Acadian Expulsion II: Exile brings my 5th great grandparents together

It was a clear fall day in Port Royal, L’Acadie (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) when Anne Doucet age five , my 5^th great grandmother, stood on the deck of the ship that would take her, her parents Jean Doucet and Anne Bourg and her two younger siblings Joseph three and Jean Baptiste less than one year old, away from all that was dear and familiar to them. Did she stand tall straining to see over the rail as their world went up in smoke? Did she tearfully cling to her mother’s skirts as her parents held her younger siblings? Little did she know that day what more changes would come in her young life. Oddly enough if her family had not been exiled she probably would never have met her future husband Charles Dupuis, age 9, who was being deported from Grand Pre the same year.  Exiles they would be brought together by fate in the British colony of Connecticut. There they would exchange wedding vows about 8 years from now.

The ship, possibly the Experiment, was bound for New York under a British order expelling over 6,000 Acadians from their home which they had occupied for over 150 years. They were being scattered all over the British colonies in North America and the Antilles. For some reason this ship stopped in St. Christophe, an island in the Antilles held by the British. There her father Jean would die of the chicken pox at age about 30. Her mother would continue with her small children to New York and eventually Connecticut where she met and married another deportee, Joseph Herbert who  had lost his spouse Madeleine Dupuis, sister of Charles Dupuis my 4^th great grandfather. Anne is listed with him there in 1763 and their combined family of nine children. By the time they would be free to leave exile Joseph Herbert and wife Anne would have five more children. Did Charles and Anne meet when Joseph and her mother married and there were relatives of his first wife in attendance? Charles Dupuis, an orphan, was also living in Connecticut with his brother Simon-Pierre and his family. Connecticut was more prepared and hospitable to the deportees and the legislature made provisions for the Acadians of whom 700 eventually wound up on their shore.

They were civilians caught up in Le Grand Derangement – the Great Expulsion of neutral Acadians during what is called in North America, the French and Indian War and in Europe, the Seven Years War. They had lived under British rule since before Anne and her parents were born. (See my blog Acadian Expulsion I for explanation of the reasons for the expulsion and the story of Charles and his 10 siblings)  

The British victory in the  battle on the Plains of Abraham, near Quebec City, in 1759 and the treaty  of 1763 gave the refugees from L’Acadie another hard choice. There was little possibility of returning to their farms confiscated and given to British settlers. A few stayed in the colony to which they had been deported but most sought to find more culturally congenial places to live. Those deported to England where conditions were harsh asked to be sent to France. There was a promise of land but the French King failed them and most left again to immigrate to a new territory. Louisiana had passed from French to Spanish rule by 1762 and the Spanish were welcoming to new settlers especially Catholics. The first Acadians arrived in Louisiana in April 1764 and a flood would follow them as news got back about the area. Some who went to the Caribbean to the island of Dominique, French territory eventually wound up in Louisiana.

Charles and Anne exchanged their wedding vows privately before two witnesses around July of 1768 in Connecticut, since there was no priest present to witness their marriage. Perhaps they  were already preparing to go back together to Canada. Daughter Marie Anne would be the only of their 11 children born in Connecticut. Nine months later, in the parish church of Laprairie in the Richelieu valley south of Montreal, they renewed those vows in April 1769. Charles was the only one of his siblings who would return to Canada – perhaps because of his marriage to Anne as most of the Herberts would return to this area as well as her mother and step-father Joseph Herbert and her half siblings. Only Anne’s brother Joseph appears to have decided to follow other Acadians south, perhaps via the Isle of Dominique to finally settle in Louisiana. In 1772 at age 20 he marries Anne Landry, a fellow Acadian,  in St. Martinsville, Louisiana and they settle and raise a family in Opelousas where he dies in 1803.  Jean Baptiste disappears from the records and may have died during the expulsion or while in Connecticut. In a list of Connecticut residents in 1763 Joseph Herbert and second wife Anne Bourg are listed with nine children only, Jean Baptiste would have made 10 if he was still alive.

Anne Doucet’s family now merged with that of Joseph Herbert decided to return to French speaking lower Canada (now under British rule) and settle in the Richelieu valley and join her daughter and her husband. There was no hope of returning to L'Acadie and reclaiming confiscated lands. They probably were homesick for their own language, customs and religious tradition. They arrived in 1774 when her mother’s 1762 second marriage in Connecticut was blessed in the church of Laprairie.  They brought five small children born in Connecticut between 1763 and 1773 which may account for their longer stay in Connecticut. Did tensions between the American and their British rulers influence their move?Joseph died six years after they had their marriage blessed and recorded in the parish records. Members of Joseph’s family including his father had settled in Laprairie area after 1763.

Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet would have  10 more children in Lacadie and in Laprairie where they moved in the 1780's. Anne died 10 days after giving birth to their youngest child in 1790 and Charles in 1798. Both are buried in Lacadie. They never saw Salome their  granddaughter my 2nd great grandmother born there to their son Antoine and his wife Josephte Montminy in 1822.

Acadian Explusion: a family scattered

Contemporary painting of another Acadian town being burnt - Thomas Davies 1758*

On a summer day in 1755 my 4^th great grandfather Charles Dupuis, age 9 watched from shipboard as everything he knew receded over the horizon. He, with 10 of his brothers and sisters, their spouses, uncles, aunts and cousins watched in horror as British soldiers set fire to their farm houses and barns. He left behind the graves of his parents Antoine and Marie Josephte Dugas who died when he was only a year old. He would be the only one of his family who would return to what had been French territory. Before that he would be a refugee in the British colonies of North America.

My great grandmother Adeline Raymond pictured on the right,  was descended from many of the original settlers of L'Acadie. (modern Nova Scotia)  Her mother was listed as "Sally Wells" on US records. I knew she was French and eventually discovered that her real name was Salome Dupuis, daughter of Antoine Dupuis resident of Lacadie, a small town south of Montreal in the Richelieu valley. Her paternal grandparents Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet were both born in L' Acadie - he is Grand Pre in 1746 and she in Port Royal around 1750. Hence both as children would have been witnesses to the expulsions and emigrations from Acadie which began in the late 1740's and escalated 1755-1762. It is unlikely that Salome knew her grandparents as both died before she was born. Did she learn of the exodus from stories passed down in her family? If so did she pass them on to Adelaide?

The fate of the children of Antoine Dupuis and Marie Josephe Dugas, parents of Charles, gives a sample of the various places of deportation and emigration experienced by families in L’Acadie. Antoine and Marie both died in Grand Pre in 1747 right before the Acadian Expulsion known as L’Grand Derangement. My ancestor Charles, twin brothers Joseph and Jean Baptiste and sister Euphrosine were all under 10 when the parents died and likely were taken into the homes of older married brothers and sisters.

Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet had lived under British rule all their lives.  Britain ruled L'Acadie since 1713, before both of their births. Their ancestors had settled this area in the early 17th century.  After the British takeover initially their families' lives on their prosperous farms had continued as before. The "Great Meadow" had rich farmland that had been reclaimed from the sea by a system of dikes. In 1730 the Acadians swore an oath of allegiance to the British on condition they would not have to fight the French or their Native allies. But toward the end of the 1740's there was unrest in the area due to British insistence on an unconditional oath of allegiance. Wars being fought far away in Europe had repercussions on the land of L'Acadie. Unrest spread and between 1749-1755 active armed resistance to British rule spread throughout the area.

The 11 living Dupuis children (which included two sets of twins) their spouses and children were scattered through the British colonies and England. The names of Charles' brothers, uncles, cousins, brothers-in-law all appear on the list of men scheduled for deportation in 1755. Some of these colonies were hospitable to the refugees but others resented having these families thrust upon them - French speaking and Catholics in an English speaking and Protestant colony. Those who went to England fared worse since they were regarded as enemy combatants and prisoners of war. Three of Charles siblings were sent to England: Francoise Osite Dupuis, her husband Honore Daigle, their children, his brother Jean Baptiste age 10, and eldest sister Marie Josephe Dupuis with her children and  husband Pierre Theriot. Of these Francoise died in England as well as brother -in-law Pierre.

Older brother Antoine Dupuis, wife Marguerite Boudrot and family were sent to New York. Simon-Pierre, wife Marie LeBlanc and children may also have originally been sent to New York but made their way to Connecticut with widowed sister Marguerite Dupuis Boudrot, Charles and sister Euphrosine. His  sister Marie Anne and husband Michel Boudrot were deported to Portabac in Maryland Joseph Herbert and wife Madeliene Dupuis were sent with their teenage children to an unknown British colony perhaps New York with Jean Baptiste's twin Joseph.  Later, after Madeliene's death,  they wind up in Connecticut where he will meet and marry my 5th great grandmother Anne Bourg widow of Jean Doucet, parents of Anne Doucet who would later marry Charles Dupuis. (but that is a story for another blog entry)

When the war between France and Britian ended with a treaty in 1763 the Acadian exiles were free to move to more congenial locations. Between that date and 1767 siblings and their families went to the French speaking island of Dominique (present day Haiti) in the Carribean. Antoine and wife  baptized their children born in New England in Mirebas. Both  parents  died and were buried in Mirebas. Some of their children would continue on to Louisiana. A Spanish colony in 1765 it was especially hospitable to Catholic immigrants seeing them as a bulwark against the British. Acadians who stayed in Dominique were forced to more again during the Haitian Revolt and many moved to  Louisiana which was once again French and back to the former British colonies now the United States.  Marie Dupuis Boudrot and family  brother Joseph, Marguerite Dupuis Boudrot and children,  also sought refuge in Louisiana. Marie Anne Dupuis widow of Michael Boudrot deported to Portabac Maryland went with her family to Louisiana. In 1802 with the Louisana purchase that territory became part of the expanding United States.

Those in England went to France: eldest sister Marguerite Dupuis Theriot  now widowed, her children and Jean Baptiste age 21. In 1767 they were among 78 Acadian families living on the island Belle-Ile-en-Mer off the coast of Brittany. It is from an affidavit sworn by her that much of the information about the family migrations is known. Those in France were often disappointed because the French government did not live up to promises of land and support for the refugees. Some Theriot children who went to France eventually wound up returning to the New World and settling in Louisiana. Jean Baptiste died, unmarried in France in 1783.

 Of the 11 living children of Antoine and Marie Josephte only my ancestor Charles found his way back north after being deported to Connecticut. While in Connecticut he met and married Anne Doucet (her family story will be another blog entry)  In 1769 he came back to former French territory with his new wife and some of her relatives,  to have their 1768 marriage blessed in the newly founded town of Lacadie, Quebec. This town was founded by Acadian refugees and its church Ste Margaret of Blainfindie has the records of the many descendants of Charles including my 3rd great grandmother Salome Dupuis.

This summary of the fate of Antoine Dupuis and Marie Josephte Dugas' children is a microcosm of the Acadian Expulsion - to the British  colonies, to France, England and the French Caribbean islands and eventually migration back to French Canada and Louisiana.

* http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_e.jsp?mkey=3755

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DNA revisited: Viking, Visigoths and assorted others!

After receiving an initial DNA ethnic profile I puzzled over the combination of British Isles, Scandinavian, Southern European and assorted unknowns that my Irish and French Canadian ancestors seemed to have passed on to me. A refinement of the profile is even more interesting: As was no surprise my DNA profile comes from Europe 97%, with the remaining 3%  2% West Asia (Caucasus) and 1% Central Asia. The bulk of the ancestry is Irish 68% which still is a bit of a mystery - since some of that DNA should come from my father who was French Canadian. The rest is scattered over three regions Italy/Greece10%, Europe West 5%, and Scandinavia 5% Iberian Peninsula 3% Great Britain 3% Europe East 2% , Finnish/Northern Russia< 1%, and European Jewish< 1%.  All of those ethnic markers leave room for the Vikings and the Visigoths which I speculated about in an earlier blog entry, But it contains some interesting twists for example the European Jewish trace.

My candidates for the lines producing some of these DNA traces could be: Raymond dit Toulouse line. The ancestor who immigrated to the new World was a soldier named Jean Baptiste Bertrand dit Raymond dit Toulouse son of Raymond Bertrand from the city of Toulouse. That area would have been the meeting place of southern European DNA (Romans, Visigoths, Greeks). Plus I am twice descended from this line with both of my paternal great-grandmothers being Raymonds.

It is interesting that the profiles of others with similar DNA have a large amount of Acadian surnames from my Dupuis side. Some genealogists speculate that this population had a percentage of both Scottish and British mixture. My Melancon line is supposed to have originated in Scotland and from the city of Quebec I am descended through at least two of the daughters of Abraham Martin nicknamed "the Scotsman".  Of course there is always the soldier Jose Bertrand from Valladolid Spain, ancestor on  my Dad's side for the dash of Iberian pennisula.  Irish legends have my Celtic ancestors migrating through the area now known as Spain as well.

On a recent visit to France I visited the Paris Museum of Jewish Art and History. In the Marais where the  Museum is located there has been a Jewish community since the middle ages. Since many of my ancestors came from Paris and area around the city including the Marais district this could have been the connection.

The 3% that is not European is divided into West Asia 2% (Caucasus2%) and
Asia Central< 1%.  I still have hopes that some of the Asia central was through my (documented) Native American ancestry and a bit disappointed that they didn't pass on more.

Sarmartian soldiers

The Caucasus was equally a surprise. Since I just visited Turkey (and loved it) traveling through this same area it was nice to know some of my DNA made its way from there to Europe. An Internet search for how some Turkish DNA might have found its way to northern Europe led me to the Sarmartian solders who served in the Roman Legions. They were fierce warriors respected by their enemies the Romans. So much so, that in 147 C.E. after defeating them, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius enlisted 8,000 in his legions. 5,500 cavalrymen were sent to the north of England around York on the Scottish border. When there service was over Roman soldiers were often given land and remained where they had served, marrying into the local population. Wonder if that is how DNA from Turkey found its way into my family tree?


It is fun to speculate!

Strays: Unexpected ancestors

Lost in Limerick

Finding the Irish ancestors once you get "over the pond" can be difficult if not impossible. My Shea and Farrell side are from Limerick according to information on a family gravestone and family oral tradition. Tracking them down was a combination of serendipity and detective work.

Mary Agnes Shea and granddaughter

Michael Shea and wife Mary Agnes Farrell left Ireland with (according to family tradition) their daughter Mary Bridget, my great grandmother. She was too young to remember Ireland or the voyage. They had at least 5 or 6 other children. Tracking the census information on all of the children led to the discovery that Mary Bridget's brother Michael was also born in Ireland. There is another Shea family in St. Johnsbury VT where Michael and Mary Agnes settled: Patrick Shea and wife Hannah Haley. They are buried in St. Johnsbury and were researched to see if there was a connection. So far none has been proved.

During the famine many ships went from Limerick directly to Canada. Since Canada was part of Britain the passage was cheaper.  No statistics exist on how many people in the Limerick area died during the famine. Nationally, the population declined by an average of 20%, half of whom died and half emigrated. While the Great Famine reduced the population of County Limerick  by 70,000, the population of the City actually rose slightly, as people fled to the workhouses Ships berthed on the Limerick quaysides ready to transport produce from one of the most fertile parts of Ireland, the Golden Vale , to the English ports. Francis Spaight, a Limerick merchant, farmer, British magistrate and ship owner, recorded 386,909 barrels of oats, and 46,288 barrels of wheat being shipped out of Limerick between June 1846 and May 1847. Giving evidence to a British parliament  select committee  inquiring into the famine, Spaight said that: "I found so great an advantage of getting rid of the pauper population upon my own property that I made every possible exertion to remove them ... I consider the failure of the potato crop to be the greatest possible value in one respect in enabling us to carry out the emigration system." The same quaysides were the departure point for many emigrant ships sailing over the Atlantic. (see the Wikipedia article on Limerick)

Immigrants were often promised that they would receive help on arrival but this was usually not forthcoming. Walking over the border into Vermont was possible and tempting. Once the railroad started running between NH and VT and Canada that was another way immigrants arrived. In a report by the trustees of a Vermont "poor farm" (a place for indigent people where they assisted with farm work in return for board and room) in the 1850's it expressed alarm at the influx of immigrants. The trustees felt they were coming just to take advantage of the benefits offered by the county poor farm. Some men left their families in Canada and went ahead of them. Since the Shea family wound up in Caledonia Co. Vermont on the east side of the state it is possible that they crossed  into Newport, Orleans Co. They were one of the lucky families if they did come through Canada. Many of those immigrants wound up in quarantine on Grosse Isle and died there from fever. Fear of immigrants was also connected to a fear that they brought contagious diseases.

The first census of a family that fits them is in 1850 in Newbury, Orange Co, Vermont.   Michael O'Shay 34 b. Ireland 1816, Mary O'Shay 34 born Ireland 1816, John 10 b. 1840 Ireland, Mary 7 born 1843,  Ireland, Michael 4 born Ireland 1846 and Bridget 1 born Vermont 1849. This would give them an arrival date of 1847 Ages and names fit except for eldest and youngest. No death record has been found for Bridget but it would explain a John mentioned in the will of Michael Shea in 1881. (Mary was Mary Bridget) This census also has a  Patrick and Hannah Haley Shay spelled Chay - they live near the O'Shay family in Newbury. They also movcd down to St. Johnsbury. On their gravestone it notes their origin in Ballysheane, Co. Clare. (not far from the Limerick border).

By 1860 both families are living in or near St. Johnsbury. Michael and his family are in Lydon on a farm near the city which remained in the family until the 1920's. Their name gets mangled in the census and appears as Chay.  He is listed as 33 but was probably older. He is a RR laborer. Mary b. 1843-44 is listed as born in Ireland and the other children in Vt. (Later evidence shows that 2 children were born in Ireland) There is no John listed in the family but a John P. Shay age 21 is living in Lyndon in John Darling's hotel  that year. His occupation is painter and his birthplace is listed as Canada East.  Michael owns $1200 worth of real estate in 1870 and is listed as a farmer.  According to family oral tradition Mary Agnes was a midwife as was her daughter Mary Bridget. Both spoke Irish and Mary Bridget absorbed many of the Irish folklore and stories which she passed to her children. She believed in the "little people" and would leave some milk by the door for them. (Making neighborhood cats very happy)

The most important clue to exactly where in Limerick the family came was an "Missing Friends" ad in the Boston Pilot which read: "MICHAEL FARRELL, of parish Mungret, 2 miles from the city of Limerick, who sailed from Limerick in ship Clare, in July, `50. He wrote to his mother about 9 months ago, when he was in Creamwell, Paulding co, Ohio. Please address his sisters Bridget Flanagan and Mary O`Shea, care of Mich Flanagan, St Johnsbury, Vt.  Sept 22, 1855 "  http://infowanted.bc.edu/.  

The ad may indicate that Catherine Farrell their mother was living with or near the Flanagan or Shea families since it refers to a letter received in 1855 from Ohio. A ship passenger list for the Clare arriving on  August 23, 1850 from Limerick Ireland into NYC were John Farrell 13, Mary age 40 and Michael age 22 .  Michael would fit the profile as would his brother John. Is the Mary his older sister Mary Margaret? There is a death record for a Catherine Farrell born 1792 who dies in Burlington in 1857. While this might fit Catherine Supple Farrell her husband is listed as Murt not Michael.

I had no record for my Mary Agnes that showed her parents but when Bridget Farrell Flanagan died Vermont death records list her parents  as Michael and Kate. Unfortunately early records from the parish of Mungret are not available but from the clues in this ad, a search of Limerick records database through brsgenealogy.com  yielded   a Bridget, Margaret and Ellen whose father is Michael and mother is Catherine Supple -b. 1817, 1814 and 1820 in Ballybricken and Bohermore Limerick. (not far from Mungret about 8 miles from Limerick City)   Her sister, Mary Agnes , born  earlier (1812-16) does not appear. The same site gave me the baptism records in Mungret for several of Bridget's children (she and her husband Michael Flanigan were married in Ireland. The same parish had Michael Shea, son of Michael and Mary Farrell baptized in September of 1845. No records were available for his older sister Mary Bridget Shea. Since the records start about that time the marriage record for my great great grandparents will probably not be retrievable but it is likely it was around 1840.

Mungret today is a suburb of the city of Limerick http://www.limerickcity.ie/media/mun004.pdf had almost 3500 inhabitants in the 19th century when the Sheas and Flanagans lived there. It was on the road to Adare.  One of the earliest monastic settlements was founded here going back into the earliest days of Christianity here. In the middle ages there was a large abbey with six churches and as many as 1500 monks. The abbey was a magnet for Viking raids and was destroyed at least 5 times between the 9th and 11th century by Vikings, fire and other raiders. For Mungret map see: http://www.maplandia.com/ireland/mid-west/limerick/mungret/.

Ballybricken and Bothermore were farming areas eight miles from Limerick City. http://ukga.org/ireland/Limerick/towns/CahirellyorBallybricken.html  It was smaller than Mungret having about 1400 inhabitants. A mid 19th century description writes: "CAHIRELLY, or BALLYBRICKEN, a parish, in the barony of CLANWILLIAM, county of LIMERICK, and province of MUNSTER, 8 miles (S. S. E.) from Limerick; containing 1346 inhabitants. This place appears to be of considerable antiquity, and its church is said to have been founded by St. Ailbe, Bishop of Emly, in the time of St. Patrick; it would also appear to have attained an early degree of importance, as three castles were erected within its limits. The parish is situated on the river Comogue, by which it is bounded on the south; the mail coach road from Limerick to Cork passes within a quarter of a mile of its western extremity; and it is intersected from north to south by the road from Limerick to Hospital. It comprises 2636 statute acres, as applotted under the tithe act, of which 33 acres are roads and waste, and the remainder arable, pasture, and meadow land, of which last a great portion is frequently overflowed by the river. the western portion is rich grazing land, mostly belonging to large dairy farms, and the greater part of the eastern portion is in the occupation of small farmers, and is generally cultivated by spade labour. "

Where in the world do they come from? Following breadcrumbs.

My Leary and Callahan side is from Rathmore, Co. Kerry (and probably immigrated there in the 17th century from Cork). I can pinpoint the townland upon which they farmed in 1850. My Shea and Farrell line is from Limerick and lived in Mungret, near Limerick City before immigration. My Corbett and Grace line is from Turkstown, Co. Kilkenny. Thanks to finding their origen in Ireland I have been able to visit each place and in two cases stand on the land on which they lived. 

However my Bresnahan and Fleming side has eluded me. Unlike all three of the other lines there is no family oral tradition as to where in Ireland they lived. No vital record or obituary has been found that pinpoints the county in Ireland. So I started following the few bread crumbs I could see based on available records and a blanket search for other families with this surname in the immediate area.

Bresnahan is a traditional Kerry name. The names Bresnahan, Brosnan and Bresnan in Ireland are derived from the native Gaelic O'Brosnachain sept that was located in County Kerry in the South of the country. The name is most likely taken from the small townland of Brosna that is located in that region. A search of Irish parish records for the area - on line at www.irishgenealogy.ie has loads of Bresnahan/Brosnahan and other variants but none that fit my family. Sorting them out has gained me quite a collection of Bresnahans in this area of New Hampshire.Our family has used Bresnahan but others use Brosnahan, Brosnan.

Castleisland Kerry

Searching through the Bresnahans in Manchester and Concord NH where my ancestors settled opens up more questions than answers. James Leary, my great grandfather married Julia Bresnahan in St. Ann's parish, Manchester, NH in 1863. That points to her residence in that city since the custom was to marry in the bride's church.

Mill workers apartments near Amoskeag mill (ahead)

A search for Bresnahan families in Manchester yielded many, some of which may be related. The best match for mine was Julia, 21with her mother Margaret Fleming 62, sister Honora 16 and two other perhaps related Bresnahan's Margaret  15, Patrick 17 and a Honora Dillon 19  in the 1860 census.  They all appear to be mill workers. A Margaret is listed in 1855/6 in the city directory and the family appears to have arrived (according to different census) between 1850-1855. By the date of this census Andrew Bresnahan, brother to Julia and Honora had already married Mary Leary sister of her future husband James. Perhaps that was how Julia and James met. Sadly I have been unable to find a record for Andrew, his wife Mary and son Corneilius b. 1856 in the 1860 census anywhere in the US. There is no death record for him in New Hampshire or neighboring states. Mary and her son disappear until 1870 when she is working as a servant in Concord with the woman who will marry the Patrick listed in this census. Her son is being cared for by his aunt and uncle James and Julia Leary.

From other records I was able to learn that the Margaret who lives with them in 1860 is the child of a John Bresnahan and a Johannah Fleming, Patrick is the son of a John Bresnahan and a Mary Fleming. I was led to these records by the obituary of Andrew's son Corneilius Bresnahan in 1903.  Margaret is listed as a relative of Corneilius when she attends his funeral in 1903 as is her half sister Julia. Both are listed under their married names and the marriage record of each showed they were Bresnahans. That led to a John Bresnahan who might be a brother to my great great grandfather Corneilius.

John Bresnahan b. 1810 lived in  Manchester NH with 1st  wife Johannah Fleming. He is father of Margaret Bresnahan who lived with our family in 1860 and of her half sister Julia Bresnahan with second wife Mary Sullivan Cashman. Margaret married  Peter Haggerty and Julia married to  John F. Cahill and both attended the funeral of Corneilius Bresnahan and are listed in obituary as relatives. Members of the Leary / Bresnahan family attended funerals from their family also and are identified as relatives.  Of course he may also be connected to our family via his wife, a Fleming like Margaret Fleming.

2nd from top: Record of Leary/Bresnahan baptism with John Bresnahan as sponsor 1870

Since the Irish usually ask relatives to be godparents and marriage witnesses I explored a connection with the only Bresnahan family in Concord in the mid 19th century. I discovered that John Bresnahan whose first wife was Mary Fleming appears also to be the father of Patrick, the young man who lived with my family in Manchester in 1860. John Bresnahan is the godfather of my grandfather James T. Leary son of James and Julia. He is a good candidate to be related to our family, both from the association as a godfather and the surname of his first wife. He remarried twice after his wives died, to Johannah Coughlin with whom he had a second family and late in life to Mary O'Hara. Born around 1800 he is also of the right age to be a brother to my great great grandfather Corneilius, husband of Margaret Fleming. John's parents are Dennis Bresnahan and Mary Broderick.

Trying to research this John Bresnahan's orgin in Ireland was confusing. He might be from Cork (on his son's grave in Wolfboro, NH that is given as place of origen) or  Limerick. A Callaghan McCarthy is living with John in 1860. Callaghan  (from other sources and another researcher) is from Rathkeale in Limerick and with him is  his wife Margaret Bresnahan. Two other Bresnahan women live there Kate and Catherine both single and listed as aunts in the McCarthy family.  Are they from Limerick or from Kerry or from Cork????

The majority of the  Bresnahan families in Manchester NH are from Kerry especially the area around Castleisland and Tralee. However a search of the Kerry parish records, which are extant for dates  of the family births did not yield records for Julia or her sister Honora that fit.  From the map above it can be seen that Castleisland is very close to the border of Limerick and to that of Cork.

Cemetary records for Old St. Joseph cemetary in Manchester have many Bresnahan burials. Unfortunately no stone has the name of Margaret Fleming Bresnahan on it although she is most likely buried there. There is an old Bresnahan burial plot with multiple interments but no individual markers. 

So the mystery remains - where in Ireland did my Bresnahan great great grandparents Cornelius Bresnahan and wife Margaret Fleming originate?

Mystery Mothers

Every genealogist deals with brick walls. Women's history sometimes is daunting as maiden names are overlooked in many records. At a certain point it is hard to go further back when all a person has is a first name. Some of my mystery mothers are:

Josephte Abenlak (Allerlock) 1750/60- before 1805 is my 4th great grandmother. All I know of her is her husband's name Jean Gray and that they were married in Albany. The marriage date is unknown. Both she and her husband may have been Native American. There was a settlement of Abenaki natives in Scaghticook near Albany during the upheavals of the French and Indian Wars. Did she live there? Her surname may be a corruption of Abenlak. She is my father's 2nd great grandmother. A strong family oral tradition has this line the source of native ancestry. Records are scarce in Albany for this period and no Catholic records exist. Many Mohawk Indians appear in the Dutch Reformed records but few are present and named in Anglican records. Indian baptisms and weddings are often noted generically i.e. baptised 4 Indian children and married 3 couples. Right when their daughter would have been born - 1780-86 records do not exist because of the upheaval after the American Revolution.

 Their daughter Marguerite Gray married Paul Desmarais dit Beaulac in 1805 in St. Charles, a town in the Richelieu valley south of Montreal. (See the record above - hard to decipher her mother's last name)  Her  father is listed as deceased. Paul, a widower, is listed  as from the "parish of the Hurons called St. Jean Baptiste". This is a puzzling allusion since St. Jean Baptiste would more likely be the parish of the Abenakis.The family lived in Swanton Vt. from 1810-1814 and 1823-25 based on birth places of children. They are  not in 1810 or 1820 US census. This family moved around quite a bit - with  children born in Canada and Vermont. Marguerite is dead by 1839. Her husband probably dies in New York state where is is living with a daughter and her family in 1850 census.

Their daughter, Marguerite Desmarais dite Beaulac, married Jean Baptiste Chicoine  in 1822  in Swanton, VT an area where the Abenaki tribe settled. Although Jean Baptiste b. 1798 is clearly identified as son of his father the connection with his mother is not verified by any record. His father Jean Baptiste Chicoine married Archange Valade in 1798 and their first son is Louis born 1799. They baptized several children in Montreal between 1799 and 1810 but no Jean Baptiste. So his mother may be another mystery woman!

Rose Bonin 1800-after 1851 is from St. Elizabeth, Joliette, Quebec. She is my 3rd great grandmother in my great grandfather Joseph Moreau dit Desrosiers line.  She is raised by Louis Bonin and wife Therese Goulet. Her wedding record records the relationship to Louis as that of a ward, foster child or adopted. using Bonin as her surname but on the baptism record of her first child her surname is left blank. Was she native American? In this area there are several records of native children - mostly boys, returned by a fur trapper father to be raised there. Was she related to Louis or Therese, an orphaned niece or cousin or a foundling? Several Roses and Rosalies with the surname "unknown" are also in the Berthier registers at the beginning of the 19th century. She married Jean Baptiste Belhumeur dit Blosse in 1824 - having at least 14 children up to 1848. Less than half of these children survived past age 10. She and her husband are listed in the 1851 Canadian census in St. Felix of Valois parish, Berthier Co.  Her birthplace is indicated as French Canada. 

Catherine Degres or Depre 1664-1758 my 7th great grandmother, was a Native American from the Gaspe pennisula, possibly of the Mic'maq tribe. She married Etienne Girard at Mount St. Louis  around 1705. He is also somewhat of a mystery - with no parents known and the nickname of "Le Breton" perhaps a clue to his birth in Brittany. Their first daughter Marie Catherine was born there in 1706. Neither Catherine nor Etienne are in the 1699 or 1700 census of the area. The couple had 15 children some born at Mount Louis and others in Anciene Lorette (a Huron village)  near Quebec city where they later settled. Over 1/2 of these children did not survive past age 5. The family traveled to Quebec City to record baptisms performed by lay officials in Mount Louis. It is from these records that we know Catherine was a Native American. The priest baptizing their daughter Marie Louise identifies her as Catherine "d'un nation sauvage" and her daughter as Metisse (mixed blood) Their daughter Marie Francoise is my grandfather Paul Marcel Chicoine's  many times great grandmother.

Mount St. Louis, Gaspe, fishermen

Catherine Pillard or Pallet 1646-after 1688 was not a mystery before DNA. She was listed as a Fille du Roi from La Rochelle and her 1665 wedding record to Jean Charron clearly gives her parish and parents Pierre Pillard and Marguerite Moulinet. Her city of origin is also noted on the occasion of her second marriage many years later. On the basis of maternal mtDNA descendants of her daughters  carry genes linked to Amerindian lines of Siberian. This DNA is passed directly from mother to daughter. This raised questions and started a controversy over her actual origin - was she the daughter of a Huron chief named Catherine baptized in Montreal in 1646 rather than the Catherine originating in La Rochelle?  If so why would she be misrepresented on her marriage record? Was she an Indian woman or the daughter of one, brought by explorers to France who then returned to New France?  French explorers had been to New France since the mid 16th century and  had brought back natives to their homeland. Some scholars feel that French fishermen were aware of the area from the 15th century. If so her mother or grandmother would be the person with Amerindian ancestry. Or is this a genetic fluke, DNA passed down in France from previous invasions centuries ago?

A detailed discussion can be found on the website:

http://www.charron-ducharme.org/index.php/en/catherine-pillard-en/87-catherine-pillard-s-origin

Marguerite Thomas (1635-1695) The foreign bride
 
Marguerite Thomas was from Stavelot, Liège, in what is now Belgium, daughter of Jean Thomas and Marguerite Fredrey and about 21 years old when she arrived in Canada in the summer of 1655. Her hometown was not French but part of the Holy Roman Empire under the authority of the abbot of Stavelot. It was located in the area called Southern Netherlands ruled by Spain.  She was among a number of marriageable women who came to New France between 1634 and 1663 with the idea of finding a husband. (unlike the government sponsored Filles du Roi they did not receive government assistance and came alone, with family members or in a small group)  What motivated her to come to New France?  Whatever did,  she quickly found herself a spouse. Jean-Pierre Trudel was a cotton weaver from the parish of Notre-Dame in Parfindeval, La Chèverie, Orne (Perche), Normandy.  In November of 1655, they were married in Chateau Richer, QC.

Trudel had arrived in Canada as a bachelor in 1652 from the Perche area of Normandy, and is considered part of the Percheron Immigration.  First mention of him is in Québec is 11-13-1655 at his marriage contract.  The young family lived in Québec, and in 1657, established themselves at l'Ange-Gardien on land acquired from M. LeGardeur de Repentigny. Their daughter Marie Madeliene Trudel one of their nine children,  is my 7th great grandmother in my Chicoine ancestry.

Vikings and Visigoths: the DNA mystery

I am often struck by how we are the results of random choices by our ancestors, decisions to move, to immigrate, to live one place rather than another. My parents might never have met if my grandfather had not lost his business during the 1920's and moved from one side of Vermont to another.  My father would not have been living there if his parents had not decided to finally settle permanently in Vermont. His family had a history of almost 100 years of going back and forth to Canada. He was born in Canada. Recently I had my DNA tested for ethnic origin, thinking it might answer some questions. Like many genealogical answers it only provided  more questions.

My limited understanding of how DNA works is that you get pieces from both parents: 1/2 from each. What pieces they pass along may differ. My profile is came out as 58% British Isles, 19% Scandinavian, 17% Southern European and 6% other.  However my sibling's is 78% Scandinavian, 19% Southern European and 3% other. With an Irish mother it does seem strange that there is no British Isles DNA in her profile.  Looking at the migration patterns of the Celts below it is also possible that they may have contributed to the Southern European DNA that both of us have. Viking DNA is distributed widely over Europe: Ireland and France would both have Scandinavian DNA. Irish legendary migration histories have the invaders coming to the island through what is now the Iberian peninsula.

The migration of the Celtic tribes across Europe reached the Irish isle in the period from 2000-300 B.C. These peoples probably carried DNA from what is now Austria, France, and Spain. Ireland is unique in that it was never invaded or conquered by the Romans who occupied what is today modern Britain and Scotland.

I was expecting my Irish mother to contribute British Isles and Scandinavian DNA. The Vikings founded the cities of Ireland when they were tired of plundering and realized they could make a bigger profit by becoming merchant traders.  These "trading posts" developed into the cities of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork and others. I  suspected there was some Welsh ancestry  and one line is Norman Irish which could either bring the Scandinavian or British Isles genes.

From my Dad obviously I got some British Isles, Scandinavian and Southern European - he was French Canadian and part Native American which might account for the 6% other. I wondered why it did not reflect central European DNA - which covers France. So I started to look at the history. Given the immigration statistics on the areas where his ancestors originated I found the Celts and Vikings again. Normandy and the area around Paris were Celtic strongholds. Paris, a Roman city was taken over by Frankish tribal peoples and attacked by the Vikings. There were many immigrants from La Rochelle and surrounding areas passed back and forth in the middle ages between English and French control.  More British DNA perhaps? That area was also settled by the Romans - more southern European DNA? What I didn't expect was the Visigoths. 

The Visigoths were a "barbarian" people who had invaded Italy and Rome in the late 4th and early 5th century. They migrated through the Mediterranean countries and became sufficiently powerful to fight a successful war with the Romans whom they defeated in 378. A treaty allowed them to fight on the side of Rome until conflict broke out and they sacked Rome in 410. They swept into the power vacuum left by the declining Roman empire in the 5th century. They converted to Christianity and became the civil authority in the structures of the empire left behind. Their capital was at Toulouse. (We have a double connection with Toulouse through my great grandmothers Adelaide and Virginia Raymond dite Toulouse)  The settlements in France were largely in the south west along the Garonne River. The Visigoth kingdom in Gaul was defeated by Clovis in 507. The main territory remained  Spain and Portugal, at least until the 8th century when there was a Muslim invasion. They may account for the southern European DNA.

DNA opens interesting windows into the past. Its bits and pieces have been sorted and passed on from parents to children for centuries.