Strays: Unexpected ancestors

Genealogists sometimes uncover family secrets and scandals. Although my ancestry is mostly French Canadian and  Irish with a dash of Native American I came across some ancestors from other places : Switzerland, Spain, Avignon in the Papal States and the principality of  Stavelot (Belgium). At least one child born out of wedlock and a bigamist also appear in the family tree. While most of my ancestors were Catholic I found some Huguenots, Protestants,  on the French side. (for more about Huguenots see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot) La Rochelle where many of my French. Canadian ancestors originated was a hot bed of religious conflict in the 17 the century. Technically Protestants were barred from immigration to New France and most fled to other countries such as Holland, England and the American Colonies, but I have discovered at least fifteen Huguenot families in my ancestral tree.

 

Daniel Francis Perron, illegitimate son of Francois Perron, a La Rochelle merchant was christened in the reformed Protestant temple in La Rochelle in 1639. . Francois had three vessels that brought immigrants and merchandise to New France.   His mother was Jeanne Suire who acknowledged receiving a sum of money as damages from Francois through his older brother, through a contract made before comte de Benon, Nov 5 1638.  Was she then pregnant with Daniel? Francois had evidently refused to marry her perhaps because of religious differences. She soon after became the wife of Nicholas Bernard in March 1639 in a Catholic ceremony. Francois never married but seems to have raised his son sending him briefly to New France in 1657-1659 perhaps to familiarize him with the business. After a brief return to to La Rochelle. Daniel settled in New France permanently in 1659 when he became his father's clerk there. Daniel was known by the "dit" name that of his mother:  Suire.  When Daniel renounced his Protestant faith to stay in Quebec, Dec 6 1663 he listed his parents as Daniel Perron and Jeanne Suire. His marriage contract (Duquet, 23 Feb 1664) noted that he was the illegitimate son of Francois Perron and Jeanne Suire. (source L'Emigration Rochelaise) He married in 1664 in Chateau Richer a fellow immigrant from La Rochelle, Louise Gargotine. (also probably of a Protestant background) She was one of the imported brides or Filles du Roi who came to New France seeking a husband. He is my 7th great grandfather in my Chicoine line. They had at least five children who survived. He was in the 1667 census but was dead by 1678 when his wife remarried. 

Towers guarding the port of LaRochelle

Elie Gaudin and his wife Esther Ramage were Huguenot immigrants from La Rochelle, born about 1614 and 1624. They and all their children were baptized in the Reformed church there. They were born during a time of religious strife and survived the siege of 1629.  In 1660 they received the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic church when they settled in Beaupre. In 1662 Esther age 48 was almost completely crippled and when she suddenly recovered she attributed her cure to St. Anne. In 1664 her husband was so sick that he sent for the priest to give him the last rites. He too found himself suddenly cured and attributed the favor to the same patron saint. The shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre still attracts pilgrims seeking healing to this day.  I am twice descended from this couple whose daughter Anne married Rene de la Voye. Her son Pierre is an ancestor of my great grandmother Adelaide Raymond and her daughter Anne is an ancestor of another great grandmother Virginia Raymond. (the Raymond girls were cousins) French Canadian ancestry gets complicated!!

Sara Cousseau from La Rochelle reflects the shifting religious affiliation and conflicts in the France of her time. She was baptized a reformed Christian.about 1596, daughter of Pierre and Anne Bourradier. Her parents were life long Protestants.  Her father was a merchant. There was a siege of the city in 1629 and many inhabitants died. . The maiden name of Pierre or Anne's mother may have been Papin as a David Papin, identified as her great-uncle was present at Sara's wedding. Her parents'  last child was born just before the 1629 siege.  She baptized her children Protestant even though she had been  married in the Catholic Church to Andre Valade.  She was widowed by  Sept. 27, 1685, just one month before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when she renounced the Protestant religion and made a profession of faith at St.Nicholas. She is an ancestor in the Chicoine line.

Jose Serrano from Valladollid Spain 7th great grandfather in my father's Chicoine line. His parents Jerome Serrano and Marie Reneau were from Valladolid where he was baptized in the parish of Sta. Maria around 1665. How he wound up in New France is not recorded but he was there in 1684 when he married in LaPrairie. His wife was Marguerite Viand, a young woman from Brie Count  Robert, Ile de France.  His nickname was "the Spaniard". He might have been a soldier since the French army included men from all over Europe.

Blaise Julliet from Avignon in the Papal States is my 9th great grandfather in my great great grandmothers, Adelaide and Virginia Raymond's line. His parents were Jean Julliet a butcher from Avignon  and Gabrielle Barberini who, based on her surname, might have been from further south in what is modern Italy. The area had passed from control of various powers during its long history. It did not become part of France until the late 18th century long after Blaise had immigrated to New France.  He was a "work for passage" immigrant from La Rochelle in 1644. In 1651 he married Anne Antoinette de Liercourt an immigrant from Beauvais in Trois-Rivieres. They had 4 children before Blaise was killed in encounter with Iroquois in 1660. (Death record - Notre Dame Montreal) Although his death record does not indicate it,  he is identified as member of the Dollard expedition in later records. This expedition  has legendary status in New France although historians question many of the details.   He and two companions Duval and Soulard were killed early into the expedition near the Ile St. Paul on the 19th of April while the rest of the company continued on and were killed on the 21 of May (p.1671 and 1672)  There is a monument on the banks of the Outaouais River where the expedition died.

Marguerite Thomas was from Stavelot, diocese of Liege, in the current country of Belgim daughter of Jean Thomas and Marguerite Fredrey. She is my  7th great grandmother in my father's Chicoine line. At the time the country of Belgim did not exist and was ruled by the abbot of Stavelot and called the  Pincipality of Stavelot_Malmedy, a small independent region of the Holy Roman Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavelot. Marguerite arrived in the New World as a woman seeking a husband called "filles a marier". She either had a sponsor or some family money which financed the trip. Nor do we know why she chose to come to New France.  (She arrived before the program of imported brides sponsored by the government called the Filles du Roi) In 1656 she married Jean Trudelle, from Mortagne, a weaver . Their daughter Marie Madeliene is my 6th great grandmother in the Valade line of my Chicoine ancestry through the third of the five wives of her grandson Jean Valade. (Told you this ancestry business gets complicated!)

Switzerland is represented by Pierre Miville from Fribourg, Switzerland 9th great grandfather in my grandmother Ida Emma Desrosiers' pedigree. He was nicknamed "the Swiss". He married Charlotte Maugis in Broucage, in the Charante Maritime province of France around 1630. All six of their children were born in France and they all imigrated to  New France including my ancestor, their youngest daughter Suzanne. Both Pierre and Charlotte died in New France.Jean Marc Boulianne dit Laberge another Swiss was born in Berne about 1710 to Etienne Bouliane and Jeanne Faucon. I suspect both of these men were soldiers since the Swiss were known for their presence in many European armies. He married Charlotte Savard in 1739. Their daughter Marie married Jean Baptiste Durette in  Quebec City in 1761. This would make her father among the few immigrants  to New France in the 18th century in this family tree before France lost this territory in 1763. (there is some controversy over assigning her to these parents since they do not appear on her wedding record) She appears in the ancestry of my great grandmother Virginia Raymond who married Paul Marcel Chicoine in 1869.

Pierre Bissonnet came to New France with a secret he hid from eveyone including his fiance, Mathurine Desbordes a widow whom he married in Montreal on 03 May 1660, He increased his property 21 August 1661 when he leased the adjacent land belonging to Gilles Lauzon. He also increased his family when he and Mathurine baptized son Jacques 28 August 1661. In 1663, one of the new arrivals from France was happy to encounter Pierre, whom he knew from France, but was surprised to find him married, since Pierre still had a wife, Marie Allaire, living in France at Poiré sur-Vie in Poitou. The news spread quickly that Pierre was a bigamist.

One night, pressed by questions from his neighbors and under the influence of more than a few glasses of eau-de-vie, Pierre admitted that he did have a wife back in the Old World, but claimed he could not make the marriage work, since his wife was a witch and he had fled to New France. . Mathurine Desbordes applied for an annulment of the marriage on 01 August 1663 and a few days later Bishop Lava! granted her request. This act gave Mathurine the right to remarry in the Church, which she did without delay, marrying mason Michel Bouvier 16 August 1663 in Montréal.

As for Pierre, he fled from Montréal. On 03 September 1664, the Conseil Souverain had notary De Mouchy draw up a warrant for his arrest. Pierre was arrested and brought before the Council on charges of bigamy. He apparently spent the next few years in the royal prison at Québec City.

This shady background did not prevent Pierre from another marriage. Shortly after his release, Pierre married Marie D'Allon in 1668. Marie was a Fille du Roi, an imported bride, who brought with her a dowry worth 200 livres. After the marriage, Pierre first worked as a miller at Charlesbourg. Son Jean was baptized 24 July 1669 at Québec City and they went on to have 6 more including son Andre my 7th great grandfather. Marie survived Pierre and two more husbands after his death.