Wednesday, October 24, 2012

My 8th Great Grandmother Was a Murderer

UPDATE:  I am mistaken that this was my 8th Great G-ma.  Actually, she's the daughter of my 8th Great, a sibling of my 7th Great, making her my 7th Great Aunt.

I've just provided another path to Jacques de LaPorte dit St Georges.  The one I didn't discuss at length was Catherine LaPorte, who married Philibert Couillaud.  They were responsible (via some crafty name changes common in "New France") for the "Rock" family in my tree -- most recently, my Grandmother, who's maiden name was Rock.

Well, in all likelihood, she was a murderer.  Here's a snippet:

ommitted with premeditation, a murder of passion is all the more sordid, and all the less excusable. Such was the outrage which occurred at St-Ours at the very outset of the XVIIIth Century.

At that time, a man by the name of LaChaume and his wife, Marie [Catherine LaPorte] Couillaud, lived at St-Ours. Much to their misfortune, Pierre Viau dit Larose, a soldier in the St-Ours Company is lodged with one of their neighbors. As a means of killing time, Larose often goes to his neighbors', the Lachaume, to enjoy some casual talking. A fine talker, the soldier quickly makes the heart of his hostess beat faster. This passion leads him straight to crime. Once she becomes the mistress of Larose, Marie Couillaud decides in good measure to get rid of her husband. And she soon advises her lover of her project. On 28 February 1702, Marie Couillaud and Pierre Viau decide to put an end to LaChaume "during the time he was asleep." That very night, the husband is stabbed three times with his sword by his wife's lover. The result is instant death.

 Marie Couillaud is nowhere to be found, while her presumed accomplice is locked up in Montreal. The disappearance of the LaChaume woman reads like a pulp novel. To protect her from legal prosecution, her uncle, Pierre Laporte dit Saint-Georges, is said to have assumed the responsibility of taking her to New England. On the way he is said to have met natives, to whom he would have entrusted the care of his niece, paying them to conduct her safely to her destination.

More is available here at this link (the link provides both French and English versions of the story).

Another Direct Ancestral Path to Jacques De La Porte dit St Georges

When I began researching my family history, among the first "goals" was to find my connection to Jacques de LaPorte dit St Georges, the first "LaPorte" in North America and the one responsible for the vast majority of people with that name here in this country.

I first successfully identified a path to him as a direct ancestor not through LaPortes, but through my father's maternal grandparent's lines.  Both Rocks were descended from Philibert Couillaud, who married one of Jacques' daughters, Catherine LaPorte.

Since then, I have persuasively established the connection through the LaPortes after a long pause at my 3GRGR because of his use and his parents use of the last name "Denis" for a period of years.

Recently, as I've been filling in ancestral gaps in my French Canadian lines, I just found another line (giving me three total that go back to him).  This latest is through his daughter Suzanne (b. 1676 d. 1743).  Suzanne married a man named Pierre Menard (b. abt 1672 d. 1743) (not this Pierre Menard), son of Pierre Menard St Onge.

Pierre Menard is my 8th Great Grandfather.


Pierre Menard St Onge (1672 - 1746)
is your 8th great grandfather
Son of Pierre
Son of Pierre
Daughter of Theophile
Daughter of Catherine
Daughter of Marie Anne
Daughter of Julia Brière
Son of Hattie
Daughter of (Henry) Clayton
Son of Jennie Delphine
You are the son of Ronald Lloyd -


His wife, Suzanne, is my Seventh Great Grand Aunt.


Suzanne de la Porte dit St Georges (1676 - 1743)
is your 7th great grand aunt
Father of Suzanne
Son of Jacques
Son of Paul
Son of Denis
Son of Pierre
Son of Charles
Son of Julius
Son of Moses Julius
Son of Henri Andrew
Son of Lloyd Vincent
You are the son of Ronald Lloyd.

So, through Pierre Menard and Suzanne LaPorte, Jacques is my 9th Great Grandfather.  Through the LaPorte side, though, he is my 8th Great Grandfather (through Philibert Couillaud and Catherine LaPorte, he is also my 9th Great Grandfather).  I would NOT be surprised if there are other paths to Jacques.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

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
Daughter of Gilbert Simond
Daughter of Delphine Josephine
Daughter of Isabel
Son of Jennie Delphine
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 . . ..

Thursday, October 18, 2012

"Filles du Roi" - King Louis XIV's "Binders Full of Women"

The Interwebs have been having a bit of fun at Gov. Mitt Romney's expense over his comment in the second debate with President Barack Obama where he said that in recruiting women to cabinet posts he reviewed "Binders Full of Women."* Albeit inartfully, he was referring to an effort to recruit women to work in his administration -- a fairly admirable affirmative-action goal.

King Louis XIV of France had his own recruitment effort in the Seventeenth Century. With a shortage of women in "New France" during early colonization, the King decided to recruit women to travel to what is now Quebec under "contract" to marry pioneers and soldiers.  As summarized by the Filles du Roi society:

The filles du roi, or King's Daughters, were some 770 women who arrived in the colony of New France (Canada) between 1663 and 1673, under the financial sponsorship of King Louis XIV of France. Most were single French women and many were orphans. Their transportation to Canada and settlement in the colony were paid for by the King. Some were given a royal gift of a dowry of 50 livres for their marriage to one of the many unmarried male colonists in Canada. These gifts are reflected in some of the marriage contracts entered into by the filles du roi at the time of their first marriages.
The filles du roi were part of King Louis XIV's program to promote the settlement of his colony in Canada. Some 737 of these women married and the resultant population explosion gave rise to the success of the colony. Most of the millions of people of French Canadian descent today, both in Quebec and the rest of Canada and the USA (and beyond!), are descendants of one or more of these courageous women of the 17th century.

I've just started looking into this, so I don't have much to add except that after an initial perusal, I've found seven or more women who are ancestors of mine who were filles du roi, including:

Marguerite Ardion
Francoise Baiselat
Jeanne Gueneville
Suzanne Lacroix
Louise Lecoutre
Antoinette Lefebver
Anne Lemaitre and
Louise Menacier


There was one "LaPorte"in the list of roughly 1000 women, but she obviously was not an ancestor.  Marie-Anne de LaPorte married Francois Genaple sieur de Bellefonds. So, she was ancestor to Genaples of North America.

I've not poked around in this area much yet, but can share some resources that I'll be looking at, including one at "we relate."










* The  binder owners dispute the details of Romney's claim).

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

UPDATED TO SHOW ERRORS/THIS IS NOT MAGDELEINE ST LAURENT - Oldest Family Photo . . . The Record Is Shattered Again!

UPDATE:  PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING BELOW IS FALSE.  THIS IS NOT MAGDELEINE ST LAURENT.  SEE HERE FOR MORE DETAILS.  I'M LEAVING THE ORIGINAL POST INTACT EVEN THOUGH ITS FALSE SO THAT IT CAN BE UNDERSTOOD TO BE FALSE.

I failed to get back behind (earlier) than my wife's family's oldest photo in this post, but I did this afternoon over lunch!

I was just perusing my tree on ancestry.com to see where things were in various ancestral branches and came across this one:


This is my 7GRGR, Magdeleine St Laurent.  She married Jean-Baptiste Brouillard. She was born in 1700, he in 1690. Magdeleine died in 1736, making this photo which, if authentic, would put it nearly 30 years before the aforementioned Rebecca Machado photograph on my wife's side!

Her connection to me is as follows:


Magdeleine St-Laurent (1700 - 1736)
is your 7th great grandmother
Son of Magdeleine
Son of Jacques-Julien
Daughter of Francois Xavier
Daughter of Marguerite
Son of Christine
Son of Edward "Henry"
Daughter of (Henry) Clayton
Son of Jennie Delphine
You are the son of Ronald Lloyd

When Cousins Marry . . .

Since delving into my ancestry a couple of years ago, I've quickly learned of some inter-marriage among my relatives.  I've focused my research primarily on my father's side as my Uncle Pat has owned the laboring oar on the Eagan side of things. Most of these folks are Northern New Yorkers who immigrated from Quebec.  Many descend from the earliest couple of hundred settlers in Montreal. So, its not a big surprise that there has been inter-marriage.

I've come across several instances of Rocks marrying LaPortes.  Masse's marrying LaPortes. Garrands marrying LaPortes and some of these connections are only a couple of generations  apart. I've also come across Rocks marrying Rocks -- my Great Grandparents (Henry) Clayton Rock was the first cousin once removed from his wife, Isabel Rock (Clayton's father Edward "Henry" Rock was the brother of Isabel's grandfather, Moses Rock). But that's the closest that I've seen before this morning, when I came across this:


This is the marriage record of my 5th Great Grandfather, Joseph Souliere to Marie Catherine Menard. The date in the upper right shows a marriage on March 1, 1802 in Contrecoeur, Quebec, Canada. My 5GRGR was the age of "majority" (i.e., an adult) and his wife Catherine was a minor. His father, Piere Suliere (s/k/a Pierre Joseph Noel Souliere -- and some combinations of those given names, usually including "Joseph") had died by this time (he died in April 2, 1790). Joseph's mother is listed as "Marie Charles* Lacroix."  Catherine Menard's parents are listed as Theophile Mendard (deceased) and Marie Louise Lacroix.

The astute reader will beat me to the explanation and will have already noticed that the mother of the bride and mother of the groom both are named "Lacroix." Those with French, Latin, or medical backgrounds (or, just large vocabularies) will also have noticed what it says in the upper right corner under "Marriage" and "Contrecoeur" -- "consanguinity," which means "blood relation."  I do not know positively yet, but I strongly suspect that Marie Louise and Marie Charles Charlotte were sisters, making their kids first cousins.

More to report when I find out.

* From other records, this is likely a misstatement or mis-transcription -- I haven't looked closely at the original image yet to determine which it is. Joseph's mother was typically referred to as Marie Charlotte or just Charlotte, usually with the surname "Lacroix," but sometimes also with "Borgeau" "Saraphin" and "Potvin" --  I've not figured out that mystery yet.  More later.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Oldest Family Photo . . . Updated

Well, we've just blown the doors of of the previous "record" for oldest family photo. Perviously  it had been of Lydia Richardson (b. 1832). This one is of Jonathan Waterbury (b. 1766 d. 1825) and Sarah "Sally" Travis (b. 1770 d. 1857). Its from a book called Jonathan Waterbury Genealogy. At the page facing 128, there is this photo:



Quite a handsome couple, eh? Old as it is, though, it still doesn't predate the photo of my wife's 6th Great Grandmother, Rebecca Machado.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

My 6th Great Grandparents . . . Twice

Louis Thierren and Monique Chatel are my sixth great grandparents, twice. They had both Marie Marthe Thierren (b. 1774) and Marie Angelique Thierren (b. 1775).  Marthe married Paul Larocquebrune and they are the ancestors on my "Rock" side. Angelique is an ancestor through a sequence of maternal lines, easier illustrated below than described:

   Marie Angelique THERRIEN (1775 - 1803)
is your 5th great grandmother,
Daughter of Marie Angelique
Daughter of Marguerite
Son of Christine
Son of Edward "Henry"
Daughter of (Henry) Clayton
Son of Jennie Delphine
You are the son of Ronald Lloyd 

Christine Labonne is where the two sisters intersect: Christine married Joseph Larocque, who's father was Paul Larocque and who's grandmother was Marthe Thierren.

I'm working on filling in as many of the 512 people who are my 6th great grandparents (2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents, 16 1GRs, 32 2GRs, 64 3GRs, 128 4GRs, 256 5Grs, and 512 6GRs).  The French Canadian side is actually possible to fill out completely at that level -- although some of the non-French lines have been challenging (Cox's, Blaneys, for example). On my mother's side, those 256 are likely a lifelong challenge as a vast majority are Irish and I've not even begun to delve into that (mostly since my Uncle Patrick Eagan handles that side of the family far better than I could imagine to).

In any case, it now looks like my father's side will have no more than 254 instead of 256. I'm curious whether others will be duplicated at different levels.

"Enos" Is Anglicized "Ignace," Which is Sort of Obvious . . . In Hindsight

I've been filling in ancestors from information and documents in the "La France" database at Genealogie Quebec.  I had hit a small road block with a 4th Great Grandfather on my dad's side, tracing up through his mom.  "Enos Dashnaw" or "Enos Dagenais" (depending on when or which record you see) was giving me problems.  I knew that "Enos" wasn't a French name, but I could not for the life of me figure out from what name it derived.

Somewhere -- maybe the St. Alexander's burial records at Rootsweb, perhaps, I stumbled upon a record referring to an "Ignatius" with similar data points. Still, at this point, I wasn't seeing anything. But then it clicked.  Ignatius in latin, Ignace in French.  And "Ignace" pronounced properly (Eeeg Nass) is a heck of a lot like "Enos."

Thanks to that Latin reference, I was able to find what now seems like an obvious Anglicization in hindsight.


I am descended from Ignace Dajenais / Enos Dashnaw and his second wife Rosalie Lantier, who was also known as Rosella Larkin.  Perhaps more on the many forms of "Dagenais" in a later post.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Ancestry / Facebook

Is anyone using the "new" Facebook App for Ancestry.com?  I'm a bit skeptical that it really adds anything for anyone who is beyond a "beginner" level in assembling a family tree.

I have used Facebook on MANY occasions to build my tree and to figure out who family was in distant branches when I've been building "descendant" charts for some of my ancestors.  Lets be honest, when you are putting together a descendants chart for a 2nd great grandfather, its going to get big and its going to contain a ton of people you don't know.  It also going to contain a ton of living people, who are just hard to research through publicly-available information.

Thankfully, a ton of people on Facebook, have no idea on how to control (or simply don't want to control) their privacy settings.  So, I've been able to figure out some pretty widespread relationships using Facebook, using shared public photos of very distant relatives, etc.

I'm just not sure that I see much value in the new app. Curious to know what others think.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Joseph Denis

Joseph Denis dit LaPorte was the son of Ignace Denis and Julie Lafay.  Born about the 4th of December 1811, he was Julius's cousin.

I've not been able to trace him forward.  I'm wondering if he is the Joseph LaPorte who married Nancy Beagle, who's family intertwined back with Francis Nelson LaPorte's family.

Joseph's baptismal record is here:



4th Great Grand Uncle Ignace

I'm posting the Genealogy Quebec index reference and also image of the marriage of my 4th Great Grand Uncle, Igance Denis to Julie Lafay / Lafaille here for reference / cross reference purposes.




Saturday, October 6, 2012

Ithaca College

I just love this picture of my mom and my Grandma (Mary Frances Maloney) Eagan. Its at her graduation from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York on June 4, 1964.

Diploma clutched in hand.  Classic black heels.  Looks ready to take on the world!



Completely random aside:  Jay Tarses, who claims my alma mater (Williams College) as his own and his class as the same as my dad's, actually graduated from Ithaca with my mom.


Thursday, October 4, 2012

On to Mom . . .

I've recently finished scanning almost all of the slides from my Grandpa Lloyd LaPorte.  "Almost" because for now, I've skipped the nature photos and parade photos.  I'll double check that there aren't any people in them, but am going to postpone actual scanning for some time.

I've still got to upload a bunch to Flickr to begin the tagging process.

Tonight, I've also finished scanning the final photo book from my Grandparents.  So, I begin now, with the several photo albums and scrapbooks that I have from my mom.  Soon, a whole new slew of people!!


The first?  My cousin, Steve Barrett, who is my mom's sister Kathleen Barrett's oldest son, and my aunt Kathy.


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

French Canadian Research Source

I'd been mucking about PRDH recently and saw their news blurb about teaming with Genealogy Quebe / Quebec Records.  I'd not been familiar with them before.  If you haven't either, check them out.

It is a subscription service, but for $13 CAD / month, you get 75 image views per day.  If you don't view the images, you can still get indexed / summary version of the information w/o charge against your image limit.  Index references like this one:


You can see the link to the .jpg image if you want it in the upper right, but if you are just looking for info, you can skip that and save the credit.  But lets be honest, 75 images per day is actually quite a lot.

So, for $13 / month ($13.54 based on the exchange rate this a.m.) you can get some pretty fantastic searching of the indexed records from Quebec.