WHERE DOES IT START?

Where does it all start? I could say my interest in genealogy started about 30 years ago. One of my maternal uncles, Marcel Voyer gave me a copy of a family tree that he had commissioned from a genealogists. It showed all the generations from Francois Voyer and his spouse, Mathurine Chauvet all the way through each generation in direct lineage to my maternal grandfather, Joseph Ulric Voyer and his spouse, Alice Bedard. At the top of the tree was my maternal uncle, Marcel Voyer. I remember that Marcel was very proud to show me his family tree. He framed the original but he gave me a photocopy, I still have a copy of that family tree. At the time, I was so impressed with that family tree, that it was possible to trace our ancestors all the way back to the 17th century.



I was inspired at the time to try to find out about “my ancestors”, my “Gauvin” ancestors. I am not sure how I found out about the Tanguay Collection (Quebec, Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families, 1608 - 1890. I probably asked a librarian because the library is where I found the dictionary and spent many hours copying out the information by hand or photocopying pages when I had access to a photocopier. I eventually constructed a "Gauvin" family tree similar to the one that my uncle Marcel had.

That was where I left it, for years, thinking that it was good enough that I could trace the origins of my family on both sides back to the 17th century in Canada and to their origins in France. That was until last February when everything changed. I will leave that for my next post when I will explain what happened in February 2018.














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Joseph Joachim Ulric Voyer and Marie Louise Alice Bedard

Image
I have written about my parents and I have written about my father's parents. It would only be reasonable and fair to write about my mother's parents.  There is so much to write about that I will actually have to consider what I want to include and what I want to leave out. Let's start with the basic facts. Joseph Joachim Ulric Voyer was born on July 5, 1892 in Quebec City. According to the 1891 Census of Canada for 1891 , the year before Ulric was born, his father and mother, Napoleon Voyer and Marie Rose Delina Dion were living in St. Roch at number 542. It is interesting to note that the Bedard family was living next door at 541. Ulric was the fifth of seven children. He had two brothers and two sisters who were born before him. My grandfather was a polymath if there ever was one. He was a composer of operas, a playwright, a professor of piano, church organist, court clerk, shorthand instructor, publicity manager for J.B. Renaud (a commercial company started
Read more

Francois Parent (1774 - 1851)

I ended the last post on François Voyer (1774 - 1851) with the death of Madeleine Vandal on July 9, 1815. At that time François was a resident of L'Ancienne Lorette and as a 'cultivateur' or farmer, he had a farm in the seigneury of Gaudarville. In just over a year after the death of Madeleine Vandal, François married Judith Bertrand on July 30, 1816. They were married in Quebec City  at the Notre-Dame-de-Quebec. In the marriage record François and Judith's residence was in Quebec City. In the document that I will discuss in a little while François' residence is stated as L'Ancienne Lorette. I cannot explain this discrepancy. At the time of their marriage Judith parents were deceased. Her father, Jean Bertrand was a 'journalier' or 'labourer'. and Judith's mother was Félicité Trépanier. Judith Bertrand was born on September 27, 1779 in Neuville. Judith was 37 years old when she married François Voyer. Considering the time period, 37 was o
Read more

The Parent Family in New France

 Étienne Parent (1802 - 1874) was descended from Pierre Parent and Jeanne Badeau. Pierre Parent arrived in New France around 1650. He had been contracted as an indentured worker to spend four years working on the Jesuit's seigneury. After his term of work he would be granted land to work. In 1651 the Jesuits ceded land to Pierre Parent and Jacques Badeau, his future father-in-law.  In 1654 Pierre married Jeanne Badeau. His father-in-law, Jacques Badeau died in 1658. In 1660 the Jesuits ceded the quarry to Pierre Parent. This quarry was located on the land that had belonged to his father-in-laws. By 1670 Pierre Parent was delivering limestone from his quarry to building sites in Quebec City to construct houses. In 1675 Pierre Parent supplied the the door jambs and corner joints for the construction of the Seminary in Quebec. Pierre Parent was well on his way to becoming a wealthy man. Jeanne Badeau was Pierre Parent's wife and partner. She actively participated in the family bus
Read more