What's in a Name?

My focus has been on my 3GRGR a lot lately, but I've recently come across some new information on a different 3GRGR (where the second "GR" is "grandmother").

In the United States, she was known as "Jane Garrow" and sometimes "Mary Jane."  She was baptized, though, Marie Genevieve Garrant. The "Marie Genevieve" change to "Mary Jane" is pretty straightforward and common.  Its also even easy to understand from a non-technical standpoint. But for reasons that I won't go into, the change from Garrant to Garrow is both less intuitive and more complicated.  Suffice it to say that there are a LOT of variations of the name of that family as it lived in Quebec and migrated down into New York.  In fact, I've got both Garrands and Garrows and Garrant's in my family tree and they all originate from the same ancestors.

I'm lucky enough to have connected with a guy in Indianapolis (originally from Mooers, New York) who has helped me in some research.  Mostly out of the goodness of his heart but also because its research for him too -- we discovered we are 4th cousins 1x removed (he descends from one of Jane Garrow's siblings).  He forwarded me this document and was kind enough to include a translation.

Last night, Jonathan wrote to me:

I found the baptism record (attached) of Jane Garrow (Marie Genevieve Garant in the record) from 1817, in the Drouin collection (attached). She was born March 18, 1817 in Chambly, Quebec, and baptized March 20, 1817 at St. Joseph's in Chambly. Translation of the record (maiden are used in Catholic records):

 

March 20, 1817, by the undersigned priest baptized Marie Geneviève, born the 18th of the same month, of the legitimate marriage of Joseph Garant, day laborer in this parish, and Geneviève Mâcé. The godfather was Pierre Mâcé and godmother Geneviève Lanier, who didn't sign, also the father was present.

I've recently "concluded" that a photograph that had been bugging me for a while is, in fact, my great grandfather, Henri LaPorte.  See below:

Henry, I've concluded, is second from the right.  He was born in 1885 and looks to be about 20 or so here, so I'd guess the photo is taken about 1905 +/- 5 years.

Henry had an older brother William Moses (11 years his senior) but I have no idea what he looked like. The guy on the far left seems to be much older than 32 or 33 years old.  He also had a younger brother Orlando Joseph, (9 years his junior).  I suppose if I'm underestimating Henry's age by as much as 5 years, then the kid with the dog might be Orlando.

Its possible, but I've yet to confirm whether he had a third brother, Edouard, who would have been 3 years older).  I've seen baptismal/birth references, but he doesn't appear in any census records.  Its possible, though, that his birth year (1882) would have slid him, but he doesn't appear in the 1892 Census record along with Moses and his family, as you'd expect.

Its quite possible that these are relatives of Mary Goodrow, Henry's mother, who were also variously spelled Gaudreau, and Goodreau among other things.

I did recently stumble across a reference that my Great Aunt Agnes was visiting her cousin, Mr. and Mrs. George Patnode, the "Mrs." of this couple being Mary Goodrow's niece, Delphine Ladouox (Agnes Goodrow's daughter -- Agnes and Mary were sisters). So, there does seem to be precedent for these LaPorte and Goodrow cousins to get together.

Because I love Free Research . . .

I've actually been working through a month of a paid subscription to Ancestry.com in fixing up a lot of missing citations in my tree.  But I always love free research.  So, when I stumbled upon this, I thought I'd pass it along.

If you have French Canadian roots, this source is invaluable and, I've recently discovered, free.  It is the seven-volume tome, Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes by Catholic Priest, Cyprien Tanguay.  its a massive seven-volume set that spans 1608 to 1760.

My LaPortes are covered extensively. The DJVU version -- which, unlike the PDF versions that are also free online, are SEARCHABLE!! - can be found here at the Many Roads web site.  DJVU readers are easily found for free from places like SourceForge.

There is a companion to this over 2000-page wonder called the Complément au dictionnaire généalogique Tanguay by Joseph-Arthur Leboeuf, which contains 600 pages of corrections and annotations. As far as I know, this work is not yet available in the public domain.

Merci, Pere Tanguay!

I'm Back . . .

Its been a month since the last post and, ironically, its not because there hasn't been a lot of genealogical activity.  Since then, I've gotten a pretty valuable record back from the Presbyterian archives in Philadelphia.  I hired a paralegal from a friend's law firm to schlep down there for me to find this:

This is the marriage record of my 3GRGR to his first wife, Jane Garrow.  Also, since last post, I've come across a VERY distant relative, Jonathan Treatault.  We determined that we are 4th cousins once removed.  He descends from Jane Garrow's brother, Adolphus.  His work lead me to the conclusion that my "Jane" was likely the "Genevieve" that many folks had in their trees. Not only was the French "Genevieve" frequently Anglicized to "Jane" but Garrow and Garrand were also frequently interchanged.

The connection, though, to his work was from the mother of Jane Garrow, Sylvie Genevieve Masse.  The "Masse" last name was close to Mosse/Mossey that I'd seen referenced frequently in my 3GRGR's Civil War Pension file.  Jules' second wife was a woman named "Emily Moss" but was also frequently referred to as "that Mossey girl" and Mossey/Moss. She also said in her affidavit that she was cousins with Jules' first wife, Jane Garrow.  So, it made sense that her father was brothers with Jane Garrow's mother.  The Masse name provided the connection.

Jonathan grew up in Mooers, New York, where these folks all used to live and speaks a bit of French, so he's got some background and reference materials that could help in connecting Jules' father Charles to the established list of La Porte descendants from "Hughes LaPorte dit St Georges" in France and Jacque de La Porte dit St Georges here in North America / Quebec.