52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #11 William Thomas (1819-1901)

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William Thomas was born on December 27, 1819, in St-Benoît, Deux-Montagnes County, in Québec. His parents were Walter Thomas, of Wales, Great-Britain, and Marguerite Paradis, a French-Canadian. They were married in the Anglican Church, in Lachine, Québec, on October 26, 1818. A Walter Thomas emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1818. It might be him.

William Thomas was the first born. I found eight siblings so far. All were baptized in the Catholic Church, except one for which I do not have a birth date.The family mainly lived in St-Benoît, Ste-Scholastique, Rigaud and St-André d’Argenteuil, in Québec. William’s parents, Walter and Marguerite, later moved to Franklin County, NY. They appear in the 1840 US Census for Westville and the 1850 US Census for Constable. Walter died between 1875 and 1880 and Marguerite, between 1870 and 1875. Both were living in Westville at the time.

Before 1842, William Thomas married Ann (Todd?), probably in Canada. It looks like they moved to Franklin County, NY in the early 1850’s. The 1900 US Census indicates 1851 as the year of arrival for William although one child was supposedly born in Canada in 1852.

William and Ann are listed in the 1860 US Census in Constable, NY. The first child to be born in NY state was born in 1853.

William and Ann had at least ten children:

  • Walter, born about 1842, Canada
  • Elizabeth, born about 1845, Canada
  • Margaret, born about 1848, Canada
  • Clarissa, born about 1850, Canada
  • Mary A, born about 1850, Canada
  • George, born February 1852, Canada
  • John, born July 25, 1853, NY
  • Rebecca, born about 1856, NY
  • Adelia, born October 1860, NY
  • William, born July 1863, NY

I have been told that Ann’s surname was Todd but I haven’t found any proof yet. I will have to make further research on her. Peter Thomas, William’s brother, did marry a Christiana Todd, in 1861. She might be Ann’s younger sister. Her parents were Thomas Todd and her mother was called Anna.

Ann was born abt 1822 in Canada. She died on November 1, 1864 in Westville, NY at age 42. She was buried in the local Briggs Street Cemetery. William’s remains would later be buried in the same plot.

In early 1865, William Thomas married Julia Tourville. A post have been published for her, you can read it here.

They had seven children, only six were found:

Since his arrival, William Thomas was farming in Franklin County. More research will have to be done in Franklin County on land records for William Thomas. Another area of research includes the naturalization records as the 1900 US Census indicates that William was naturalized.

I haven’t found any obituaries for William Thomas. He died on July 15, 1901, at age 81 and was buried in Briggs Street Cemetery, in Westville, with his first wife Ann.

And last, here is a picture of Julia and William, his second wife. Would this be a picture at the time of their wedding? She was 22 and quite pretty, he was 45.

Julia Tourville and William Thomas (1865?)

Julia Tourville and William Thomas (1865?)

 

 

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks #10: Julia Thomas Davenport (née Tourville) (1843-1915)

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Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou had eight children who made it to adulthood, four sons and four daughters. Let’s continue with one of their daughters, Julia Tourville, born in Vermont in October 1843.

I do not have an exact birth date for Julia. The 1900 US Census indicates that she was born in October 1843 which makes sense as a document dated October 20, 1851 gives her age as 8, so she would be born in early October 1843. The other censuses confirm that information as well, except for the 1850 and 1860 Census.

In 1860, Julia was 17 years and was working as a servant in a hotel in Chateaugay, NY. She probably married William Thomas, a widower who lost his first wife Ann on November 1, 1864, in early 1865 as she gave birth to their first son on December 24, 1865. It is the only child for William and Julia for whom I found a Catholic baptism. According to the 1900 US Census, Julia had seven children, six of them still living in 1900. Probably one died in infancy as I only found six children for William and Julia. They lived all their lives in Franklin County, New York.

According to the censuses, William and Julia lived in Constable, NY, after moving from Fort Covington, at least until 1880. In 1900, they were living in Brandon, NY, more precisely in Skerry, on a farm. William Thomas died on July 15, 1901 and was buried in Briggs Street Cemetery, in Westville, with his first wife Ann.

I looked for years to find Julia after William’s death and a relative of the Thomas family had found some newspaper articles solving the mystery.

On November 7, 1906, The Malone Farmer had this interesting local news about Julia:

“Mrs. Julia Thomas is repairing her house. J. H. Davenport is doing the work.”

They probably got along fine because the next newspaper article published on December 19, 1906 made the following announcement:

“The many friends of Gail (sic) Davenport and Mrs. Julia Thomas were surprised to learn of their marriage last Thursday. Mrs. Thomas was an old resident of Brandon and was loved and respected by all. Mr. Davenport has made his home here for several years and was kind and charitable. The happy couple will reside at the home of the bride. Many friends wish them much joy in their new relation.”

On August 19, 1908, The Malone Farmer, reported that Julia was quite ill. Fortunately, some ten day later, she was doing much better. Is it because of her health problem that the couple decided at the end of that year to sell the farm or “William Thomas Place” as the newspaper called it, to Henry Larock of Vermont? It seems that they decide to live in Joel’s house in Skerry as in January 1910, they moved from there to their farm in Dickinson where they received visitors like their grandchildren in 1913.

They apparently later moved to Brushton as Joel’s son, John Davenport, from New Hamspshire, visited the couple in 1914.

Julia died on February 7, 1915 in Brushton and was buried in local Sunnyside Cemetery, on Gale Road. I have found this last article on her in The Malone Farmer:

“The many friends of Mrs. Joel Davenport were shocked to hear of her sudden death which occurred at her home in Brushton Sunday evening Feb. 7th. Mrs. Davenport suffered a very severe attack of pneumonia several months ago, and since which time she has suffered with a weakness of the heart which was the direct cause of her death after an illness of less than one hour at the age of 73 years. Mrs. Davenport’s first husband was William Thomas. They with their family moved to this place from Fort Covington about thirty years ago, where they lived until his death fourteen years ago. Eight years ago she married Joel Davenport who survives her, together with six children. Mrs. Bert Eseltine, of Dickinson, Mrs. Joseph French, Mrs. Albert Eseltine, William and Grant Thomas of this place and Mrs. Joseph Cling of Deferiet, N.Y., Mrs. Chas. McElwain and George Thomas also of this town are step children. The funeral was held from the Christian church at Brushton Tuesday afternoon, Rev. Shaw officiating. Interment at Brushton. To the aged husband and family a large circle of friends extend their sympathy in the loss of a faithful and loving wife and mother.”

With these articles, I have lots of work to do! First of all, William Thomas had a farm, maybe more than one, so I should check the land record index of Franklin County, either in Malone, NY or on my next trip to Salt Lake City. It’s lucky for me they lived all their lives in Franklin County. Second, I would like to find the obituaries of her children, I might find out more details.

And last, here is a picture of Julia and William, her first husband. Would this be a picture at the time of their wedding? She was 22 and quite pretty, he was 45.

Julia Tourville and William Thomas (1865?)

Julia Tourville and William Thomas (1865?)

Her second husband, Joel H. Davenport, died in 1920 in Massachusetts, while visiting his niece. I haven’t found his burial place yet.

You might be interested in Julia Tourville’s first husband, William Thomas, as well. He was also featured in a post here.

 

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

Fichier Origine: To Keep Coming Back Pays Off!

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Have French-Canadian Ancestry? If you have climbed up your family tree up to the 17th or early 18th Century in New France, you probably have consulted the Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec – des origines à 1730 by René JETTÉ and found your ancestor with details of where he came from. Others are not so lucky, finding only the name without any clues about his/her parents and place of origin. An example, my 8G great-grandmother, Marguerite Drapeau (abt 1616-1683). Her name is mentioned in the Dictionnaire but the only clue was a marriage contract signed in La Rochelle.

Thanks to the database Fichier Origine, the work initiated by René Jetté was continued by Marcel Fournier, a well-renowned genealogist, as coordinator of the database, who was himself inspired by historian Yves Landry who had the idea in the first place. The project was first proposed to the Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie and later approved by the Fédération française de généalogie.

Who will you find in this database? Your ancestor, if he was born in France and later emigrated to New France. If the baptismal act of your ancestor was not found, you may find the one of a sibling.

Marguerite Drapeau is in the database since November 2013. I have her parents’ names, I have the baptismal date of two of her siblings, I have her mother burial date and place and her village of origin: Mouzeuil-St-Martin, in Vendée.

The database is only in French but this will help you with the search criteria:

Nom de famille = Surname
Localité ou paroisse d'origine = Place or parish of origin
Département, état ou pays = Department, state or country
Lieu du mariage = Place of marriage
Rechercher (button) = Search
Effacer (button) = Reset

If you find your ancestor and there is a big bunch of text in French and you need the translation, just contact me, I will be happy to help! 🙂

As of April 15, 2014, the database had 5,809 entries. Good luck!

 

 

 

 

From the Archives: Inventory after death of Sophie Arpajou (October 20, 1851)

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After reading the inventory of estate performed on October 20, 1851 in St-Hughes, Québec, after the death of Sophie Arpajou, I can’t help imagine what led to it.

Maybe Sophie’s husband, Charles Tourville, who was then living in Chateaugay, New York, called for a family council, wondering what to do with the land that he still owned in St-Hughes. With his two older children of age, Charles Jr and Sophia, both married and living for three years then in Vermont, they were probably not interested to start all over again in Québec or maybe the land was so poor, it was no use even trying to. So on September 25, he went to Ferrisburgh, in Vermont, to get from his son Charles the procuration he needed to sell the land. Two days later he stopped at his daughter’s house in Vergennes, to get the procuration from her as well.

St-Hughes Cemetery

St-Hughes Cemetery

So in the fall of 1851, Charles Tourville made the trip to St-Hughes, maybe for the last time. He probably stayed with his brother-in-law, Joseph Langevin and his wife Madeleine Arpajou, sister of Sophie, in nearby St-Barnabé, where Joseph and Madeleine had a farm.

So what to do? Sell the land? To do that, Charles had to go before a judge and get a tutorship act. He first made a request to the judge on September 25, with the help of notary Timothée Brodeur. So, on October 10, before Circuit Court Judge Jean Casimir Bruneau in Montreal, the elected tutors for the six minor children were Charles Tourville as tutor and Joseph Langevin, maternal uncle to the children as surrogate tutor.

The most precious, valuable information coming from this inventory is the list of the minor children of Charles and Sophie Arpajou and their age as of October 20, 1851. Please note that this list appears in three different documents, all produced in the fall of 1851 and all the information is consistent from one document to another.

  • Étienne (Peter Stephen), age 16 (born in August, 1835, information accurate)
  • Marie-Édesse, age 14 (born in January 1839, would be 12 not 14; due to the reliable information concerning the other children in this inventory, I have concluded that this child is not the “Marie-Édesse” born in 1839 but rather “Dométhilde” born in 1837. She is referred as Edith, Nettie or Adesta in various records in the USA. The real Marie-Édesse was still living in 1840 but she may have died very young. “Dométhilde” birth year according to various US Census is closer to 1837 than 1839. At the time, it was not rare for a child to bear a first name that was used for a previous child who died in infancy.)
  • Philomène, age 10 (baptized in May 1841 in Vermont – information would be accurate)
  • Julie, age 8 (born in October 1843 as of 1900 Census – information would be accurate)
  • Louis, age 6 (born in September 1844, just turned 7, information inaccurate)
  • Joseph, age 5 (born in April 1846, information accurate)

Followed the inventory estate performed by Me Timothée Brodeur and Me Joseph Amiot, public notaries and Jacques Gendron and Lucien Houle as appraisers, both from St-Hughes. The inventory estate can be found here (in French) as well as the transcription here (in French).

Besides the land, Charles’ possessions didn’t amount to much. A mare, a two-handed saw, a board saw and 8 pounds and 12 sols in cash. On one hand, nobody owed him money but on the other hand he owed about 459 pounds to J. A. Arpajou for seignorial arrears and 36 pounds to the notary for the inventory itself. As for the papers of the family, two documents are mentioned: the marriage contract of Charles and Sophie Arpajou that was passed on August 31, 1827 (day of the religious marriage) before Me Charles Bazin, act number 373 as well as the tutorship act dated October 10, 1851.

The land he possessed was on the “fief” Beachemin, north of Yamaska River, in the county of Richelieu, of 2 arpents large by 30 arpents long before the Yamaska River, besides the properties of Bazile Richard on one side and of François Lussier on the other side. It was boarded by the “rang” Barrow at the other far end.

If this inventory doesn’t offer any other information, other documents do. The story does not end here. To be continued 😉

An inventory of estate was usually done after the death of the spouse when there were surviving minor children. It was usually done before the widow/widower remarried to protect the inheritance of the children. Of course, people with no property nor money had no interest of doing so.

 

 

Voyageur Contract Database: A Gold Mine for Genealogists and our Family

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A few months ago, I discovered the Voyageur Contract Database on the Web. This database is really a gold mine for genealogists looking for their French-Canadian ancestors. It includes data from approximately 35,900 fur trade contracts passed before Montreal notaries between 1714 and 1830. It was at first an initiative of the Société historique de St-Boniface, Manitoba.

For those earlier years, in absence of censuses, it allows us to keep track of people, some individuals having honored more than one contract. Looking for descendants of your ancestors and can’t find them? This database might give you a clue about their whereabouts.

The great thing about this database is that you can also do a search by parish. If your ancestor came from a small village, you can easily find relatives or neighbours leaving with him. And if your ancestor bear more than one surname and his name was mispelled by the notary, looking by parish might help you find other contracts for him.

The database can be found here for research as well as the history of the project and all the parameters for research.

The Voyageur Contract Database and the Hubou-Tourville Family

With the help of this database, I have located these contracts with various notaries:

As you can see, more work for me! 😉

 

From the Archives: Map of a portion of the Seignory of Barrow, St-Hughes, Lower Canada

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With this post, I am launching a new series called “From the Archives” in which I will share my discovery of documents from various repositories.

As I am working with transcribing notary contracts for the family of Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou, I found this by pure chance yesterday on the Website of the Archives nationales du Québec. It is impossible to save the image, so what I have here (a screen shot) is not very good. On my next visit to the Archives, I will ask for a copy. By clicking on the image though, you will be redirected to the document on the Archives’ Website and be able to enlarge the image.

Plan of the "fief" Bourchemin-East, in the Seignory of Barrow (St-Hughes), divided in lots during the summer of 1822.

Plan of the “fief” Bourchemin-East, in the Seignory of Barrow (St-Hughes), divided in lots during the summer of 1822.

What is exciting about this document is that we now have a better idea where exactly was the land of Charles Tourville, Antoine Hébert-Lecomte and Catherine Tourville (Charles’ sister) as well as others. We also know that François Tourville was a neighbor to his brother Charles for a while. I will try to find out what was the number of his lot.

If you look at the lef-hand-side, you can read the name of Antoine Hébert-Lecompte, lot 43. Lot 44 is the property of Louis Girard but we know that Charles Tourville bought this land from Girard in 1827. Lots 38-39 are the property of the Plourdes’, the step-family of the sister of Sophie Arpajou.

If you click on this link, you will see where the chemin Bourchemin East is today on Google Maps.

Isn’t this exciting? 😉

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #9 Joséphine Cantin (1830-1909)

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I am away from home this week and don’t have access to my paperwork, so I’ll skip a week for the family of Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou.

Joséphine Cantin is my maternal great-great-grandmother. Well, she is also my paternal great-great-grandmother. My parents were first cousins so I have a lot of duplicates in my tree but this one came as a surprise as I discovered last year that Joséphine’s grandmother is Josephte Hubou-Tourville, daughter of Jérôme Hubou-Tourville and Catherine Brunet. So that makes another line of Tourvilles in my tree!

Born in Lachenaie in 1830 to Nicolas Cantin and Clémence Content, Joséphine married Antoine Laneuville on May 3, 1858 in Notre-Dame Church in Montreal. Antoine had lost his wife, Adélaïde Laurendeau, one year earlier with whom he had 10 children. You would think that Adélaïde would show on my genealogy program as my step-great-great-grandmother. Not she’s not. She is my great-great-great-aunt because Antoine first wife was the sister of Esther Laurendeau, a paternal great-great-grandmother (and also a maternal great-great-mother of course). Are you still following?

Joséphine Cantin, wife of Antoine Laneuville, with her two sons, Napoléon on her lap, and Joseph, my great-great-grandfather.

Joséphine Cantin, wife of Antoine Laneuville, with her two sons, Napoléon on her lap, and Joseph, my great-great-grandfather.

Joséphine must be the earliest ancestor for whom I have a picture. This picture was taken around 1864-65 because my great-grandfather was born in 1861 and he’s not older than 4-5 years old. Antoine died in July 1867 at age 52 so I wondered why this picture was taken without him. Perhaps he was sick?

Joséphine died in 1909, she was buried in Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #8 Philomena Tourville (1841-?)

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Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou had eight children who made it to adulthood, four sons and four daughters. Let’s start with one of their daughters, Philomena Tourville, born in Vermont in 1841.

For a long time I thought that Philomena was in fact Domethilde Tourville who was born in 1837 to Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou. In so many instances have the parents changed the name of a child from the one chosen at the baptism. It is only last year that I indeed find a baptism for a Philomena Corver, born to Charles Corver (for Courville) (sic) and Sophia Harparper in St. Mary’s Church, Burlington, VT, on May 16, 1841. Then, and only then, did I realize that Philomena was NOT Domethilde (I will talk about her in another post, let’s not spoil the surprise). 😉

The first time I saw the name of Philomena, it was in the St. Patrick’s Church records, from Chateaugay, NY. It was for the baptism of Maria Clara Bauchemin, with the sponsors being Joseph Tourville (perhaps her brother or nephew) and Maria Gillier (her niece).

Bauchemin Maria Clara 9 Apr 1865 29 Mar 1865 Edward & Philomena Tourville Joseph Tourville & Maria Gillier

I endlessly looked for clues for the whereabouts of Edward Bauchemin and Philomena Tourville and could not find anything. And of course, I had the confirmation that Philomena was a child of Charles and Sophie from the inventory after death taken in October of 1851. What puzzled me for a long time is that she was not mentioned in the 1850 US Census. It was only when I found her baptism last year that I realized that the Meranda Tourville living with Charles Tourville Jr was in fact Philomena.

On the other hand, many years ago, I read on a Genealogy Forum that a Mr. Daniels was desesperately looking to find the ancestry of his GGmother called Mary Tourville married to Dwight Daniels. He knew that Mary could not speak English, that Dwight was born in Vergennes, Vermont, that their first-born William was from Vermont but that they later moved to Westville, NY where John was born. He also mentioned that the family moved to Grand Haven, MI where Dwight was working for the railroad company.

When I read this, I was convinced that this “Mary” was “Marie-Édesse” or “Edith” in the 1850 Census. It all made sense since she was the only girl for whom I did not find a clue after the 1850 US Census. I wrote to Mr. Daniels and told him there were too many coincidences. The Tourvilles’ lived in Vergennes and then moved to Chateaugay, NY, close to Westville. One of the son, Louis, moved to Grand Haven, MI in 1869 almost at the same time that Dwight Daniels and Mary Tourville moved to Grand Haven. He was not convinced but wrote to me that this was the best lead he had so far. Unfortunately, Mr. Daniels died a few years afterwards long before I found out more about that couple.

Here is the 1880 US Census for the family of Mary and Dwight Daniels:

1880 matilda

 When did I figure out that Dwight and Mary were the same as Edward and Philomena? The light struck me when I realized that Clarissa Daniels was born in 1865 in Michigan and Clara Beauchemin, in 1865 in New York. What if that Clarissa was born in NY? That Dwight could be Edward? I had the proof when the baptismal repertoire for Vergennes was published recently. William Daniels, born on April 14, 1859 born to Dwight Daniels (no mother mentioned) is in the Vital Records for the town of Vergennes. Guillaume (William in French) Beauchemin was baptized May 8, 1859, born to Edouard Beauchemin and Mary Courville. He was born April 14, 1859…

Family Search also helped me: I found a marriage record for Edwin Daniels (born in 1870). His parents are listed as Dwight Daniels and Mary P. Tourville.

There is still a mystery as to what happened to Philomena. Daniels family lore mentioned that she would have died around 1875 in Grand Haven, MI. We know for a fact that Dwight Daniels married three times. First time to Philomena (marriage still not found to this date), second time to his first cousin, Mary Barton (marriage still not found to this date). She died in 1895 in Vergennes, from consumption, death certificate indicating that she was 36 years old. His third wife was Mary’s sister, Martha Barton. I haven’t find her death yet but she was still living in 1940, with her only daughter and son-in-law, near Albany, NY. Dwight Daniels died in 1914 in Vergennes.

Now back to Philomena. Maybe she hasn’t died in 1875. Because in the 1880 US Census, the wife was 40 years old (Mary Barton was only 21 years old in 1880). The fact that Mary was said to be born in Canada (we know she only spoke French). Unfortunately I have never found the death date of Philomena. We know for sure she died before 1895.

The question is: when did Dwight Daniels come back to Vergennes? In his obituary he is said that have lived in Vergennes all his life except a few years in Chicago.

What about the children? So many mysteries.

  1. William, born in 1859, in Vermont came back to New York State, he lived in Salamanca. He was married to Anna McCann (date unknown). He is sometimes mentioned as being born either in Vermont or Michigan. He died in 1914.
  2. John, born abt 1863, in NY, is “missing” since the 1880 US Census.
  3. Clarissa, born in 1865, in NY, was a nurse at Asbury Hospital for many years. Where? Was she married? No clue. According to family lore, shed died about 1932. I may have found her living in Duluth, Minnesota in the 1885 State Census.
  4. Benjamin, born in 1867 in MI, left the family very young after the death of his mother as he didn’t get along with his father who was mean to the children. Made his life in Minnesota and died there in 1935.
  5. Edwin Dwight, born in 1870, married twice (1891 and 1904). He supposedly died in Chicago around 1944. I have never found him in any censuses after 1880 but I did find him in Directories in Detroit (1891 to 1894) and Chicago (1897). I did find an article on him in 1892. He was arrested with his brother-in-law for arson.
  6. Alfred, born in 1878 (to the first wife, or second wife?), died supposedly from a bonfire around 1881.

Philomena is the only child from Charles and Sophie from whom I haven’t find a death date (except for children who died in infancy). I will not give up!

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

52 Ancestors / 52 Weeks is an idea proposed by Amy Johnson Crow. Link on the image for more details about it.

Children of Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou in the 1850 US Census

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Before I start to tell the story about the children of Charles Tourville and Sophie Arpajou in the weeks to come, I thought it would be a good idea to start at the beginning and let you know where the children were living after the death of their mother in 1850.

Was Charles’ family living in Vermont before the death of his wife Sophie? Had she die in Ferrisburgh or Vergennes? We know for a fact that she had twin babies in 1848, both of them being baptized in St. Mary’s Church, in Burlington (there were no resident priest in Vergennes at that time).

Now let’s see. Charles Jr married Julia LeClair probably in Ferrisburgh about 1847. He was living there in 1850 with his wife and their first-born, 2 year-old Henry. Also living with them is Charles’ younger sister Philomena (listed as Meranda), 8 years old.

US Census for the town of Ferrisburgh, in the County of Addison, in the State of Vermont, taken on the 1st day of September, 1850

US Census for the town of Ferrisburgh, in the County of Addison, in the State of Vermont, taken in October 1850

Sophia Tourville married Joseph Giguère in Ferrisburgh in 1848. They were still living there in 1850 with their two children, Mary and Edward. Note how the name Giguère was mispelled!

US Census for the town of Ferrisburgh, in the County of Addison, in the State of Vermont, taken in October of 1850

US Census for the town of Ferrisburgh, in the County of Addison, in the State of Vermont, taken in October of 1850

So, I think it is very much likely that Charles, after the death of his wife Sophie, may have chosen to live with his sister Catherine. I have found three children living in Vermont. The youngest children, i.e. Edith, Julia, Louis and Joseph are living with their father in Chateaugay, New York.

1850 US Census for the town of Chateaugay, in the County of Franklin, State of New York, taken the 2nd of August 1850.

1850 US Census for the town of Chateaugay, in the County of Franklin, State of New York, taken the 2nd of August 1850.

Only Peter Stephen, age 15, could not be found. I strongly believe that he was living in Vermont as well. As he was older, he was probably working and maybe living as a boarder with other people and was not enumerated.

The Census enumerator didn’t always take the information directly from family members. They often enquired with neighbors, so the mispelling of names, the errors in age were common practice.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #7 – Sophie Arpajou (1811-bef 1850)

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We all have a favorite family in our tree, you know, that we keep coming back to, hoping to find something new. Sophie Arpajou is not my ancestor, she is my first cousin 4 times removed but I like her anyway. 😉

I could have chosen her husband Charles Tourville for this article but so much has been written about him. Let the woman shine!

First, let me tell you how I got acquainted with Sophie. It was a long time ago, maybe 15 years back, before I even knew the existence of US Censuses, Ancestry and so on. One night when I was working very late at the office, waiting for the sign-off of a document, trying hard to keep myself awake, I surfed the Internet (no Internet at home at that time). Guess what I did? Well, I typed my surname of course! I was already into genealogy at that time, trying to find all the descendents of Mathieu Hubou and a lot of them seemed to have vanished in the air. As there was no online search at that time, I had to go through each parish repertoire, most of them featuring only mariages, no baptisms nor burials, so you understand that my research did not go very far giving the little time I had to dedicate to genealogy. I still remember when I was arriving early at the library in Montreal on a Saturday morning, waiting for my turn to have the microfilm reader just for one hour. Going through Canadian censuses at the time was quite a long process.

So, as I was saying, I surfed the Internet and I saw on a US genealogy forum that someone was looking for LaCounts, mentioning the mother was Catherine Tourville from Canada. So I sent an email to this person, Clay LaCount, at 2AM and I got an answer almost immediately much to my surprise (I haven’t realized that he was living on the West Coast). He wrote to me that he was looking for information on Anthony LaCount and Catherine Tourville. He also mentioned that the brother of Catherine, Charles Tourville and his children were living with them in Chateaugay, New York in 1850. That according to family lore, they first settled in Vergennes, Vermont, about 200 km south from St-Hughes, in the late 1830’s but were in Chateaugay since the late 1840’s. As I said in an earlier post, that is how I was introduced to genealogy research in the US.

Arpajou fam ENGWhat do I know about Sophie? She was born in 1811 in St-Hyacinthe. Her father Étienne Arpajou lost his first wife Marie-Françoise Laprée in 1804, who left behind her 5 children. Her mother is Madeleine Plourde who was married to Étienne in 1805. Besides her 5 half siblings, Sophie had also 3 siblings. Sophie got married to Charles Tourville in 1827 at age 16. At the time of their marriage, Charles purchased a land in what would become St-Hughes later.

Sophie seems to have lived in St-Hughes until about 1837. After that year, the family moved to Vermont, maybe during the winter time, where Charles probably worked on larger farms or in mills as a laborer as were doing other French-Canadians in that time period. Was their move a consequence of the rebellions of 1837-38 in Lower Canada? It is a strong possibility.

Their daughter Domithilde Tourville was born on February 16, 1839 but only baptized in July 1839 in Quebec. It is very much possible that she was born in Vermont. The family is in Ferrisburgh, in 1840. A daughter, Philomena, was baptized in Burlington in 1841. Another daughter, Julia was born about 1843 also in Vermont. Both sons, Louis and Joseph, respectively born in 1844 and 1846 were born and baptized in Quebec. Interesting fact: in 1844, for the baptism of Louis, Charles is absent. I recently found two younger children, both baptized the same day in 1848 in Burlington. They were probably twins. Sophie had 13 children, a total of 8 making it to adulthood.

Arpajou map ENGI always assumed that Sophie Arpajou died in Chateaugay as Charles was living there in 1850 with some of his children. I now think she died in Vermont. Maybe she died shortly after giving birth to the twins. Maybe Charles went to live to Chateaugay with his sister to get some help for the children.

What we know for sure is that the twins didn’t survive because in October 1851, Charles sold his land is St-Hughes which appeared, along with the old house, to have been abandonned. In a tutorship act related to the sale of the land, Charles lists his surviving children, Charles, Sophie, Étienne, Marie-Édesse, Philomène, Julie, Louis and Joseph.

Finding all the children of Sophie Arpajou was not a piece of cake. In the next 8 weeks, I will feature each of the children who made it to adulthood. Finding information on each of them was an adventure in itself (which is far from over), so be sure to tune in next week!

The name Arpajou is quite rare. Sometimes spelled Harpageau or Arpageau, it seemed to have vanished. I know from a fact that a nephew of Sophie married twice in Vermont but is nowhere to be found. If you happen to know how the name was changed to in the US, please let me know!