When the census makes no sense

Over the course of many years of researching lost ancestors I have found help in the U.S. census. I have also found problems and errors. Names are often not spelled correctly complicating an Internet search.  It would be rare not to find such anomalies - census takers often were dealing with immigrants with heavy accents and who themselves did not know how to read or write. Sometimes the information was given by a child or a neighbor who did not always have the correct information on ages or places of birth.  In the 1860 census my great grandfather Joseph Moreau dit Desrosiers appears as Joseph Morrow. For some reason in 1870 he drops Morrow and goes to his French nickname Desrosiers which leads to even more creative spellings: Derosia, Derusha, Dero and Deso.

Another example is my great-great grandmother Virginia Raymond Chicoine's census in 1880. I had found her in every census in US census from 1860 to her death after 1930 but the 1880 one had eluded me. I knew she lived in Highgate, Vermont and was twice widowed - with two children from her first marriage to Antoine Bouvier and four from her second to Paul Chicoine. She appears as Vergine Reymo with 6 children all with the surname Reymo. As a French woman, if she was the one speaking with the census taker she would have used her maiden name to identify herself - did the census taker assume that all the children shared the same last name? Or was the informant one of the older children who identified her mother this way and just gave the first names of her siblings? I certainly didn't search the indices for Raymond/Reymo. It is obvious that the census taker wrote down what he heard for the last name. This is true of many of both my French and Irish ancestors where Leary becomes Lary and Shea becomes Shay or even Chay.

Other errors may be deliberate. In researching a friend's family I discovered two sisters one older and one 2 years younger with ages correctly noted in all census until 1900 when the elder had gotten married. The newly weds were living with the younger single sister. The married sister had recorded her age as 2 years younger so her sister had to adjust her own birth date as to not give away her sister's fudged birth date. Since the husband would have been 2 years younger than his wife if the real date had been recorded I assume that was why she had adjusted her age.

Birth places can be in error - one granduncle who is listed as born in Vermont and by family tradition was born there was really born in Ireland A baptism record from Limerick proved that. In census where he probably gave the information he is listed as from Ireland but in others where his family probably were the informants it is Vermont. Why?

In a Kansas 1870 census a boarding school with about 1/2 Indian students and 1/2 white has the column denoting race with Ind crossed out. Why did the census taker or a later official do this? A native woman in the same town married to a white man is correctly identified in all the census but her children, originally designated as MB or mixed blood appear to get whiter with the passing decades. In another case the opposite is true. A man named George Washington, born in Virginia in 1841,  one of the few persons listed as "colored" in the census in Swanton, VT in 1870 appears with his white wife and white children. By 1880 his children have all become mulatto.

In the census for the 1860 census in Fall River, MA my Corbett ancestors and all Irish in the town appear in one index as from Idaho. Since that state was not yet in existence in 1860 it appears the census taker got creative and wrote Id for place of birth Ireland instead of the usual abbreviation IR or IRE.

It is very possible the census taker missed some people. Thanks to ancestry.com's census search I have been looking for a family who should be in the 1860 census. My great grandaunt Mary Leary Bresnahan and her child Cornelius Andrew Bresnahan appear in the 1870 and later census without her husband Andrew Bresnahan. They had married in 1854 in Manchester, NH and Cornelius was born in Fishville, near Concord NH in 1856.  I have searched  the US census nationwide for a child of that age and found none that match. Have even tried searching for child by just age and place of birth or first name only. Where was he? Where was his mother? What happened to his father? (disappeared? lost in war? civil war records doesn't turn up an Andrew that matches) He was probably deceased at least by 1872 when his wife remarried but no death record has yet to surface.  A mystery!

Complicated cousins

As a child traveling to visit family in Highgate, Vermont I would ask how people we met were related and most of the time Dad just replied that we were cousins. It seemed like the entire town was related to us. As I began to study family history I realized just how complicated the relationships were. My Chicoine-Raymond-Dupuis ancestors and their blended families of Bouvier Lemelin, Cook and Raymond half siblings began to settle there in the 1830's and first appear in the 1840 census. My Chicoine-Beaulac ancestors appear in nearby Swanton in the 1820's moving back and forth to Canada until the early 20th century when my Dad and his family finally settled there for good.

Chicoine- Bouvier-Cook-Raymond cousins ca 1920

This confusing mix can be seen through the story of my 2nd great grandmother Salome Dupuis. She grew up in the town of Lacadie (L'Acadie) in the province of Quebec situated in the Richelieu river valley south of Montreal. It was founded by her ancestors. Her grandparents Charles Dupuis and Anne Doucet arrived there around 1770 after meeting and marrying in exile in Connecticut during the Acadian expulsion in 1763..

Ste. Marguerite Parish church Lacadie QC

Salome was the youngest of a large Dupuis family. She was married in 1840  at age 18 to Louis Lemelin age 42. Louis was from a Lacadie family and had married there in 1816 before Salome was born,  to Marguerite Herbert. From that first marriage 12 children were born but only two sons, and a girl of 10 were living with him in Napierville when his wife died.

Louis married Salome in 1851, a woman of about the same age as his sons. She became a second mother for his young daughter Marie Marguerite. Louis and Salome had a baby which they named Salome but sadly she died during infancy. Their 4 other children thrived.Louis and Salome lived most of their married life in the town of Henryville, only one of their four children was born elsewhere, in 1844 in Napierville.Then almost 9 years and 5 children later he died leaving Salome age 27 alone with her four living children.

How did she support herself after her husband's death? Or did she depend on her extended family for help? It is quite possible that her stepsons Leon and Louis both close to her own age were still living at home. (Louis' sons by his first marriage.) They later married but not until after 1850. Using census and church records I have tried to trace her marriages and migrations from her hometown of Lacadie, QC  to the border towns of Henryville, Quebec and Highgate, Vermont. In the process, like many other French-speaking  immigrants to an English speaking world her name was anglicized to Sally Wells (a translation of Du-puis or Du puit - well)

Salome Dupuis' sister in law Domithilde Allard  was married to Salome's brother Joseph Dupuis. Domithilde's sister Emeliene had married Marcel Raymond brother of Julien Raymond. The Raymond family probably knew the Dupuis family as they lived in Lacadie from before her birth until around 1829 when they moved first to Napierville and then to Henryville.. After 1837 the two oldest Raymond sons were living in Highgate Vermont just across the border. Since Henryville was the nearest Catholic parish to Highgate in the 1830's it is possible that Salome and Julien met at family weddings and baptisms.  However they met, Salome wed  Julien Raymond in 1851. He was a recent widower age 33 with at least three children under 10 according to the 1850 census but perhaps 7 under 10 according to the ages of children listed in the 1860  US census who were born before 1850. 

Bouvier-Chicoine-Cook blended family

Julien Raymond had lived in the US since before 1840 - perhaps immigrating there as a result of the uprising of 1837 and its disruptions of life in the area of the Richelieu valley. He may have come with his father Antoine and mother Marie Garand and sibling Marcel who also appears in the 1840 census. Both men are listed under their surname's "dit" name, the nickname Toulouse, he as Jules and his brother as Marshall..Julien who married Theotiste Fontaine in 1837 in St. Valentin has no children in the census but they would go on to have 7 children. In the same 1840 census my Dad's great grandfather Jean Baptiste Chicoine (John Chequin)  and family were listed as residents of nearby Swanton, VT..

Chicoine Lemelin (Lemnah) cousins 1918

Salome and Julie and their blended family of at least 7 and perhaps 11 lived in Highgate in a section that was called Frenchtown. In an 1871 map of the area there are at least two Raymond families listed (Rainmount). Adult children of their previous marriages: Julien and Theotiste, Salome and Louis Lemelin also settled in Highgate and some of their descendants wound up marrying each other. Eventually Jean Baptiste Chicoine's children and the descendants of the Raymond-Lemelin clan married. Two of my Dad's grandmothers were Raymonds - Adelaide the daughter of Julien and Salome and Virginia - the daughter of his brother Marcel and Emeliene Allard.  Virginia Raymond was married three times and raised a blended family of Bouvier, Chicoine and Cook children thereby  adding to the confusion.  

No wonder my Dad's explanation for everyone we would meet in Highgate was - we are just cousins!

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.

Let's hear it for the Irish matriarchs!

On Mothers’ Day it is appropriate for a genealogist to look at her matrilineal lines – the mothers of our mothers and grandmothers. In the family tree I am working on,  my Irish female ancestors are few as the line only goes back to the late 18^th century. 

Mary Margaret Leary & Maureen

,

Mary Margaret Leary (1907-1994) married Elphege Chicoine 1935, St. Albans, VT. Born in Concord, NH. Graduated high school in St. Johnsbury, VT and worked as a bookkeeper there for the Fairbanks Scale factory.Moved to St. Albans in the 1920's and worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.Met her husband through her brother. They had two daughters Maureen and  Sheila named for the Irish version of family names Mary and Julia. She lived in Schenectady NY when her husband started working for GE during the second World War. She was a stay at home Mom, When she was 75 she fulfilled a life long dream of visiting Ireland. When her husband retired she moved to Glenville, NY and then to Reston, VA to be near her daughter Sheila and her family.

Kathryn Grace Corbett ca. 1893.

Kathryn Grace Corbett (1873-1961) Mary Margaret’s mother married James T. Leary 1904 St. Johnsbury, VT. Kathryn worked as a maid for one of the Fairbanks family (as did her sister). Her father was a carpenter in the Fairbanks scale factory. She had at least an 8^th grade education. Loved to travel, write letters and wanted her daughters as well as her sons to have more education. She attended the Chicago exposition in 1893 traveling by train. She was married in a double wedding with her sister Mamie and the couples traveled to the 1904 St. Louis World’s fair on their honeymoon.

Mary Bridget Shea Corbett with Mary Margaret

Mary Bridget Shea (1844-1924) Kathryn’s mother,  married Dominick Corbett 1867 St. Johnsbury VT. Born in Limerick and immigrated with her family when about 3 or 4. Family tradition is that she and her mother were midwives. She was left a widow with 3 small children to raise in 1877 and took in boarders to supplement family income (Civil War pension from her husband) Her daughter Kathryn probably met her future husband James T. Leary when he boarded in her mother’s house.

Mary Agnes Farrell (1815-1888) Mary Bridget’s mother, married Michael Shea ca. 1839 Limerick Ireland and  immigrated from Mungret, Limerick in the famine years 1848-1850. She came with her husband and at least two small children: Michael and Mary Bridget. They brought with them a white lace trimmed baptism gown still used by the family today.

Mary Catherine Supple (ca. 1790-abt 1850) Mary Agnes’ mother, married Michael Farrell ca.1813 Limerick Ireland. He probably died in Ireland. She immigrated with sons Michael and John to US when in her 60’s. She may have died in either Ohio where Michael settled or in Vermont where her daughters Mary Agnes and Bridget were living.

Mothers and grandmothers of James and John Leary, Dominick Corbett

Julia Bresnahan, (1839-1926) mother of James T. Leary, was born somewhere in Ireland and immigrated in the 1850’s with her mother Margaret and sister Honora. In 1860 she is living in Manchester, NH working in a textile mill with her mother, sister, and two other probably related Bresnahans. She spoke Irish. She may have met her husband, James Leary through her brother Andrew who married his sister Mary. She settled in Concord NH after her marriage. She raised her deceased brother’s son and cared for her elderly in-laws and seven children.

Abbie (Gobnait, Juliana) Callahan (1800-1875) grandmother of James T. Leary, was born either in Kerry or Cork. She married James Leary’s grandfather, John in Ireland about 1828 and they had at least 6 children. Two of her daughters Mary and Hannah left for America perhaps accompanied by  John around 1848. One son died in Ireland. She, John with sons James and John, and daughter Catherine  immigrated  in 1853. They landed at the current South Street Seaport in New York City and traveled to New Hampshire to join her other daughters Mary and Hannah. She spoke Irish. When she died in 1875 she left nearly $500 in the bank in her own name. Her husband and son went to court to get access to the money and used it to buy a burial plot, pay for her funeral and erect a monument that says: Abbie Callahan (large letters) wife of John Leary (smaller letters). Unfortunately her death record does not give her parents names.

Hannah Walsh (Welsh) (ca. 1770-1840) mother of John Leary who was born in Kerry about 1798. She and her husband James may also have been from Kerry or may have moved there at the end of the 18^th century from Cork. They were married in Ireland and may have had other children. She did not immigrate to the US. She probably was an Irish speaker.

Margaret Fleming (1799-before 1870) mother of Julia Bresnahan married Corneilius Bresnahan around 1825 in Ireland. She may have been a widow before she immigrated with her two daughters. She probably worked with them in the textile mills. She spoke Irish. She had at least three children.

Anastasia (Anty) Grace (1792-1873) mother of Dominick Corbett had lost her husband John sometime before 1850. They were probably married around 1825.  She immigrated with Dominick and son Patrick  from Turkstown, Kilkenny Ireland about 1854 to Taunton, MA. Her mother was Mary but no maiden name was written on her daughter's death record. She was not an Irish speaker. She and her sons seemed to have had some education. One son, Richard, a sailor went to the gold fields of California, three other children immigrated between 1855 and 1860 and are living with her in Taunton that year: Ellen, Johanna and William.