Finally I am back onto my schedule that I created over a year and a half ago to look at various lines in my son in law's predominantly French Canadian family. I will work logically through the 64 families that are our grandson's 4x great grandparents and the surnames for this study:
our son in law's 3x great grandparents:
Bedard, Whelan, Matte, Gagnon, Mourier, Bertrand, Neveu, Lapointe, Gregoire, Seguin dit Laderoute, Tremblay, Labelle, Lauzon, Brunet, Lanoie, Rheaume, Dumoulin, Renaud, Larente, Cadieux, Clement, Charlebois, Breault dit Pommainville, Pilon, Prevost, Desjardins, Deschatelets, Quesnel, Lagarde dit St Jean, Lavigne, Chenier, Racine
my husband's 2x great grandparents:
Kipp, Mead, Force, Schram, Schultz, Passow, Neumann, Dusing, Link, Abbs, Rathbun, Hotrum, Allen, Crouse, Parlee, Folkins
my 2x great grandparents:
Blake, Farmer, Knight, Butt, Cotterill, Sherwood, Rawlings, Lywood, Pincombe, Rew, Gray, Routledge, Buller, Welch, Taylor, Roberts
With the exception of the last surname in my list (Roberts) and the likely surname Cotterill all of the surnames are proven.
I had often heard that it is possible to trace French Canadian lines back to the early/mid 1600s in Canada quite readily I was surprised nevertheless to be able to go back so far. There are a few lines that I continue to be brickwalled in but relatively speaking there are 32 known 3x great grandparents, 64 known 4x great grandparents, 128 known 5x great grandparents, 250 of 256 6x great grandparents are known. What a phenomenal gift the priests of Quebec and Ontario have given to these many lines of early settlers from France.
My husband's family lines are a fascinating cross section of Europe although the Kipp, Mead, Force, Schram, Link, Rathbun, Hotrum, Allen, Crouse, Parlee and Folkins were all colonial New England and New York. Many of these families were in the colonies before 1650 with the Link being the latest arrival in the mid 1700s. The Schultz, Passow, Neumann and Dusing lines came to Canada in the mid 1800s as Schultz and Neumann. The Abbs family arrived from Norfolk in the early 1830s in Canada.
I have just one Canadian line with my Routledge arriving first in 1818 with her family from Bewcastle, Cumberland, and marrying the next immigrant in my line Gray arriving in the early 1830s from Etton, East Riding of Yorkshire, their daughter (my first Canadian born ancestress) married the next emigrant who arrived in 1851 with his family Pincombe from Molland and Bishops Nympton, Devon, their son (my second Canadian born ancestor) married Buller who arrived in Canada in 1908 from Birmingham. Their daughter, my mother (my third Canadian born ancestor), married Blake who came to Canada with his parents in 1913 from Upper Clatford, Hampshire. Just like to remind myself of my Canadian heritage periodically. Having just this one tiny line going back to one set of 3x great grandparents reminds me that the other 15 sets of 3x great grandparents lived and died in England along with 7 of the 8 sets of 2x great grandparents, and 3 of the 4 sets of great grandparents also lived and died in England. Three of my grandparents were born and lived in England as adults with my father also being born in England and coming to Canada with his parents as a child of nine years of age. But surprisingly I discovered on our now four trips to England that doesn't make me English. When I am in England I am quickly spotted as a Canadian although occasionally people think I am from the southwest of England. My husband says I have a bit of an English accent perhaps acquired from my years spent with my grandparents when I was a child - my last grandparent passed away when I was 21 years old (we married when I was 20 and now as 48 years of marriage approaches in a couple of weeks time it does seem like a long time ago now).
Now my mind is directed towards work on the Bedard family having reminisced for a bit. In total I have 391 folders of family names for the ancestors of our son in law. If I think in terms of 12 generations back then I am looking at 16, 384 individuals but French Canadian research is a rather interesting research study. As one moves back in time some of the lines of descent have come from the same founder for instance our son in law is descended from each of the five children of Jacques Archambault and Francoise Touraude (founder of Montreal). This couple married 24 Jan 1629 at Saint-Philbert-du-Pont-Charrault, Vendée, France. Hence these lines experience pedigree collapse. It is to be expected since the numbers of people that would be needed to support all the resultant population is an impossible size so eventually all families will undergo pedigree collapse at some point in time.
An interesting wikipedia article on the present day commune of Saint-Philbert-du-Pont-Charrault:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantonnay
I devised a system earlier for archiving the information for each family line. I have the family folder and then within that folder I have generation folders. Our grandson is Generation 13 folder counting down from the original eldest generation emigrant and this is folder Generation 1. The parents of Generation 1 are in folder Generation I, parents of these parents in Generation II. Which accounts for the fewer number of folders in total as I do not have independent family folders once pedigree collapse occurs or past about the fifth to sixth great grandparents level unless there is a lot of information. Eventually as I work my way back and find a lot of documents I will create a particular family folder.
Looking at what I have for Bedard thus far starting with the great grandparents Joseph Henri-Valmore Bedard and Marie Eugenie Annette Lea Mourier who were married 1 Jul 1927 at Notre Dame Basilica in Ottawa. In most cases for the French Canadian research I will move back from the great grandparents as they are all now deceased. I have the marriage lines for this couple and their parents were named:
Joseph Henri-Valmore Bedard and Florence Matte who were themselves married 30 Jan 1905 also at Notre Dame Basilica in Ottawa.
Joseph Louis Gabriel Marius Mourier and Marie Louise Eugenie Neveu who were themselves married 10 May 1909 at Ste Anne Parish in Vanier now part of Ottawa.
The Matte, Mourier and Neveu families will be discussed in their own blog posts.
I have the baptism for Joseph Henri-Valmore Bedard (since this family is no longer using the accented e I am not doing so in this blog but it is recorded as accented on the earlier documents). He was baptized 8 May 1905 and born 6 May 1905.
B 163
Jos. Henri Valmore Bedard
Le huit mai mil neuf cent cinq notre prete sous signe avons baptise Joseph Henri Valmore né le six de ce mois, fils légitime de Henri Bedard et de Florence Matté de cette paroisse; le parrain a été Leon Matté, la marraine Lousie Gagnon son epouse...... Drouin Records (Ancestry).
Henri was the eldest son, he had a younger sister Marie Zelia and a younger brother John Oscar Alexandre who died at the age of 2 years.
The marriage registration for Valmore Bedard and Florence Matte 30 Jan 1905, Schedule B, Carleton County, # 005519 reads as follows:
Groom: Valmore Bedard 23 years of Ottawa, born in Ottawa, bachelor, clerk, son of Charles Bedard and Emelie Whelan. Bride: Florence Matte, 22 years of Ottawa, born in Ottawa, single, daughter of Leon Matte and M. Louise Gagnon.
The marriage lines from the parish Register of Basilique Notre Dame d'Ottawa read as follows:
[Margin]: M. 10 Valmore Bedarde and Florence Matte
Le trente janvier mil neuf cent cinq vu la dispense de deux bans accordie par le Monsigneur la publication de l'autre ban faite au prône de la messe paroissiale entre Valmore Bedard fils majeur de Charles Bédard et de Emelie Whelan de cette paroisse d'une part et Florence Matte fille majeure de Léon Matte et de Marie Louise Gagnon de cette paroisse d'autre part ne s'etant decouver aucun empechement nous sousigne vicaire general avons reçu leur mutuel consentement Nous avons donné la bénédiction nuptiale en presence de James Bédard Note Léon Matte qui avec ces époux ont signé
Valmor Bedard
Florence Matte
James Bedard
Leon Matte
I V Nanttieu [sp]
Two of the brothers of Valmore had the forename James so do not know for sure which brother this is - James Jacques Bedard or James Alexandre Charles Bedard - or was it perhaps someone else?
Charles Alexandre Bedard and his wife Marie Emelie Whelan were married at St Jean Baptiste in Quebec City 29 Jul 1863 and their first daughter was baptized there in 1864. Their next child, first son, I have not yet found a baptism for him. At some point between 1864 and 1867 this family moved to Ottawa. Charles Bedard was a carpenter and I have always wondered if he came to Ottawa to work on the Parliament buildings as a carpenter. Still working on that.
There were ten children known to be born to Charles and Emelie Bedard:
Marie Philomene Letitia Bedard 1864
Eugene Bedard circa 1867
Eugenie Bedard 1871
Joseph Edouard Bedard 1872
Joseph Alexandre Bedard 1874
James Alexandre Charles Bedard 1875
James Jacques Bedard 1876
Honore Emile Bedard 1880 - 1880
Joseph Henri Valmore Bedard 1881
Eugenie Marie Bedard 1884
The only child other than Valmore for whom I have looked up information is Eugene Bedard because they worked together in Manor Park. Eugene married Albina Bergeron 17 May 1886 at Basilica de Notre Dame, Ottawa and they had eight children.
This Bedard line is 5 generations Franco Ontarien and 8 generations at Quebec City and Charlebois. Since I am back to Quebec City where they lived from the mid 1600s to circa 1864-67, It might be interesting to look at the Bedard family that came out from France. When we were in LaRochelle, the last known location of the emigrant Bedard, I queried a couple of people about the Bedard family living in France now and was told that they were a French family from further south towards the Pyrenees. I want to explore that thought.Tracing the line back from Charles Alexandre Bedard is very straightforward and will come back to that but the recent trip to France inspires me to look more at the French Bedard line pre emigration.
Isaac Bedard (son of the immigrant Jacques Bedard and an immigrant himself) married Marie Girard 20 Mar 1644 at LaRochelle. There were six known sons of this couple Jacques, Francois, Pierre, Richard, Isaac, Louis, and two daughters Marie and Anne.
An interesting document on the history of the Bedard family in France can be found by searching on Google: Translated Bedard History_my.pdf . An interesting 23 page document and at some point shall pursue some of the information that is mentioned therein.
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