The French-Canadians: Thoughts Before Québec

Origins

When I was growing up, my dad always said we were German. As it turns out, that's not true. While I do have a healthy dose of German ancestry, I am also (in no particular order) English, Scottish, Fresian, Irish, Native American, and French. My roots in the US run deep in almost all of my family lines. The most recent arrivals were the Adens. They came in 1870 from Germany, but were ethnic Fresians. 

My earliest immigrant ancestors, though, were the French. I believe Louis Hébert  to be the first of those. One of my ancestors, he and his wife are mentioned in the Canadian Encyclopedia: "Louis Hébert visited Canada three times between 1604 and 1613 with the expeditions of Pierre Degua de Monts, Samuel de Champlain, and Jean de Beincourt de Pourtrincourt. In 1617 he decided to settle in Québec City with his wife and three children. He was ceded 10 arpents of land near the site of the present cathedral of Québec, and his family is renowned for having been the first to cultivate land in Canada.His wife, Marie Rollet, was the first Frenchwoman to scratch the soil of New France. It is said that, thanks to his medical knowledge among other reasons, Hébert was on good terms with the native people."

Next Saturday, I'm headed to Québec to do some research with my daughter Jennifer. We're hoping to find more information about our French-Canadian ancestors. I want to see the Louis Hébert monument. (Do we look alike?)

These brave French men and women were travelers. They were explorers. They were adventurers. That means records of their lives can pop up almost anywhere. Not only did they leave the security of a place like France, they continued to move to even more remote locations once in Nouvelle-France (New France), eventually arriving in "Illinois Country" or, as they called it, "Pays des Illinois" which was part of "Louisiane".

Primarily, we will be researching in Montréal and Québec City. But as I said, our ancestors were mobile. They lived in little villages all along the St. Lawrence River. Places like Batiscan, Cap-Santé, Lotbinière, Trois-Rivières, and Verchères to name a few. We hope to drive through these towns, get out and have a look around, and imagine what life was like 350-400 years ago. 

I want to see what my ancestors saw. I know things have changed, but I'm really hoping we can get a feel for the place. We can't travel back in time, but as my daughter Jennifer and I agreed, it will be fun just to go somewhere and hear people speaking French, the language of our people, or at least some of them.

Our Link to Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill

From Buffalo Bill Center of the West (public domain)

I always thought it would be fun to have famous or royal roots. Don't we all! I haven't found any well-known direct ancestors (yet), but I have come across some other interesting  connections. For example, a few weeks ago I discovered some documents written for or about my illiterate ancestors (Elmore and Estep lines) by Abraham Lincoln. Yes. That one. That's pretty amazing! I need to pull together some more pieces, which requires some Black Hawk War research at the National Archives in Washington. Luckily, I'll be going there for work in a week or so. I'm taking a super early flight the day before the conference so I'll have some research time there. Wish me luck!

Since I'm currently at a brick wall on that line, I decided to explore another rumored connection - to William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody.

It's true!

(It's not a close connection, but I really enjoyed adding him to my tree.)

My Flint family, originally from Manchester, England, didn't have it easy. It was one of those families that seemed to have tragedy after tragedy after tragedy. My second great grandmother, Emma Flint (married John Dunsford), died at age 35.

Emma's brother, Agrippa Flint (who died before age 30), married a woman named Elizabeth Frederici. His brother-in-law was none other than Buffalo Bill, who was married to Elizabeth's sister Margaret "Louisa" Frederici.

Of course, when Agrippa knew him, he was still just William F. Cody, American Civil War veteran (Union). Researching this connection, though, may give more insight into my Flint family. I had previously wondered how Elizabeth and her four very young children survived after the premature death of her husband. I would imagine that Louisa wrote letters to Elizabeth. I don't know if they exist, but I sure hope I can find something about Elizabeth's  life after Agrippa died. Now I have another place to look. Could she have received financial support from Buffalo Bill? Maybe so!

Researching those more distant family branches, friends, and neighbors can be helpful. You often find new paths to explore, and sometimes those paths lead to famous or influential people who make you feel more American than ever.

Especially when it's Buffalo Bill!

Genealogy Mindfulness

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a pretty important concept in the world of mental health. It's all about being fully aware of things that are going on in the present - how your food tastes, your breathing, the way the sun feels on your skin. Mindfulness exercises can be pretty relaxing, and they do help you to realize that you may be missing some important or memorable details of your life when you rush through your day-to-day routine.

I make a lot of mistakes when it comes to mindfulness. For example, a couple of years ago I spent two weeks in Scotland. We rushed through our days, trying to cram in as much as we could. After the trip, I realized that although I had seen a lot, I never really took the time to experience Scotland - the people, the culture, the feel of the wind and mist on my face.

This realization changed the way I plan to travel in the future. I want to leave plenty of time to get a feel for a place. I hope I can resist the urge to be a super-touri

I was reminded of genealogical mindfulness today when this little cutie referred to a suction-cup arrow as a "toilet horn." I can only assume she meant a plunger, and I hope she doesn't ever try to touch one to see if it honks!

I couldn't stop laughing, and I realized that I should be writing these things down. She won't be three forever, and Grannys have much more time to record cute little stories than Moms.

I have some pretty vague memories of much of my childhood. It would have been such a treasure for me if someone had written down a few things. Just a few short stories about what I said and did. Maybe I should have asked my parents more about my own childhood too when I asked them about theirs, but I was thinking about the past.

Sadly, it's too late for stories about me, but I can record fun little tidbits about my descendants. Those cute stories I still share with friends from time to time would be perfect! Like when a group of my friends were at my house scrapbooking, and my youngest daughter, who was about 4, went around the table telling everyone they were doing a good job. Or when my second daughter was 3 and made us all call her Jasmine (from Aladdin) for weeks on end. And when my oldest was 3 and told me my stretch marks were beautiful because they were pink and purple.  I love these stories, but I've never written them down for them.

So, going forward, I will be adding this to my Genealogy Do-Over. I will, in addition to searching in records from the past, include some "personal knowledge" stories for my family to enjoy in the future, properly cited, of course.  I will try to remember the recent past, be mindful of the present, and get those stories documented!

Connections

“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
― William James 

A lot of people who know me do not understand why I research my family history. It's kind of a nerdy hobby, but I love it. Time and time again, I realize that I am connected to so many people and so many places. It changes the way I see my family, and also the way I view the world.

In 2016, I took a trip to the U.K. with my daughter Jennifer. We carefully planned every stop, and one place on both of our lists was Lindisfarne. I mean, who doesn't want to walk where Vikings walked? Holy Isle is a tidal island. You can only drive to the island when the tide is low. We had to plan for this, which even affected the day we left for our trip. But we made it.

It was a beautiful place and we had a great time exploring. We even climbed down to the sea floor to get this shot. It was one of our favorite stops.

A few months after we returned, I learned that our Scottish Cowan ancestors may have originally come from Lindisfarne/Holy Island. I have not verified this and may never be able to, but I do have to wonder why we liked it there so much. Do memories of places stay with us in our DNA? Are we naturally drawn to places? 

Today I was again reminded of these connections. While browsing through baptism records from the Old Cathedral in St. Louis, Missouri, I came across this entry:

I don't read French, but I know enough to see that Louis Blanchet, son of Louis Blanchet and an Osage woman, was baptized in October. His Godmother was Catherine Maréchal, my 5th Great Grandmother. Louis Blanchet (the father) was the founder of St. Charles, Missouri. I will admit that it's pretty awesome to know that my ancestor was friends with someone whose name is still known. What's even more awesome is to know that I myself have a connection

to Louis Blanchet.

On a cold weekend in November, 2010, Jennifer and I participated in our third archaeological excavation at the home of Louis Blanchet. His home is pictured in the background, and my daughter is hard at work digging around some big tree roots that made for a difficult dig. Little did I know at the time that our family had a connection to Louis Blanchet. Funny how things happen. We could have done something else with those weekends, but we didn't. 

I am fortunate to be living in the same general location as my French-Canadian ancestors did

almost 300 years ago. We can visit the old stomping grounds anytime we want. 

My granddaughter Rose has seen the reconstructed French colonial church on Main Street in

St. Charles. We've also taken her to Fort de Chartres, in Randolph County, Illinois a few times. Quite a few of my ancestors have lived here, visited here, or at least knew people here when it was a French military outpost in the middle of nowhere.

Rose singing in between the doors in the main gate of Fort de Chartres

Rose climbing in the foundations of the barracks

My daughter Kristin and Rose enjoying some frozen lemonade, just like our

French ancestors did at Fort de Chartres

(not really, but they would have enjoyed it)

Someday I hope to show my descendants how they are connected to people and places by those who came before us. I want them to know they have deep roots in America, and even deeper ones in other countries. I want them to know that they should treat everyone with kindness because they could be connected somehow, "in the deep."  I want them to grow up to realize that they are not only Americans, but citizens of the world. 

Colonial St. Louis Economy and The Compagnie de Commerce pour la Découverte des Nations du haut du Missouri (Commercial Company for the Discovery of the Nations of the Upper Missouri), more commonly referred to as The Missouri Company

For those of you who don't realize this, St. Louis was founded by French settlers but was under Spanish rule for most of its early history. I don't mean to insult anyone by implying that you don't already know this, but I think it's a part of our history that gets neglected. There is so much focus on the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, and the arrival of the Americans that our early history has been swept aside. That's a shame, because it sure was interesting!

In 1780, 15 years after the founding of St. Louis, August Chouteau drew this map of the little village (https://shsmo.org). That same year, Spanish St. Louis was attacked by a British-led force of mostly Indians. Spain actually played a pretty big role in the American Revolution - another fact that has been left out of our history books. 

So let's shatter another historical myth. Lewis and Clark had a lot of help.  A lot. The Spanish (Spanish government but primarily French men) had been out on the Missouri River exploring and trading decades before that epic journey to the Pacific. If not for the contact made by these earlier explorers, Lewis and Clark would have had a more difficult time forging past the previous limits. 

I would like to refer you to this old book. There is another book of the same title that talks about the Chouteau family, but this is the one you want. It's in a lot of libraries.

The "Missouri Company" was founded by ten St. Louis merchants in 1794 and was granted exclusive trade rights for ten years with the Native American tribes along the Missouri above the Ponca lands (South Dakota). They were also charged with securing the Upper Missouri for Spanish trade by developing relationships with the tribes and, hopefully, discovering a route to the Pacific. They would be paid 3000 pesos by the King of Spain if they made it to the Pacific in addition to whatever profits they would make through trade. My 4th great grandfather was one of the 10 investors.

I recently wrote a paper about this 4th great grandfather, Hyacinthe-Amable Rouillard dit St. Cyr. He was born in Batiscan, Quebec, in 1751 and, like many French Canadians, found his way to St. Louis. Always referred to as Hyacinthe (or Jacinto) St. Cyr here, he is consistently mentioned as a prominent citizen and listed among the most influential St. Louisans. Unfortunately, he ended up losing almost everything before he died in Florissant. I wanted to know what led to his economic ruin. How did he go from prominent merchant to insolvent debtor?

I'm going to sum up my research in just a few sentences. There was no money in St. Louis. Everyone bought everything on credit, and many people could not pay the debts they owed. People even traded I.O.U.s, basically buying things they needed with the debts owed to them by other people. Needless to say, this was a big problem and even wealthy merchants were often not paid back. Another problem was with the nature of  St. Louis itself. It was founded as a fur-trading town, a center of commerce, and everyone wanted to get rich. I think the fur trade was sort of like the Gold Rush. People took big risks hoping to gain wealth when they were allowed. The ability to trade was limited by the government and was very political. Usually Chouteau and his allies got the best trade licenses.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, The Missouri Company lost money. They lost a lot of money. As a result, the investors lost a lot of money (They had all signed for each other so there was no real back-up in case of failure). Hyacinthe St. Cyr was forced to sell everything he owned. His best pieces of land in St. Louis were bought by the Chouteaus. Once everything had been sold, he could only pay 10% of what he owed. Out of kindness to his family, they allowed him to keep some property in Florissant and everything he would need to farm that land with the stipulation that this was for his wife and children (they had 15) and could not be taken by any of his creditors.

There are still so many things I want to learn about this man. Even after all of this, he was able to provide a good education for his children, even the girls. They married well, and St. Cyr remained a respected member of society. He was resilient.

Hyacinthe St. Cyr and his wife Hélène Hébert had fifteen children. There must be hundreds of descendants like me out there somewhere. I like to think we're risk-takers like St. Cyr, but I hope we're all resilient too, just in case things don't go as planned.