Dans un Petit Village

Sam Steele by R.C. Macleod The biography of Sam Steele was much more than the life story of a great Canadian; it was also a history of the opening of western Canada, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway , The rebellion in the Red River Valley , the KlondikeGold Rush , the Boer War and World War I. Sam Steele was remarkably involved to some degree in all of these events that significantly affected Canada.  Macleod wrote an engaging book that draws you into the life of Sam Steele without descending into hagiography. Macleod is just as likely to point our Sam Steele’s faults as well as his virtues. On the whole, I would say that Sam Steele had more virtues than faults; he was an ambitious man but he always tried to do what was right and treat people fairly. He always followed the path that would further his career but he also tried to always do what was best for his family as well. Sam Steele wanted to rise as high as he could in his life and he rose to great ...

Simon Parent was my last direct Parent ancestor to be born in Quebec. He was born on L'ile Perrot on July 26, 1794. L'ile Perrot is an island just west of the main island of Montreal. The island was granted by Intendant Jean Talon to Francois - Marie Perrot on October 28, 1672 who was governor of Montreal at that time.  I wondered why Simon was born on L'ile Perrot, the best answer that I can give at this time is that his parents, Pierre Parent and  Genevieve Lalonde lived there. Simon was baptised the next day on July 27, 1794. I found Simon's baptismal record but it was barely legible. I used the fact that most baptismal records are written according to the same template to decipher the record. It stated that Simon was baptised on July 27, 1794. He was the legitimate child of Pierre Parent and Genevieve Lalonde. The godfather was Joseph Marie Lalonde (Genevieve's father) and the godmother was a female Parent. I could not make out the first name so it could hav...

I just finished reading, “The True Face of Sir Isaac Brock” , by Guy St. Denis published by University of Calgary Press , 2018. It was a really enjoyable read. As it turns out, the book was much more than I thought it would be. It is not so much a biography of Sir Isaac Brock, although it is that, it is a book that is part art history, part historiographical analysis , part military history, and part detective story. Guy St. Denis has thoroughly researched and impeccably analyzed his subject, never accepting anything at face value and always digging deeper into every situation. He questions and verifies every “fact” that was presented to him in the course of his research. This was the detective story that Guy St. Denis unfolds in the underlying narrative of his book. I have to say that I read this book as if it were a detective page turner anxious to find out what happens next. In this time of fake news and “alternative facts” otherwise known as bald-faced lies, this book is...

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...