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.