I'm not sure if this is right, but when asking this same question, I was told that it refers to "of" or "known as" or "called". For example, my ancestor was Caroline Franche dit Laframboise. Laframboise is French for strawberry. My ancestor's family were strawberry farmers. Thus the "dit Laframboise" meant "of the strawberry". It was a French cousin who told me, so I assumed he was right. :-) Regi -----Original Message----- From: qc-etanglo-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:qc-etanglo-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of David J. Ellis Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 3:39 PM To: qc-etanglo@rootsweb.com Subject: [QC-ETANGLO] French "dit" names... Can anyone explain the use of "dit" names by the French speaking community? I have come across them a few time in the various census records but because they do not apply to the lines that I am researched I have not paid much attention to them, figuring it was just a kind of alias. However, I saw two, fairly close together, in an 1825 census which were "Louis Gros dit St. Pierre" and "Antoine St. Pierre dit Gros". How does someone acquire a "dit" name? Why did they acquire one? What was the purpose behind it? I figure someone on this list must have some French blood in their ancestry and can educate us on this matter... ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to QC-ETANGLO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Reg, How far back have you gone with your Laframboise family? My father's family surname originally was Devoyon (DeVoyon, Devoyau, Desvoyeau etc...). Haven't worked on this side of the family in years but I was always told that OUR "dit Laframboise" was a nom de guerre, but I have never really seen any real references to support that. Some of the descendants used Devoyon or the various spellings, some used Devoyon dit Laframboise, and eventually just Laframboise was the common usage. In my particular case, we ended up with the surname White - took me a long time to figure out THAT story as White in French is Leblanc... Hazel

Hi Hazel, My Franche line carries the "dit Laframboise" back to about 1700. After that, it is just Franche. They never did change over soley to Laframboise--that I'm aware of. This is my line: (Deacon) Thomas A. Franche (m. abt. 1680, Sarah Fry) Andre Franche dit Laframboise (m. 1713, Marie-Louis Bigras) Jacques Franche dit Laframboise (m. 1757, Josephte Renaud) Pierre Franche dit Laframboise (m. 1790, Marie-Louise Larocque dit Rocquebrune) Dominique Franche dit Laframboise (m. 1825, Marie-Cleophee Guidon) Caroline Franche dit Laframboise (b. abt. 1832) (my 2nd great grandmother) Caroline married Cyrille Poitras in 1850. In my family's case, they really were strawberry (or raspberry) farmers, which is why they added the tag to their name. I doubt it had anything to do with the military or the commonality of the Franche name. Sorry, wish I could be of more help. Best of luck! Regi -----Original Message----- From: qc-etanglo-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:qc-etanglo-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Hazel Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 9:06 PM To: qc-etanglo@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [QC-ETANGLO] French "dit" names... Reg, How far back have you gone with your Laframboise family? My father's family surname originally was Devoyon (DeVoyon, Devoyau, Desvoyeau etc...). Haven't worked on this side of the family in years but I was always told that OUR "dit Laframboise" was a nom de guerre, but I have never really seen any real references to support that. Some of the descendants used Devoyon or the various spellings, some used Devoyon dit Laframboise, and eventually just Laframboise was the common usage. In my particular case, we ended up with the surname White - took me a long time to figure out THAT story as White in French is Leblanc... Hazel ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to QC-ETANGLO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message