Dans un Petit Village

Napoleon did not waste time in finding a new wife, in just over a year after Marie Anne's demise he married Marie Rose Delima Dion, my great great Grandmother on August 14,1882 in Saint Joseph de Beauce. I can hardly blame Napoleon for remarrying so quickly, he had four young children, ages, eight, six, five, and three in 1882. It was common practice and I would say that it was expected. Napoleon and Marie Rose Delima had seven children together; Marie Anne Aurelie Voyer (1885 - 1976), Louis Napoleon Zephirin Voyer (1887 - 1944) Marie Pomela Ernestine Voyer (1888 - 1972), Joseph Alfred Albert Voyer (1890 - 1890), Joseph Joachim Ulric Voyer (1892 - 1935), Marie Alphonsine Noella Gerardine Voyer (1897 - 1898), Marie Rosilda Delia Graziella Voyer (1899 - 1990). Along with the four children that Napoleon had with Marie Anne Bonin that made a total of eleven children although only five of Napoleon and Marie Rose Delima's children survived until adulthood. Still, that was a fa...

Since Napoleon Voyer and Francois Parent were more or less contemporaries you would think that there would be strong similarities between their lives, nothing would be further from the truth, It is true that Francois parent was born in 1842 and Napoleon Voyer was born eight years later on November 27, 1850. Herein the difference lies. Francois was born in Sutton, Ontario, essentially a first generation Ontario Francophone born into a farming family. Napoleon was born in Sainte - Marie (Beauce), Quebec . Sainte Marie (Beauce) which is about 40 kilometers south of Quebec City. His parents were Francois Voyer (1801 - 1882) and Marie Delphine Faucher Chateauvert  (1806 - 1887). In 1850, Sainte - Marie de Beauce was still officially a seigneury belonging to the Taschereau family . The first mention that I have of Napoleon Voyer is in the 1861 Canadian Census. he is listed with his father, mother and siblings. In the census he is listed as being eleven years old. There is not a lot o...

In this post I was going to write about the life of Francois (Frank) Parent (Perault) but in the course of my research I found something unusual and interesting. I will get to the life story of Francois Parent, probably in the next post. In this post I will focus on the marriage of Francois Parent (1842 - 1922) and Martine St. Amand (1846 - 1934). Both Pierre Parent (the brother of Francois) and Francois were married in 1868. Pierre was married in January and Francois was married on February fifteenth. Pierre's marriage did not seem to have anything unusual about it but in in the marriage record for Francois andMartine there was a notation, 'dispensatio consanguinitatis'. I recognized the two words as being in Latin and that they had something to do with  dispensing consanguinity . This was a puzzle and a mystery that I had to look into.  The first place to look was the  Catholic Church canon law . The canon law of the Catholic Church was based on  Roman civil l...

Now that I dealt with the issue of dispensations for consanguinity as it relates to the marriage of Francois Parent and Martine St. Amand i can move on to writing about their lives. Francois Parent was born on May 1, 1842 in Sutton which is in what is now called Georgina township in York county although in 1842 Sutton was part of North Gwillimbury before the two townships were amalgamated. Francois' parents were Simon Parent (1793 - 1874) and Josephte Andre dit St. Amand (1809 - 1891). It is interesting to note that Francois was born just five years after the 1837 rebellion lead by Mackenzie King , the grandfather of one of our most notable prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King. I mention this because the rebellion was largely centered North of Toronto in the county of York where Francois was born. It is probably that Francois' father, Simon Parent, would have been living in the North Gwillimbury when the rebellion took place. In the very least, he would have known a...

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 ...

 To be fair, it is time to write about my mother's side of the family, the Voyer family and of course I will start with my mother. Unlike my father, I knew who my mother was. Marie Anne Gemma Voyer was born on July 7, 1918 in Quebec City, Quebec . You could say that my mother was a war baby to put her birth into perspective. World War I was approaching its end. The Allies were about to break the deadlock on the Western Front and the beginning of The 100 Days Offensive to the end of the war was not far off. A week after my mother was born The last German offensive of WWI, the Marne - Reims Offensive was to begin. The Allies had full knowledge of this offensive and the German offensive was crushed. Also, a week after my mother's birth the Czar Nicholas and his entire family was murdered by the Bolsheviks . Of course, when my mother was born no one knew that these events would happen. You could say that my mother was born during turbulent times. My mother was born into a ...

My grandparents were Nicklous (Nick) Parent and Corinne Marie Lalonde. My grandfather was born in North Gwillimbury township, York county, Ontario on May 26, 1880. North Gwillimbury is not far from Magna International, an automotive parts supplier in Aurora, Ontario . I used to pass by North Gwillimbury often when I was on company business. It is interesting that without knowing it, I was close to the birthplace of my grandfather. The question that I would ask is how did Nicklous Parent come to be born in North Gwillimbury, the Parent family originally settled in Beauport Quebec when the first arrived from France in the 17 th century. There is definitely a story about how and why my branch of the Parent family arrived in North Gwillimbury. This is definitely a research topic that I will dig into. My grandmother was born in Midland, Ontario on June 25, 1889. Midland is about 100 kilometers from North Gwillimbury using our modern road system like highway 400. I would imagine...