Ovila Tourville (1885-1950) and the Gas Main Leak

The first time I went to Europe, I was quite young and still living at home with my parents. While abroad, I had noticed that all the people I visited were using gas ranges for cooking and I really liked that.

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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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The Bangle Files: #28 | A Twenty-Year Gap

Remember John Bangle and Louise Couvillon? The last we heard from them, they were both serving a sentence in a Montréal prison during the course of the month of October 1820. If you are like me, you are no doubt brainstorming about what happened to them.

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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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Travel 2017 | Day 7 | From Elizabeth I to Mick Jagger: A Walking Tour of Richmond

After four full days devoted to research at The National Archives in Kew, I thought I deserved a break. For the first time today, I woke up later than 5 AM (7:30 AM!), and while surfing on the Web, I read there was a walking tour of Richmond leading to 17th-century Ham House, once home to a friend of King Charles I. Deal! Continue reading

Travel 2017 | Day 4 | Finding Ol’ Blue Eyes

Hide in plain sight they say. That’s just what I have been doing. It was kind of entertaining to observe that old stubborn lady from Longueuil trying to catch me.

Well, well, well… Seems like she finally laid hands on that Description Book from the Glengarry Fencibles Regiment. Ain’t that funny! She was looking for it in the Canadian Archives, but it was here in England. Even worse, it’s available for everyone to review it on the UK’s National Archives Website. Continue reading

From the Archives: A Snapshot of Montréal’s Common Gaol in 1820

Prison commune de Montréal, Place Vauquelin, 19e siècle — Archives de Montréal, VM6,R3067-2_155E-1939-005

Life is full of surprises.

As I was doing research for the Bangle Files at the Archives nationales du Québec on Viger Street in Montréal, I unearthed a document among the criminal files shedding light on the appalling living conditions at Montréal’s Common Gaol, actually the same building where John Bangle and his wife, Marie-Louise Quevillon, were detained in September, October, November 1820 and beyond.

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Charles Huboux dit Tourville—Master Blacksmith

Going through the acts of Notary Public Toussaint Limoges, who practiced in Terrebonne during the period 1811-1832, I collected not fewer than 25 acts concerning Tourvilles or close family members.

Four of these were involving Charles Huboux dit Tourville.

Well, fine, but who’s who?

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