Whélan Family

On the 1871 census Thomas Whélan and his wife listed as Emilie Whélan are living at Quebec city and he is a carpenter (they have seven children listed (their daughter Emélie married Charles Alexandre Bédard in 1863) and Thomas lists his Origin as French.

Thomas Welland married Emilie Fournier dit Larose 13 Jan 1835 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Québec City.

M 1 Thomas Welland and Emilie Fournier dit Larose

Le treize janvier mil huir cent trente cinq après la
publication de trois bans de mariage faite aux prones des messes pa
raissoiles de Québec entre Thomas Welland peinteur, domicilié en la
paroisse de Québec, fils majeur de feu Thomas Welland et de defunte Elizabeth
pepin dit Lachance d'une part; et Emilie Fournier dit Larose, fille mineure
de Jean Baptiste Fournier dit Larose et de Elizabeth Labbé, domiciliée, ainsi
que leur dite fille en la paroisse de Québec, d'autre part; auque la dite
Emilie Fournier dit Larose avait le consentement de ses peère et mère
et que d'ailleurs il n'opparaissait aucun empechement nous pretre Curé
de Québec soussigné avont reçu leur mutuel consentement de mariage et
leur avons donné la bénédiction nuptiale en présence de pierre drolet
ami de l'époux et de Joseph Fournier dit Larose, père de l'épouse
qui tous deux ainsi que les époux ont déclaré ne savoir signer
M T Baillargeon Pretre

The priest has recorded his surname as Welland although the census uses Whélan as the surname.

The burial of Thomas Welland is recorded at Sherington

S 3 Thomas Welland

Le huir Fevrier mil huit cent soixante
cinq Nous curé soussigné avons inhume
dans le cimetière de cette paroisse le
corps de Thomas Welland décédé avante
hier a l'agé de soxiante treize ans
veuf de Mary Griffin de cette paroisse.
Etaient présents François Gilineau
et Raymond Robert qui son déclaré ne savoir signer

J Mineau Pretre

I do not know if this is the father of Thomas Welland married to Elisabeth Pépin dit Lachance, I have not yet found this marriage. In contact with another researcher and he hasn't been able to locate the marriage or discover anything further on Thomas Welland/Whélan.

Noting that Thomas Whélan married to Emilie Fournier dit Larose saw his origin as French, I think that I should perhaps look further back in the registers and not assume that Thomas Welland is necessarily from Ireland in the late 1700s. I did indeed find that one of the witnesses at the burial of Patrice Whelan in 1802 was Pierre Bédard. I also found there were two Bédard/Whélan marriages in the late 1700s. More investigation needed into this and see what I can find on the Whélan family in the 1700s. Next research for the Whelan will involve my having a look at the records in the 1700s for this family.

Bédard and Whélan families

Sorting the Bédard family into generational folders should enable me to now pull the other pertinent registrations from Ancestry or FamilySearch. I have accumulated a lot of the records but probably have as much again to download and save to files. The Bédard family lines include both sons of the emigrant Isaac Bédard and Marie Girard. Isaac and Marie were married 20 Mar 1644 in Chapelle Sainte-Marguerite, LaRochelle, Charente-Maritime, France. I do not have a baptism for Isaac (circa 1616 at St Sulpice de Paris, France) or Marie Girard said to have been baptized 16 Feb 1623 at Chapelle Sainte Marguerite, LaRochelle and the daughter of Simon Girard and Françoise Giraudet. This family is recorded as Generation I although they did emigrate to New France it is their son Isaac that I have placed in Generation 1although Isaac and Marie do not quite fit the criteria (were not married in New France), but they arrived in 1660 (father and son) where Jacques and Isaac were master carpenters with their wives and children arriving by 1663. Generation 2 of this family was also born in France Jacques was baptized 18 Dec 1644 at Chapelle Sainte Marguerite, LaRochelle and Louis 25 Feb 1655 as well. I would like to acquire the records for LaRochelle (these records I have from King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi 1663-1673 and written by Peter J Gagné) and will work away at that but moving forward Jacques married Elizabeth (Isabelle) Doucinet 4 Oct 1666 in Notre-Dame, Ville du Québec and Louis married Marie Madeleine Huppé. Elizabeth Doucinet was a Fille du Roi. I need to learn more about Marie Madeleine Huppé. I have not yet found the marriage registration for this couple. These two sons are both in Generation 2. Generation 3 has two sets of Bédard records for the two sons Charles François (son of Jacques) and Bernard (son of Louis). Generation 4 has the daughter of Bernard - Madeleine Marie who married Jean Pierre Villeneuve 23 Nov 1744 at Charlesbourg and this line then moves to the Villeneuve folder but Charles Joseph (son of  Charles François) continues the Bédard line down. I shall have to see how well this works out but it appears to be a good way to look at the ancestral lines. The Legacy file will maintain the links between the families when I produce an ahnantafel chart showing the generations back for each level. The next time that I work on the Bédard family I shall start with Generation 12 and insert the relevant documentation which is the marriage of our son in law and daughter. Then I can ensure that the line back is correct although it also matches the published information on this family. It is more a matter of collecting the relevant documents - this family is readily traced back to the founding Bédard family.

I also sorted out the folders for the Whélan family and this is one of my brick walls. I know that Charles Alexandre Bédard married Marie Emélie Whélan 29 Jul 1863 at Eglise St Jean Baptiste, Québec. Her parents were listed as Jean Thomas Whelan and Emilie Fournier dite Larose. Both Charles, his father Pierre and Jean Thomas were all carpenters (all three men signed the marriage register). The marriage of Jean Thomas Whelan and Emilie Fournier dite Larose took place 13 Jan 1835 at Notre-Dame, Québec with the priest recording the names as Thomas Welland and Emilie Fournier dite Larose. Thomas Welland (painter) was the son of Thomas Welland and Elizabeth Pépin dite Lachance and Emilie Fournier dite Larose daughter of Jean Baptiste Fournier dit Larose and Elizabeth Labbé. Linking these families apears to be quite straightforward. On the 1871 census Thomas Whélan and Emilie Whélan are still at Quebec city and he is a carpenter (they have seven children listed (Emélie married in 1863) and lists his Origin as Français. My next research day I will concentrate on Thomas and see what I can discover about him. Tanguay lists only one entry for an alternative spelling of this name - Edouard Wehenlan and very scant information which appears to be a second wife Suzanne Power born at Ballobrican, Ireland. World Connect offers four trees for this family none of which provide any further information. The website Généalogie du Québec et de l'Acadie does not have this particular set of information and once I am convinced that I have sufficient proof I will add the information. Ancestry offers four trees for this line but none go back before Thomas Welland (Whelan) and Elizabeth Pépin dite Lachance.

Blake Family One Name Study and Bédard

With my membership in the Guild of One Name Studies comes the perk of Marriage Challenges. These are very handy especially with the price of a marriage registration certificate being now nine pounds sterling. The marriages help to establish the family lines in the 1800s and are an absolute must in any family study. I am slowly working away on the 30,000 Blake marriages in England matching up couples where possible but individual marriage challenges do this for me automatically as the data is pulled from the original parish registers and civil registers. I searched out my marriages for two today and I had already prepared my excel file for both of them so it was an easy transfer. I hadn't matched up all the marriages using the census so I proceeded to do that and it is a lengthy task to do 35 marriages working through FreeBMD and the census.

I am also working on the The Blake Newsletter and it was written by Barrie Blake this time. I am just adding or revising a couple of items - we do each others and that works very well as it is really difficult to proofread your own work.

It is certainly nice to be settling back into regular research. I need to now plan my research time for the French Canadian lines of our son in law. I have allotted one hour per day (it can easily run to two hours because of the placement) to work on each of his 32 3x great grandparents. This may seem like a lot but indeed I could just as easily of gone back to the 6x great grandparents and worked on all of them as well. It is a consideration on my part as I have assigned 28 to their own individual day and then I have placed two on the weekends where it works otherwise I have three in one day on a weekday because the calendar doesn't have an exact number of days per month. My own lines I have rotating on an eight week basis - five to a week but I do not have nearly as many of my 4x great grandparents covered in my research!

I will be working on Bédard, Whélan, Matte, Gagnon, Mourier, Bertrand, Nepveu, Audet dit Lapointe, Grégoire, Séguin dit Ladéroute, Tremblay, Labelle, Lauzon, Brunet, Lanoie, Rhéaume, Dumoulin, Renaud, Larente dit Vinet, Cadieux, Clément, Charlebois, Pomainville, Pilon, Prévost, Desjardins, Deschatelets, Quesnel, St-Jean, Lavigne, Chénier and Racine. I am considering doing a second month which would include Patry, Fournier dit Larose, Bénoit dit Vaillacourt, Doutre, Monestier, Piché, Richer, Hémard dit Poitvin, Groux, Bernard dit Blondin, Lacroix, Thibaut, Constantineau, Boileau, Payette dit St-Amour, Sarrazin, Demers, Blais, Racicot, Lamarque dit Matthieu, Chantal, Desloges dit Poirier, Monette dit Boiseux, Creujeur (Kruger), St-Denis, Legault, D'Amour, Campeau, and Douras (Douvas). This would then take me back to the 4x great grandparents and mostly  in the early 1800s/late 1700s. I have already taken his lines back to early New France and to the parents in France but I have not yet collected all the registrations. I would also like to now seek out the notary records and other records that might be at Library and Archives Canada which would give a fuller picture of these families.

I shall follow approximately the same process each day. First I will check to make sure I have all the registrations from Ancestry or the LDS website as an image in the family folder. Then within each folder I shall arrange them by generation from the emigrant. If I eventually find the registrations for these families in France then I shall simply alter the arabic to a roman numeral with the roman numerals marking the generations back from the emigrant and the parents being the I generation. I shall then check Tanguay to see if what I have also blends in with what he has (I started to use Tanguay about a year after I started). In the cases where I am still in the late 1700s, Tanguay is great to help you look at the lines going back to the emigrant. I shall also have a look at Ancestry family trees and World Connect. I will also search the Library and Archives Canada website to note items that I wish to check on my next visit.

Process:

1. Label generations within the family folder
2. Pull missing registrations from Ancestry and LDS website
3. Check Tanguay
4. Check Ancestry family trees
5. Check World Connect family trees
6. Search LAC for incidences of family name

Bédard is the family name that I wish to work on today but my time is somewhat limited as I am also getting ready for Easter. I am curious what brought Charles Alexandre  and Marie Emelie Whélan from Quebec City to Ottawa  following the birth of their first child (baptized 1 Jun 1864 at St Jean Baptiste, Quebec, Quebec. It was an interesting time for a carpenter to come to this area. I want to search at the archives to see if I am able to discover where he worked. Ten children were born to this family - seven boys and three girls. I suspect that many of the Bédard families in this area are descended from Charles Alexandre. Charles can trace his lineage all the way back to Jacques who was the son of the emigrant Isaac and Marie Girard and they had married 20 Mar 1644 at La Rochelle, France.The first process of sorting may well take me all of my time for this first session. It is one of the reasons why I am not going to set up the second month of names yet. Once I have organized the first 32 folders (I have 387 family folders already and I am only going to look at 32 of these to start) then I can start to move back and organize folders as I go working then on the entire family but my starting point will then be 64 families and their ancestors. We will see how it works out. I suspect this too will be a lifetime vocation which I shall hope to pass on to one of our son-in-law's family members in the future.