 children, one who died in infancy. Joseph, born 1636³ and Francoise, born 16384

Helene's husband Guillaume died in 1639⁵ and she married Noel Morin. He was a wheelwright and became one of the early pioneers of Montmagny.
Their son, Germain was consecrated to the priesthood in September, 1665, making him the first Canadienne born priest. Their daughter Marie became the first Canadienne born nun. And their other son Jean Baptiste was member of the Conseil Souverain, political body appointed by the King of France, chosen as a part of French nobility.⁶
There have been many firsts in my family history. I believe I am the first to blog.

Sources:

W. Stewart WALLACE, "Benjamin Sulte", in The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p. p. 85.
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, online [http://www.ancestry.ca/]
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Quebec, Notre Dame, Baptemes 1621-1667, page 7
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Quebec, Notre Dame, Baptemes 1621-1667, page 10
Dictionary Of Canadian Biography Online, Library and Archives Canada online [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34521&query=marsolet], accessed May 15, 2007, http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34294&query=desportes
Ethel M. G. Bennett For information about the Desportes family in Quebec see Léon Roy, “Pierre Desportes et sa descendance,” SGCF Mémoires, II (1946–47), 165–68. See also Azarie Couillard Després, Louis Hébert: premier colon canadien et sa famille (Lille, Paris, Bruges, 1913; Montréal, 1918); La première famille française au Canada. Dionne Champlain, II, passim. Sulte, Hist. des Can.-fr., II, 37, 78.

SATURDAY NIGHT GENEALOGY CHALLENGE

2009-08-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Randy @ Genea-Musings has given us a Saturday night challenge. Our mission should we choose to accept it is to list our ancestors 5 generations back. This gives us 16 people. We are to also list their information as well as their ethnicity. That will be pretty easy for me.
Here we go:

Francois Lemire b. 1783 in Nicolet, Quebec- d.1854 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Image via Wikipedia
Marie Louise Salmon b. 1786, Nicolet, Quebec- d.1861 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Antoine Martel b. 1793 Baie du Febvre, Quebec - d. 1860 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Rosalie Faucher dit Chateauverd b. 1791 Baie du Febvre, Quebec - d. 1874 Nicolet French
Etienne Pinard dit Beauchemin b. 1813 Nicolet, Quebec - d. 1895 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Marguerite Beauchemin b. 1814 Nicolet, Quebec - d. 1880 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Louis Theophile Pinard b. 1829 Nicolet, Quebec - d. 1910 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Agnes Leblanc b. 1839 Nicolet, Quebec - d. 1877 Nicolet, Quebec, French
Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne b. 1799 Berthierville, Quebec - d. 1872 St. Boniface, Manitoba, French
Image by merlinprincesse via Flickr
Madeleine Laderoute b. 1828 St. Boniface, Manitoba - d. unknown, Manitoba, Metis, (French & Aboriginal)
Daniel Carriere b. 1823 Red River, Manitoba - d. unknown, Metis (French & Aboriginal)
Dorothee Landry b. 1826 St. Boniface, Manitoba - d. 1898 St. Boniface, Manitoba, Metis
Moise Carriere b. 1819 Red River, Manitoba - d. 1890 Desalaberry, Manitoba, Metis
Josephte Beaugrand dit Champagne b. 1828 Red River, Manitoba - d. unknown, Metis
Thomas Stanislaus Bruneau b. 1833 St. Boniface, Manitoba - d. 1896 Desalaberry, Manitoba, Metis
Adelaide Landry b. 1834 Red River, Manitoba - d. 1925 Desalaberry, Manitoba, Metis

So I figure my ancestors were 56.25 % French and 43.75% Metis (French & Aboriginal). So would this mean I would add another 21.875 % to my French side? That would make me 78.125% French and 21.875% Aboriginal. Depending on how you look at this I guess I would also be 100% Canadian.

SIGNATURES FROM MY ANCESTORS

2009-07-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have very few photographs of my ancestors. Even the ones who were alive in a time when there were ways of creating photo type images. Of course for those alive before the advent of photographs and daguerreotypes etc. there are no images unless they had a portrait painted.

It occurred to me while looking at some old records that what I did have were their signatures. I cropped them out of the images of the documents. This will be the closest I ever get to photographs of these ancestors.

It also gave a glimpse into the education of these people. You could see from the documents who could sign their own names.

This first signature was on the marriage record for my 5th great grandfather. Now this is likely his signature but also could have been his father's who had the same name. Because it was the first signature on the record I think it would be his. This was signed in 1751.(Jacques Baron)

In 1685 Marguerite Benoist signed on her marriage record to Guy Vache (Lacerte). I would have thought that was unusual for a woman of that time. Marguerite is not in my direct line but in a collateral line I have done for someone else.
(Marguerite Benoist)

Often the records are almost unreadable. Ink stains like this one can obliterate very important information. You have to be very tenacious to find out the facts. This signature from my 5th great grandmother Marie Renee Lefebvre was from her marriage record in 1728.

(Marie Renee Lefebvre)

Her father also signed that day in 1728 but seemed to have a little more luck with the ink.

(Rene Lefebvre)

Edmond Pinard was my great grand uncle. I have posted about him before on here. Click here for his story

(Edmond Pinard)

My Aunt on her marriage to my father's brother in 1919

(Virginie Pinard)

At the marriage of his son Noel Houde my 6th great grandfather signed his name in 1722.

I AM REALLY ANNOYED

2009-07-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Image by Akbar Simonse (busy and tired) via Flickr

I have a question for those of you who follow this blog.
I have been working on the last post about Gen. Cadwalader for ever. Every time I would think I had corrected the problem and would publish it the text would not be in the right place. I check the preview and it is fine but then BAM!!! it moves when published. I won't even go into how many times I tried to get it to the "read more" stage.
Here is my question:
When you see on your site that I have published a post do you get another notification every time I edit that same post and hit publish again. If you do I am sorry because you probably got 20 notifications for that one post alone.
So let me know please.
Thanks for your help.

GENERAL JOHN CADWALADER

2009-07-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I researched a family history that really did have some amazing family tales. Documented ones at that. I was thinking about this recently when Linda over at Flipside wrote about her gggg grandfather, Purnell Houston.

She mentioned in her post that Purnell had served in the militia under the command of General John Cadwalader. The name rang a bell so I looked up in my research and sure enough he was the 5th great grandfather of the person I researched for.

John Cadwalader, the son of Thomas Cadwalader was a man of great prominence during the American Revolution. He attended the Academy and College of Philadelphia from 1751 to 1758. Although he entered the College of Philadelphia with the class of 1760, he did not graduate but instead left to organize a very successful mercantile business with his brother Lambert Cadwalader.

From the earliest days of the American Revolution, John Cadwalader worked to persuade others to protest in favor of colonial liberties. He became a member of Philadelphia's Committee of Safety and captain of the City Troop or "Silk Stocking Company." He was later appointed Brigadier-General of the Pennsylvania Militia and commanded the Pennsylvania troops during the winter campaign of 1776-1777, in which he crossed the Delaware with Washington and engaged the British in the Battle of Princeton. As the war progessed, he was instrumental in forming a militia from the eastern shore of Maryland; with this militia he rejoined Washington as a volunteer to fight the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.

After the British evacuated Philadelphia in June 1778, Cadwalader fought a duel with General Thomas Conway, who had been accused of plotting to remove Washington from command of the Continental army and whose conduct toward American officer was considered "offensive" by Cadwalader. Cadwalader gravely wounded Conway, but Conway did recover to write a letter of apology to Washington.

In 1779, the same year he was elected a trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, Cadwalader also became a member of the Maryland Legislature. He died in Maryland in 1786.

If someone in this family could have blogged we would have had some amazing table scapes and what's on your walls for sure. Even George Washington had commented on the Cadwalader home and furnishings. The following notes are from PBS.org

Cadwalader Furniture

John Hays of Christie's is on the lookout for missing pieces of the most famous suite of furniture made in American history. When John Cadwalader, one of the great patriots of the American Revolution, married the very wealthy Elizabeth Lloyd in 1768, he set out to build one of the most splendid houses in Philadelphia. Even George Washington was well known to have remarked in his diaries that Cadwalader's house, the pride and envy of the colony, was the grandest house he'd ever seen. Cadwalader left no stone unturned in the building of his magnificent home. He commissioned Thomas Affleck, who immigrated from England in 1763 and produced the most elaborate, high-styled furniture in Philadelphia, to create a suite of furniture to match the design of his house. Affleck brought in the leading carvers and cabinetmakers of the time to fill Cadwalader's huge order — chairs, tables, sofas, card tables, and the like — that needed to be done between 1768 and 1772. Cadwalader's furniture was carved in the very highest, most elaborate fashion of the day, the Chippendale style. The most distinctive feature of the furniture was the "hairy paw feet," which appeared on all of the forms. After Cadwalader died, his descendant Charles married their young housekeeper, which did not go over well with the people of Philadelphia. In response to this, Charles shut down the house and sold its contents in 1904. The furniture was dispersed throughout the U.S. and abroad. Since that fateful day, six saddle-seat chairs from the front parlor have been found in Ireland, and another in Italy. Four chairs from the back parlor set have also been found: a single chair sold at Christie's last fall for $400,000. Christie's was also lucky to have recently found a tea table at an auction for less than $5,000: a dealer recognized the famous hairy-paw foot. It later sold in New York for over $1 million. Among the pieces still missing are two sofas, last seen in Charles Cadwalader's 1904 auction in Philadelphia. They are so widely sought after that people are making up schematic drawings of what the sofas would look like. John Hays hopes that these drawings will help lead to the recovery of the rest of Cadwalader's furniture.

John married 3 times and his daughter Frances with Wilemina Bond, married Lord David Montagu Erskine and they moved to England where Lord David and his family were from. My research continued with this line.

LOUIS PINARD

2009-07-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

My 6th Great Grandfather was Louis Pinard.¹ He was born July 12, 1634 in La Rochelle, FranceHe was the son of Jean Pinard and Marguerite Gaignier of Notre Dame de La Rochelle.
Louis came to Canada about 1648. He was a surgeon. He returned to France with the surgeon Francois Gendron to complete his surgical studies August 23, 1650. This made him a Master Surgeon upon his return six years later. He made use of his skills immediately working in the garrison at Trois Rivieres.
In 1666 Jacques Dubois was employed by him as a surgeon’s aid. Louis Pinard is said to have taken part in the expedition to Hudson Bay in 1685 along with the surgeon Jacques Meneux dit Châteauneuf. Around 1690 he became surgeon-major of the town of Trois-Rivières. His son Claude was also to become a surgeon and undoubtedly began his studies under his father’s direction; he did his apprenticeship, however, under Jean Demosny at Quebec. In 1692 Pinard was the agent of Claude Deshaies-Gendron, and distributed in the region around Trois-Rivières “the remedies which M. Gendron sent to Canada for charity.”

On 11 June 1657 Louis Pinard had signed before the notary Séverin Ameau* a contract of marriage with Marie Madeleine Hertel, daughter of Jacques Hertel and Marie Marguerie. On 30 Nov. 1680 at Champlain he took as his second wife MarieUrsule Pépin. Each of his wives bore him six children.( I am still searching for the documents of 8 of the 12 children he fathered. )

Pinard does not seem to have had a very peaceful career: we find him engaged in legal disputes over money matters with a great number of citizens of Trois-Rivières and Cap-de-la-Madeleine. In particular he had quarrels with Michael Leneuf Du Hérisson. Moreover he was in rivalry with the surgeon Michel Gamelain, whose competition be feared and who later became father-in-law to his son, the surgeon Claude Pinard. Nevertheless Louis Pinard seems to have been held in esteem, since he was for a long time one of the settlers’ syndics, a churchwarden, and procurator of the church.

In 1670 he settled down on his seigneury of L’Arbre-à-la-Croix at Champlain (seigneury of La Pinardière). There he engaged in agriculture and the fur trade. Later we find him at Batiscan, where he was buried 12 Jan. 1695.

My line descends from two of his sons with Marie Ursule Pepin, Antoine Pinard and Guillaume Pinard dit Beauchemin. They were my 5th. Great Grandfathers. Oh but there is more. Francoise Pinard was my 8th Great Grandmother. She was Louis' daughter with his first wife Marie Madeleine Hertel. Now how does my 6th Great Grandfather sire my 8th Great Grandmother you ask? Well Francoise was 20 years older then her brother Antoine and 27 years older than Guillaume. You can squeeze in a couple more generations when you are married at 18 and your first child is born the same year as your brother. Technically this makes her my 8th Great Grandmother, and my 5th great Aunt. Oh my head hurts.

Now you know why genealogy can be so complicated. This is why you must check and double check your facts and your sources to be sure. There are a lot of pedigree lines to follow when you go back that far. Did you know that for every generation you go back the ammount of grandparents you have doubles? You have 4 grandparents right. Now each of these people have 2 parents so that makes 8 great grandparents for you. Those 8 each have 2 parents so now we are at 16 great great grandparents for you. And so on, and so on.

Dictionary Of Canadian Biography Online, Library and Archives Canada onlineAJTR, Greffe de Séverin Ameau, 11 juin 1657. JJ (Laverdière et Casgrain), 143. Jug. et délib. Ahern, Notes pour l’histoire de la médecine, 441–44. Raymond Douville, “Chirurgiens, barbiers-chirurgiens et charlatans de la région trifluvienne sous le régime français,” Cahiers des Dix, XV (1950), 118–21.

LOUIS STORY

2009-07-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikiped

My mother had 11 brothers and sisters that survived past infancy. There were several more that sadly did not.

One of her brothers, my Uncle Louis told me a story once about when he was just a little boy. Now I won't tell it the way he would have because as people have said to him "do we have to pack a lunch for this story".

The way I remember it was that back in his youth, around 1928 maybe, he was walking down the street in their home town in Manitoba. It was near Winnipeg, perhaps Transcona.
Uncle Louis looked down at the ground and found a nickel. That was more money than he could ever hope to have.

Oh my goodness what would he do with this fortune. He thought about it and thought about it. After all he has so many brothers and sisters. He went to the store and spent his nickel. He bought a can of sardines. Not candy. No. Simply a can of oily sardines. And do you know what he did with his treasure? Wrong. He went and hid in the attic and ate the whole can himself. You know what. I can't blame him. They lived in such poverty and this was his one selfish act to have the prize all to himself. To not have to share every waking and sleeping moment with the others.

Now Uncle Lou could have told this story much better than I could but then we would have had to pack a lunch and all the sardines were gone.

METIS HOME IN THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT

2009-07-10T17:40:00.001-07:00

This picture is of a home in the Red River Settlement of Manitoba. It was taken in 1870. I do not know who is in the photo. Even if they were not related to me they certainly knew my family. The cart in the picture was a Red River cart made with wood and tied together with leather. The squeal of the leather and wood made a sound that could be heard for miles. It was very stable with two large wheels that would maneuver through marsh and mud and was also buoyant enough to float across a stream.

Image by inkbase via Flickr

The windows of the home were of course small. Glass was a luxury and also the Manitoba winters were beyond harsh.

Source: Archives of Manitoba/Archives du Manitoba, Red River Settlement - Homes 1, N4611
Year: 1870

FRANCOIS JACQUES BRUNEAU

2009-06-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

Francois Jacques Bruneau was my GGG Grandfather. The following information comes from Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.

BRUNEAU, FRANÇOIS-JACQUES, magistrate and councillor of Assiniboia; b. December 1809 at Lac Vert (Green Lake, Sask.), illegitimate son of Antoine Bruneau and a pure Cree or a Métis; d. 26 June 1865 at Saint-Boniface (Man.).

The father of François-Jacques Bruneau was probably a voyageur for the North West Company; he seems to have been related to Bruneaus prominent in Quebec society and also to Julie, wife of Louis-Joseph Papineau*. Since François-Jacques’ grandparents came from Poitou, he was of recent European origin, which was not common among the Métis. Those who could referred to themselves as grandchildren of “Frenchmen from France” in an effort to achieve equal footing with their half-breed compatriots, who were mostly of recent Scottish or English ancestry.

In 1814 François-Jacques Bruneau went to Montreal with his father, where he was baptized on 28 October, and in 1822 came to the Red River Settlement. He registered in the Saint-Boniface school directed by Abbé Jean Harper; it became a classical college the following year. In 1827 he indicated a wish to enter the priesthood, news that could only please Bishop Joseph-Norbert Provencher* because of Bruneau’s ability to speak the Cree language. But in 1829, when he was in first year, the first student of the college to reach that level, he decided to become a teacher. He married Marguerite Harrison, daughter of a Cree mother and a North West Company employee, probably in 1831, and abandoned teaching for farming. The censuses of Assiniboia between 1832 and 1849 indicate how his family, his property and livestock, and his carts for the transport trade, all increased. Eleven children were born to him; one of his sons, Athanase, served as a guide to Lord Milton [Wentworth-Fitzwilliam*] and Dr Walter Butler Cheadle* in 1862.
By 1849, in terms of Assiniboia, Bruneau was well off. He had also become involved in civic affairs. In July 1843 he had appeared before the Council of Assiniboia as a leading Métis in a delegation requesting a distillery (which would give the Métis an opportunity to sell their grain surplus) and regular changes in the police force (so that more of them might share in the running of the country). The return of Louis Riel Sr from Lower Canada during the summer of 1843 took the attention away from Bruneau until 1849. Bruneau did act as honorary deacon in 1845 at the ordination into the priesthood of Alexandre-Antonin Taché*, later bishop and archbishop of Saint-Boniface, but he took such a minor part in events at this time that he even stood aloof from the attempt to obtain the dismissal of Adam Thom*, the francophobe recorder of Rupert’s Land and councillor of Assiniboia. Bruneau was in a way typical of the Métis educated at Red River, who always remained diffident in the presence of the whites or half-breeds educated elsewhere. He was conciliatory, like the other Métis eventually named to the Council of Assiniboia, and easily influenced by established authority, civil or religious.

Bruneau rallied to the Métis in the spring of 1849 when, with the arrest of Pierre-Guillaume Sayer* for infringing the Hudson’s Bay Company’s commercial monopoly, their discontent reached its climax. Bruneau joined a vigilance committee. He alone among its members sat on the jury at Sayer’s trial, although Riel was more in the public eye. Bruneau did not, however, sign the petition presented to the Council of Assiniboia in May 1849 after the trial requesting the removal of Thom and the appointment of a bilingual recorder and of French speaking Canadians and Métis to the council. Still he was one of two French Canadians and three Métis, “men of common sense able to judge soundly,” recommended for appointment to the council by Bishop Provencher and approved by the Métis at a large gathering prior to their summer hunt. George Simpson*, the governor of Rupert’s Land, did not share the bishop’s opinions, however, and the company in London hesitated when he spoke of illiterates. Only Abbé Louis-François Laflèche* was made a councillor, in July 1850.

At this time, Bishop Provencher once again urged upon Simpson the importance of naming French Canadians and Métis to the council. Simpson, then at Red River, looked more carefully at Bruneau’s candidacy, and finally recommended him to the London authorities as “a man of sound standing in the settlement & of fair education” whose appointment would promote peace among “the Canadian Half-breeds [who] form a very large proportion of the inhabitants, and feel that they are not put on a footing of equality with the other classes in the community.” In 1851, Simpson’s suggestion received the support of Eden Colvile*, the governor of Rupert’s Land, who also desired the appointment of Bruneau, among others, as a means of balancing the clerical element in the council.

Bruneau had been named magistrate in one of Assiniboia’s judicial districts in the fall of 1850, and in 1851 was made its president or judge. On 29 March 1853 he finally took the oath as councillor of Assiniboia, the second French speaking layman after Cuthbert James Grant* to do so. He soon occupied a variety of posts paying annual salaries between £12 and £25, including that of judge in several districts. He attended council regularly but was not a vocal member.

According to contemporaries, Bruneau was approachable and courteous. A man of simple tastes, he liked to read books borrowed from the library of the HBC or of the bishop. On two occasions he defended his tutor, Bishop Provencher, in the Nor’Wester when it did not sufficiently recognize his contribution as an educator and civilizing influence in Red River. Bruneau always had great respect for Provencher and his successor, Taché, although he did not always share their attitudes in civil matters; he disapproved, for example, of Taché’s stand in council for a duty on alcoholic beverages to curb their importation. Bruneau, who knew how to conciliate the more powerful, proposed and got accepted an amendment to exempt imports from Britain.

Bruneau died in 1865, a victim of a typhoid epidemic in the colony that also killed his wife. In 1870 only three of their daughters and one of their sons were living. He had served the authority of the HBC faithfully, without harming the interests of his Métis compatriots but also without contributing greatly to their political, social, or economic advancement.

Lionel Dorge

ACAM, RLB, 2, p.54. Archives de l’archevêché de Saint-Boniface (Man.), Notes de Mgr Cloutier sur les commencements de l’histoire religieuse de ce pays. Cours donnés les jeudis par Mgr Taché à partir du 15 décembre 1881 à la fin de mai 1882; Registres des baptêmes, mariages et sépultures, paroisse Saint-Boniface, 1825–35, 28 juin 1865. Archives de la Société historique de Saint-Boniface (Man.), Dossier François Bruneau. Archives de l’évêché de Trois-Rivières, Correspondance Taché-Laflèche, 18 juill. 1865. HBC Arch. D.4/23, 5 Jan., 21 April 1838; D.4/70, 30 June 1849; D.4/71, 9 May, 2, 5 July 1850; D.5/25, 27 June 1849; D.5/34, 16 Aug. 1852; E.5/6, ff.3d.–4; E.5/7, ff.19d.–20; E.5/8, ff.3d.–4; E.5/9, ff.4d.–5; E.5/10, ff.4d.–5; E.5/11, ff.3d.–4 (mfm. at PAC). PAC, MG 9, E3, 1–3. Les bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest: récits de voyages, lettres et rapports inédits relatifs au Nord-Ouest canadien, L.-F.-R. Masson, édit. (2v., Québec, 1889–90; réimpr. New York, 1960), I, 59, 400. Canadian North-West (Oliver), I, 38–39, 63, 66–67, 80, 307, 352, 361, 368, 389–555. J. J. Hargrave, Red River (Montreal, 1871), 349. HBRS, XIX (Rich and Johnson), lxxxiii–lxxxv, xc, cxiv, 208. [J.-N. Provencher], “Lettres de Monseigneur Joseph-Norbert Provencher, premier évêque de Saint-Boniface, Manitoba,” Soc. historique de Saint-Boniface, Bull., III (1913), 94, 120, 122, 127. Nor’Wester, 14, 28 Feb., 14, 28 April 1860; 1 April, 14 Sept. 1861; 6 July, 3 Aug. 1865. Morice, Dict. historique des Canadiens et Métis, 53–54. Giraud, Le Métis canadien, 902–3, 905–63. Ross, Red River Settlement (1957), 239. A.-H. de Trémaudan, Histoire de la nation métisse dans l’Ouest canadien ([Montréal, 1935]), 135. F.-J. Audet, “François Bruneau,” BRH, XXXVII (1931), 274–78, 600–1. J.-J. Lefebvre, “La vie sociale du grand Papineau,” RHAF, XI (1957–58), 483–84. [Louis] Mailhot, “François Bruneau,” Les Cloches de Saint-Boniface (Saint-Boniface, Man.), XLV (1946), 69–72.

JEAN LALONDE DIT ESPERANCE

2009-06-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Jean Lalonde dit Esperance was my 8th great grandfather. He was born about 1641 in Rouen, Normandie, France. He married in New France (Quebec)November 14, 1669 to Marie Barbary

Image by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr

(Barbant) who was a Filles du Roi. It is said that Marie had a dowry of 200 livres. These women came to New France to marry and help populate the new land. This was arranged and sponsored by Louis XIV.
Jean died September 30, 1687 in an attack by the Iroquois on the little parish of St. Louis. He was the lone churchwarden of the area. I have found four children from this marriage.

I found the wine label above on the internet. It marked the 300 year anniversary of Jean's death. The photo was credited to Labatts Brewery. I contacted the company and they directed me to the archivist for Labatts. She said to email her the picture and she would see what she could find but I never heard back from her.

WHAT ARE THEY EXPECTING?

2009-06-18T17:05:00.000-07:00

I presented a family tree this afternoon and I had to step back and think about the response. When you work on a tree for someone what are they expecting to receive? A printed list of names and dates? A picture of a tree with names on it? What are they expecting? I don't think they expect a lot.

Image via Wikipedia

I started by returning to her the couple pages of information she had started me off with. I opened up my laptop and opened up her tree database and her file. I went through briefly the way the database works showing her the sources and notes for people. I showed her the family view and the pedigree view to give her an idea of what I worked with and where her reports were generated from.
From there I showed her the file with all the documents and photos. She saw the old censuses and the passenger lists with her family on them. There were military records. Marriage record images and actual paper documents from England. There was a will, a map with the family property marked on it and the link to look at the bigger image at her leisure. Death records too.
There were links to the other people connected to her tree and links to a web site about her family's castle (really, truly) with pictures. A very important set of papers had come from Switzerland but were in Italian. I had included an English translation of these papers. There were the wall charts that she had hoped for. The size of them surprised her though. I think she expected a group of 10 people maybe. There were narratives and pedigree charts.
I explained all the items and also explained the differences in sources. We went over some probable connections but I was adamant that they were only possibilities to search out at a later date if she wanted to go further.

I then gave her two computer discs with all this information on it. One for herself and one for her brother all in a printable form. She was a little taken aback. This amount of information was somewhat more than what she thought she would get. The words "you did so much work" kept coming up. I felt very happy knowing I had exceeded her expectations.

The kicker is I was served a wonderful Greek lunch/dinner of spanokapitas, tzatziki, hummous, pitas, Greek salad with amazing olives and Feta and chicken souvlaki. We shared a lovely white wine which to me had the flavor of grapefruits, crisp and aromatic. Then came the dessert of Ekmek Kataifi. I hope to have the recipe for that tomorrow. The patio table was beautiful with a black and white setting and a big white canopy above us. I so wished I had my camera with me for Foodie Friday, Tablescapes Thursday and Give Lori Wine The Rest of the Week. I love my job.

CANADIAN CENSUS: 1861, 1871 INDEXED

2009-06-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

This image shows my second Great Grandparents, Etienne Pinard and Marguerite Beauchemin and my Great Grandfather, Etienne with his siblings¹.

I see that Ancestry has indexed the 1861 and 1871 Canadian censuses. In 1861 we were not yet a country but there are provincial censuses for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec. Nova Scotia and P.E.I. only listed the heads of households while the others listed everyone in the household.
The 1871 census was the first national census since the confederation of Canada in 1867. This census included the four original provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. There are some sub-districts missing but they are still looking to get them online in the future.
Need help? Ask me.

Appreciation is expressed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for providing the 1871 Canada Census Index.Images reproduced by courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada.Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1871 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1871. Ottawa, Canada: Library and Archives Canada. Microfilm C-9888 to C-9975, C-9977 to C-10097, C-10344 to C-10388, C-10390 to C-10395, to C-10540 to C-10570. Quebec, Nicolet, Ste. Monique, page 35, lines 7-14

A SECOND CHANCE AT READING RECORDS

2009-06-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever come across a census record or other document that was unreadable due to the poor quality of the record. It could be damaged by the sun or water even mold? We were just out of luck. But no more.
An engineer with a background in computer imagery has created a camera that can look outside of the visible spectrum to "see" the different properties of the residual inks and paper. The fact that he also had a background in family history probably helped too.
This camera is being tested at the National Archives in London. This could be the missing link for so many researchers. Lets hope it catches on and gets used by all the genealogy sites.
To see more on this story have a look at http://www.ancestrymagazine.com/2009/04/genea-Logic/preserving-genealogical-records/

2009-06-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

I have been doing genealogy for several years and it is a very rewarding pursuit. Blogging I have only been doing since mid February on one site and only a couple weeks on this site. I am very lucky to have been given this award to place on both of my sites from Linda @ Flipside. Linda has been one of my first followers on both blogs and I always love to read her posts on genealogy. She does her homework and dots all her Is and crosses all her Ts. She leaves great comments and encouraging words. To have her send me this is truly great. Thank you Linda.

This award was created in honour of Janice Brown by Terry Thorton @ Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi. I am very pleased to be associated with these great bloggers by the luck of receiving this award from Linda. I will try live up to the blogging standards.

I am to pass on this award of course but I won't be doing it right now due to the fact that it is 10:00 at night and my allergies are so bad I can't think straight. Stay tuned.

EMMANUEL BEAUGRAND DIT CHAMPAGNE

2009-06-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

This isn't the usual type of photo one has of their relatives. My Great Grand Uncle, Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne was one of Louis Riel's councilors during the North West Rebellion 1885.
(L-R):IgnacePoitras, Pierre Parenteau, Baptiste Parenteau, Pierre Gariepy, Ignace Poitras Jr., Albert Monkman, Pierre Vandal, Baptiste Vandal, Joseph arcand, Maxime Dubois, James Short, Pierre Henry, Baptiste Tourond, Emmanuel Champagne, Kit-a-wa-how (Alex Cagen-ex chief of the Muskeg Lake Indians) Taken Aug 1885, Regina, Saskatchewan by O.B. Buell. Taken from the Canadian National Archives.

The rebellion was a culmination of discontent of the Metis, Aboriginal and White settlers which had gone on for some time.In 1866 the government started the surveying of lands in and around the Red River Settlement. This of course became a source of tension. This was the Metis and Indians land and the government was coming in and drawing lines on it. Louis Riel spoke in August of 1869 to call the Metis to organize themselves against this.

The problems continued for some years with Louis Riel eventually suffering mental exhaustion which in 1876 saw him admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Quebec. He then went to the US where he became an American citizen in 1883.

There were several battles through the years. Duck Lake saw a skirmish between the Metis and the RCMP. Duck Lake was the only clear victory for the Metis. The Frog Lake Massacre saw whites and Metis in the community killed or taken hostage as sympathizers with the Cree led by Big Bear. Fish Creek, Cut Knife Hill, Frenchman's Butte were also unsuccessful for the Metis although the death tolls were thwarted by the ability of the Metis to retreat through the muskeg where the militia could not pursue them.

The Battle of Batoche was the end. For four days- May 9-12, 1885 less than 300 Metis and First Nations people led be a returning Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont sought to defend themselves from the troops.

On the first day the troops sought to attack by coming across the river on a steamer ferry. The Metis simply lowered a ferry cable across the river cutting off the smokestacks of the steamer and it floated downstream without power. They then defended their postitions with gunfire until daybreak. Over the next couple of days the gunfire was returned by the troops with bigger weaponry. The ammunition stores of the Metis were running low by this time.

On May 12 some of the troops attacked from the north drawing the Metis out of their rifle pits signalling to the remaining men to attack from their position. The winds were loud and on the side of the Metis and the remaining troops did not hear the attack signal and failed to attack on time. This was not enough of a setback for the troops however. A third contingent came in from the side and broke through the lines. The battle was over in minutes. The Metis ammunition was gone and they were firing nails and stones from their rifles. Louis Riel escaped with Dumont. Riel gave himself up and was later hanged. Dumont fled to the US.

This is how my Great Grand Uncle, Emmanuel Beaugrande dit Champagne ended up in the photograph above, in handcuffs and leg irons. He is I believe the second man from the right in the front row. He was one of the twelve counselors or exovede (latin: flock) of the Riel government during the North West Rebellion in 1885

Emmanuel and his family were enumerated in the 1850 census of the Minnesota Territory, in which Emmanuel declared that he was a hunter.He was born about 1823 in Pembina, North Dakota and died in Batoche, Saskatchewan September 29, 1904.He was married to Marie Letendre dit Batoche
In the 1854 treaty list of Chippewa Indians of Lake Superior and the Mississippi, he is listed as a mixed blood of the Pembina band who had lived at Saint Joseph (Walhalla, N. D.) for over ten years.

Emmanuel fought for his rights and the rights of the other Metis and it could have cost him his life and his freedom.

I Know You Are Out There

2009-06-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

Almost every family tree I have worked on has turned up family members for people who had no idea their kin were out there and sometimes very close at hand.
Several times in researching there has come the time when I have had to send out a generic type of letter to contact someone who may or may not be a relation to the tree I am working on at that time.

I have had many successes with contacting online researchers. They have made a point of updating their email addresses on the message boards and such and check their in boxes more than once a year.

Not everyone is on the internet however. Hard to believe I know. I find this to be the hardest part of the research game. I find a possible connection somewhere like an online phone book for the town I am looking at or an obituary perhaps and I create a letter describing who I am and what I am working on, keeping the confidentiality of the person on my end. More times than not this has to be translated into French, Italian or some other language which I don't speak.

I try to be as open as possible with the information I already have so as not to seem like I am identity phishing or something else underhanded, without betraying any confidences. I explain what it is I hope to find out and assure them that their own information will not be shared unless they would like it so.

Then you put this in the mail or email and you wait to see if there is anyone out there. You have so many scenarios on what will happen. Are they the correct family? Are they alive? Do they still live at that address? Do they care? Did they mean to answer you but accidentally deleted your email? Is it in their to do pile and not going to get done in their lifetime? Did the online translation you used actually insult them and their grandmother unintentionally?

So far I have had one letter returned, one answered but not the family I was looking for and several successes. For instance a first cousin in Germany for one man. They had no idea either one of them existed. Multiple cousins, aunts & uncles for a woman who didn't even know her mother had siblings. The mother had not spoken to her family for over 50 years but they eventually had a lovely reunion. Several others too but the biggest one by far was tracking down the half sister of my husband. She is much older than him and she didn't know about him. He knew he had half siblings but knew nothing about them. We have been emailing now for 3 years or so but have not met.

The latest one is 2 letters I had sent to Switzerland. They were done in Italian as they were going to one of the last Italian speaking cantons there. I took a chance. I found addresses for 2 of the 3 sisters I was looking for. Off they went and I waited. How long does it take to get to Switzerland and back if they are not delivered I wondered? A couple of weeks went by and I was starting to think nothing would come of these but surprise, surprise what came in the mail yesterday. A big envelope from Switzerland. Funny enough it was from the one sister that I could not locate, the other two having already passed away. She was so thrilled to be contacted and sent me a family tree that they have had done there. I don't have any sources other than her paperwork but it will be presented as such. I was able to confirm a couple of facts though. The best part is both parties involved are very eager to have more contact. That is good enough for me. Oh yes, I have found cousins for this person much closer to home as well. We will see if that goes as well when contact is made there. I am pretty sure it will.

OCULARPHARYNGEAL WHAT?

2009-05-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

When you are looking for your ancestors sometimes you are not thrilled with some of the things you may find.
They could be crooks or criminals, crazed or coldhearted, dishonest or immoral. Or they could be genetically dangerous to your health.

As a French Canadian I was stunned to find out that I have a greater chance of having Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy. That is hard to say in French or English. It turns out that my 9th Great Grandparents, Jean Emard (Aymart) and Marie Bineau somehow were the carriers of this genetic disease. Jean and Marie were born in France but they came to New France (Quebec) and their daughters were born here.

Oculopharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy has many different syptoms. It can weaken the facial muscles and the pharyngeal muscles. This weakening of the throat muscles can cause a diffuculty in swallowing known as dysphagia. Another symptom of this disease is the weakness of the muscles that control the eyelids. Ptosis is the name for droopy eyelids that can cause vision problems by covering your eye. My 2 sisters have this problem and the doctors they saw thought it was just an droopy eyelid like lots of people get. It would be considered cosmetic to have it fixed. However it is not cosmetic when your eyelid blocks your field of vision and any persperation runs directly into your eyes. The doctors can look with a high powered microscope at the muscle tissue from sufferers and see inclusions in the cells along with bubbly structures.

Although not limited to French Canadians, those French people who do have it can trace their families back through time to one of the 3 daughters of Jean Emard and Marie Bineau. These women were Barbe Emard, Anne Emard and Marie Madeleine Emard.
My line is as follows:

Barbe Emard married Jacques Cochon in 1661¹.

Genevieve Cochon married Joseph Huot dit Laurent in 1708².
Joseph Huot dit Laurent married Marie Louis Cote in 1731³
Charlotte Huot married Jean Baptiste Marion in 1759⁴
Marie Amable Marion married Jean Baptiste Beaugrand dit Champagne in 1786⁵
Emmanuel Beaugrand dit Champagne married Madeleine Laderoute unknown
David Alexander Beaugrande dit Champagne married Melanie Carriere in 1873
Ziphirin Champagne married Marie Octavie Carriere in 1907

Next in line was my mother. I dont' ever recall her having any problems with her eyelids or with swallowing but I must say she had a whole host of other health problems she had to deal with. It leaves me wondering what else may have been passed down from our ancestors.

Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Chateau Richer, 1661-1702, page 248
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Chateau Richer, 1691-1719, page 73
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, St. Antoine de Tilley, 1727-1732, page 15
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, St. Antoine de Tilly, 1757-1767, page 20
Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Berthierville, 1786, page 31

CATHERINE PICKLE SCHRYVER

2009-05-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

This document is an Upper Canada Land Petition, a petition for Crown land. It is in the name of my husband's 3rd Great Grandmother, Catherine Pickle Schriver and is dated April 2, 1793.
Ontario was once part of Quebec and it didn't become a separate province until 1791. There was not much white settlement until the arrival of the Loyalists. It was at that point called Upper Canada. From 1841 until 1867 it was referred to as Canada West then in 1867 at our Confederation it became Ontario.
From this we can learn a few valuable things. Firstly it shows the maiden name of Catherine Schriver (Schryver, Schryber) as Pickle and then it names her father, John Pickle. Thirdly it states clearly that her father John Pickle was a Loyalist.

The term "Loyalist" is a reference to the American colonists who supported and remained loyal to the British Crown. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) many of them served under the British. Upon coming north some of them settled in the provinces which are now Nova Scotia, New Bruswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario. Some of the Loyalists were to receive 200 acres of land upon coming here.

Those who can trace and prove their lineage connecting to a Loyalist may apply for and have the right to use the postnominal letters U.E. after their names signifying their ancestors loyalty.

On March 3, 1789¹ Catherine Pickle married George Schryver². They had 14 children that I know of.

TRANSCRIPTION OF DOCUMENT:
To His Excellency John Graves Simcoe, Esq.
Lieut. Governor and Commander in Chief
of the Province of Upper Canada, ______.

The memorial of Katherine
................................ daughter
Pickle alias Schriver ^ to John
Pickle Loyalist

Humbly Showeth
That your Excellency's memo
rialist being entitled to two
hundred acres of land agreeable
to the order of the ninth Nov.
1789~ humbly beg that the
same may be assigned to him
in the Township of Richmond
in the County of Lenox

Adolphustown } and your Excellency's Memo
2d April, 1793...... rialist as in duty bound
................................shall ever pray.
To His Excellency Katherine Pickle
J. G. Simcoe Esq.
Lieut. Governor ____
In Council

http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/langhorn.htm
Schriber, Schriver etc.

You Never Know What You May Find

2009-05-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I was researching my husband's family and found his Father and Grandparents along with some of his father's siblings on the 1910 US Census. They were living in Tonawanda, New York at the time. I thought it would be interesting to search out the area and see what it looked like now. I did an internet search of the address from the census and couldn't believe my eyes when I came across a realtor's ad selling the same house. There wasn't a photo with the ad so I emailed the realtor and explained the situation. He very kindly went and photographed it for me.
When you are doing research you need to try looking in unusual places to find the interesting stuff.

CARNIVAL OF GENEALOGY: Smile For The Camera

2009-05-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

This post for the Carnival of Genealogy Smile For the Camera edition is a wedding photo of my grandparents Ziphirin Champagne and Marie Octavie Carriere. They were married May 21, 1907 in Manitoba. She was 18 at the time and he was 30, almost twice her age.

I was amazed at how many children they had. I know of 12 children that lived but was told by my mother of many more that did not. She stated that her mother was pregnant almost every year of her married fertile life with stillbirths and infant deaths mixed in amongst the living children. I doubt that on this wedding day she expected such a life but maybe I am wrong. Perhaps in those days that was all she expected.
We were at a wedding a couple of weeks ago. The happy couple are now off in Europe on a honeymoon. The differences between then and now are so staggering. 100 years and we can't even wrap our heads around the lives our ancestors led.
There were few honeymoons, no gift registries or openings that lasted half a day, no albums full of pictures of all the family in attendance, no videos.
If you were lucky there was a photo taken and if we are lucky it has survived the years and we have a copy to enjoy. Oh yes, and we have birth control.

CENSUS OF 1666: New France

2009-05-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Jean Talon 1625-1694

Jean Talon was not an ancestor of mine but he would have probably known many of them. Monsieur Talon was in charge of the first census of New France taken in the winter months of 1665-1666.

He was working for the king of France, King Louis XIV and his finance minister Jean Baptiste Colbert. He was to stimulate the economic expansion of New France, increase the colony’s self-sufficiency and bring order to its financial administration.

Talon used the de jure principale – that is, counting people where they normally reside. And he did much of the enumeration himself, going door-to-door. Talon’s census recorded everyone in the colony by name and included age, occupation, marital status, and relationship to the head of the family in which they lived. The census also measured the wealth of industry and agriculture, the value of local lumber and mineral resources, and the number of domestic animals, seigneuries, government buildings, and churches.

The census enumerated 3,215 inhabitants of European descent – 2,034 men and 1,181 women. Among these were 3 notaries, 3 schoolmasters, 3 locksmiths, 4 bailiffs, 5 surgeons, 5 bakers, 8 barrel makers, 9 millers, 18 merchants, 27 joiners, and 36 carpenters. The colony consisted of 3 major settlements, inhabited by 528 families. Quebec had a population of more than 2,100 people, Montreal had 635, and Trois-Rivieres had 455.¹

My family was among these people. I have listed some of my ancestors mainly from the area of Trois Rivieres. There were many more in the other towns.

NOTE THE SPELLING OFTEN DIFFERS FROM OTHER RECORDS²
I have noted my direct line in red where the ancestor had been born in time for this census or they had not yet moved away from home.

6th. great grandparents

Jean Lemire, age 40, Me. Charpentier (carpenter)
Louise Marsollet 26, sa femme (wife)
Jeanne Lemire 8, fille (daughter)
Marie Lemire 6, fille
Joseph Lemire 4, fils (son)
Anne Lemire 2, fille

Louis Pinard - 30 habitant
Marie Magdelaine Hertel - 20 sa femme
Françoise Pinard - 2 fille

7th great grandparents

Nicolas Marsollet 65, bourgeois
Marie le Barbier 47, sa femme
Jean Marsollet 14, fils
Marie Marsollet 4, fille

Nicolas Huot 38, huissier (usher)
Marie Fayet 21, sa femme
Marguerrite 2, fille
Marie 2, fille

Jacques Cochon 31, habitant (inhabitant)
Barbe Le Tardif 17, sa femme
Marie Magdeleine Cochon 2, fille
Jacques Cochon 3, fil

Marie Boucher - 36 veufve de feu Estien ne deLafond
Jean de Lafond - 21 fils
Genevieuve de Lafond - 14 fille
Pierre de Lafond - 10 fils
Françoise de Lafond - 9 fille
Jeanne de Lafond - 4 fille
Augustin de Lafond - 2 fils

Jean Cusson - 30 habitant
Marie Foubert - 25 sa femme
Marie Cusson - 7 fille
Jean Cusson - 6 fils
Magdelaine Cusson - 4 fille
Jeanne Cusson - 3 fille
Elisabeth Cusson - 14 mois fille
Marie Riviere - 55 mere de lad. Foubert (mother of M. Foubert)

Michel Lemey - 36 habitant
Marie Dutost - 26 sa femme
Charles Lemey - 6 fils
Joseph Lemey - 5 fils
Marie Lemey - 4 fille
Ignace Lemey - 1 fils
Jacques Dutost - 23 frere de lad. Dutost

Pierre Niquet - 24 habitant
Françoise Lemoyne - 22 sa femme

8th great grandparents

Rene Besnard Bourjoly 38, habitant
Marie Sedilot 39, sa femme ve. de Louis Fafard (widow of)
Anne Besnard 4, fille
Joseph Besnard 2, fils
Marie Besnard 1, fille
Louis Fafard 16, fils

Antoine Desrosiers - 46 habitant
Anne du Herisson - 34 sa femme
Michel Desrosiers - 13 fils
Jean Desrosiers - 8 fils
Anne Desrosiers - 4 fille
Antoine Desrosiers - 2 fils

Urbain Baudry d. lamarche - 47 taillandier habt (maker of cutting tools)
Magdelaine Boucher - 32 sa femme
Marie Baudry - 15 fille
Joseph Baudry - 12 fils
Guillaume Baudry - 9 fils
Jeanne Baudry - 7 fille
Magdelaine Baudry - 4 fille
Marguerite Baudry - 1 fille

Pierre Lepellée ditLahaye - 38 habitant
Catherine Dodier - 28 sa femme Ve. Isabel
Jeanne Isabel - 14 fille
françoise Lepellé - 12 fille
Claude Lepellé - 9 fils
Joseph Lepellé - 7 fils
pierre Lepellé - 5 fils
Marie Lepellé - 15 mois fille
Jean Lepellé - 20 frere

Pierre Guillet dit la Jeunesse - 40 habitant
Jeanne Saint Pere - 37 sa femme
Mathurin Guillet - 16 fils
Jeanne Guillet - 12 fille
Anne Guillet - 11 fille
Catherine Guillet - 10 fille
Louis Guillet - 8 fils
Marie Guillet - 6 fille
Marguerite Guillet - 5 fille
Pierre Guillet - 3 fils
Joseph Guillet - 2 fils
Genevieve Guillet - 3 mois fille

Pierre Artaut sieur de Latour - 36 habitant
Louise sauvagesse - 45 sa femme (aboriginal)
Jean Artaut - 1 fils

Pierre Lefebvre - 50 habitant
Jeanne Aunois - 45 sa femme
Jacques Lefebvre - 19 fils
Michel Lefebvre - 12 fils
Ignace Lefebvre - 10 fils
Ange Lefebvre - 7 fils
Pierre Lefebvre - 5 fils

10th great grandparents

François Fafard - 36 habitant
Marie Richard - 30 sa femme
Jean Fafard - 9 fils
François Fafard - 6 fils
Joseph Fafard - 4 fils
Jeanne Fafard - 16 mois fille

Statistics Canada information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy the data and redisseminate them, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without permission from Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada's Regional Offices, its World Wide Web site at www.statcan.gc.ca, and its toll-free access number 1-800-263-1136.
http://www.afhs.ab.ca/data/census/1666/quebec.html

MARIE ROLLET

2009-05-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

ROLLET, MARIE, wife of Louis Hébert, Canada’s first settler; d. 1649 at Quebec. In 1617, with her husband and three children she came from Paris to Quebec, where she found starvation, sickness, and threats of Indian attack. A year after their arrival, says Sagard, the first marriage solemnized in Canada with the rites of the church took place, that of their daughter Anne and Étienne Jonquet. Anne died in childbirth the following year, but there is no record of the child. Marie Rollet aided her husband in caring for the sick and shared his interest in the savages, concerning herself especially with the education of Indian children. In 1627, at the baptism of Chomina’s son, Naneogauchit, which the priests were striving to make an impressive occasion, she feasted a crowd of visiting savages out of her big brewing kettle. Her name appears often as godmother at the baptism of converted savages. Two years after the death of Louis Hébert, on 16 May 1629, she married Guillaume Hubou. After seeking Champlain’s advice, she and her family (i.e., her second husband, her 15-year-old son Guillaume, and her daughter and son-in-law Guillaume Couillard) remained in Quebec during the English occupation and kept alive among the neighbouring savages the memory of French friendship. After the return of the French in 1632, her house became the home of Indian girls given to the Jesuits for training. She died in 1649, leaving her husband, her one surviving child, Guillemette Hébert, and a number of grandchildren. She was buried at Quebec, 27 May 16, 1649

Source: Library and Archives Canada, Dictionary of Canadian BiographyOnline.

LOUIS HEBERT

2009-05-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

The following is from Canadian Biography Online:

HÉBERT, LOUIS was an apothecary, first officer of justice in New France, first Canadian settler to support himself from the soil. He married Marie Rollet.
Incorrectly, according to his descendant, Couillard Després, he was the son of Louis Hébert who was an apothecary at the court of Catherine de Médicis. Documents more recently discovered in Paris indicate that his father was Nicolas Hébert, an apothecary, and that Louis was born in the Mortier d’Or, a house near the Louvre.
The niece of Nicolas Hébert’s wife married Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt, in 1590. This relationship would explain Louis Hébert’s interest in the early settlements in Acadia and his presence in Du Gua de Monts’s expedition.
Lescarbot, in Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal, N.S.) in 1606, speaks with respect of his skill in healing and his pleasure in cultivating the soil, and, on his map of that region, indicates an island and a river named for Hébert. In the summer of 1606 Hébert sailed with Champlain and Poutrincourt along the coast to the southwest, seeking other sites suitable for settlement. Poutrincourt and Hébert were so attracted by what is now Gloucester, Mass., that they planted a clearing there to test the soil’s fertility. Both hoped to bring their families to settle in the New World.
The Jonas, arriving from France in June 1607, brought the unwelcome news that, because of the cancellation of de Monts’s concessions, the company must return to France.
In 1610, Hébert was again in Port-Royal, with the group whom Poutrincourt hoped to establish there. As apothecary, he treated both French and Indian patients. Apparently meals as well as medicine received his consideration; he prepared and administered both to chief Membertou in his last illness. He was in charge of the settlement when, in 1613, Réne Le Coq de La Saussaye came with the Marquise de Guercheville’s colonists, withdrew the two Jesuit fathers from Port Royal, and sailed away to start a new settlement elsewhere. The capture of this expedition at Île des Monts Deserts by the English that same summer was followed by their destruction of Port-Royal (November 1613), and once more Hébert was forced to return to France.

In the winter of 1616–17 he renewed acquaintance with Champlain who was in Paris seeking support for his colony at Quebec. This post, having survived for nine years, probably seemed to Hébert a safe place for settlers, especially as Champlain obtained for him a favourable contract from the fur-trading company in control of the St. Lawrence region. Relying on these promises – 200 crowns a year for his services as apothecary, and food and shelter for his family while getting land cleared – Hébert sold his house and garden in Paris and took his wife Marie Rollet and three children, Anne, Guillemette, and Guillaume, to Honfleur ready to embark. There he discovered that the company had no intention of honouring its agreement. The best he could obtain was a new contract, halving his salary and his land grant and stipulating that his family and his servant should be at the service of the company without pay. Having no alternative, he accepted and sailed with his family 11 March 1617.

In Quebec his apothecary’s skill and his small store of grain were a godsend to the sick and starving winterers. In spite of the company’s demands on his and his servant’s time, he succeeded in clearing and planting some land. Champlain, on his brief visit of 1618, found cultivated land “filled with fine grain” and gardens in which flourished a variety of vegetables,
For many years Hébert was the only man besides Champlain himself who took any interest in cultivating land. The trading company did their utmost to discourage him. Both Champlain and Sagard say that the unlawful restrictions they imposed upon him and upon the disposal of his products prevented him from enjoying the fruits of his labours.

When in 1620 Champlain returned from France with (nominally) full authority over the colony, he gave Hébert responsibility in the administration of justice by appointing him king’s attorney. In this capacity he signed the colony’s petition to the king in 1621. Hébert enjoyed the confidence also of the Indians, whom he, in contrast to many of his contemporaries, considered as intelligent human beings lacking only education. Many instances bear witness to their respect and affection for him. There is some question of trade relations with Guillaume de Caën, but in view of the fact that the surname Hébert is a very common one, this may be a case of mistaken identity.

In 1622 he petitioned the viceroy for a title to his land and on 4 Feb. 1623 received the grant guaranteeing him possession. Known later as the fief Sault-au-Matelot, the land included sites at present occupied by the Basilica, the seminary, and Hébert and Couillard streets. This title was ratified on 28 Feb. 1626 by the succeeding viceroy and some acres along the St. Charles – the fief Saint-Joseph, later known as fief de Lespinay – were added, both holdings to be enjoyed “en fief noble.” Hébert had achieved his cherished ambition: he had brought under his control enough of the wild land of the New World to support himself and his family in independence. The meadows along the St. Charles afforded pasture for cattle; on the higher ground he had grain fields, vegetable gardens, and an orchard planted with apple trees brought from Normandy. All this had been achieved in spite of the company’s opposition. Moreover, it had been accomplished with hand tools only, not even a plough. (It was not until a year after the death of Hébert, that land was worked with plough and Oxen and agriculture on a larger scale could begin.)

The winter of 1626 he had a fall on the ice which proved fatal. He was buried in the Recollet cemetery on 25 Jan. 1627. In 1678 his bones still in their cedar coffin, were transferred to the vault of the newly erected Recollet chapel and with those of Brother Pacifique Duplessis were the first to rest there.
Ethel M. G. Bennett

Hébert is mentioned in the following works of his contemporaries: Champlain, Works (Biggar), passim. JR (Thwaites), passim. Lescarbot, History (Grant), II, 209, 234, 328, 331; III, 246. Sagard, Histoire du Canada (Tross), I, 53, 83, 158–59. Le Clercq, while not strictly a contemporary, is near enough to the period to have gathered first-hand information and to have talked with Hébert’s daughter. He gives information about the family in First establishment of the faith (Shea), I, 164–67, 281. Documents concerning company agreements, land grants, etc., are cited in Biggar, Early trading companies and in Azarie Couillard Després, La première famille française au Canada and Louis Hébert: premier colon canadien et sa famille (Lille, Paris, Bruges, 1913; Montréal, 1918). The two latter works give detailed and imaginative, but as far as possible documented, accounts of the family and its members. Madeleine Jurgens, “Recherches sur Louis Hébert et sa famille,” SGCF Mémoires, VIII (1957), 106–12, 135–45; XI (1960), 24–31. This is the general title of a series of three articles: the second (VIII (1957), 135–45) deals mainly with Nicolas Hébert; the third (XI (1960), 24–31) with Louis.
© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Source: Library and Archives Canada, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.

EDMOND PINARD

2009-05-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

Edmond Pinard 1857-1933

Edmond Pinard was my Great Grand Uncle. He is from my father's side of the family.
For those of you who have lived in New Hampshire in the US you may have heard about him. Edmond was born February 27, 1857¹ in the parish of Sainte Monique, Nicolet, in the province of Quebec. As was the norm for families of that time he came from a family of at least fourteen children. His parents were Louis Theophile Pinard and Agnes Leblanc. His sister, Louise Pinard was my great grandmother.
When I started doing my families history I didn't even know the names of my grandparents on my father's side. After contacting a cousin I had met a few times as a child I was given a notebook of information that led me on the right path. I went through it bit by bit finding documentation for the names I had been given and eventually I found Edmond.
I was directed by an Internet contact I had made to look up the town of Pinardville, New Hampshire. There was Edmond. He had moved to the Manchester, New Hampshire area in 1873 and a few years later opened up a market on Elm Street. The market was open until 1929. Edmond married Henriette Daigle on November 26, 1883².

Pinardville came to be when Edmond developed the entire area. It is partially located in West Manchester and partially in Goffstown. He named the streets after family members, Henriette Street after his wife, Theophile and Agnes Streets after his parents and of course Edmond Street and Pinard Street for himself. I have not found any information regarding children he may have had. There are no streets named for them and so I do not think they had any children or if they did perhaps they did not survive.

St. Edmonds School

In June, 1906 Edmond submitted plans for the layout of the streets and his intentions to develop his holdings. He then built a store at the corner of Mast Road and Pinard Street to service the people who had bought his building lots. St. Edmond's church and school were built on 12 lots of land Edmond donated in 1911.

Pinardville Ice House on Mystic Creek

During this time of development and growth I can not find Edmond or his wife on the 1900 census for the area. Perhaps they were back in Canada for a short time. They were in New Hampshire in 1910 and had their niece, Virginia living with them. I also had no luck finding them on the 1920 or 1930 censuses. There may have been a reason they were not on the censuses after 1910. Apparently in 1915 there was another attempt to dis-annex Pinardville from Goffstown with a bill introduced to the legislature. It had little support and never came to a vote. I think Edmond may have been angry with the powers that be and may have purposely stayed out of the censuses in protest.
Edmond died in Pinardville, New Hampshire December 13, 1933²

Quebec Vital Records, Drouin Collection, 1621-1967, ancestry.ca online [http://www.ancestry.ca/], accessed, Ste. Monique, Nicolet, 1857, page 7
Go To Pinardville,online[http://www.gotopinardville.com/history.htm]

CARRIERE FAMILY

2009-05-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

When you find a cousin or other relative while working on your family tree that is a great joy and reward for all your work. When you see that they have some of the same photographs that you have seen in your own home growing up you really "get it". You know that there are others out there that share your genetic background and are a product of all that have gone before.
They are family.
My grandmother is the little girl in the front with her hands in her lap.
Marie Octavie Carriere

LOUIS HEBERT PART 1

2009-05-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

addendum: this post has been previously published on my other site Family Trees May Contain Nuts