Matté and Gagnon families

Léon Matté married Marie Louise Gagnon 15 October 1865 at or near Plantagenet, Ontario in Prescott County. Léon stated that he was born at Vaudreuil Quebec, he was 22 years of age (est 1843) and he was the son of Louis Matte and Josette Bénoit. Louise stated that she was born at St Polycarpe Quebec, she was 19 years of age (est 1846) and that she was the daughter of Olivier Gagnon and Josephte Doutre.

For quite a while this couple was a brick wall for me. Léon Matte died 22 Mar 1917 and was buried 25 Mar 1917 at Notre Dame Cemetery, Ottawa. His burial lines stated that he was 73 years old (est 1844) and that Joseph Blais and Edward Gauthier were present (at some point in the future I shall determine if these were (as I suspect) sons in law). His death registration was somewhat more helpful. It stated that he was born at St. André Quebec. That he was a carriage maker by profession and that his father was Joseph Matte. The Informant was his wife Mrs. Léon Matte according to the document and they resided at 281 Guigues Avenue, Ottawa.

I placed all of my downloaded images for the Matté family  once again into the generational files with Generation 8 being the daughter Florence  baptized 13 Sep 1883 at St Jean Baptiste Parish, Ottawa, ON who married Joseph Valmore Bédard 30 Jan 1905 at Notre Dame Basilica, Ottawa. Using Tanquay I was able to work down to the fifth generation and then with the marriages I was able to prove the line down to Florence. The line back to the emigrant Nicolas Matté still needs to have the baptismal and burial records pulled. There are two lines of descent from Nicolas - his son Nicolas and his daughter Marie Louise.


I placed all of my downloaded images for the Gagnon family once again into the generational files with Generation 8 being Marie Louise Gagnon daughter of Olivier Gagnon and Josephte Doutre and they married 26 Jun 1844 at Curran, Saint Luc, Prescott ON. This information I obtained from the published descent of the Gagnon family. I am using it as a tool to work backwards and pull out all the documents for this family line. I have actually pulled all the records at this point for the marriages and now need to pull out the baptisms and burials. The parents of Olivier Gagnon were listed to be Louis Gagnon and Marie Elisabeth Caron who married 22 Sep 1800 at St Cuthbert Québec. The published transcription does verify this record. Mariages, sépultures et annotations marginales, paroisse St-Luc de Curran (Ontario), 1839-1994 compilé par Lucille Lalonde-Groulx, 1997 and located at Library and Archives Canada. Tanquay does not have this marriage but I was able to locate the marriage of Louis Gagnon and Marie Elisabeth Caron and the parents of Louis Gagnon were Louis Gagnon and Angélique Pelletier. Once again this marriage is not in Tanguay but once again I did find their marriage of 29 Aug 1768 at Ste Geneviève, Pierrefonds, Isle de Montréal. In turn this marriage states that the parents of Louis Gagnon were Jean Baptiste Gagnon and Marie Madeleine Bouthilllet. This marriage can be found in Tanguay. I continued pulling marriage right back to the emigrant ancestor Captain Pierre Gagnon.

I now need to pull all the baptisms and burials for the Gagnon line and indeed there are three Gagnon lines in this family tree. Jean (some write that he was a brother of Captain Pierre) and married to Marguerite Drouin and the two sons (Jean and Pierre) of Captain Pierre Gagnon.

For my next study session I wish to continue pulling documents for the Matté and Gagnon families.