Friday, December 23, 2016

Meet the Ancestors



“The past lives within the present and our ancestors breathe through our children”
Elif Safak



All of our ancestors are important and a part of us as well as our history. However, some stand out more than others and tend to come to mind when something related to them or the times they lived in are mentioned.
I have two family trees on Ancestry - one is my paternal and maternal roots the other that of the same for my husband.  Yes two trees and about 3,000 names plus; loads of errors and unproven facts. Being a visual person far too many ancestors to remember  each as they are hidden in records but as I mentioned some stand out for a part of their life, the time they lived through or just for who they were.
In an earlier blog post Who was George Drewie ? I introduced you to the man that was later known as Hugh Drury.  He was Richard’s 9th Great Grandfather and an exciting find especially when I realized he came to the New World around the time the Mayflower pilgrims did.  Research found down the line of his descendants, John Drury married Ann Elizabeth Mitchell Richard’s 2nd Great Grandparents.  Elizabeth’s roots have yet to be proven but seem to lead back to Experience Mitchell who did come on the Mayflower, his wife Jane Cooke came not long after that but her father Francis Cooke and one of her brothers did come on the Mayflower too. So my husband may have more than one Mayflower ancestor.
Back to John Drury and Ann Elizabeth Mitchell - their son Miles Huff Drury came from Wilton, Franklin Maine, where he was born,  to Montreal Quebec Canada somewhere around 1870 - Montreal is where this Canadian Drury line began and is now five generations  later and growing.
 http://www.cooganresearchgroup.com/familytree/coogan/migrations/griffintown/griftown.htm
Miles was a shoemaker and lived in what is known as Griffintown his shop was there also.  My father-in-law told me his family disowned his grandfather  for marrying a Catholic.  Miles died after falling and hitting his head on the  the stove my father-in-law also told me -  he was a young boy at the time and his grandfather was living with them, assume because his other sons were overseas fighting in WW I.

Griffintown is where many of the Irish settled too and that brings in another interesting piece of Richard’s history.
The woman Miles married, Catherine Callen, was the daughter of Irish immigrant’s, Michael Callen and Isabella Kennedy. They arrived in Montreal in 1849 towards the end of the Great Potato Famine and it said they were from the Letterkenny area of Ireland, both families  came over on  the same ship, the Londonderry,  which I found in a book at our local historical society.
 
Then through an on-line search found a document and in it under “Permanent Deadweight” learned more bit more. It was a list of those to be shipped to Canada and a brief account of why or how they would pay



- both families were on the list to be shipped to Canada although it took some detective work to figure out the Callen family. It gave me a better insight into them though.  Michael Callen was 18 and a tailor so had a trade when he arrived. Isabella was only 14 it said.







Meanwhile in Nouveau France, then Lower Canada and now Quebec, in the early 1600’s a quarter of my parental lines began and  before my 8th Great Grandfather, Christophe Gerbeault dit Bellegarde, a soldier  arrived around 1661 (date seems to be confused). 
He married Marie Marguerite Lemaitre daughter of Francois Lemaitre and Judith Rigaud, my 8th Great Grandparents. Francois Lemaitre arrived in Nouveau France in 1651, he too was a soldier.  Judith Rigaud is a very interesting ancestor, will share more about her later.
Going down through the years the Gerbeault dit Bellegarde line had some name changes and by the time my maternal grandmother was born it was Jarvo and they were living in Ontario, which was Upper Canada when my 3rd Great Grandfather Pierre Gerbeau settled in the eastern part of Upper Canada However, the name became, is found as Jarveau, Jervo and Jarvo for some of the spellings found and different branches of the tree can be found as any one or all of them, a challenge to research for sure. 
 Pierre married Marguerite Riviere, possibly there is native blood in her history and their second son Alexandre married Margaret McMillan another very interesting woman in my roots and where my Scottish roots were found.   It is also in a round about way the name Jarvo surfaced. Their daughter Christine Jarvo married Frederick Ross they were the parents of my maternal grandmother  Viola Ida Ross. My Nanny as we called her, brought a lot of history to our tree yet she was not proud of it and most was buried for years until  a descendant dug it up.
Back to Judith Rigaud my 9th Great Grandmother.  Her given name stood out like a sore thumb in a sea of French names and soon found, so did she :D
Many have heard of the King’s Daughters, (Le Filler de Roy), King Loiuse XIV of France  sent to Nouveau France between 1666-73 to marry soldiers.  Yet few have heard of the filles à marier
(marriageable woman) who arrive before that - Judith was a filles à marier.
She arrived around 1651 married Francois Lemaitre and two other men. Life was very difficult back then  and they had many children so when a spouse died or was killed another spouse was often found quickly not only for support but also for a man,  a mother for his young children.
Francois and his brother were not only soldiers but fur traders or rather voyagers it seems Judith got involved too and when François was killed she continued the business and possibly that is how Christophe Gerbeault dit Bellegarde who was also involved in the business , came to marry the daughter of  François and Judith , Marie Marguerite Lemaitre.
There is an interesting book on-line the ‘Duhaime Family History’ that has much more detail http://www.duhaime.org/DuhaimeFamilyHistory/Chapter3Iroquois.aspx



There is also a Pelican Girl in our roots via my maternal grandmother.  Also known as Casquette Girls.
A casquette girl, originally known as a fille à la cassette (girl with a cassette) but also known historically as a casket girl or a pelican girl, was one of the women brought from France to the French colonies of Louisiana to marry. The name derives from the small chests, known as casquettes, in which they carried their clothes.
Marie Gabrielle Savery married my 9th Great-Uncle Jean Baptiste Saucier. They lived in Mobile and if there were any children have yet to find records.    The parents of Jean Baptist  were Claude Saucier and  Charlotte Clairet they are  my 9th grandparents.
The Sauicer name came into the family via 5th Great grandparents Basile Gerbault Bellegarde   and     Marie Genevieve Saucier - Marie’s great grandparents were Claude Saucier and Charlotte Clairet (mentioned above)
Once again to understand the history of Nouveau Quebec and ancestors one must read about it, which I suggest for anyone that have British, French, Irish, Native roots or any others that developed early Canada.
A perfect example of this, is the next family,  one of the first 35 families to come to Nouveau France, stay and settle - Marin Bouchard and Périnne Mallet  my 10th great-grandparents.

“The Bouchers were stonemasons and carpenters, skills which were valuable in the early colony. Because of some work done for Samuel de Champlain, the Founder of the colony, Marin Boucher was deeded Champlain's clothes in his will when he died. He was also a witness in a dispute over stolen property in which his relation Gaspard Boucher was the plaintiff.”   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_Boucher

There is a plaque in Montmorency Park in Quebec City on the Louis    
Hébert monument with the names of the 35 families, (didn’t see it when we were there for of fiftieth but then again I didn’t know about these roots then).
The Bouchard names came into my roots in a round about way with other names such a Houle and Riviere along the route and surfaces as the mother-in law 

to a woman mentioned much earlier, Margaret McMillan my mother’s great grandmother - she by herself I found fascinating but the McMillans in general and the area they settled in,  is a whole book on it’s own.

Will share  her with you though.
 By the photo I have she looks like a very petite woman yet had ten children - a couple of them died when they were young.  She lived a hard life as the fourth eldest of 20 children that I have found.  Her father married at least three times, possibly four. She is the daughter of the second wife.  The census for the area they lived in are very confusing as they all had large families, with the same given and surnames , sometimes Gaelic was used or nicknames. What I did learn from the census though was her father seemed to have some money by their house and livestock. Peggy as the family called her, spoke Gaelic, French and English, although both she and her father were born in Canada her nationality is down as Scottish.  Before she married it seems she was the head of six living in the family  home, her father had passed away.  She and Alexandre were married for 62 years when he died - Peggy passed away 2 years later at the age of 85., a couple of days after my parents were married.
 
Alexandre Jalbeau, (yet another version of the surname),  and Margaret (Peggy)  McMillan my Great-great Grandparent’s 60 anniversary. Do not know who the children are.
Seven of their surviving children, my Great grandmother Ross is on left in front.


 
Some of the names that I found intriguing and know very little about are Mary Jane Payment my husband’s 4th cousin 3 X removed and her husband Moses Jasmin. It stood out for me because of where she was born in Charlotteburg County  Stormont in Upper Canada around the same time as  Alexander McMillan father of Peggy McMillan, was born in the same area, thus  my husband and my ancestors possibly knew each other – that is the closest I’ve come to our roots mingling.    
http://www.glengarrycounty.com/mapct.html

A sad part of my roots, my Aunt Elsie Ivy Abbott, my mother’s sister died when she was 4 and a half. Apparently she was kicked in the tummy and died of peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum, typically caused by bacterial infection either via the blood or after rupture of an abdominal organ). She rests with her Abbott grandparents in Ontario. My mother was 9 at the time, old enough to understand.


Then there were the Bridge brothers, James and Joseph, my 5th great uncles from my father’s roots. They were accused of passing a counterfeit 2 pound note – James was hung and Joseph shipped off the Australia for a hard life of labour. He raised a family then was sent to prison again, for crime he was acquitted of only days before his death, but too late to bring him back from the poor state of health he was in.  

Before I finish this blog, cannot forget the young men in our roots that went off to WW I. There are other wars heroes too but they will have to wait for now.  In Richard’s tree two of his grand uncles, brothers, William James and Miles Henry Drury signed on and came home. There has been little found about them afterward. My Grand Uncle John Gould Harrison, brother of my paternal grandfather is the only one I know of in my father’s roots - have a photo of him in uniform.  He came back worked in the family nursery and inherited it with one his older brother.  There are also my maternal grandfather’s two brothers his eldest brother Walter Austin, he came home but I have not been able to trace him after the 50’s.  Granddad’s youngest brother Laurence Edgar Abbott or Lorry as his family called him, was killed August 15 1917 at Hill 70 near Lens France, he was only 20. His name is on the Vimy Memorial with many others, that have no grave site – Lorry’s body was never found in the quagmire of the battleground his temporary grave was.  Vimy Ridge happened shortly before the battle for Hill 70.  There is a page dedicated to him thanks to the 21sters (descendants, friends and family of the 21st Battalion, Kingston, Ontario)
http://21stbattalion.ca/tributeac/abbott_le.html and at this page other places he can be found.     Honour Them http://honourthem.ca/masterDetail.cfm?ID=55206. That is what I plan to do on the anniversary of his death in 2017. Also have his photo hanging in our front hall with information about him so others can get to know him.
 
 

 




Greats uncles Laurence Edgar Abbott and John Gould Harrison – Can definitely see ‘Harrison- in John.







“Each time we plant a seed we become ancestors for the generations to come.
Kenny Ausubel

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