My 3GRGU (Grand Uncle) went by Denis for a time Too.

On the way to establishing the ancestry of my 3GRGR, I wound my way through the men who we believed were his brothers, including Julian LaPorte.  The Pontbriand marriage book (Marriages (1830-1880) Comte de Clinton (New York), contained numerous entries for Julian's daughters. In it, his wife was consistently referred to as Sophie Roy.

So, I did some digging with the new "Denis" lead and found his (Julian Denis's) marriage record to Sophie Roy.  Julian Denis was also the son of Charles Denis and Marie Guenet. My French is horrible and the record from ancestry.com is a bit rough, but you can very easily make out:  Julien Denis marrying Sophie Roy and the parents of Julian being "Charles Denis" (fifth and sixth lines) and "Marie Guenet" (sixth line).  The parents of Sophie Roy look to be "Joseph Roy" and "Francoise Leblane" (? don't know on that last name).

Circumstantial evidence supports that Julius and Julian were brothers, including living next door to one another at least in the 1850 Census period, that Charles and Marie had two sons named "Julien" born in 1810 and 1815 respectively, which ROUGHLY coincide with birth years for both of them, and also that there is a reference in Julius LaPorte's pension file. In it, there is a question about whether Julius and his fifth wife, Mary / Rachel / Cecelia / Miro, owned property.  Clinton County records apparently showed ownership by "Julius LaPorte."  The pension file indicates that the Julius in question is my 3GRGR's "nephew." (the explanation spills over to the text written on its side).

From census records, we know that Julian had a son named Julius:

Julian's marriage record is more helpful in this regard than Julius's because the latter were married in the United States and that record mentions only the bride and groom and no ancestors.

Je Suis Un Fils de Denis

Thanks to my very distant cousin, Jonathan Tetreault, we are getting nearer and nearer to establishing the linkage between my 3GRGR Jules/Julius and his father Charles.

I'll post more later, but some recent research suggests that Charles LaPorte was also Charles LaPorte-Denis or simply Charles Denis, who married Marie Guenet.  We've had marriage records for Charles LaPorte and Marie Guenet for some time, showing their parents names.  What was missing was a connection (other than the 1850 Census record) between Jules and Charles, since that record only put them as next-door neighbors, living in a home of a man who might be his brother.

Cousin Jonathan found a second marriage reference that included the "Denis" name, which got us searching for other possibilities.

This morning, he emailed me the following message:

(Searching for Julien Denis, Laporte, or Denys), I found two baptisma lrecords of interest on ancestry.com : 1) Julien Denis, who was a sonof Charles Denis & Marie Guenet, born/baptized in Jan. 1810, in L'acadie. 2) Julien Denis, also a son of Charles & Marie, born & baptized Apr. 22, 1815 in L'acadie (as a side note, interestingly, this entry is right next to the baptism of a direct ancestor of my brother-in-law - Zoe Campbell). 

I did not find that either of these Juliens died. It could be possible that these 2 boys may be your Julius & Julien. The French version of both of these names is Julien.

I went to the LDS site, www.familysearch.org and started to browse to the records for the St. Marguerite de Blairfindie church in L'Acadie, Quebec.  This is where Charles and Marie were married. It took some time to zero in on April 22, 1815, but this is what I saw as well:

 My French is rather horrible, but I can make out:  "Le vingt-deux avril mil huit cent quinze" which is 22 April, 1815.

Also, "batisme de Julien ne aujorud'hui du legitime marriage de Charles denis . . .  et le Marie Guenet . . ." which is "baptism of Julien, born today of the legitimate marriage of Charles Denis and Marie Guenet."

Julius, based on my research has shown birth dates anywhere from about 1813 to 1820.  For example, in 1850 Census, he is listed as born about 1815.  In 1870, it is about 1819.  In the 1880 Census he is listed as 68, suggesting a birth date in 1812.

In his Civil War Pension claim, he has identified at least at one place, a birthdate of April 4, 1812. My recollection is that was in his disability pension. In his widow's pension file, there is a marriage record (second hand transcription from the then-current minister of the church in which he was married), which suggests he was 58 years old in 1878 when he married Louisa Bartlett.  That would put his birthday about 1819 or 1820.

So this is certainly not INCONSISTENT with those.

Next is to find the same record that Jonathan mentions for the "other" Julien, which  would proabably be the man known in Clinton County, New York as "Julian."  Maybe also a hunt for Francis Nelson, who might also be Francois Narcisse.  Perhaps even a Jospeph, who was rumored to have existed as a third or fourth brother.

Also, I need to track down the original of Julius's death record perhaps both from the State of New York and also from St. Anne's in Mooers.  The collection of records for Julius's death indicates "Charles" and "Marie Gosset" as the parents.  We're speculating that this is poor transcription of the handwriting for "Guenet" but it would be nice to see the original.