Hi Cousin Gary, Having researched the early part of this line, I will add comments in brackets { } within the material below. Suzanne In a message dated 4/23/2005 9:01:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, QUEBEC-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: X-Message: #7 Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 11:16:43 -0600 From: "Gary Boivin" <gboivin@telusplanet.net> To: QUEBEC-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <038401c5475f$1ef58800$647ba8c0@ab.hsia.telus.net> Subject: Re: [QUEBEC] New to list....Menard dit Lafontaine descendant. {cut} This is what I have on your Menard line... You will recognize some of it as I got it from you in 2003. You'll notice that for Lucie BRUNEAU... I have Born Nov 15 1896 in Manitoba. I have her Baptism as Nov 18 in Olga, North Dakota. I got this birth date from the Book " Bruneau Family Book ( 1810 Manitoba 1996 ) " ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you see any errors or omissions please tell me. Apr 22 2005 Descendants of: Pierre MENARD 1 Pierre MENARD m. Madeleine FOREST 2 Jean MENARD b. 1607 Fontenay-le-Comte, Malzays, France m. Anne SAVINELLE m. 1628 Mervent, Poitou, France b. France 3 Jacques MENARD-dit-LAFONTAINE b. c1624 Mervent, Poitou, France d. Jan 14 1707 Boucherville, Chambly, Quebec m. Catherine FORESTIER-FORTIER m. Nov 19 1657 Trois-Rivieres, St-Maurice, Quebec b. c1640 LaRochelle, Aunis, Normandie, France d. Mar 31 1694 Boucherville, Chambly, Quebec [d/o Jean FORESTIER-FORTIER & Julienne COIFFE] 4 Maurice MENARD-dit-LAFONTAINE b. {born 6, bapt. 7} Jun 1664 Trois-Rivieres, St-Maurice, Quebec m. Madeleine COUC-dit-LAFLEUR m. ABT 1692 St-Ignace, Mackinac, Michigan, USA b. {abt} 1669 {Records are missing for Cap-de-la-Madeleine for the period of Madeleine's probable birth. Her sister Angélique is said to be "from" there at her marriage. No baptism or death record survives for Madeleine, but by her son Francois's marriage in 1736, Madeleine was deceased, probably at Michilimackinac, where she and Maurice relocated in about 1713. Most of their surviving children can be documented there at one time or another after that, including Suzanne, born while her father was journeying to Michilimackinac. Suzanne even married there to soldier Gabriel Bolon, and later had a house there and also lived at St. Joseph des Miamis (Niles, Michigan. Maurice continued to travel back and forth, even attending and signing his daughter Madeleine's marriage contract for her second marriage, to Jean Renaudet, at Chambly in 1717, photocopy, and at several other times. He was a very active man! He traveled to the pays-d'en-haut (the country up river) during the Fox wars, probably passing through Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit) in 1715-16.} [d/o Pierre COUC & Marie MITE8AMEG8K8E-Algonquin] Maurice was an interpreter at Fort Michillimackinac, Mackinac, Michigan. Maurice & Madeleine were wed in a Native ceremony. Another Source lists marriage as October 1681 at Boucherville. {No marriage record survives. Many publications will say that they were married at Michilimackinac, but the surviving "transcribed" part of the earliest record does not record their marriage there, although it is likely. The baptism of their son Antoine is given for 1695. Proof that this is a transcription (copy handwritten from a register that no longer survives, written years later) exists in the fact that the father of the Antoine baptized in 1695 is said to be deceased. Maurice did not die until 9 May, burial 10 May 1741, at Chambly, sergeant at half-pay for the king, having made his Easter Duty, said to be 86, actually about to be 76. He was buried in the parish cemetery in the presence of all the habitants who were present. Photocopy of the record. I am sure some well-meaning individual decided that if Antoine is said to have been baptized at Michilimackinac, then his parents had to have been married there. I can't find the marriage on the microfilm of what survives. All that can truly be said is that at each of the extant baptisms of the children of this couple, beginning in Boucherville in 1700, they are said to be legitimately married. Several early registers of missions in the pays-d'en-haut have not survived. The marriage could have taken place at Michilimackinac or at St. Joseph (Niles, Michigan), etc. I have seen no evidence they were married in a Native ceremony. I do have evidence that Maurice traveled as a voyageur and interpreter, most likely accompanied by his wife, from the late 1680s until they settled down in Boucherville, somewhat, by 1700.} 5 Louis MENARD-dit-LAFONTAINE b. ABT 1700 {most likely earlier than 1700}Michillimackinac, Mackinac, Michigan d. Jul 07 1761 Longueuil, Chambly, Quebec m1. Marie PANIS m2. Anne M. BOUDEAU [d/o Jean BOUDEAU & Elisabeth PIVIN] m3. Francoise ROBIDOUX m. Feb 11 1725 Longueuil, Chambly, Quebec b. Jun 25 1707 Longueuil, Chambly, Quebec d. Jan 18 1773 Montreal, Ile-de-Montreal, Quebec [d/o Guillaume ROBIDOUX & Francoise GUERIN] {Of course, the first two women were not "wives". Louis had children by them, and the children were baptized, but he married Françoise. They are my ancestors. Genealogy programs don't always give us the opportunity to make these distinctions. Maurice attended and signed Louis's church marriage in 1725. No record of Louis's birth survives. The first four children of Maurice and Madeleine are said to be born at Michilimackinac by PRDH, perhaps only on the basis that Antoine is recorded, years after the fact, as having been baptized there in 1695. Antoine Laumet dit de Lamothe Cadillac was commandant then and may have served as godparent, giving the child his first name. We'll never really know. Madeleine's brother-in-law François Delpé dit St. Serny, married to Angélique Couc, traveled to Illinois territory on the Mississippi with Henry Tonty in 1692. Their children born in the 1688-1694 period are also missing baptism records, as are all of the children of Marguerite Couc and Jean Fafard dit Maconce, another voyageur and interpreter who was very definitely at Michilimackinac and elsewhere before his unrecorded death before 1700. There's so much we will never know with certainty. One of these days I'll pull together everything I do know with relative certainty about Maurice and Madeleine. Their folder is currently two inches thick with documents.} Suzanne Boivin Sommerville [clipped to save the data base]