I know the date of death for them but I’m just waiting to find out what their birthdates are so I can establish that these are indeed my ancestors. The Basilica of Notre Dame in Montreal may have just the information I need.

Little did I know that when we stayed in a hotel next to the Basilica two years ago that I would later be on the search for my ancestral records held right there. Here’s hoping I’ll have the information I need very soon!

The booklet is divided by years ranging from 1900 to 2010. Each decade is introduced by an overview that shows what made that decade unique. So for the fifties, the decade is “From city…to suburb” and the sixties “From prosperity…to protest”.

Each year has two pages. The first page is titled “How Time Flew” and lists month by month the events that captured our attention that year. The second page is side-to-side with the first. This page includes lists of who was born, who died, what was new, who was who, and what  books, movies, songs, plays, made their debut. That is the basic framework but there is more.

There are places on each of the pages to personalize your lifeline in the context of what was going on in the world at the time. N ext to the month-to-month list of events are spaces to add the events in your life. Under the lists of who was born, what was new, who was who, and who dies is space for you to make your entries.

I plan to use this workbook when I research my family tree. I’m going to enter the dates and events of my family in the appropriate places. I’ll be able to get a much clearer picture of the times my grandparents and great-grandparents lived in.

I also plan to enter my important dates as a fun, nostalgic exercise. For example, the year that I was married was the year that Celine Dion, Will Smith, and Lisa Marie Presley was born. It was the year that “Here comes de judge!” and “Sock it to me!” were popular slogans. John Steinbeck died and Marvin Gaye sang “I Heard it Through the Grape Vine” for the first time.

I really like this booklet/workbook and see many uses for it! I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, “If I Remember” isn’t a mainstream publication readily available everywhere. I happened to find it in an independent bookstore selling for $25.00.

I think the only way to get a copy is by writing to the publisher:

Memory Press

PO Box 661

New Hope, PA 18938

The photos were black-and-white studio portraits taken, I think, in the early 1900′s.  I picked up each one looking to see if there was a name or date on the back but found nothing. These were portraits of someone’s ancestors. Now they were up for sale in a crowded store filled with the remnants of estates.  It made me feel sad to think that these portraits had not stayed in the family and passed down from one generation to another.

It also made me think of something I saw on a geneology website. I’m not sure which one it was so unfortunately I can not give proper credit.  The website I looked at showed something called a “Geneological Codicil to My Last Will and Testament”. 

As family historians we gather photos, birth and death certificates, document dates and events on form after form. What will happen to our research when we pass? The “Geneological Codicil” protects the fruits of our labor and the history of our family. This is what it looks like:

“To my spouse, children, guardian, administrator, and/or executor:

Upon my demise it is requested that you DO NOT dispose of any or all of my geneological records, both those prepared personally by me and those records prepared by others which may be in my possession, including but not limited to books, files, notebooks or computer programs ( I would add “photos”) for a period of two years.

During this time period, please attempt to identify one or more persons who would be willing to take custody of the said materials and the responsibility of maintaining and continuing the family histories. (If you know whom within your family or friends are likely candidates to accept these materials, please add the following at this point: “I suggest that the persons contacted regarding the assumption of the custody of these items include but not be limited to” and then list the names of those individuals at this point, with their addresses and telephone numbers, if known. )

In the event you do not find anyone to accept these materials, please contact the various geneological organizations that I have been a member of and determine if they will accept some parts or all of my geneological materials. (List of organizations, addresses and phone numbers at bottom; include local chapters, with their addresses, phone numbers and contact persons if available as well as state/national contact information and addresses.)

Please remember that my geneological endeavors consumed a great deal of time, travel, and money. Therefore it is my desire that the products of these endeavors be allowed to continue in a manner that will make them available to others in the future.”

Signature: _______________________________Date:______________________

Witness: ________________________________Date: ______________________

Witness: ________________________________ Date: ______________________

Isn’t this a great idea! I don’t think anyone’s family photos should end up in a used furniture shop. This codicil recognizes the value of family memorabilia and the work that goes into researching the family tree.

Hilaire Limousin dit Beaufort, my 6th great-grandfather

Imagine the 300 ton ship Aigle d’Or slowly leaving the French port of La Rochelle  on the Bay of Biscay carrying three companies of the Carignan regiment on board.  This regiment was a highly trained and distinguished group of soldiers hand-picked to lead this military expedition to the new world. The ship Paix followed the Aigle d’Or out of the harbor and would track across the Atlantic ocean behind the first ship. It was May 1665. A total of 6 boats carrying the Carignan regiment would make the trip across the Atlantic to New France. A seventh boat would bring supplies.

 Hilaire Limousin dit Beaufort, a soldier from Poitiers, France was on the Aigle d’Or with La Frediere Company. He was about twenty-seven years old when he left for New France. Poitiers, his birthplace, was about seventy-four miles from La Rochelle in the province of Poitou. It was a large town with cathedrals and a university. Next to Poitou was the province of Limousin. Although Hilaire’s mother and father, Pierre and Isabelle Limousin dit Beaufort were born in Poitiers, perhaps his ancestors came from the province of Limousin.

As Hilaire walked up the gangplank wearing a three-cornered hat and a uniform of tan and gray, he may have carried his musket and sword with him. In New France, he would wear a powder flask called “the twelve apostles” around his neck. Could he see canons protruding from the portholes since this was a royal ship? Had he ever been on a ship this size? When he saw the three huge masts, did he tremble with excitement?

The Aigle d’Or was apt to be a bit disappointing to its passengers. Rather than being France’s best, the Aigle d’Or was an old, worn-out flute ship with a worm-eaten hull. This ocean trip was not going to be made in luxury. In fact, it would barely make it to the other shore. That night as Hilaire settled down on his sleeping pallet, did he fall asleep thinking about the trip ahead of him? He would not see land again for another 110 days. New France would become his home for the rest of his life. This was the place where he would meet his wife and father his thirteen children. This was where he and his wife, Antoinette, would become one of the founding families of this new country.

The Filles du Roi arriving in New France

Antoinette Lefevre, born about 1653 , was my mother’s maternal 5th great-grandmother. She was born in the town of Chanu, district of Argentan, diosese of Evreux, ancient province of Normandie (now Dept of Orne). Her parents were Charles and Louise (Prudhomme) Lefevre.

Antoinette was only about 16-17 years old when she traveled across the ocean to New France as a “daughter of the king”. Daughters of the king or Filles du Roi was the term given to the young women who participated in King Louis XIV’s program to foster the development of New France, a French colony in Quebec, Canada in the 17th century. Young French women who were healthy and of child-bearing age were selected. Usually a parish priest gave a recommendation. Some women came from the upper class but most were either poor, orphans, or came from the working class. It was crucial that the young women were hardy enough to adapt to life in New France.

Antoinette arrived in New France with a dowry of 450 pounds. The women she traveled with either debarked in Quebec City, Trois-Rivieres, or Montreal. Like most of the daughters of the king, she was probably housed in a dormitory-style building where suitors could come calling. Some of the men met the ships and picked their wives right at the dock. They were encouraged to marry as soon as possible.

According to the Mosiers and Perrault family history website,

“In addition to any dowry of goods that the bride may have brought with her from France, each couple was given an assortment of livestock and goods to start them off in married life: a pair of chickens and pigs, an ox, a cow and two barrels of salted meat. The King’s Gift of 50 livres is believed to have been a customary addition to the dowry, but only 250 out of 606 known marriage contracts make reference to an additional dowry given by the King. Once married, there was an incentive to have large families. A yearly pension of 300 livres was granted to families with ten children, rising to 400 livres for 12 children and more for larger families. “

Our fille de roi married Hilaire Limousin dit Beaufort, a soldier with the Carignan regiment, on November 9th, 1671. They had thirteen children. Her first child was born when she was 19. Her last one was born when she was 41 years old.

Genevieve Limousin dit Beaufort         Born 22 Oct 1672

Marie Genevieve Limousin dit Beaufort Born 9 October 1673

Marie-Ann Limousin dit Beaufort         Born 14 February 1675

Catherine Limousin dit Beaufort          Born 1678

Marie-Louise Limousin dit Beaufort      Born 1679

Marie-Therese Limousin dit Beaufort    Born 14 April 1681

Angelique Limousin dit Beufort            Born 13 October 1681

Renee-Francoise Limousin dit Beaufort Born 3 March 1683

Francois Limousin dit Beaufort            Born 31 August 1684

Marie-Charlotte Limousin dit Beaufort  Born 14 February 1687

Antoinette Limousin dit Beaufort         Born 3 August 1689

Joseph Limousin dit Beaufort              Born 28 March 1692

Pierre Limousin dit Beaufort               Born 8 October 169

Today there is a society that recognizes the descendants of the daughters of the king. It is called La Societe des Filles du Roi et Soldats du Carignan, Inc. Once descendancy is supported by documentation, the society awards a certificate.

For further reading about the Filles du Roi, read:

 King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi 1663-1673 by Peter Gagne.

The King’s Daughters by Joy Reisinger and Elmer Courteau

Alone in an Untamed Land: The Filles du Roi Diary of Helen St.Onge by Maxime Trottier

I went to a class yesterday on tracking French-Canadian roots. Since my grandmother’s father was from Trois Rivieres, Canada, I was interested in hearing tips on researching this line of ancestry. My grandmother, Pauline Mary Brunelle, was the daughter of Napoleon-Hector Brunelle. On their birth certificate, he lists his parents as  Gaspard Brunelle and Helene Pratte. If I have it right, this line goes back to Hilaire Limousin dit Beaufort, one of the soldiers that came from France to settle down New France. He ended up staying and married a “fille de roi” (King’s daughter) by the name of Annette Lefebvre. The King’s daughters were women who were given money to travel to New France to marry the men there and start families. Hilaire and Annette did their share to add to the population of this new settlement in Canada. They had thirteen children.

Back to the class….it was given at Godfrey Memorial Library in Connecticut. This is a library dedicated to geneology. As a member, I often use their online resources for my geneology research. Yesterday, two Godfrey volunteers led the class. They began by sharing a map showing where Franco-American emigrants settled during the “Great Migration “of 1870-1890. During this time, many French-Canadians moved to the United States to work in textile factories. They settled in towns throughout New England.

We learned about “dit” names. Since my ancestor has a “dit” name, I was interested in learning more about what this means. The literal English translation of “dit” is “said”. But from what I learned “dit” names means so much more. Sometimes an additional name was added to the surname in order to distinguish one family from another. A “dit” name made describe a location where a young son settled. My ancestor was Hilaire Limousin “dit” Beaufort. Google translates beau/fort as “very beautiful” so perhaps Hilaire and Annette thought they had settled in a very beautiful place and wanted that to me known. Sometimes the “dit” named referred to the town in France they came from. If that was the case for Hilaire, he could have added the “dit name “Poitou” , the French town where he was born and raised.

The next bit of information these two volunteers imparted was about the “Repertoire   Alphabetique des Mariages des Canadiens-Francais 1760-1935″ also known as the “Blue Books”. This is a vital collection of 113 volumes containing information about marriages of French Canadians. For geneology researches, this reference set often gives important information needed to track family history.

Besides these books, searching church “repetoires” is a way to find record of births, marriages, and deaths. Canadian churches were very good at keeping a registry of the events at their parish churches. I have found some of my ancestor’s names in the parish church’s records. I know, for example, that Joseph Brunelle’s birth was recorded in the Ste Anne de la Perade church of Trois Riviere, Canada.

Dates in French are sometimes tricky to figure out since the dates may be spelled out rather than be numerical. So learning that “mil huit cent trois” means 1803 can be very helpful. For those researching French Canadian family history, it is very helpful to have a list of French words and their translation that are used in geneology.

I think I’ll have to save the other information I learned for another post since this is getting rather long. I’m just thrilled to have learned so much that will help me find the information about the Brunelle’s that I need.

1862 marked the second year of the Civil War. As the year began, Paul Francis Villepigue died (see previous post). He died January 30th, the same day the first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor, was launched. February 1st marked the day Julia Ward Howe published the Battle Hymm of the Republic. As the year progressed, his son, Confederate Colonel John B.Villepigue, was promoted to Brigadier-General and assigned to Fort Pillow. 1862 was the year that Abraham Lincoln lost his son Willy to a fever. Had Paul F. Villepigue lived until November, he would have known the pain and grief of losing this son, General John Villepigue, who also died at the age of 32 of a fever on November 9th. By the end of 1862, the USS Monitor was sunk and the war had the bloodiest day of battle when more than 22,000 men were either killed or injured at the Battle of Antietam.

“Died, in this town, on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 30, Mr. PAUL F. VILLEPIGUE, in the 68th year of his age.

Mr. Villepique was one of our oldest and best known citizens. He removed to this country from the West Indies early in life; settled first in Charleston, and came thence to Camden about the year 1825.

Among his sons is Col. John B. Villepigue, at present commandant of Fort McRae, in the harbor of Pensacola, and whose skillful and heroic defence of that hotly assailed Fortress during the recent bombardment, has elicited such warm and admiring praises.

The deceased, in his capacity as a man of business, ever manifested a rare uprightness and integrity. Beneath a plain and unpolished exterior, he possessed a shrewd intellect, a firm will, and a kind heart. In his peculiar department of trade he stood in the foremost rank; and no man in that line was so serviceable to the wants of his fellow citizens, or would leave a vacancy so difficult to supply. His disease was paralysis, under which his iron frame gradually and slowly sank, without acute suffering. “

This week I’ve been busy tracking down a ship named the Belfast Pacquet that sailed from Belfast, Ireland in October of 1766 to Charleston, South Carolina. It is said that this ship carried my ancestor Patrick McKain. Patrick is the great-grandfather of Sarah McKain who married James Irwin Villepigue. That makes him my gggggggrandfather. I can’t say that fast!

According to Jim McKain, Patrick McKain and his brother came to America on the Belfast Pacquet. They were part of the Irish migration to South Carolina as a result of an act called the General Duty Act that was passed in 1761. This act enticed the poor Irish to come and settle in the colony of South Carolina. I’m still doing lots of reading about this migration. I’ll share more in another post when I’ve digested some of what I’ve read.

Patrick McKain appears to have come from Dumbarton, Ireland….a town I can’t find much about. There is a Dumbarton, Scotland. Before I let you know more about Dumbarton, I have to do a bit more research to make sure that Patrick was truly from Ireland.

I must say that I had no idea what a packet ship was when I first heard of the Belfast Pacquet. First, I found that it is spelled two ways: pacquet and packet. Then I found out that a packet ship was a sailing ship reminscent of the ships known today as the “tall ships”. The packet ships were used for the transport of mail from country to country. They were sturdy ships usually weighing around 1000 tons and known for their speed. These ships ran on a schedule although they wouldn’t leave port until they were full with mail and passengers.  The men who worked on these ships were called “packet rats” , a rather unsavory but hard-working group of sailors known for their drinking and singing.

The packet boats were employed to bring the Irish to the colonies. And soon, I hope, I will have definitive information that shows my ancestor, Patrick McKain was on the one that sailed from Belfast in 1766.

Recently I discovered that used book stores are perfect places to look for family history/geneology resources. This weekend I went into Willis Monie, Old and Rare Books, Manuscripts, Ephemera in Cooperstown, New York. On the floor and in the aisles are piles of books that crowd the neatly organized bookshelves behind them. They carry 80,000 titles on line and even more in the store. That’s alot of books! This is a book store for the serious reader and collector.

I was curious what books they had on geneology.  I found a man behind a big old desk covered with books who directed me to the geneology section. He warned me that they only had a few shelves. The few shelves had all kinds of books: reference books on famous Americans, basic guides for the beginner geneologist, old books on specific families, a book on how to search maternal ancestors, a dictionary of Irish family names. The book that I was drawn to was a book called Recording Your Family History by William Fletcher.

This book claims to be an expanded and updated edition of the volume previously published as Talking Your Roots. The edition I found was the 1986 version. Later, back at home, I found a reviewer  on line who had this to say about the book:

“William Fletcher sets the standard for instructions on doing oral histories. His advice on “how to” is concise and laced with experience. The thing that sets him apart from other writers is his exhaustive list of questions. The good-idea-fairy helped him build nearly 300 pages of great questions! It’s impossible to ask them all but they give great lead to conducting numerous interviews to really cover your topic. I’ve used this book with my grandmother and have uncovered so many things she never told anyone about. “

I paid $3.00 for this twenty-three year old book that will become an important resource in my geneology library. I can see all kinds of possibilities for finding stuff at used book stores. Here’s how I think used book stores can be useful: 

1. inexpensive versions of geneology books that are available full-price in new book stores

2. old history books about your geographical area of interest. Often these books are not found elsewhere

3. a book specific to your family such as a published family history book

4. geneology guides that reference a local area

5. a variety of books on wars that might include mention of ancestors

6. local history books

The more I explore used book stores the more possibilities there may  be. Right now I’m content with my weekend purchase.