Author: Nancy

I have been researching my family history since 1999 in my spare time. I have made several trips to local repositories in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut to do research in addition to using online resources. I even did a trip to Northern Ireland to try to find my Irish roots. I have attended conferences for RootsTech, National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies and Association of Professional Genealogists. Additionally, I have completed the Boston University certificate program for genealogical research as well as the Intermediate Genealogy Research classes at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburg and at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. I love doing genealogy research.

Catherine Charles (c. 1637–1691)

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Catherine Charles was born about 1637 at Charenton-le-Pont near Paris, the daughter of Samuel Charles and Françoise Gauchet. She was orphaned before leaving France for Canada.¹ Her departure came in 1659, when she sailed for Montréal aboard the Saint-André, one of the recruitment voyages that brought marriageable women to the colony.

She arrived in Montréal on 29 September 1659 and, less than a month later, on 26 October 1659, married Urbain Jetté dit Durivage.¹ The marriage contract had been drawn earlier that month before notary Basset. Present at the ceremony were several leading figures of the settlement, including the Sulpician Gabriel Souart and the garrison commander Zacharie Dupuis, illustrating how closely these early marriages were tied to the survival of Ville-Marie.

Urbain Jetté, a maisonnier and scieur de long (longsawyer), had come to Canada with the Grande Recrue of 1653 and was established on land at Pied-du-Courant in the Sainte-Marie sector of Montréal.¹

The parish registers of Notre-Dame de Montréal record the baptisms of the children born to this couple between 1661 and 1680: Catherine, Marie-Barbe, Nicolas, Urbain, Élisabeth, Pierre-Nicolas, Anne, Paul, Madeleine, Louis-Charles, Pierre, François, and Françoise.² One son died in infancy.²

The family was living at Pied-du-Courant at the time of the Iroquois attack of 6 May 1662 and escaped unharmed.¹ In the following years several of their children married into the Demers family, creating close ties between the two households.

After Urbain Jetté’s burial at Montréal on 13 May 1684, Catherine remained a widow.¹ André Demers, husband of their daughter Anne, was appointed guardian of the minor children.¹ Notarial records drawn up at the time of Catherine’s death show the settlement of her estate and the continuation of family obligations.³

Catherine Charles died on 2 December 1691. An inventory of her property was prepared on 14 December 1691 before notary Adhémar, bringing her life to its close in the documentary record of the colony.¹³

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 85–86.
  2. Québec (Province), Registres paroissiaux, Notre-Dame de Montréal, baptisms of the children of Urbain Jetté and Catherine Charles, 1661–1680.
  3. Québec (Province), Greffes de notaires, inventaire après décès de Catherine Charles, 14 décembre 1691, notaire Adhémar.
  4. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, vol. 4, s.v. “Jetté.”
  5. Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), fiche individuelle de Catherine Charles.
  6. Benjamin Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-Français, 1608–1880, household entry for Urbain Jetté.

Nancy J. Whitney (March 1843 – 27 October 1906)

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Nancy J. Whitney was born in March 1843 in Ohio, the daughter of John P. Whitney and a mother whose identity remains unresolved in the surviving records and has been discussed in earlier research.¹ She spent her early childhood in Clinton Township, Wayne County, Ohio, where she appeared in the 1850 census with her father and her younger sisters Mary Belle and Lucretia.²

By the end of the 1850s the family had moved to Saginaw County, Michigan. Nancy’s mother died about 1859, and the 1860 census captures the family in a changed arrangement. Seventeen-year-old Nancy was living in East Saginaw in the household of Loton Eastman, where she was employed as a servant, while her father and youngest sister were enumerated elsewhere.³

Marriage and the Early Years

On 25 March 1866 Nancy married Martin V. Lacy in Taymouth Township, Saginaw County.⁴ Their first child, Emma, was born later that year, followed by Alice in 1869 at Montrose in neighboring Genesee County.⁵ The 1870 census shows the young family there, part of the movement of Saginaw Valley residents between the river towns and the farming communities that supplied them.⁶

By the mid-1870s they had returned to the Saginaw Valley for good. Their younger children, Mary Belle and William Henry, were born in Michigan, and by 1880 the family was established in Kawkawlin Township, Bay County.⁷

A Long Residence in Kawkawlin

From 1880 through 1900 the censuses place Nancy and Martin in the same township, reflecting decades of continuity in one community.⁸ The 1900 census records Nancy as the mother of five children, three of whom were living, and gives her birth as March 1843 in Ohio.¹

Land and Legal Standing

Bay County land records show Nancy as more than a farmer’s wife in the census columns. A deed transferred property from Martin V. Lacy to Nancy in her own name, and she later appears as the mortgagor on a mortgage of that land. Other mortgages were executed jointly by Martin and Nancy as husband and wife.⁹ These entries place her directly in the legal and financial record of the township and demonstrate her recognized interest in the family’s property.

Losses

In 1897 Nancy’s eldest daughter, Emma, died in Bay County.¹⁰ Seven years later, on 8 August 1904, Martin died in Garfield Township.¹¹ After nearly four decades of marriage, Nancy entered widowhood in the community where she had spent most of her adult life.

Death in Virginia

Nancy died on 27 October 1906 in Charles City, Virginia.¹² The record gives the date and place but does not explain her presence there. Her life had been centered for many years in the Saginaw Valley, where she had worked, married, raised her children, and held property in her own name.

Sources

  1. 1900 U.S. census, Bay County, Michigan, Kawkawlin Township, Martin V. Lacy household; Nancy J. Lacy, birth March 1843, Ohio.
  2. 1850 U.S. census, Wayne County, Ohio, Clinton Township, John P. Whitney household.
  3. 1860 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, East Saginaw, Loton Eastman household, Nancy Whitney, servant; John P. Whitney in a separate household with daughter Sabria.
  4. Saginaw County, Michigan, marriage records, Martin V. Lacy and Nancy J. Whitney, 25 March 1866.
  5. Michigan birth records, Emma Lacy (1866); Alice Lacy, 1 June 1869, Montrose, Genesee County.
  6. 1870 U.S. census, Genesee County, Michigan, Montrose, Martin V. Lacy household.
  7. Michigan birth records, Mary Belle Lacy (1875) and William Henry Lacy (1878); 1880 U.S. census, Bay County, Michigan, Kawkawlin Township.
  8. Michigan state census, 1884 and 1894, Bay County, Kawkawlin Township; 1900 U.S. census, Bay County, Michigan, Kawkawlin Township.
  9. Bay County, Michigan, Register of Deeds, index to deeds (Martin V. Lacy to Nancy J. Lacy) and index to mortgages (Nancy J. Lacy; Martin V. Lacy and wife). mgt Martin to Nancy Nancy lacy mortgage 2 Nancy Lacy Mortgage2 Martin Lacy & wife mortgage Nancy Lacy Mortgager
  10. Michigan death records, Emma Lacy, 1897, Bay County.
  11. Michigan death records, Martin V. Lacy, 8 August 1904, Garfield Township, Bay County.
  12. Virginia death record, Nancy J. Lacy, 27 October 1906, Charles City.

Marie-Marguerite Jourdain (1648–1720)

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Marie-Marguerite Jourdain was baptized on 12 November 1648 in the parish of Notre-Dame du Bois-Robert near Dieppe in Normandy, the daughter of Claude Jourdain and Marguerite de La Haye.¹ Her life in France ended in 1667 with the death of both of her parents, and in that same year she crossed the Atlantic to Canada as one of the filles du roi, the young women whose passage was financed by the Crown in order to help establish families in the colony.² As with the other King’s Daughters, she brought with her a trousseau—a chest containing clothing and household linens—and a royal dowry intended to make marriage and settlement possible in New France.³

Soon after her arrival at Montréal she entered into a marriage contract before notary Basset. Neither she nor her future husband signed the document, a common situation in a colony where many settlers were unable to write.⁴ On 25 November 1667 she married Bernard Delpeche dit Belair, a former soldier of the Carignan-Salières Regiment.⁵

Their first years were spent at Montréal, where their earliest child was baptized in 1669. In the following decade they moved into the expanding agricultural settlements along the St. Lawrence River, particularly at Repentigny and Pointe-aux-Trembles, where long, narrow riverfront farms gave each family access to transportation and fertile land.⁶ Their children were baptized in the parish churches that served these new communities:

Marie-Barbe (1669–1669),
Marie (baptized 1670),
Catherine (baptized 1672),
Denise (baptized 1673),
Marie-Madeleine (baptized 1675),
Françoise dite Marguerite (baptized 1678),
François (c. 1679),
an unnamed child who lived only briefly (1681),
Jean-François (baptized 1682),
and Jean-Baptiste (baptized 1685).⁷

Bernard Delpeche died at Repentigny on 9 December 1687 and was buried the following day, leaving Marie-Marguerite with a large family to support.⁸

On 8 January 1689, again at Repentigny, she married Louis Majeau dit Maisonseule, another former soldier of the Carignan-Salières Regiment.⁹ Their marriage contract had been drawn up a few days earlier before notary Fleuricourt, and as in her first contract neither spouse signed.¹⁰ Louis formally assumed responsibility for the children of her first marriage, an important legal step that ensured the continuity of the household and its property.

Two children were born to this second marriage: Denise, who later married Jean-François Labelle in 1711, and Joseph-Pierre, baptized at Lachenaie on 31 March 1692.¹¹ Louis Majeau died at Repentigny in January 1700.¹²

Marie-Marguerite lived for another twenty years and was buried on 19 May 1720 at Saint-Sulpice.¹³ By the time of her death she had spent more than half a century in the colony, raising a large family and taking part in the gradual movement of settlement from Montréal into the surrounding seigneuries.

Sources

  1. Parish register of Notre-Dame du Bois-Robert (baptism of Marie-Marguerite Jourdain), cited in Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, vol. 3.
  2. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers (Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2000), 315–316.
  3. Yves Landry, Les filles du roi au XVIIe siècle (Montréal: Leméac, 1992).
  4. Marriage contract of Marie-Marguerite Jourdain and Bernard Delpeche, 23 November 1667, notary Basset, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935.
  5. Parish register of Notre-Dame de Montréal, marriage of 25 November 1667, Drouin Collection.
  6. Parish registers of Montréal, Repentigny, and Pointe-aux-Trembles, baptisms of the Delpeche children, Drouin Collection.
  7. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers, 315–316.
  8. Parish register of Repentigny, burial of Bernard Delpeche, 10 December 1687, Drouin Collection.
  9. Parish register of Repentigny, marriage of Marie-Marguerite Jourdain and Louis Majeau, 8 January 1689, Drouin Collection.
  10. Marriage contract of Louis Majeau and Marie-Marguerite Jourdain, 29 December 1688, notary Fleuricourt, Quebec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935.
  11. Parish register of Lachenaie, baptism of Joseph-Pierre Majeau, 31 March 1692, Drouin Collection.
  12. Parish register of Repentigny, burial of Louis Majeau, 18 January 1700, Drouin Collection.
  13. Parish register of Saint-Sulpice, burial of Marie-Marguerite Jourdain, 19 May 1720, Drouin Collection.

Mary Emaline Munson Wickham (1841–1907)

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A Life Spent in One Place

Mary Emaline Munson was born 30 July 1841 in Richfield, Genesee County, Michigan, the daughter of Henry Munson and Elizabeth “Betsy” Foster.¹ Within a few years the family had moved into Saginaw County, settling in Bridgeport Township along the Cass River, where Mary spent her childhood among a growing circle of brothers and sisters that included her younger sister, Frances Jane.²

She came of age in a household that was part of the earliest wave of permanent settlement in the area. By 1850 she was living with her parents in Bridgeport, in a community still very much in the process of being built.³

Mary Emeline Munson

Marriage and a household of her own

On 26 April 1858, Mary married Reuben Thomas Wickham in Tittabawassee Township.⁴ She was still in her teens, and like many young women of her generation moved directly from her father’s home into one of her own.

The couple remained in Tittabawassee Township for the rest of their lives. By 1860 they were established there with their first child, beginning a pattern of continuity that would define Mary’s story.⁵

Five children were born to Reuben and Mary between 1860 and 1876:

Isadora Wickham
Elizabeth Loella Wickham
William H. Wickham
Ettie I. Wickham
Alice Mary Wickham⁶

All were raised in the same township where Mary herself had grown up.

The center of a farm family

The 1880 census captures Mary in the busiest years of her life. Her husband was working as a farmer, and the household included two adult daughters, a teenage son, and two young girls. Mary’s occupation was recorded simply as “keeping house,” a phrase that understated the scale of the work required to manage a farm home and family in nineteenth-century Michigan.⁷

This was not a family that moved on in search of new land or new opportunities. Through every census from 1860 to 1900, Mary remained in Tittabawassee Township, surrounded by familiar roads, neighboring farms, and an extended network of Munson and Wickham relatives.⁵⁷⁸⁹

Family ties that remained close

Those connections deepened in the next generation. Mary’s youngest daughter, Alice Mary Wickham, married Gardner Rivers, the son of Mary’s sister Frances Jane Munson. The marriage joined the two Munson sisters’ families even more closely, ensuring that the bonds formed in their childhood home continued into the lives of their children and grandchildren.

Mary also lived to see the passing of her parents—Henry Munson in 1886 and Elizabeth Foster Munson in 1894—events that marked the end of the founding generation of the family in Saginaw County.¹⁰¹¹

Later years and widowhood

After nearly forty-five years of marriage, Mary was widowed when Reuben died on 16 January 1903.¹² The 1900 census, taken only a few years earlier, shows the couple still together in their longtime home, by then the parents of grown children.⁹

Death and burial

Mary died 23 May 1907 in Tittabawassee Township at the age of sixty-five.¹ Her death certificate records the cause as erysipelas, an acute infection that was often fatal in the years before antibiotics.¹

She was buried on 26 May 1907 in Owen Cemetery, beside the husband with whom she had shared her entire adult life.¹⁴ Her obituary in the Saginaw Evening News noted her long residence in the township and the family who survived her there.¹⁵

She had lived her entire adult life in the same community where she began it as a young bride, surrounded by children, grandchildren, and the extended Munson and Wickham families whose histories were inseparable from her own.

Sources

  1. Michigan Death Records, 1867–1950, Mary Emeline Wickham, death certificate, 23 May 1907, Tittabawassee Township, Saginaw County.
  2. 1850 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, Bridgeport Township, Henry Munson household.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Saginaw County, Michigan, marriage records, Reuben T. Wickham and Mary E. Munson, 26 April 1858.
  5. 1860 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, Tittabawassee Township, Reuben T. Wickham household.
  6. Michigan birth records, children of Reuben T. and Mary E. Wickham.
  7. 1880 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, Tittabawassee Township, Reuben T. Wickham household.
  8. 1870 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, Tittabawassee Township, Reuben T. Wickham household.
  9. 1900 U.S. census, Saginaw County, Michigan, Tittabawassee Township, Reuben T. Wickham household.
  10. Michigan Death Records, Henry Munson, 12 December 1886.
  11. Michigan Death Records, Elizabeth Foster Munson, 29 March 1894.
  12. Michigan Death Records, Reuben T. Wickham, 16 January 1903.
  13. Owen Cemetery, Saginaw County, Michigan, burial record and gravestone, Mary E. Wickham.
  14. Saginaw Evening News, 24 May 1907, p. 10, obituary of Mary Wickham.

Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt (c. 1632–1707)

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Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt was born about 1632 in the parish of Sainte-Marguerite at Beauvais in Picardy, the daughter of Philippe de Liercourt and Jeanne Patin.¹ She came to New France in 1650 and is recorded at Montréal as godmother to a child on 29 August 1651 under the name “Anna Juillet.”¹

In February 1651 she married Blaise Juillet dit Avignon, probably at Trois-Rivières. Notary Gatinau drew up the marriage contract there on 2 February 1651, and a copy was deposited with notary Ameau on 10 February.¹ Blaise, a peat worker from Avignon, had come to Canada under contract in 1644 for three years at seventy-five livres per year for the Compagnie de Notre-Dame de Montréal.¹

The couple settled at Montréal, where their children were baptized: Mathurine (1651), Marie (1653), Charles (1656), and Louis (1658).²

Blaise Juillet drowned on 19 April 1660 near Île Saint-Paul while fleeing the Iroquois with Dollard des Ormeaux. He was buried the following day at Montréal.¹

Two months later, on 11 June 1660, notary Basset drew up a marriage contract between Anne-Antoinette and Hugues Picard dit Lafortune. Neither could sign the document, although Governor Maisonneuve did. Hugues was appointed guardian of the children from her first marriage, and Lambert Closse was named trustee. The couple married at Montréal on 30 June 1660, and Hugues was confirmed by Bishop Laval on 24 August.¹

Hugues Picard, born about 1627 in Brittany, had enlisted for Canada in 1653 and arrived at Montréal on 16 November of that year with the Grande Recrue — the large recruitment organized by Maisonneuve to save the settlement. Before departure he acknowledged receiving 137 livres in advance wages. After completing his contract he returned to France and came back to Canada in 1659 as a woodworker for the Sulpicians of Montréal.¹

Anne-Antoinette and Hugues established their household at Montréal, most likely on the property that had belonged to Blaise Juillet. Hugues served as a soldier in the 12th squad of the Sainte-Famille militia in 1663. Together they had five children: Michelle (1661), Marie-Anne (1663–1697), Marguerite (1666–1727), Jean-Gabriel (1669), and Jacques (1672). The two sons later became engagés ouest, contracted workers in the western trade.¹

On 19 May 1702 Anne-Antoinette had her will drawn before notary Adhémar.¹

She died 29 September 1707 and was buried the following day at Montréal.² Hugues Picard dit Lafortune died later the same year and was buried at Montréal on 22 December 1707.¹

Her life is documented in the notarial marriage contracts of both her marriages, the early parish registers of Montréal, the militia record of the settlement, and her will.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 102–3, Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, baptisms of the Juillet and Picard children; burial of Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt, 30 Sept. 1707, Montréal; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Juillet” and “Picard.”
  3. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, marriage contracts of 1651 and 1660; will of Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt, 19 May 1702, notary Adhémar.
  4. Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s–1900s.
  5. Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current.
  6. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s.

Margaret Jane Lawhead (1872–1936)

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The girl who became the matriarch

Margaret Jane Lawhead was born 2 July 1872 in Michigan, the daughter of George Washington Lawhead and Emma Mae Stiles.¹

Margaret Lawhead Jones

She spent her childhood in Albee Township in Saginaw County, where the family appears in the 1880 census — a farming household with young children and the ordinary rhythms of rural life.²

It did not last.

Her mother died on 6 April 1886.³
Margaret was thirteen years old.

Two months earlier, on 7 February 1886, she had already become a wife.

She married Aaron Jones in Saginaw County while still a child herself.⁴

A mother before she was grown

Before most girls of her generation had left school, Margaret had begun raising a family.

Mathew F. Jones was born 9 November 1887.⁵
Jessie Amelia Jones followed on 7 June 1889.⁶
Rhoda E. Jones was born about 1891.⁷

Three children before she turned twenty.

Over the next twenty-eight years she would give birth to nine more:

Roy Recine (1895)⁸
Ola May (1896)⁹
Archie Jarried (1898)¹⁰

A son born on Christmas Day of 1900 who lived only two weeks¹¹

Herbert Edward (1901)¹²
Oscar Edgar (1904)¹³
Thurlo Edward (1909)¹⁴
Marie Irene (1912)¹⁵
Laverne (1915)¹⁶

Twelve children in all.

The losses that never left her

The records separate the tragedies by years.

A mother does not.

Her infant son died in January 1901.¹¹
Her oldest boy, Mathew, was gone before the 1910 census was taken.¹⁷

And in the summer of 1917 came the loss that changed the shape of her household.

Her daughter Rhoda died in Taymouth Township at the age of twenty-six.¹⁸

She left two small children:

Ralph, not yet four.
Iola, just two.¹⁹

Margaret and Aaron took them in and raised them.

Margaret Lawhead Jones, Iola Reikowsky and Aaron Jones. Photo taken in late 1920’s.

After more than thirty years of child-rearing, Margaret began again.

The same place, the whole life

While her father’s later years were spent in northern Michigan, Margaret remained in Saginaw County for her entire married life.

In 1910 the family was still in Albee Township, with children filling the household.²⁰
By 1920 they were in Taymouth Township.²¹
They were still there in 1930, older now, with the next generation already begun.²²

She did not move on.

She became the constant.

Widowhood

Aaron Jones died on 8 June 1933 in Fosters.²³

They had been married for forty-seven years.

Margaret lived less than three years without him.

She died on 2 February 1936 in Taymouth Township at the age of sixty-three. The death record gives the cause as cardiac failure.²⁴ She was buried beside Aaron in Taymouth Township Cemetery on 5 February.²⁵

Looking at her life as a whole

She was thirteen when she lost her mother.
Thirteen when she married.
Fifteen when she became a mother.

She bore twelve children.
She buried three of them.
She raised two grandchildren as her own.

And she stayed — in the same small Michigan community — while generations spread outward from her.

Some of the women in this family died young.

Aaron and Margaret Lawhead Jones and their large family.

Margaret did not.

She lived long enough to become the center — the steady place everyone else came from.

Every descendant who comes through her children passes through her life.

Not because her life was dramatic.

Because it endured.

Sources

  1. Michigan birth records, Margaret Jane Lawhead, 2 July 1872.
  2. 1880 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, household of George W. Lawhead.
  3. Michigan death records, Emma Mae Stiles Lawhead, 6 Apr 1886, Saginaw County.
  4. Saginaw County, Michigan, marriage record, Margaret J. Lawhead and Aaron Jones, 7 Feb 1886.
  5. Michigan birth records, Mathew F. Jones, 9 Nov 1887, Albee Township.
  6. Michigan birth records, Jessie Amelia Jones, 7 Jun 1889, Albee Township.
  7. Census and death records, Rhoda E. Jones (b. ca. 1891; d. 1917), Taymouth Township.
  8. Michigan birth records, Roy Recine Jones, 14 Mar 1895, Taymouth Township.
  9. Michigan birth records, Ola May Jones, 20 Jul 1896, Burt.
  10. Michigan birth records, Archie Jarried Jones, 19 Sep 1898, Saginaw.
  11. Michigan birth and death records, unnamed Jones child, 25 Dec 1900 – 8 Jan 1901, Albee Township.
  12. Michigan birth records, Herbert Edward Jones, 26 Dec 1901, Albee Township.
  13. Michigan birth records, Oscar Edgar Jones, 2 Jan 1904, Burt.
  14. Michigan birth records, Thurlo Edward Jones, 19 May 1909, Burt.
  15. Michigan birth records, Marie Irene Jones, 24 Jan 1912, Taymouth Township.
  16. Michigan birth records, Laverne Jones, 26 Dec 1915, Burt.
  17. 1910 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan.
  18. Michigan death records, Rhoda E. Jones Reikowsky, 25 Jul 1917, Taymouth Township.
  19. Michigan birth records, Ralph Reikowsky (1913) and Iola Evelyn Reikowsky (1915).
  20. 1910 U.S. census, Albee Township, Saginaw County, Michigan, household of Aaron Jones.
  21. 1920 U.S. census, Taymouth Township, Saginaw County, Michigan.
  22. 1930 U.S. census, Taymouth Township, Saginaw County, Michigan.
  23. Michigan death records, Aaron Jones, 8 Jun 1933, Fosters, Saginaw County.
  24. Michigan death records, Margaret Jane Jones, 2 Feb 1936, Taymouth Township; cause: cardiac failure.
  25. Taymouth Township Cemetery records, Margaret Jane Jones, burial 5 Feb 1936.
  26. Saginaw County, Michigan, marriage record, Marie Irene Jones and Raymond L. Hickmott, 26 May 1930.

Marie-Madeleine Raclos (c. 1655–1724)

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Marie-Madeleine Raclos was born about 1655, a daughter of Idebon Raclos, écuyer — a member of the lesser nobility — and Marie Viennot of Paris.¹

In 1671 she came to Canada with her father and her sisters Françoise and Marie. She is listed among the filles du roi, the young women whose passage to New France was paid by the king in order to promote marriage and permanent settlement in the colony.²

A marriage contract was drawn before the notary Claude Larue on 11 November 1671 for her marriage to Nicolas Perrault, and the couple was married at Cap-de-la-Madeleine.¹ Nicolas Perrault was an interpreter, fur trader, and officer who later served as commandant in the pays d’en haut — literally the “upper country,” meaning the interior beyond Montréal reached by traveling up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa River routes into the Great Lakes and western fur-trade region of New France.³

The parish registers record the baptisms of their children at Champlain, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Nicolet, and Montréal:

  • François (1672–1745)
  • Nicolas (1674–1725)
  • Clémence (1676–1776)
  • Michel (1677–1723)
  • Marie-Françoise (1678–1744)
  • Marie-Anne (1680–1745)
  • Claude (1684–1741)
  • Jean-Baptiste (1688–1705)
  • Jean (1690–1773)⁴

Through Nicolas Perrault’s work in the western trade, the family was connected to the network of alliances, travel routes, and military posts that linked the St. Lawrence valley to the Great Lakes and Mississippi regions.³

Nicolas Perrault died 13 August 1717 and was buried the following day at Bécancour.³

Marie-Madeleine Raclos was buried 8 July 1724 at Trois-Rivières after several years during which the burial record notes that she had lived “dans la démence la plus complète,” indicating a state of complete mental decline.¹

Her life is documented in the notarial record of her marriage, in the parish registers where her children were baptized and buried, and in the demographic lists of the filles du roi.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663–1673, vol. 2 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2000), 198–99, Marie-Madeleine Raclos.
  2. Yves Landry, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle (Montréal: Leméac, 1992), entry for Marie-Madeleine Raclos.
  3. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers, biography of Nicolas Perrault.
  4. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, baptisms of the Perrault children and burial of Marie-Madeleine Raclos; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Perrault.”
  5. Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s–1900s.
  6. Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current.
  7. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s.

Marguerite Charlot

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Marguerite Charlot was born about 1632 in the parish of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in Paris, the daughter of François Charlot and Barbe Girardeau.¹ She came to Canada in 1647, most likely in the company of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve on his return to Montréal.¹

She married Louis Loisel at Montréal on 13 January 1648.² No marriage contract has been found for the couple. Marguerite was unable to sign her name, while her husband could.¹

Louis Loisel, a master locksmith, had been born about 1617 at Saint-Germain-le-Blanc-Herbe in Normandy, the son of Louis Loisel and Jeanne Le Terrier.¹

The parish registers of Montréal record the baptisms and burials of their children:

  • Jeanne, baptized 24 July 1649
  • Françoise, baptized 26 February 1652
  • Joseph, baptized 25 November 1654
  • Charles, baptized 2 June and buried 28 June 1658
  • Marie-Marthe, baptized and buried 15 August 1659
  • Charles, baptized 5 October and buried 7 November 1661
  • Barbe, baptized 30 August 1663
  • Louis, baptized 14 August and buried 5 September 1667²

Jeanne, their eldest child, is regarded as the first child born at Montréal to survive. In November 1653 Marguerite Bourgeoys wrote that Monsieur de Maisonneuve had given her Jeanne to raise, and both Jeanne and Françoise were among the first pupils in the school established by Bourgeoys in the stable at Montréal.¹

Louis Loisel was buried at Montréal on 4 September 1691.²

Marguerite Charlot died at Pointe-aux-Trembles and was buried there 3 October 1706.² The notarial records of the Montréal district place members of the extended Loiselle family in that seigneurial community in the last decades of the seventeenth century.³

Her life is documented in the earliest parish registers of Montréal from the foundation generation of the settlement through her burial at Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1706.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 86–87, Marguerite Charlot.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Marguerite Charlot and Louis Loisel, 13 Jan 1648, Montréal; baptisms and burials of their children; burial of Louis Loisel, 4 Sept 1691, Montréal; burial of Marguerite Charlot, 3 Oct 1706, Pointe-aux-Trembles; see also Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Loisel.”
  3. Montréal notarial records, inventory of the property of Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne and subsequent partition, 28 July 1690, demonstrating the presence of the Loiselle family network at Pointe-aux-Trembles.

Anna Wortman Conklin Hickmott (1876–1914)

On By NancyIn Ancestor ProfileLeave a comment

Seven births in thirteen years

When I first wrote about my great-grandmother Anna Wortman in 2018, I knew the basic facts of her life. What I did not yet understand was the order of her children, the circumstances of her death, or what happened to the family afterward.

Those details turn a timeline into a story.

Anna E. Wortman was born 10 October 1876 in Dryden, Lapeer County, Michigan, the daughter of John T. Wortman and Eleanora D. Gibbs.¹ Her father died when she was very young, and she grew up in a widowed household.²

On 25 March 1899 she married George Conklin in New Haven Township, Shiawassee County.³ The marriage ended in divorce less than a year later, on 16 January 1900.⁴

She married again on 22 August 1900, this time to Bert Hickmott.⁵ That second marriage would define the rest of her life.

The children, in the order they came

Anna’s first experience with motherhood ended in loss.

A baby born 5 May 1901 lived only briefly.⁶
Another, born 15 February 1902, survived just one day.⁷

Then came five children who lived:

  • Charles Frank Hickmott, born 15 January 1903 in Owosso⁸
  • Raymond L. Hickmott, born 15 October 1904 in Gratiot County⁹
  • Kenneth Hickmott, born 2 August 1909¹⁰
  • Della Hickmott, born 25 May 1911¹¹
  • John Hickmott, born 4 January 1913 in Owosso¹²

In thirteen years of marriage, Anna carried seven pregnancies to term.

The eighth ended in tragedy.

On 26 January 1914 she delivered a stillborn child.¹³ The hemorrhage that followed never stopped, and she died in Owosso on 2 February 1914 at the age of thirty-seven.¹⁴ She was buried there two days later.¹⁵

Five children without a mother

At the time of Anna’s death, her surviving children ranged in age from eleven years old to one year old.

Their father was unable to keep them.

The family’s circumstances had fallen into such poverty that the children were taken from Bert and placed in other homes. The five brothers and sister who had been born into the same household were separated.

Raymond, as an adult, searched for them.

He found Charles.
He found Kenneth.
He found Della.

Raymond, Charles, Della and Kenneth Hickmott
Raymond, Charles, Della and Kenneth Hickmott

But he never found his youngest brother.

John becomes Donald

That youngest child had been born John Hickmott on 4 January 1913.¹²

After Anna’s death he was raised by Anna’s half-sister. In that home his name was changed, and he grew up as Donald Riopelle — a different surname, a different identity, and a different story from the one his brothers and sister knew.

The separation was so complete that Raymond’s search never reached him.

What those thirteen years hold

From her marriage in August 1900 to her death in February 1914, Anna’s life was measured in pregnancies, births, and children to care for.

Two babies lost at the beginning.
Five children who lived.
One stillbirth that took her life with it.

Seven living children were never gathered around her at the same time.
Five children grew up without her.
And the family she created was scattered almost immediately after she was gone.

Looking at her again

The earlier blog post told me who Anna was.

The records — and the stories that survived in the next generation — tell me what her life cost.

She was thirty-seven years old.
She had been married not quite fourteen years.
Everything that came after her — every Hickmott, every Rivers descendant in this line — exists because of those years.

And because she did not survive the last one.

Sources

  1. Michigan birth record, Anna E. Wortman, 10 Oct 1876, Dryden, Lapeer County.
  2. Michigan death record, John T. Wortman, 11 Mar 1878, Dryden, Lapeer County.
  3. Shiawassee County, Michigan, marriage record, Anna Wortman and George Conklin, 25 Mar 1899.
  4. Shiawassee County, Michigan, divorce record, Anna Wortman and George Conklin, 16 Jan 1900.
  5. Shiawassee County, Michigan, marriage record, Anna Wortman and Bert Hickmott, 22 Aug 1900.
  6. Michigan birth and death record, unnamed Hickmott child, 5 May 1901, New Haven Township.
  7. Michigan birth and death record, unnamed Hickmott child, 15–16 Feb 1902, New Haven Township.
  8. Michigan birth record, Charles Frank Hickmott, 15 Jan 1903, Owosso.
  9. Michigan birth record, Raymond L. Hickmott, 15 Oct 1904, Elba Township, Gratiot County.
  10. Michigan birth record, Kenneth Hickmott, 2 Aug 1909, Genesee County.
  11. Michigan birth record, Della Hickmott, 25 May 1911, New Haven Township.
  12. Michigan birth record, John Hickmott (later Donald Riopelle), 4 Jan 1913, Owosso.
  13. Michigan stillbirth record, Hickmott child, 26 Jan 1914, Owosso.
  14. Michigan death record, Anna E. Hickmott, 2 Feb 1914, Owosso; cause: postpartum hemorrhage.
  15. Owosso burial record, Anna E. Hickmott, 4 Feb 1914.

Perrine Lapierre (c. 1643–1712)

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Filles du Roi, King's DaughtersLeave a comment

Perrine Lapierre was born about 1643 in the parish of Saint-Léonard at Corbeil in the Île-de-France, the daughter of Pierre Lapierre and Claude Leclerc.¹

After the death of her parents she left France for Canada in 1665. She is included among the filles du roi, the women whose passage to the colony was sponsored by the Crown.²

She married Honoré Danis dit Tourangeau at Montréal on 20 March 1666. Neither spouse signed the marriage contract.³ Honoré, a master carpenter and carriage maker from Montlouis-sur-Loire in Touraine, had come to Canada in 1653 with the Grande Recrue and later served as a corporal in the militia of Sainte-Famille.¹

Their children were baptized at Montréal:

  • Charlotte (1666–1667)
  • Jean-Baptiste (1668–1713)
  • Honoré and Marie-Catherine, twins (1669)
  • Pétronille (1671)
  • Jeanne (1673–1689)
  • Paul (1675)
  • Nicolas (1677–1758)
  • René (1679–1757)
  • Jacques (1682–1682)
  • Charles (1684–1724)⁴

Notarial records show the couple engaged in the agricultural life of the settlement. On 15 March 1676 Governor François-Marie Perrot granted them a farm lease that included an inventory of livestock and the obligations attached to the property.⁵ Honoré also appears in the judicial record of Montréal, and both he and Perrine were called as witnesses in 1673 in the trial of Pierre Verrier dit La Solaye.¹

On 12 July 1689 their daughter Jeanne, aged sixteen, was killed while bringing in cattle near Montréal during an attack attributed to an Iroquois assailant. The event is documented in the contemporary judicial record.¹ Honoré Danis died at Montréal shortly afterward, between 12 and 25 July 1689.¹

Perrine remained a widow for many years. On 19 March 1705 at Lachine she married Yves Lucas dit Saint-Renan, a master cooper from Brittany.¹

She died on 24 April 1712 and was buried at Montréal.⁴

Her life is recorded in the parish registers of Montréal, in notarial acts that document the establishment of a farm, and in the judicial sources of the colony. She is also listed among the filles du roi identified by modern demographic study.²

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663–1673, vol. 1 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2000), 347–48.
  2. Yves Landry, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle (Montréal: Leméac, 1992), Perrine Lapierre entry.
  3. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, marriage contract of Honoré Danis and Perrine Lapierre, 1666.
  4. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, baptisms of the Danis children; burial of Perrine Lapierre, 24 Apr. 1712, Montréal; see also Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Danis.”
  5. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, farm lease granted by François-Marie Perrot to Honoré Danis and Perrine Lapierre, 15 Mar. 1676.
  6. Benjamin Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-Français, 1608–1880, census entry for the household of Honoré Danis.
  7. Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s–1900s.
  8. Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current.
  9. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s.