Another 3GRGR Dead End

Since I've linked up my LaPorte 3GRGR (for whom this blog is named), I've begun to focus my research on other parts of the tree.  I've been filling in folks in various "descendant's reports."  I've been climbing up the tree to fill in direct ancestors, which is easier than you'd imagine in Quebec -- many lines being complete back to fifth, sixth, and beyond great grandparents.

In filing in these "holes," I have come across a stopper -- Gilbert Simond Jesse -- another 3rd Great Grandfather, related as follows:

Gilbert Simond Jesse (1822 - 1884)

is your 3rd great grandfather

Delphine Josephine Jessy (1877 - 1955)

Daughter of Gilbert Simond

Isabel Rock (1896 - 1978)

Daughter of Delphine Josephine

Jennie Delphine Rock (1915 - 2000)

Daughter of Isabel

Ronald Lloyd La Porte (1940 - )

Son of Jennie Delphine

Michael Robert La Porte

You are the son of Ronald Lloyd

St. Alexander's in Morrisonville, New York has transcribed burial records online here, which show him to have died in 1884. There isn't any direct record for Gilbert Jesse, but there are several references to folks who are related to him - children, spouses, etc.

One first hiccup was his wife. It seemed that her name was Catherine Martin, which would be consistent with some census records, referring to Catherine and Kate.  But there is also reference on that page to some Martin-Fortin's, which might also be her pedigree.

One further confusing thing is that on ancestry.com, there are a number of public trees that list Gilbert Simond Jesse has having a first wife, Armenia Raymond and having several children by her.  Those children all seem to have been born before the start of the US Civil war, in which Gilbert Jesse might have fought (I've ordered a copy of the pension filed for Gilbert Jesse to see if its the right person and also if there is any pertinent information).  The pension claimant is "Kate Jesse" which is consistent with a surviving wife named Catherine Martin.

These trees, however, don't give a date of death for "Armenia," which if Gilbert had two wives, would seem to be sometime before the war. In any case, it seems possible that 3GRGR Gilbert Jesse had two families, one pre-war and one post-war.

I cannot get back into Canada/Quebec with Gilbert, though. This is likely a function of the Anglicizing of whatever his true French last name was.  I've seen online in various discussions that the Jesse name (which appears in at least one census record as "Jessa") has appeared variously as Jesse, Jessey, Jessie, Jersey, Jessa and could derive from Gaisson/Giasson or Chaisson/Chiasson.

This is the new project . . ..