Category: Religion

Why Everyone Is Named Marie

On By NancyIn CatholicLeave a comment

One of the first things modern researchers notice when working with French-Canadian records is the repetition of given names. In the Seguin dit Laderoute family, this is immediately apparent: nearly every daughter of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute carries the given name “Marie.” At first glance, this can appear to be an error, a copying problem, or evidence that multiple individuals have been conflated. In reality, it reflects a deeply rooted religious naming practice rather than personal preference or family tradition.

Devotional Given Names in Catholic Québec

In New France, naming practices were shaped by Catholic theology and devotional culture. Children were commonly given the names of saints or religious figures at baptism, particularly those of the Holy Family. As a result, “Marie” appears frequently as a given name for girls, while “Joseph” and “Jean” appear frequently for boys.¹

These names were bestowed as acts of devotion rather than as practical identifiers. Consequently, the first given name recorded at baptism was not necessarily the name used in daily life.

The Seguin dit Laderoute Daughters

Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute and his wife Marie Barbe Filion had several daughters whose baptismal names begin with “Marie,” including Marie Élisabeth, Marie Françoise, Marie Geneviève, Marie Barbe, Marie Jeanne, and Marie Véronique.²

Despite sharing the same initial given name, these women were not distinguished in daily life by “Marie.” Instead, they were known by their second given names—Élisabeth, Françoise, Geneviève, Barbe, Jeanne, or Véronique. Parish priests, notaries, and later clerks might record either form, depending on context and habit.

This practice explains why the same individual may appear under different given names across records. A woman baptized as Marie Geneviève might later be recorded simply as Geneviève, Marie, or Geneviève Marie, without any intention of identifying a different person.

Hyphenation and Modern Assumptions

Modern readers often notice that some given names appear hyphenated while others do not, and may assume that this distinction reflects how the names were used or understood at the time. In eighteenth-century Québec, this assumption is misleading.

In the original parish registers, multiple given names were typically written without hyphens. Spacing, capitalization, and order varied, even within the same register. Hyphenation became more common in later transcriptions, printed genealogical works, and modern databases, reflecting editorial standardization rather than historical practice.³

As a result, forms such as “Marie-Françoise” and “Marie Françoise” usually represent the same name. The presence or absence of a hyphen should not be read as evidence of which name was used in daily life, nor as an indicator of formality or importance.

Why This Causes Confusion for Modern Researchers

Modern record systems and databases tend to treat the first given name as the primary identifier. When applied to French-Canadian records, this assumption often leads to errors. Individuals may be split into multiple profiles or merged incorrectly based solely on variations in given-name order, spelling, or hyphenation.

In families such as the Seguin dit Laderoute family, where several siblings share the same devotional name, relying on “Marie” as an identifying feature is particularly unreliable. Place, date, family relationships, and associates provide far more dependable evidence of identity.

Not Limited to Women

Although “Marie” is most visible among women, the same devotional practice applied to men. Men frequently carried “Marie” as one of their given names, just as women sometimes carried “Joseph” or “Josephte.” These combinations were expressions of devotion and carried no implication of clerical error or gender confusion.⁴

This practice becomes especially important when tracing later generations, where men such as François Marie Beauchamp appear in records with or without the devotional component of their given name.

Reading the Records as They Were Created

The repetition of “Marie” among the Seguin dit Laderoute daughters is not an anomaly requiring correction. It reflects a naming system that served religious and cultural purposes rather than modern administrative ones. The challenge for researchers lies not in fixing the records, but in learning to interpret them on their own terms.

In the next post, the focus will shift from given names to surnames and to the use of dit names such as “Laderoute,” which introduce an additional layer of complexity to the same family.

Notes

  1. Allan Greer, The People of New France (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 63–66.
  2. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), baptisms of the children of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute and Marie Barbe Filion, various parishes.
  3. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), introduction.
  4. Ibid.

The Seguin dit Laderoute Family: An Introduction

On By NancyIn French Canadian Immigration, ReligionLeave a comment

Before examining the naming practices that often complicate French-Canadian genealogical research, it is useful to clearly establish the family at the center of the discussion. This post introduces the Seguin dit Laderoute family of Québec, a well-documented family whose records provide a strong foundation for understanding later naming patterns and research challenges.

Later posts will explore why the records for this family can appear confusing to modern researchers. Here, the focus is simply on identifying the family and situating them in place and time.

Part of a map showing Boucherville in 1761.

Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute

Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute was born on 24 August 1682 in Boucherville, Québec, and was baptized the same day.¹ He was the son of François Sequin dit Laderoute and Jeanne Françoise Petit, both natives of France who settled in New France during the seventeenth century.²

Pierre’s baptism on the same day as his birth reflects common practice in New France during the late seventeenth century. Catholic teaching emphasized the necessity of baptism, and infant mortality rates were high. As a result, newborns were often baptized within hours of birth, particularly in established parishes such as Boucherville. Same-day baptism was customary rather than exceptional, and does not indicate an emergency or unusual circumstance in this context.³

Pierre died on 9 November 1760 and was buried at Saint-Henri-de-Mascouche.⁴ His life spanned a period of rapid population growth in the colony, and his movements remained largely within what is now the greater Montreal and Lanaudière regions.

The use of the dit name “Laderoute” appears consistently in records associated with Pierre and his immediate family. At this stage, it is sufficient to note that “Seguin” and “Laderoute” refer to the same family line and are not competing surnames.

Marriage and Household

Pierre married Marie Barbe Filion on 4 February 1704 at Boucherville.⁵ Their marriage occurred shortly before the death of Pierre’s father later that same year, a sequence that is well documented in parish records.⁶

Following their marriage, Pierre and Marie Barbe established a household that appears across multiple parishes over time, including Boucherville, Île Jésus, Lachenaie, and Mascouche. These shifts reflect normal settlement patterns within the colony rather than relocation to distant regions.

Children of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute and Marie Barbe Filion

Pierre and Marie Barbe Filion had several children, many of whom survived to adulthood and married locally. Their known children include:

  • Marie Élisabeth Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1704, who later married Michel Beauchamp⁷
  • Marie-Françoise Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1704⁸
  • Antoine Joseph Seguin dit Laderoute, born and died in 1711⁹
  • Marie Geneviève Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1712, who later married Jean Beauchamp¹⁰
  • Marie-Barbe Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1714¹¹
  • Marie-Jeanne Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1718 and died in 1749¹²
  • Marie Véronique Seguin dit Laderoute, born in 1720¹³

At first glance, the repetition of given names and the consistent appearance of “dit Laderoute” may appear unusual. These features are not anomalies, but reflect common practices in French-Canadian Catholic families of this period.

A Family Well Documented in the Records

The Seguin dit Laderoute family appears frequently in baptismal, marriage, burial, and notarial records. Their documentation is neither sparse nor contradictory. On the contrary, the volume of surviving records makes this family particularly useful for illustrating how naming practices—rather than missing evidence—can complicate interpretation.

Several of Pierre’s children married into other established local families, including the Beauchamp family, creating overlapping name patterns that persist into subsequent generations.

Setting the Stage

As research progressed, it became clear that this single family illustrates many of the challenges encountered in French-Canadian genealogy: repeated devotional given names, inherited dit names, and inconsistent name usage across different types of records.

This post serves as an introduction to the family itself. Subsequent posts will examine these naming practices in detail, beginning with the widespread use of devotional given names such as “Marie,” and why those names do not always identify individuals in the way modern researchers expect.

Notes

  1. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), baptism of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute, Boucherville, 1682.
  2. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage and burial records of François Sequin dit Laderoute and Jeanne Françoise Petit.
  3. Allan Greer, The People of New France (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 64–65; see also parish baptismal registers for Boucherville in the 1680s.
  4. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), burial of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute, Saint-Henri-de-Mascouche, 1760.
  5. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute and Marie Barbe Filion, Boucherville, 1704.
  6. Ibid.; burial of François Sequin dit Laderoute, Montréal, 1704.
    7–13. Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), baptisms and burials of the children of Pierre Seguin dit Laderoute and Marie Barbe Filion, various parishes.

Why the Episcopal Church Held the Answer

On By NancyIn American History, Church records, EpicopalianLeave a comment

One of the most surprising lessons in the story of Elnathan, Lydia, and Fanny Tolles is not about war or DNA or probate. It is about churches.

For most people researching early New England families, the default assumption is that the Congregational church holds the records. That works for many families — but not for this one. The Tolles and Clark families belonged to the Episcopal Church, and that single fact explains why Fanny nearly disappeared from history.

Lydia Clark was baptized as an adult at Trinity Church in New Haven in May 1773. Two years later, her daughter Frances was baptized there in March 1775. These were not casual entries. Episcopal parishes kept detailed registers of baptisms, sponsors, and marriages that were entirely separate from the town and Congregational systems.

Meanwhile, in Milford, Daniel Munson was part of the Episcopal world as well. Records from St. George’s Church show him as a subscriber and vestryman in the late 1780s. When Frances married Daniel Munson in 1798, she did so in a community deeply tied to the Episcopal network — and to her Clark relatives.

This is why older genealogists struggled. They searched town records and Congregational church books for Fanny Tolles and found very little. Without Episcopal registers, she looked unattached — a woman with a maiden name but no parents.

Donald Lines Jacobus solved this because he knew where to look. He drew from Trinity Church in New Haven, St. George’s in Milford, and the Plymouth parish records to reconstruct a family that existed almost entirely outside the Congregational system. When those church records were combined with probate law, the picture became clear.

Fanny Tolles did not vanish because her family was unimportant.
She vanished because her family worshiped in the “wrong” church.

And yet, it was those same Episcopal records that preserved her baptism, her name, and her marriage — quietly waiting for someone to connect them.

This is why genealogy is never just about names and dates. It is about institutions, beliefs, and communities — the frameworks that decide which lives are written down and which are forgotten.

For Fanny Tolles, the Episcopal Church kept her story alive long enough for us to finally find it.

Sources

  1. Trinity Church (Episcopal), New Haven, Connecticut, baptismal records, 23 May 1773 (Lydia Clark) and 12 March 1775 (Frances Tolles); abstracted in Donald Lines Jacobus, Families of New Haven, vol. VIII (1932).
  2. St. George’s Church, Milford, Connecticut, vestry and subscription lists, 1786–1788, showing Daniel Munson as a member of the Episcopal Society.
  3. Milford, Connecticut, Marriage Records, 19 March 1798, Daniel Munson and Frances (Fanny) Tolles.
  4. Donald Lines Jacobus, Deacon George Clark(e) of Milford, Connecticut and Some of His Descendants (1949), Clark and Tolles family entries.
  5. Probate of Elnathan and Lydia Tolles, Plymouth (Watertown) District, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1789–1794.