Montana Newspaper Nuggets: Julia Berube (née Tourville) (1853-1920)

I have written previously about Julie Roture dite Bélisle who married Prosper Tourville on August 25, 1845, at Notre-Dame Church, in Montréal. Many of their children went West—some in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, others in Montana, USA. Continue reading

The Bangle Files: #29 | Louis Bangle (~1798-1838)

In this post and in the one to follow, I would like to bring up some Bangles whose ancestry hasn’t been confirmed yet. At first, I thought we could get in touch with Ol’ Blue Eyes whom I “met” at the National Archives in England last summer.

Let’s start from the beginning.

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Occupation: Trader | Sophie Tourville née Paquet (1803-1866)

I love it! Quebec notarial records continue to reveal tids and bits about our ancestors.

My knowledge of Étienne Tourville and Sophie Paquet’s family is quite basic. A carpenter, Étienne left Lachenaie with his wife and children—a few years after their marriage which was celebrated on September 25, 1825—for Saint-Eustache, where they lived from 1832 to 1836, before moving to Montréal. Continue reading

Archange Tourville (1765-1840) | 100 Years Old, Really?

It’s strange how you forget about things—but not surprising, especially when you previously had the bad habit of not taking notes. Because you see, I made a discovery about a woman named Archange Tourville this summer when I visited the Archives and I wondered how come I did not have that person’s death in my database. Continue reading

BREAKING NEWS: François Courville (1829-1902) Accused of Assault and Battery

I was at BAnQ-Vieux-Montréal Archives recently, devotedly busy in the microfilms section, when I decided it was time to take a break. What better way to relax than to look at an early Prison Register of Saint-Hyacinthe? Note that it started in 1863 since prisoners were previously held in Montréal.

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Josephte Tourville (née Robillard) (1737-1821): Her Retirement Plan

The day Louis Tourville Sr died in Lachenaie in December 1790, at age 63, his wife Josephte Robillard probably thought that, at just a few weeks shy of her 54th birthday, her life was over, when she became a widow for the second time of her life.

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The Bangle Files: #27 | Marie Tourville at Notary Joseph Turgeon

A few weeks ago, we left William Bangle traveling across the Northwest as he had agreed to work for more than two years as a voyageur. He was absent from home during the period of May 1803 to October 1805 approximately.

On November 21, 1804, Marie Hubou dite Tourville, resident of Terrebonne, met with Notary Public Joseph Turgeon. She mentioned that her husband William Bangle has left for Upper Canada about 18 months earlier, where he seemed to be residing now (it seems like she was not aware that William had signed up for two years).

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Michel Tourville Welcomes Home Agathe Bertrand

Michel Tourville (1787-1860), son of Michel Tourville and Catherine Marié, just like his brother Jean-Baptiste, made frequent visits to public notaries. One of them occurred at Notary Public Toussaint Limoges’ on February 9, 1828, and caught my eye—for a good reason that is. He took care of my 4th Great Grandmother, Agathe Bertrand.

Why, I asked myself, would Michel Tourville (who is not my direct ancestor) accommodate 72-year-old Agathe? Then it all made sense. Continue reading

Jean-Baptiste Tourville: From Saint-François-de-Sales To South Hero

I cannot help it—I keep going back to the Québec Notaries Index on Ancestry. Same proved useful as I actually found some references regarding one Jean-Baptiste Tourville. The dates of the documents lead me to believe that these are concerning Jean-Baptiste Tourville, who will later be known as John Troville, in South Hero, Vermont. Before I can put my hand on these documents (I’ll have to get them at the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montréal), let’s take a look at Jean-Baptiste’s life. Continue reading

ChallengeAZ 2017—A Bangle Dictionary | W for William

William Bangle was the first child of Adam and Marie to be born in America, on September 6, 1765, in Palatine, NY. He joined the King’s Royal Regiment of New York during the Revolutionary War. In 1786, at age 19, he arrived in Montreal and, at age 28, he married Marie Tourville, most probably in Terrebonne, Québec. The couple had twelve children. William’s occupations were diverse: miller, laborer, voyageur and farmer. William also owned a few lands in or near Terrebonne. His family later moved to the Berthierville and Joliette areas. William died on February 2, 1821, at age 55.

The Bangle Files


The 2017 Challenge A to Z is proposed to the French community of bloggers by Sophie Boudarel of La Gazette des ancêtres