Interesting Ancesters

Some Interesting Ancestors

Note: Quite a few of these ancestors require much further investigation, and details may be a bit sparse. Our heritage is fascinating and deserves exploration.On the Leroux side of the family, we have been involved is the earliest history of Canada, the United States, Scotland and England.

Marie Pelletier

Marie is the first record that we have of any of our ancestors in Quebec. Her parents, Nicolas Pelletier and Jeanne DeVoisy likely arrived sometime before September, 1637 and Marie was born on 3 April 1638. Marie went on to marry Nicolas Goupil in October, 1650 at the ripe age of 12 - her husband was 20. She had her first child, Anne Goupil in 1653 (before her 15th birthday), and had a total of 2 children with Nicolas. Nicolas died sometime between mid Feb and mid August 1655 and Marie married Denis Jean dit Denis on 30 August 1655; there was no wasting time back then. She had another 5 children with Denis Jean, and while we do not have (yet) an exact date of death, sources place it after 1711, meaning that she would have lived until after her 73rd birthday.

Marie and Nicolas are my 9th great grandparents

Hubert Leroux

Hubert was a furrier who immigrated to Canada sometime between 1668 and 1673. He was born on the July 1, 1639 in Vitry-le François, France. Furriers, who acted as brokers or agents, were important in Quebec at this time - fur was the major trade item with France, so he would have been a important member of Montreal society. In November 1673 he married Anne-Marie Phanseque, a 16 year old Filles du Roi. Anne Marie was from Hamburg (Germany), considered to be Fille de la Haute Société and a protégée of Marguerite Bourgeois. A very good catch for Hubert! Together they had 3 children. Hubert died in 1681, aged 35.

Hubert was my 7th Great Grandfather.

Anne-Marie Phanseque

The original bad girl of New France! She is likely to have been the first German born woman in Quebec (unverified). She immigrated to Canada, sailing on the L' Espérance under the command of Sieur Guillaume Basset, from La Rochelle: on 11 July 1673, along with 50 other Filles du Roi. The L' Espérance arrived in Quebec on 3 September1673, and then continued to Montreal. As a protégée of Marguerite Bourgeois, Marie likely stayed the Maison Saint-Gabriel for the 10 weeks that it took to find a suitable groom and get married to Hubert Leroux. In the 8 years they were married, Anne-Marie had three children, Jean-Baptiste, Anne-Charlotte and Jeanne. After the death of Hubert Leroux she married Gabriel Cardinal which didn't work out very well. After the birth of one son, Gabriel separated from Anne-Marie, claiming she was running a house of prostitution. Cardinal effectively abandoned his family and headed west, as a fur trader, eventually dying in Detroit - or possibly Hudson's Bay. The stories vary and most lack supporting documentation/evidence. It is known that Anne-Maries children were taken care of by a neighbor named Dory.
Marie Anne, with help from her daughter Anne-Charlotte, ran a Public House (it may have been more than that) on Rue St-Jacques to support herself and ran into legal problems, as her business was considered amoral for a woman to run. She was eventually convicted for selling alcohol to Native Americans and served jail time for these offenses. I need to dig into this a lot further, but this was probably around 1690. There isn't much documented after this until she died in poverty on 4 December, 1722 at the age of 65.
Her last name was not Phanesque – this was the “translation” done by the priests in Quebec of her German name. It is unlikely that Anne-Marie could read or write so she would have been unlikely to correct them. We don’t know what her maiden name was. It has been proposed that it could have been Van Zeig, Von Seck, Van Sech or Van Hecke. While we know that Marie Anne was from Hamburg, we do not know exact where, or when, she was born, which will make finding her baptismal record very difficult to find, particularly since we do not know her correct name. It is also likely that the records were destroyed, either in the "Great Fire" of Hamburg (1842) or during the bombings during the second World War.

Anne-Marie was my 7th Great Grandmother

Anne-Charlotte Leroux

Daughter of Hubert Leroux and Anne-Marie Phanseque, Anne-Charlotte seems to have learned a lesson or two from her mother. She was charged with soliciting and adultery in May, 1695. Her husband, Claude Leblond, appealed for clemency.

Marie-Anne Herd

On 26 January 1692, Native Americans under the command of officers from the French Army attacked York, Maine, an event that became known (to the Americans) as the Candlemas Day Massacre. Around 150 Abnakis and French Officers entered the town of York, killing about 100 of the English settlers and burning down about 45 buildings. They took an estimated 80 villagers hostage, including Ann Heard, and marched them to Montreal as prisoners. She was entrusted to the master-gunsmith Pierre Prud'homme and his wife, baptized and confirmed on 10 April 1692 at the church of Notre-Dame in Montreal. Her godfather was the surgeon Jean Martinet dit Fonblanche and her godmother Anne Châles, the wife of Pierre Prud'homme. Her name was changed from Ann Heard to Marie Anne Herd dit Prévost. On 19 Oct. 1705 she married Sebastien Cholet-Laviolette and had at least 4 children. She died in 1728 in Pointe Claire at the age of 51.

Marie-Anne Heard was my 6th Great Grandmother

Sarah Allen

Another American, Sarah was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts in May, 1692. In an attack on Deerfield on 29 Feb. 1704, by a combined French/Native American force, 47 residents were killed and 111 taken prisoner, many of the buildings burned and a bell was stolen. A 12 year old Sarah Allan and the other prisoners were marched from Deerfield to Fort Chambley, 300 miles/480 kilometers, which took about 5 weeks - in the winter, through the mountains. When they reached the mountains the prisoners were given moccasins, otherwise they had what they were wearing when captured. We come from hardy stock! Sarah was baptized and renamed Marie Madeleine Helene and sold as a domestic to Jean Quenet at Baie D'Urfé. In 1710 she married Guillaume Lalonde and they had 10 children. Marie Madeleine died in 1764 in Les Cèdres. She was 72 years old and was my 6th Great Grandmother.

Sarah Allen is our connection point to the Kings and Queens of Europe

Madeleine Vie Lamothe

Madeleine Vie Lamothe was a Filles du Roi, born in Paris around 1648. She sailed to Canada on the "Le St-Jean-Baptiste" arriving in Quebec on 30 June 1664 There were 13 other Filles du Roi on board, and 150 other passengers, including Jeanne Mance. Six weeks after arrival she married, in August 1664, Jean Poitras, a carpenter. Between 1665 and 1691 Madeleine gave birth to 17 children. Immediately after the birth of her 17th child she was admitted to Hopital Hotel Dieu in Montreal and died there on 28 July 1691. Madeleine, my 8th Great Grandmother has the most children of any woman in our ancestry.

Jean Poitras

After the death of Madeleine Vie, Jean married Marie Anne Lavoie. Jean was 60, Marie Anne, 22. Together they had another 10 children. With 27 children Jean Poitras holds the record among Quebec settlers for the most children. When Pfiezer was developing Viagra, the code name for their development was "Poitras". OK, I made that last part up. But it could be true.

George Lamberton

George Lamberton was the great Grandfather of Sarah Allen, and my 9th Great Grandfather. He was born in London, England in 1604. He died in the North Atlantic on the ship "Fellowship" which was immortalized in the poem "The Phantom Ship" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Margaret Lewen

Wife of George Lamberton, Margaret was born in 1604 in the Tower of London. Not in a bad sense - her parents were living there. Still, how many people can say they have ancestors born in the Tower of London!

Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde

Considered to be the original "Flying Frenchman", captain of the Montreal Canadiens 1915 to 1921, played (and scored) in the first-ever NHL game on December 19, 1917, when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 7–4. In 1950, named athlete of the half century in lacrosse. Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1950, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965, and the Sports Hall of Fame of Canada. In 1998 he was ranked number 32 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, making him the highest-ranking player on the list who had played in a professional league before the founding of the NHL. Newsy lalonde is my 4th cousin, twice removed.

Thomas Leroux and Macrine Lauzon

My great grandparents. They were both Voyageurs until the birth of their first child. They became farmers near Vanleek Hill in Ontario, then Thomas worked at the "Cottons" in Valleyfieldn and had a small wine business. They had 12 children together.

Maurice O'Connor

Our first recorded O'Connor relativein Quebec. Settled on Leahy Road (O'Neil's corner) in Godmanchester sometime around 1832. We have virtually no information about Maurice. We know he was from Ireland, but not where. We don't know when he died, or where.

Thomas O'Connor

My maternal grandfather. Served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Europe 1918-1919 during World War I, where he was wounded in a gas attack near the end of the war. .He travelled quite a bit, loved it out in Western Canada,and in the service of his country, got to travel to England, Scotland,Wales, France, Belgium and Germany.

Macbeth

You know - that evil guy Shakespeare wrote about! Well history shows that he was actually a pretty good ruler and did a lot of good for Scotland. The fact that he killed his cousin to get the throne? Relax, that happened all the time back then!

English, Scottish and European Royalty

My family has direct links back to the foundations of England and Scotland, and ties to other European countries, including a few notables that were part of our history lessons growing up,or in books we read (thank you Sir Walter Scott), movies and TV shows.These include the earliestist Kings of Scotland and England, and include noteables such as Alfred the Great, Robert the Bruce (I remember the legend of Robert the Bruce and the Spider from 3rd Grade), Queen Victoria, and Elizabeth II

Ötzi the Ice Man

We are related to Ötzi (probably not his real name) via DNA from my mothers side. Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in 1991, protruding from a snow-bank high in the Alps near the Austrian-Italian border. His 5,300-year-old remains turned out to be so well preserved that researchers were able to construct a detailed account of his life and death. Chemical analysis of Ötzi's teeth indicates he came from the Italian side of the Alps. He had suffered during the year before his death with whipworm, a stomach parasite that was found in his digestive tract. Yet he was fit enough to climb 6,500 feet in elevation during the day or two before he met his end in a rocky alpine hollow. Ötzi apparently was murdered, struck by a stone arrow point that was found lodged in his left shoulder. The twisted position of his body indicates that the murderer, or one of his accomplices, pulled the arrow's shaft out of Ötzi's prone body.

King Louis XVI

The rule of France by men of the House of Bourbon began with King Henri IV in 1589 C.E. and continued until the beheading of his direct paternal descendant King Louis XVI in 1793. Several years ago, researchers analyzed a mummified head and a blood-soaked cloth that they believed might belong to the two kings, and concluded that the royal paternal line belonged to haplogroup G. In a more recent study, however, a different set of researchers tested three living men who are direct descendants of the Bourbon kings. Their efforts revealed that the male lineage of the House of Bourbon is actually a branch of haplogroup R-M405, from which my paternal line also stems. I know for a fact that the sun king is a relative - I have traced him back. He is my 19th cousin 8x removed.