My 2021 French ChallengeAZ: F for Favery

Falaise. Le château et le centre-ville. Viault. CC-BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chateau_de_falaise_et_centre.JPG

Of all the people who made history during the New France era, very few of them appear in my genealogical tree. One of them though is Pierre Le Gardeur de Repentigny, from Normandy, France, and director of the Community of inhabitants, who came to Québec circa 1636 with his wife Marie Favery. Their marriage most likely took place around 1630 in La Rochelle. I owe to his grandson Jean-Baptiste—who had a natural child with Marie-Marthe Richaume in 1665—the honour of having a nobleman as my ancestor. Continue reading

My 2021 French ChallengeAZ: E for Éthier

Église de Chirac, vue du sud. Charente, France. Jack Ma. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chirac_eg2.JPG

Élizabeth Éthier, baptized on February 2, 1673, at the Notre-Dame parish in Montréal, is my 6th great-grandmother. She married Louis Forget on March 2, 1688, in Lachenaie where she was also buried in 1743. Apropos, their daughter Élizabeth (Forget) was Augustin Hubou dit Tourville’s wife, the first to use the “dit name” of Tourville.

Continue reading

My 2021 French ChallengeAZ: D for Destroismaisons

Montreuil. La maison du Pot-d’Étain, XVIe siècle. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1538299

The Destroismaisons family whose “dit name” was Picard is from the paternal line of my great-great-grandmother Esther Laurendeau.

Continue reading

My 2021 French ChallengeAZ: B for Badeau

 

Marennes. Vue aérienne du centre-ville avec l’église Saint-Pierre et les places de Verdun et Chasseloup-Laubat. Par Jacques DASSIÉ — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62776212

Geneviève Badeau is my 6th great-grandmother on my maternal grandfather’s side. Born and baptized on November 7, 1683, in Beauport, she was the daughter of Jean Badeau and Marguerite Chalifour.

Continue reading

Newspaper Nuggets — Médard Tourville (1822-1872): His Disappearance from Records Explained

The name of Médard Tourville was challenging me on my Most Wanted List for way too long. Still, I knew he died between 1871—he was listed on the Canadian Census for that year—and August 1873, when his son Olivier was married. Continue reading

The Bangle Files: #31 | Life for Marie Tourville’s Children After William Bangle’s Passing

Once the main subject of our research has died—William Bangle (1765-1821) in our case—we typically tend to forget about the widow and divert our attention to the children, usually only after their marriage. I will indeed focus on Marie Tourville in my next post, but what I am most interested in here is how this family unit worked. Continue reading

Genealogy Investigations in Missouri and Illinois #3: George Weaver’s Thoughts on Florissant, the Osage Indians and the French

Paul Sableman, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

When I was in St. Louis, over three years ago, I spent two days at the Missouri History Museum Library & Research Center to work on the Tourvilles, of course, but also on the Roussel/Fasnacht couple, and the Caillou family featured on this blog.

Continue reading

My 2019 French ChallengeAZ in 100 Words—or More | Z for Zachary Richard

I will end up this Challenge by introducing you to, or remind you of, a Louisiana-born singer whose Acadian ancestry crosses mine—another telling illustration of how heartlessly families were separated during the Deportation. Continue reading

My 2019 French ChallengeAZ in 100 Words—or More | Y for YouTube

The letter Y has inspired me this. It has taken me three hundred times the amount of work of all the other posts. Anyway, enjoy and have a nice trip! 🙂 Continue reading

My 2019 French ChallengeAZ in 100 Words—or More | X for Cross

The photo featured on all my posts since the beginning of this year’s French Challenge shows the Deportation Cross memorial, located at Horton Landing, 1.5 km from Grand-Pré National Historic Site. Continue reading