Monday, September 24, 2012

A little bit scattered . . . Rocks and LaPortes . . . and Sorels

I've been sporadically in and out of trees lately looking at a bit of this and a bit of that.  No real plan.  I need to change that.  The closest that I came to focus recently was in a project that should really be a lower priority than it is right now -- working on completing the "descendants of Joseph Rock" (another of my 3GRGRs).  I got further bogged down in a project that will get some further attention on the blog because its happened a number of times -- namely, the intermarriage of Rocks and LaPortes.

My grandfather Lloyd LaPorte married Jennie Rock.  My 8GRGR Catherine LaPorte married Philibert Couillaud (who was a precursor to Larocquebrune, Larocque, Rocque and Rock families).  Couillaud was believed to be a "dit" name -- "Couillaud dit Rocquebrune." My first cousin four times removed, Sophie LaPorte married Julien Gideon Larocque.  Those are off the top of my head.  I'm sure there are countless others.

In any case, I had stumbled upon another one in Elmire/Elmira/Almira Rock, my 2GRGRAunt. She seems to have married Alexandre LaPorte.  So, seeing other of these unions, I dug deeper -- up and down their trees.  I had the auxiliary goal of documenting ANY LaPorte related to me -- by blood or by marriage -- in part as a way to keep track of LaPortes who popped up in researching ones that were the real focus any work at any given time.  I say "seems" because there also seemed to be some suggestion that Elmire was married to a Sorrel (a possible sister, Mary -- possible, because Mary and Elmire are often the same, and I haven't yet dug deep enough -- may have also married a Sorell, so some confusion possibly to clear up there).

In any case, I wanted document descendants of Joseph Rock, which necessarily included descendants of Elmire Rock LaPorte, so this was a double bonus.  That's still a work in progress, but there was at least Raymond LaPorte (b. 1877 d. 1962), Eva M. LaPorte (b. 1884 d. 1972), and Gertrude Maude Laporte (b. 1890 d. 1984).

Gertrude Maude died without children.

Raymond married Elizabeth Martin and they had Dorothy Magie LaPorte (b. 1911 d. 1985) and Esther G. Laporte (b. 1915 d. 2010).  Dorothy married Victor Rabideau, Jr. and had Elizabeth "Betty" Rabideau and Donald Rabideau (b. 1938).  Esther married Ronald Silver (b. 1907) and had children John, Michael, Patricia and William.  That's as far forward as I've gotten on those folks, although obituaries definitely show many other children and grandchildren.

Eva M. LaPorte married Arthur Steward Lefeve (b. 1884 d. 1959) and had Bernard (b. 1907 d. 1974), Esther G. (b. 1909 d. 2000), Lionel F. (b. 1913 d. 1984) and Leonard W. (b. 1921 d. 2005). Bernard Married Alice Elizabeth Watts (b. 1914 d. 1990) and together, they had a daughter (as yet unknown to me, who married a man named Josesph and a son named David Arthur Lefeve (b. 1939 d. 2003). Mrs. Joseph had Joseph Rheal.  Nothing further on this branch for now.

Esther G. Lefeve married Leon Lynch and had (Rev. John Lynch d. 2011) and Kathleen Lynch (b. 1946 d. 2009). Both died without children.

Lionel F. Lefeve married a woman named Helen and had (Joan K. Lefeve b. 1937) and John Lefeve (b. 1939) Nothing yet further on these branches.

Nothing further on Leonard W. Lefeve.

So, that was the rabbit hole for descendants.  The ancestry search for Alexandre LaPorte was also a chore.  After finding a lot of nothing (including some confusing 1870 census information, which seemed to have him in a household of another man named Alexander LaPorte, who was only a dozen or so years his senior),



which was more than a bit confusing, but then I found this at Mundia.com a sister site to ancestry.com (click to expand):



I've not dug through all of it, but traced up and found that these "LaPortes" became "LaPorte" around this time (1850s or so) and don't seem to trace back to Jacques de LaPorte dit St Georges. They were "Sorel" and traced back to a guy named Hilaire Jean Baptiste Sorel-dit-Leville.  Curious how the "LaPorte" made its way in there . . ..

But, that is all by way of digression.  I SHOULD BE focused on the Charles Denis line of things. Having discovered a BUNCH of Denis baptism and burial records at St. Marguerite de Blairfindie, I need to process ll of that information, including what seems to be a significant absence of information -- namely the absence of a Francis Nelson LaPorte analog in the "Denis" family.

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed reading your blog, especially about my family and me! I'm the granddaughter of Eva Lefeve and daughter of Bernard Lefeve. I'd be happy to fill in some of the blanks re our family.
    Carol
    pip63@aol.com

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