Bertrand Family

The Bertrand family of French Canadian descent is very well published. Initially I was unable to attach Antoinette to her correct Bertrand family line. I still have not found the marriage registration for Antoinette Bertrand and Marius Mourier in 1877 at Hull Québec. Today, I shall again search out the death registration on Ancestry to see if I am able to locate one for Antoinette Bertrand now that 1936 is available.The death registration for Marius Mourier gives the name of his father as Jean Calixte Mourier. Her father is listed as Julien Bertrand and her mother as Antoinette Séguin. Since I am unable to find the marriage registration thus far, finding her parents on the death registration is the next best thing (and she is identified correctly as the widow of Marius Mourier). The informant was her younger daughter Marie Louise Proulx.

This verification is excellent as the published source that I found listed her parents as Julien Vital Bertrand and Antoinette Séguin.

Again I will place the Bertrand family into folders and thus far I only have the last two generations with the pertinent documents. One project for this family will be to pull all the documents available back to the emigrant ancestor. In this case, the emigrant ancestor was Jean Bertrand who married Marie Charlotte Brard 23 Sep 1697 at Notre-Dame, Montréal. Looking at Tanguay, (although I have found a few errors in Tanguay I still consider this to be the best reference tool in terms of looking at an entire family of an emigrant) there are a number of Jean Bertrand marriages and according to the published records bringing us down to Julien Vital Bertrand we would select their son Jacques who married Marie Louise Dumouchel 19 Sep 1729 at Notre Dame, Montréal. Their son Michel Louis married Marie Josephte Boyer dit St-Germain 10 Aug 1778 at Saint Michel, Vaudreuil. Their son Antoine married Marie Josephte Cholet 11 Jan 1802 at Saint Michel, Vaudreuil. Julien Vital was a son of this couple. Tanguay only takes us to Michel Louis being identified as the son of Jacques Bertrand married to Marie Louise Dumouchel. but it is a good starting point. I need to then locate the marriage of Julien Vital Bertrand and Anoinette Séguin which I did by writing to a rootsweb site which promised lookups of the Registers at St Jean Baptiste, L'Orignal, Prescott, Ontario. This is also on the nosorigines website. I also found on WorldConnect



Married: 07 FEB 1842 in Paroisse Saint-Jean-Baptiste, L'Orignal, Comté de Prescott, Ontario, Canada 3
    * Note:

          Original :
          M.5 Julien Vital Bertrand & Antoinette Seguin
          On the seventh of February eighteen hundred and forty two, after two publications of banns at our parochial mase of L'Orignal, I the undersigned priest have joined & maried Julien Vital Bertrand son of age of Antoine Bertrand and of the late Joseph Cholette and to Antoinette Séguin daughter of Hiacinthe Seguin and of Monique Villeneuve of Hawkesbury in presence of Pierre Chabot & Marc Rochon
          Signature :
          P. Lefaivre Ptre

          Translation :
          M.5 Julien Vital Bertrand & Antoinette Seguin
          Le sept Février mil huit cent quarante et deux, après la publication de deux bans aux messes paroissiales de L'Orignal. Je prêtre soussigné ai joint et marié Julien Vital Bertrand fils majeur d'Antoine Bertrand et de feue Joseph Cholette et a Antoinette Séguin fille de Hiacinthe Seguin et de Monique Villeneuve de Hawkesbury en présence de Pierre Chabot & Marc Rochon
          Signature :
          P. Lefaivre Ptre

Short of seeing the original register all of these items, the transcription is certainly very convincing.

The parents of Julien Vital Bertrand are named as Antoine Bertrand and Marie Josephte Cholet. It would appear that Julien Vital Bertrand has moved on from Vaudreuil where he was born and from Rigaud where his mother was buried in 1836 to L'Original. . This is a distance of approximately 20 kilometres.

From Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Orignal,_Ontario):

L'Orignal is a village and former municipality, now part of Champlain Township in eastern Ontario, Canada. It likely took its name from its location on the Ottawa River once known as Pointe à l'Orignal (French for "Moose Point"), where moose crossed the river.

The marriage of Antoine Bertrand and Marie Josephte Cholet was celebrated 11 Jan 1802 at St Michel, Vaudreuil. I did find the scan of their marriage on ancestry and downloaded a copy to my files. However, Tanguay does not have this marriage so I must work my way back another generation to Michel Louis Bertrand and Marie Josephte Boyer dit St Germain who married 10 Aug 1778 at St Michel, Vaudreuil according to the published information on this family. Both Louis Michel and Marie Josephte appear to be widowed at the time of their marriage. One notes from given baptismal records that Louis Michel would have been 41 years of age and Marie Josephte 37 years of age. In order to find the parents of Luis Michel I need to find his first marriage. His first wife was Marie Charlotte Bertrand and they married 10 June 1763 at LaPrairie. Louis Michel parents were recorded as Jacques Bertrand and Marie Louise Dumouchelle. Tanguay records their marriage as 19 Sep 1729 at Montréal which I shall verify on my next study day for the Bertrand family. So Jean is the first generation, Jacques is the second generation, Louis Michel is the third generation, Antoine is the fourth generation, Julien Vital is the fifth generation and Antoinette is the sixth generation. I can now separate the files into folders with the Bertrand folder.

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.

Louis Matte and Josette Benoit families

Another one of my brick walls may have actually fallen with a review of the Prescott Russell County Marriage Book. I would still like to see the original records but the marriage of Léon Matte and Marie Louise Gagnon 15 Oct 1865 in Prescott County lists parents of Léon as Louis Matte and Josette Benoit and Louise as Olivier Gagnon and Lorette Doutre.

Marriage of Olivier Gagnon and Josephte Doutre I did find in the published transcription of Saint Luc at Curran (Prescott County) as 26 Jun 1844 and that has let me trace these lines back.

The marriage of Louis Matte and Josette de la Tour as she is named in the census of 1861 I had not yet located. I also found two other marriages in Prescott County in the same time interval. Louis Matte (parents Louis and Josette Benoit) married to Angélique Monette 26 Nov 1865 and François Benoit(son of André and Marie Reine Decaire) married to P Clement 25 Sep 1866 also at Prescott County.

A quick search of Tanguay did not reveal any connection (not far enough back). I searched Drouin online and found a marriage for Louis Matte and Marie Josephte Benoit dit Vaillancourt 5 Feb 1839. Parents were listed for Louis Matte and Marie Josephte. The marriage was at St Jerome. The birth of Louis Matte (son of this couple) is listed as Ste Scholastique and the birth of Léon Matte is listed as Vaudreuil. An interesting path through these villages does lead one towards Prescott County. The census of 1861 at St André lists Louis Matt and his wife Josepte De Latour with children Louis (b 1840), Nazare (b 1841), Léon (b 1844), Joseph (b 1845), Célina (b 1848), Sarrah Ann (b 1850), Noa (b 1852), Arsinne (b 1855), Julia (b 1857), and Marceline (b 1860). Noé's marriage in 1877 lists his place of birth as Carillon, Québec and his age of 26 years fits with the census (parents Louis and Josephte Matte). Marceline Matte married in 1879 and her age of 19 years fits with parents Louis Matte and Josephine Benoit (parents listed on marriage registration).

The parents of Louis Matte and Marie Josephte Benoit dit Vaillancourt married 5 Feb 1839 at St Jerome were listed as mentioned above. This couple fit well into the description of the family on the 1861 census at St André and the resulting marriages that then occur in Prescott County for their children.

Parents of Louis Matte were Augustin Matte and Angélique Daragon. They married 11 Jan 1808 at St Eustache (Augustin Mathes and Marie Judith Daragon). Their parents were listed in the marriage lines.

Parents of Josephte Benoit dit Vaillancourt were Joseph Benoit dit Vaillancourt and Josephte Charette. Still looking for their marriage.

Parents of Augustin Matte were Pierre Mathes and Marie Anne Maisonneuve. They were married 5 Jan 1773 at St Francois de Sales.

Parents of Marie Judith Daragon were Louis Darragon and Marie Jeanne Lauzon. They were married 8 Feb 1779 at Ste Genevieve (Pierrefonds).

I will post these two lines back later but they are readily found in Tanguay when the last marriage registrations are transcribed.

I appear to now be brickwalled at Joseph Benoit dit Vailancourt and Josephte Charette.

Tanguay

My husband gave me his disc La Collection Tanguay a while ago but I hadn't really done anything with it yet. On Thursday past I decided to work through the index beginning with A and look up each name in Tanguay that pertained to French Canadian research. It was an excellent idea on my part and I have managed to work my way through the As and the Bs sorting out families and pulling yet more records from the registers. I think that Tanguay is considered to be one of the definitive sources for French Canadian research but I have found a few discrepancies where the Parish Registers give a different parent. I have gone with the parish registers since he used them as well. With all the similar names it would not be surprising to have a discrepancy. But on the whole I have been able to sort out many hanging lines where I can not find the marriage to locate names of a parent for the wife. I have been marking any that I can not work through with a tag of 9 in legacy so that I can easily collect them up and look again at a later date. Many of the lines will need to be looked up in French Parish Registers and I may not take this project that far but rather leave it for our son in law and daughter to do one day or one of their families. It would be a real inducement to spend some time in France. Since they speak French as their maternal tongue it would be easier for them as well although my reading of French has always been quite good. It is my spoken French that leaves a lot to be desired.

I might start to make note of areas where I have found a discrepancy but will have to begin with the Cs as I did not make particular note of any discrepancies as I worked my way through. I only found a couple in actual fact.

I also need to get back to my transcriptions of Andover and Timberscombe. They are starting to call to me to return.