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From one of us:

Each month, I would like to publish a short article coming from one of YOU, in English or in French! It will be up to you to chose the subject, as long as it remains "genealogically correct".

From CarolannT with her permission.

MY SEARCH FOR MARIE GILBERT

by Carol Ann Grenier Turner

In the course of any genealogy project, one invariably stumbles across a proverbial "brick wall." Until recently, the ever-elusive Marie Gilbert* was MY "brick wall."

Marie Gilbert and Raphael Vachon were married February 25, 1840 at Sainte Marie de la Nouvelle Beauce, located in Beauce County, Province of Quebec. However, unlike most French-Catholic marriages of this time period, Marie Gilbert's parents were not named in either the parish nor the prothonotaire's records. Nor did the documents state "parents unknown," as is often the case with orphans and/or illegitimate births. My one somewhat hopeful lead was that the bride's two witnesses were also said to be her Uncles Jean and Francois Samson.

In October of 1995, I had occasion to visit the National Archives of Quebec in Montreal, whereupon consulting with an archivist I learned that I should search their files for the possible existence of a marriage contract between the prospective bride and groom. As luck would have it I quickly discovered a marriage contract for the young couple, as well as a notarized land transaction that had occurred between Raphael Vachon and his "natural" uncle, Jean Samson and his wife, Genevieve Gregoire. The land given to Raphael and Marie three days prior to their marriage had perhaps been a wedding gift, but one of awesome proportion, given that the relationship seemed to be merely one of nephew and niece. To explain further, Jean Samson's wife was Genevieve Gregoire, sister to Marguerite Gregoire, mother of the groom. Nevertheless, I was somewhat confused by the fact that both Jean and François Samson, the bride's two witnesses were referred by the couple as "both" of their uncles. To complicate the issue further, the marriage contract identified Marie Gilbert as a "fille naturelle" or, bluntly stated: illegitimate. Given that both the marriage documents and contract indicated that Marie was a "fille majeure," (over twenty-one years of age) at the time of the event in 1840, I continued searching for other illegitimate birth records at Sainte Marie prior to 1820. Should such an entry be found, the shrewd archivist had instructed me to pay very close attention to the identity of the Godparents.

One good possibility was that on September 15, 1818 at Sainte Marie, an illegitimate baby girl simply named "Marie" had indeed been born to unknown parents, but whose Godparents were Thomas Bilodeau and Catherine Carrier. It had been my hope and dream that this possible candidate baptized "Marie" would have Godparents named either Samson or Gregoire, certainly not Bilodeau or Carrier! Those names meant absolutely nothing to me, and for the "umteenth" time, I was left absolutely clueless. The prospects of this being a "match" looked pretty grim.

After recovering from having the wind taken out of my sails, I "re-grouped" and persisted with my research. Knowing from the marriage record that Raphael Vachon's home church was the nearby parish of St. Elzear, I concentrated my efforts there in the hopes of finding additional clues.

Suddenly the tides began turning, as St. Elzear became a veritable "mother lode" of information. There I found numerous records of births, marriages and deaths not only for Marie and Raphael's children, but for other family members as well. The "plot " started to thicken when I learned that following Raphael's death in 1862 Marie had remarried three years later to someone named François Vachon (relationship to Raphael unknown, but interestingly enough, 22 years her junior!). St. Elzear had recorded Marie's death as having taken place in 1882 at the age of sixty-four, reaffirming that she had indeed been born in 1818, the exact year of "Marie's" illegitimate birth found at Sainte Marie. Having unsuccessfully searched the birth records from the three neighboring parishes of St. Joseph, St. François and St. Elzear for any other possibilities convinced me that I must be on the right track.

It was also very interesting to note that the documentation for several of Marie and Raphael's children born at St. Elzear had properly identified Raphael Vachon as their legitimate father, but in Marie's case her last name of Gilbert had been entirely omitted. In fact, on one occasion Marie's last name of Gilbert had been purposely smudged over with ink. Although unthinkable today, it was as if the parish priests knew of Marie Gilbert's humble beginnings and had attempted to obliterate her family name from her own children's baptismal records. Little did that record keeper know that one hundred and fifty six years later Raphael and Marie's great-great-great granddaughter would be viewing his act with an entirely different perspective. This made me exceedingly sad, and with that information stuck in my craw, I became more determined than ever to find her true parentage--illegitimate or not.

Armed with the knowledge that on September 15, 1818 an illegitimate baby girl named Marie had been born at Sainte Marie, I forged ahead, re-examining the films frame-by- frame for further evidence to under-gird my research. The archivist had warned me to pay close attention to the identity of the Godparents, as oftentimes in the French-Canadian culture, grandparents also act as Godparents. The next step was for me to find what the possible link was, if any, between Thomas Bilodeau and Catherine Carrier, Marie's Godparents and the Vachon, Gilbert, Gregoire, and Samson families. I was about to be pleasantly surprised!

After an undetermined number of hours researching the parish records of Saint Marie's, I came across a rather revealing entry. It seems that in 1820 a marriage had taken place between Jean Jacques and Marie Louise Dupuis dit Gilbert. Although Jean Jacques' father was deceased at the time, his mother was none other than the infamous Catherine Carrier, Godmother to the "illegitimate" Marie born on September 15, 1818!!!

At this point I had TWO solid links to Marie Gilbert: first, Catherine Carrier, who was Marie's Godmother, and secondly, Marie-Louise Dupuis dit Gilbert, the 1820 bride of Jean Jacques, whose mother just "happened" to be Catherine Carrier. At last, could these be the ever-elusive connections for which I had long hoped to find? Was it merely a coincidence that Marie Louise's family name was also Gilbert? I think not! I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was a definite BINGO!

One can only speculate as to why Jean Jacques and Marie Louise Gilbert did not marry prior to Marie's birth in 1818. Upon finding Jean Jacques and Marie Louise's birth records it was noted that Jean was seven years senior to the seventeen-year old Marie Louise. Perhaps both families felt that Jean was too mature and Marie Louise too young for the prospects of an enduring marriage, especially given the present circumstances of Marie Louise being "with child". Another factor could have been that the recently widowed (1814) Catherine Carrier may have had a dire need for her eldest son to remain on the family farm.

At this time I am certain that there is a "family connection" to Thomas Bilodeau, but I can only surmise that he was a family member, possibly an uncle of similar vintage to the elder Jean Jacques, Marie Gilbert's paternal grandfather. To further solidify my position, a birth record for a child born to Jean Jacques and Marie Louise list the Godfather as being François Bilodeau, a brother to Thomas.

Other than the fact that Jean Samson's wife, Genevieve, was a sister to Raphael's mother, Marguerite, leaves one wondering why such a close relationship existed between Marie Gilbert and the Jean Samsons. An educated guess and a careful search of Beauce County parish records indicate that Jean Samson and Genevieve Gregoire were most likely childless, as evidence of their having children could not be found. Since the custom of the day pretty much dictated that unmarried mothers rarely, if ever kept their babies, it may be correctly assumed that Marie Gilbert may have been entrusted to Jean Samson and Genevieve Gregoire to raise as their own.

*Marie Gilbert and Raphael Vachon are my third great-grandparents on my father's side.

Web Site to visit:

PRDH web site

http://www.genealogy.umontreal.ca/

A Few Québec Surnames:

ABRAHAM, ALBERT, ALLARD, ANDERSON, ARCHAMBAULT, ARMURY, ARSENAULT, ASSOUR, AUBERT, AUCLAIR dit LECLERC, AVARD

BADAILLAC dit LAPLANTE, BANLIAC, BARTLETT (BERTHELET), BASTIEN, BEAUCHAMP, BEAUPRÉ, BÉLANGER, BERGERON, BERNIER, BERTRAND, BÉRUBÉ, BISSOT, BLANCHARD, BOUCHER, BOUDROT, BOUSQUET, BOUTET, BRAZEAU, BRODEUR, BROUSSEAU, BRULÉ, BRUNEL (BRUNELLE), BRUNET

CARON, CARRIER, CASAVAN, CAYÉ, CERÉ, CHAGNON dit LAROSE, CHAPDELAINE, CHAPUT, CHAREST, CHARETTE, CHARON, CHARTIER, CHINIQUY, CHORET, CHOUINARD, CONSTANTINEAU, CONTANT, de CORDÉ, COUILLARD, COURCHESNE, COURTIN, COUSINEAU, CÔTÉ, CREVIER dit DUVERNAY, CROMP, CUSSON, CYR

DAIGLE, D'AILLEBOUST, DAMOURS, DANIS, D'ARGENTEUL, DAVENPORT, DEGUIRE, DEMERS, DENAULT, DENIS de la RONDE, DEROCHER, DESAUTELS, DESJARLAIS, DESJARDINS, DESLANDES dit CHAMPIGNY, DESPINS, DESROCHERS, DESROSIERS (Laniel dit Desrosiers), DEVOST, DION, DIONNE, DODIER, DOMINÉ dit ST-SAUVEUR, DOUCET, DRAPEAU, DROGUE, DUFRESNE, DUHAMEL, DUMAIS, DUMONT, DUPUIS, DUQUET, DUTILLY

FARIBAULT, FAUTEL, FONTAINE, FORTIN, FRÉGAULT

GAUDET, GAGNÉ, GAGNON, GAMELIN, GAUDRY, GAUTHIER, GAUVIN, GENDREAU, GIGUÈRE, GIRARD, GIROUX, GODIN, GOES de GREY, GOSSELIN, GRANDMAISON, GRONDIN, GUÉRET dit DUMONT, GUERTIN, GUYON or DION

HACHÉ dit GALLANT, HAMON, HATFIELD, HÉBERT, HERVIEUX, HÉTU, HOUDE, HOULE, HUDON dit BEAULIEU, HUNAULT, HUS

JACOB dit LANGLAIS, JARRET de VERCHÈRE, JARRET dit BEAUREGARD

KIPP, KNAPP

LABERGE, LABONNE, LACHANCE, de LACORNE, LADUE, LAGACÉ, LALANCETTE, LANGLAIS, LAMOTHE, LAMOUREUX, LANDRY, LAPLANTE, LAVALLÉE, LEBEL, LEBRUN, LECLERC dit LAFRENAYE, LEDUC, LEGARDEUR, LÉGER, LEMAÎTRE dit AUGER, LEMAY, LEMIEUX, LEMOYNE de LONGUEUIL, LEPROHON, LEVASSEUR, LÉVESQUE, LOEDEL, LUSSIER

MAGUET dit MAILLÉ, de MANTHET, MARCEAU, MARIER, MARQUIS, MARTEL, MARGANE de LAVALTRIE, MARION, MARTIN, MARTIN-BEAULIEU, MELANÇON, MÉNARD, MERCIER, MESSIER, MICHAUD, MICHON, MIGNAULT dit LABRIE, MIGNIER dit LAGACÉ, MIVILLE dit DESCHÊNES, MONET, MONTREUIL, MOREAU

NADEAU, NADON, NAULT dit LABRIE

OUELLET

PARÉ, PARENT, PECAUDY, PELLETIER, PEPIN, PEPIN dit LACHANCE, PERRAULT, PETIT, PHILIPPEAU, PIUZE, POITRAS, PRÉVOST, PRIMOT

QUEVILLON

RACINE, RAMEZAY, ROBICHAUD, POIRIER, RAYMOND, RAYNAUD dit BLANCHARD, RIVARD, ROBERT, ROBIDOUX, ROLLAND, ROULEAU, ROY, ROY dit DESJARDINS et LAUZIER

SAUCIER, SAVOIE, SÉDILOT dit MONTREUIL, SÉNÉCAL, SÉNÉCHAL, SICARD, SOUCY, ST-GERMAIN, ST-LAURENT

TALBOT, TARIEU de LANAUDIÈRE, TÉTRAULT, THÉRIAULT, THIBAULT, TRUDEAU, TRUDEL

VAILLANCOURT, VALADE, VALIN, VANASSE dit BASTIEN, VEL dit SANSOUCY, VERONNEAU, VIGNEUX

This is YOUR newsletter!  If you want to add surnames, if you find interesting web sites, just send them to me and I will publish them.

Don't forget to visit GenealogyForum on the web:

The Genealogy Forum

http://www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/

See you in the Chat Room

HOST GFS Suzanne  :-))

© 2001 GFNEWS, a monthly publication of the Golden Gate Genealogy Forum, Inc. of Franklin, MA.
(America Online Keyword: roots.) The Editors welcome your ideas and articles,
success stories, favorite genealogy research tips, comments and suggestions.

© 2001 Graphics By Carol, All Rights Reserved