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During Jean-François'
marriage to Marie-Catherine Aubert their life had been punctuated by happy events, like that of the birth of their children
and the many birthday parties, and Christmas celebrations. They had played the fiddle and the harmonica, and had sang the
lusty French songs, accompanied by the accordion, while some had played the spoons. And they had laughed and had fun.
And, as had been the custom, they had brought up a very close-knit family, as had been their upbringing. But they had also
known despair, as had so many of the families of the colonists.
And they, I had pictured as the
Walton's, a fictionalised TV family that had always said goodnight to each and everyone as they had lay down to sleep.
And they had picnicked on the shore of the river
that ran through the village and had relaxed under the shade of a tree in the blazing hot sun. And surrounded by the smell
of the green grass and the wild flowers that had grown in the fields, and accompanied by the many rabbits that they had tamed
and had kept as pets, the children too had relaxed and played.
And Jean-François would close
his eyes and feign sleep, as he had rested his head in Marie-Catherine's lap. And he had listened to the children playing,
the sound of their laughter echoing in his ears and bringing a smile to his lips.
And it
had been a day very similar to that when tragedy had struck. It had been a beautiful
hot sunny summer's day in July, and the children had been playing along the riverbank when poor little Catherine had fallen
into the murky water. She had gone under immediately and when she had surfaced she hadn't shouted because she had been
choking on the water. And the children that had witnessed the event had shouted out, Momma, Catherine has fallen into
the river. And without a moments hesitation Marie-Therese had jumped into the water to save her sister Catherine. The children
had been running around shouting and screaming for help all the while. And Jean-François had been working the field at
the time, while Marie-Catherine had been in the house preparing the evening meal.
And on that day, Marie-Therese had clutched little Catherine
tightly in her arms, but the cruel current had been too strong, and the water too deep, and it had pulled them under. And
the
two girls had drowned under the horrified eyes of the children. It was all over so quickly. And within the blink of an eye
Jean-François had lost two of his precious daughters. And when he had finally made it to the river, he had run up and down
the banks of that river screaming out the children's names. And he had run up and down that river screaming, until Marie-Catherine
had jumped in front of him and had stopped him. He had made an attempt to go around her when she had jumped into his arms
and clutched him to her as they had fallen to the ground crying. What could they do? The girls had disappeared in the water,
the current was too strong. And that river had spilled into the St. Lawrence.
These are
the children that Jean-Francois and his lovely wife Marie-Catherine Aubert had during their marriage. A beautiful family of
fourteen children, listed below.
1. Pierre-François
Baptized 02 May 1720
( Unknown)
2. Antoine
follows
3. Marie-Anne
Bpt 1723 Louiseville RDL
Married (Unknown) to,
Jean-Baptiste Faucault, son of
Jean-Baptiste Faucault and Marguerite
Bergeron
Died 05 Feb
1749
4. Marie-Madeline
Bpt 25 Aug 1725 Louiseville RDL
Married 11 Feb 1749 RDL to,
Joseph Paillé, son of
Charles Paillé and Françoise Lemaitre-Auger
Died 24
Mar 1793 RDL
5. Joseph
Bpt 17 Feb 1727 RDL
6. Jean-Augustin
follows
7. Louis
Bpt 17 Nov 1730 Quebec
Married 25 Aug 1755 to,
Catherine
Banhiac, dit Lamontagne,
daughter
of,
Charles Banhiac and Madeline Lemaitre-Auger
Died 14 May 1798
8. Marie-Therese
Bpt 6 Mar 1732
Died 07 Jul 1749
Drowned heroically,
trying to save the life of
her younger sister,
she had been seventeen
years old.
9. Jean-Baptiste
Bpt 06 Aug 1733
(Unknown)
10. Charles
Born 1735
Married 17 Jan 1761 to,
Madeline Beaunoyer, dit Lemaitre-Auger,
daughter of,
Etienne and Marie Sicard
Died 04 Sep 1809
11. Pélagie Born 1737
Married 1755 Lavaltrie, to
Jean-Baptiste Hervieux, son of
Paul
Hervieux and Marguerite Ethier
Died 03 Aug 1761 Lanoraie
12. Catherine
Bpt 04 Feb 1739
Died 07 Jul 1749
(Drowned)
13. Pierre
Madore follows
14. Madeline
Bpt 09 Mar 1743 Louiseville, RDL
Married 13 May 1763 Louiseville,RDL,
Charles Lemaitre-Auger, son of
Francois Lemaitre-Auger and Charlotte Pombert
In Memory
of Jeanne Trudel deGerlaisse, died 30 Nov 1734 after a brief illness. She had been pre-deceased by her Husband Jean-Jacquet.
She leaves her children Madeline, Jeanne, Pierre Benoit, Marguerite, Pierre Lamirante, Marie-Josephte, Jean-Baptiste Lesage,
Antoine, Marie-Angelique Pelletier, Marie-Ann, Jean
Brissard, Jean-Francois, Marie-Catherine Aubert and many grandchildren and close friends. She was loved by all and will be
missed. She was buried by her husbands side in Louiseville RDL. She was 78 years old.
Joseph is the fifth child
of Jean-François and Marie-Catherine and is a focal point within the western portion of our lineage. Joseph had
been the son that had itchy feet, and is the one that had inspired two of his sons to go west. The fur
trade had awed Joseph and he had preferred the travel and had wanted nothing to do with farming. The lure of the easy money
of the fur trade had snared him. His claim to fame, he is the one that we contribute with the name change.
Joseph had been baptised the 17 Feb 1727. And as Joseph was growing up it became
evident very quickly that he had not enjoyed the farm life. He was never around when he was needed, instead he was out running
around with his friends smoking cigarettes and bumming around. My god, he sounds just like me!
His father had tried to
convince him to try farming for a while, to give it a chance, to see if he would like it, and he had answered, 'No way, it's
too much like work'.
Joseph leaves home at the age of fourteen and heads out
west working for a fur trading company. He lives within the missionary village of St. Paul-des-Saulteaux
in Manitoba, and he enjoys the life. He wears the buckskins and the leather moccasins that go up to his knees. He has a couple
of knives in his belt and a flintlock slung on his shoulder. Joseph loves the life, the freedom of the outdoors and the travel.
It is an exciting life with just a little bit of danger to make it enticing, because of the skirmishes with the Indians and
with the British. And because he had travelled between Manitoba and Quebec carrying furs he had spent most of his young life
without a real home. He would stay out west until they had gathered enough fur to trade, and then come late spring early
summer they would head for Quebec. He had continued trading fur for the following twenty years, until he was
thirty-five years old.
Then in 1751 he met a woman in Quebec and had fallen in love and on the
23rd May 1752 he gets married. Things seem complicated from the get go, the woman he marries has two names. She
had been known as Marie-Marguerite, but also as Marie-Josette Hervieux. She was the lovely daughter of Paul Hervieux
and Marguerite Ethier.
This is where
and why the name change had ocurred. Okay before I go further I have to say this. If his name is changed, that should not
have affected the rest of the family, yet it does, and why? So, at the end of the wedding ceremony, and at the signing of the register
the priest had written his name down wrong. The priest had written the name down Desjarlais, instead of the proper spelling
of 'deGerlaisse'.
And what does
that say for Joseph? Does that mean to imply that he couldn't read or write and that he hadn't noticed the error? That could
very well be. And with the excitment of the wedding, and a few glasses of wine he probably hadn't even noticed. But if that
were to be true, then that would imply that he hadn't even known of the name change, and had continued as Joseph
deGerlaisse. And although that very thing happens with me today. Nine times out of ten, whenever I say that my name
is Roy Desjarlais, they will write down "Desjardin". But I am aware of that so I always make sure that they have it right.
Anyway to me the name change just doesn't make any sense at all. By the by, the family name Desjardin is not part of the
'deGerlaisse' lineage.
And even though
the church archives had his baptism certificate that it had read 'deGerlaisse', the new name had stuck. And that as they say
is that.
With the first name 'Joseph', we have
several that follow in quick succession, and it does tend to become confusing, there are three or more of them in all
and all pivotal.
It would seem that Joseph had marched to
the beat of a different drum, and that trait seems to reflect much of the discord that seems evident within the growing family
hierarchy. And according to the place of baptism of his first born ,it would seem to indicate that he had lived in the
vicinity of his immediate family and relatives in RDL when he had first settled down. When he had married he had lived
near his family for the first two years, but at one point he had chosen to move to the south shore of the St. Lawrence River,
and in the Vercheres, Contrecoeur area. Could that have been because of family differences, or had it had been something
as simple as going there to find work.
It is not difficult
to imagine what sort of person this Joseph was. He had run with the Indians, he had known the lovely métis women. He had worn
the buckskin clothes and had carried the knife in his belt and had slung the flintlock over his shoulder. It had been the
lifestyle of adventure that he had passed on to his boys. He had glamorised the lifestyle with his stories about the danger
and the excitement and the easy money. And it would be interesting to know just how much money Joseph had made while trapping.
I don't even know what he had done afterwards, but he sure as hell didn't farm, he didn't know how.
But one thing
is certain; because of his influence, two of his boys would follow in his footsteps.
It is because
of that influence that our lineage finds itself in the Red River Valley, and living within the Indian settlement
that had been the Missionary village of St. Paul-des-Saulteaux, forty miles west of St. Boniface Manitoba on the Assinaboine
River. That missionary village had disbanded long ago, I think it moved and had become Baie St. Paul.
These are the
children that Joseph Desjarlais and his lovely wife Marie-Marguerite had during their union. They are listed below.
1. Josette Bpt 29 Apr 1753, RDL
Married 31 Jan 1774, Vercheres to,
Michel
Lacourse, son of
Jean-Baptiste Lacourse and Josephte Lasserte
2. *Joseph Bpt 03 Sep 1754 , Contrecoeur
...
Follows
3. Théotiste
Bpt 07 Apr 1756 Contrecoeur
Died 13 Mar 1757
(13 Months old)
4. Paul
Bpt 19 Mar 1757 St. Ours
(Unknown)
5. Judith
Bpt 29 Aug (?) St. Ours
Married 07 May 1802, Varennes to,
Antoine Billy, dits Louis
Louis
Augustin dits Bienvenue veuf de
Charlotte Meunier
6. Antoine
Born 1760
(Unknown)
7. Jean-Baptiste
Born 1762
(Unknown)
8. Marguerite
Bpt 28 Feb 1766 St. Ours
Married 09 Jul 1782, to
Isidore Langevin, veuf de Marie-Anne Renault
9. Pélagie
Bpt 16 Feb 1769 St. Ours, or Contrecoeur
(Unknown)
10. Eloi
Bpt 1770, Contrecoeur
Married 27 Jun 1797
Louiseville RDL, to
Marie-Amable Leblanc, daughter of
Etienne Leblanc and Amable Rivard, dits Loranger
11. François
Bpt 19 Aug 1771, Contrecoeur
Married (No Date) Manitoba,
to
Madeline Roy, daughter of
Joseph Roy, dits Charou and (Native)
Joesph Desjarlais born 3 Sep 1754 in Contrecoeur continues the direct line
of my lineage. He leaves Quebec and settles in the Red River Valley. He lives within the missionary village of St. Paul-des-Saulteaux,
on the Assinaboine River just West of Winnipeg.
As
the growing civilisation had brought more and more settlers out west due in part to the fur trade, the North American Indian,
or First Nations, had enjoyed a certain amount of freedom and importance accorded to them by their white brothers. The white
man learns some of their language, and the Indian some of their's and then a new language
is born, from a mixture of the two, into what had become known as 'Michif'.
That word "Michif" had just been reawakened within my dorment memories recently by my late nephew Daniel Gobert of Oregon
US of A; his mother was Dorothy Desjarlais, my much older sister.
But the
'Indians' are exploited, and not only because of their experience within the fur trade, but also because of their knowledge
of the land. The Indian had known the best hunting grounds and the best way to hunt and trap fur. But it hadn't ended with
that; the white man had robbed the Indian blind with their lies and trickery, often trading coloured glass trinkets of little worth for valuable fur. They would
also offer the Indian a rifle, for the amount of furs that would extend
the rifles length as it had rested standing upright on its butt. That was a lot of furs for one useless gun.
The Frenchmen harbour no prejudice when it comes to the beautiful Métis women and Joseph had easily assimilated
into their lifestyle. Anyway, life on
the prairies had been totally different from what he had been used to on the Seigneuries in Quebec. Life in the Red River
Valley had been simple, relaxed and more
enjoyable, with the hunting, the trapping and the fishing. And the campfires at night had been very romantic and carefree
and childlike. But this life style had a price to pay when one had crossed the line. And what line am I referring to;
I am referring to the hypocrisy that history had revealed. Simply put the French had enjoyed fraternising with the Indian,
but they had always maintained a certain aloofness and had remained separate entities. True, they had enjoyed the native womens
company but they would never commit to them, which had been unthinkable, after all
one did not invite les Sauvages to Sunday dinner.
Had one dared do that,
it would have awakened the prejudice the white race had cultivated towards the savage and would have had the same result as
cutting one off from his family. At the very least it would have limited your circle of friends. My use of the term
'savage' is only to make a point.
In
the early 1750's the west had been sparsely populated by the British, yet the British had managed to established
a string of Forts throughout the Red River Valley and what had been part of the vast area known as 'Ruperts
Land'. Many
Forts had been built around the intersections of the Red and the Assinaboine Rivers. Upper and Lower Fort Garry, Fort Rouge, Pembina Fort, Fort Assinaboine, all little forts
that had been built within the vast plains of the west, and monuments of the white mans' presence, and each Fort
a small oasis within the sea of Cree and Ojibiway and the aggressive Sioux.
The plains had been home to the First Nations,
and in the summer months small nomadic tribes had converged into an area near the Assinaboine and Souris Rivers as they had
followed the roaming buffalo south. That had become known as the buffalo brigade.
And in 1801 the
michif had begun industrialising the North American Indian, and in Pembina they had built the famous Red River Cart. With
the invention of the Red river Cart a new sight had met the eye. Concentrations of TeePees, and each one with a Red River cart hitched
to Oxen. The carts had sold for the equivalent of fifteen dollars. Where the Natives had stopped to rest had been in close proximity
of Forts Cuthbert Grant and Fort Desjarlais. And during the Christmas season those Forts used to throw a big party, and everyone
within distance had been welcome, including the First Nations.
Joseph had worked the fur
trade like his father and initially had spent much of his life in the woods, travelling back and forth between Quebec and
St. Paul-des-Saulteux, but the difference being that Joseph had lived in Manitoba instead of Quebec. He had only
journeyed to Quebec with his cargo of furs. And he had kept up that lifestyle for the first eight years, never staying
in Quebec very long, only long enough to off-load furs and re-supply and then head back west. The trip had been much
safer now that the war between the British and the French had been settled. And Quebec (New France) had flown the British
flag. The
fur trappers had travelled the rivers in big cargo canoes, called York boats, and in groups of ten. The trip was
over three thousand kilometres, and that's one hell of a commute! After eight years, a partnership had evolved between the St. Lawrence
Fur Trading Company of Montreal and the Metis of Manitoba. And that partnership had resulted in the formation of the North
West Fur Trading Company in 1779, and they had competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in the fur trade. And when
Joseph had joined that fur trading company out west and had never returned to Quebec afterwards.
Note: The French revolution was being fought in France as the French had tired of living under a corrupt
Monarchy and after a bloody battle that had lasted from July 14 1789, Bastille Day, till 1799 when France had become
a Republic. Louie lost his head over that one.
And in Canada the French had been
made to suffer more humiliation with the Canada Act. That act had arbitrarily divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and
Lower Canada, and Quebec hadn't agreed. But it had been a done deal. The
Canada Act had been signed and became law in 1867 comprising Canada of the
Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
And
before the western provinces had joined confederation, the western plains had been known as Rupert's Land. Saskatchewan
and Alberta had been part of the North West Territories; Rupertlands Act 1868.
And Manitoba
did not become part of Canada until 1870, and Saskatchewan had joined Confederation in 1905.
And following Joseph's relocation within the Red River Valley he had
met and married a woman of First Nations, in 1785. He married in St. Paul-des-Saulteaux, to a Native named 'Okemakwe'.
Joseph and OkeMakWe had been voyageurs, (travellers) and had gone west into what
is now Alberta and into the NWT shortly after Marcel Gwi-Wis-Ens had been born. They had finally
returned to Baie St. Paul in 1826 but their first born, Joseph who had been born in 1782 had since married Josephte
Cardinal from Lac la Biche, and he had chosen to remain there, beginning a new branch of the Desjarlais name.
Out of the union
of Joseph Desjarlais and Okemakwe are born four lovely children. All born in Manitoba.
1. Joseph
Born 1782
M Josephte Cardinal
2. *Jean
Baptiste Born 1790, St. Paul-des-Saulteaux
Married 1805, Lizette Charlotte Cardinal
3. Antoine
Born 1794 M
Catherine Allary
4. Marcel Born 1803
'Gwi-Wis-Ens'
Jean Baptiste Desjarlais
continues our lineage. He had followed his parents out west to Lac la Biche and to the NWT, he hardly had a choice, he
had been 12 years old. Jean Baptiste had met his future wife out west. Young and precocious Jean Baptiste, had been
surnamed 'Necho-KaPow' by his Native friends, it had been a sign that he had been
accepted within the Native community. And it had been there
that he had met and fell in love with Lizette-Charlotte Cardinal, and they had married in 1805 in Lac la Biche. Jean Baptiste and
his future wife had been sixteen years old.
Out of the union
of Jean Baptiste and Charlotte Cardinal are born two lovely children, they are listed below.
1. *Joseph
Born 1806, Lac la Biche
2. Judith Born 1816, Frog Lake
Joseph Desjarlais '1782'
had chosen to remain in the NWT and had married Josephte Cardinal in Lac la Biche. She had been the daughter of Joseph Cardinal
and Louise Frobisher. Out of their union they had eleven beautiful
children.
1. Josephte
B. 1821 Lac la Biche Mission
2. Suzanne
B. 1822 Lac la Biche Mission
3. Marie
B. 1824 Lac la Biche Mission
4. Francois
B. 1824 'Pa-Ya-Sis'
5. Judith
B. 1825
6. Archange
B. 1828
7. Jean-Marie
B. 1830
*I now have the
four names. I will update this later.
Joseph Desjarlais
B. 1754, had been joined by a younger brother from Quebec. Francois Desjarlais, B. 1771 had moved from Quebec to Manitoba
in 1787, and had worked the fur trade with the North West Fur Trading Company. He too had lived within the missionary village
and had married a Metis lady named Madeline Roy in 1795. They had remained in Manitoba until 1812 then they had ventured out west where Francois had joined up with
his older brother Joseph in Lac la Biche. Later when Joseph had decided to return to Manitoba in 1826, they had all returned
together.
Out of the union of Francois
Desjarlais and Madeline Roy are born nine beautiful children.
1. Francois-Xavier
B 1795, M
Marie Botteneau
2. Marie
B 1805.
M Joseph Morrisseau
3.Charles
B 1809... Marguerite Montour
4. Jean Baptiste
B 1811... Marie Martin
5. *Joseph
B 1806. Josephte Richard
6. Suzanne B
1816...Louis Gladu
7. Antoine B
1818... NWT...Louise Ressard
8. Andre B
1822...NWT...Josephte Fagnant
9. Josephte B
1823..NWT...Antoine Wabasco
Gladu
Our lineage continues
with Joseph Desjarlais the son, born in 1806 in Lac la Biche. Joseph had met and married LaLouise Josephte Richard
in 1834 in Baie St. Paul. She had been the daughter of Joseph Richard and her mother had been named Isabelle, First Nations.
Joseph had started
the fur-trading store on the Souris River in
1836, providing the much sought after Pemmican for many travellers. He had also stocked his trading post with Whiskey. The
Indians had known Joseph by the name of 'Misigade'. It had been Joseph (1806)
that had built Fort Desjarlais, when he had enclosed his trading store within an Oak Palisade on the Souris River near present
day Lauder. Joseph had enclosed his fur trading store because of the many attacks by the aggressive Sioux.
When Joseph 'Misigade'
had built his Fort he had the audacity to build it just five miles from Fort Cuthbert Grant. He hadn't built the Fort
there out of beligerence, but out of necessity, to protect his store.The Yellow Quill Trail running twenty miles from Fort
Garry up the Assinaboine and Souris River had
served both Fort Grant and Fort Desjarlais. The trail had then split into two independent branches serving North Dakota and
Turtle Mountain. From Fort Desjarlais had been the HBC trail that had run north through the sand hills.
Cuthbert Grant, under
the guidance of the Hudsons Bay Company had continued to harass the independent fur traders, particularly in the area
of Turtle Mountain and Fort Qu'Appelle. The HBC had not enjoyed competition. With the invention of the Red River cart
in 1801, the Metis had adopted that method to transport
for their goods and had travelled overland.
The ongoing relationship
between the Desjarlais' and the Red River Natives had remained good. And as mentioned earlier,
during the summer months the Buffalo brigade used to camp near both
Fort Desjarlais and Fort Cuthbert prior to going out on the buffalo hunt. During that hunt they would sometimes follow the
buffalo as far south as New Mexico.
It is difficult to
understand Cuthbert Grant's leadership role with regard to the Metis people. He had been a company man and had harassed many
Metis during their trade; the Hudson's Bay Company had made Grant Warden of the Plains. He had even seized goods
and furs at gunpoint. His log reports seizure of goods from one 'Gwi-Wis-Ens' the Indian
name for Marcel Desjarlais. Grant had also been implicated in the
Seven Oaks Massacre, which had been blamed on the Metis, yet Grant had denied any wrong doing.
Then when Louis Riel had come onto the scene,
he had become the real leader of the Metis population of the Red River Valley, but as history has shown it was too little
too late.
After several decades
of successful fur trade the end of the war between England and France had marked the end to the prosperous fur trade. Less
ships had travelled between the homeland. Then the encroaching civilisation had caused a subtle change within peoples
priorities and the fur trade had diminished. Forts had
begun disbanding as the fur trade had slowly petered out. Many that had counted on the fur trade as a way of making their
living had now found themselves without work.
With the eventual
destruction of Fort Desjarlais, some of the family members had gone into the 'Republic of America' while many
had gone and settled around Lake Manitoba and the surrounding villages along the Assinaboine River. Some say that Fort
Desjarlais had been attacked and burned down by either Cuthbert Grant or the Sioux Indians. Perhaps the Fort had simply been within the path of a brush fire
that had swept the plains. Perhaps when the fur trading industry lost importance and Forts had been shuting down, Joseph had
closed up shop and had torched the Fort himself.
The
complete story of Fort Desjarlais gives names of some that had
worked there and it has been said that up to seventy-five men had worked there during the heyday of the fur trade.
So Fort Desjarlais, established
on the Souris River in Manitoba from 1836 to 1856 had disappeared, but unlike the Phoenix would not rise from the ashes, and
only a faint memory remains.
During this point in history the Red River Valley
area had been within what had been Ruperts Land, which had been the western plains and the NWT. The Hudson Bay Company had
been part of that formation and they had even created the Land Act of Ruperts Land in 1868.
Note: Louisiana, the largest landmass under French rule had been sold to the American Republic in 1803.
The area of that landmass had extended from the Gulf of Mexico, west to the Rocky Mountains, North to Canada and East to the
Great Lakes. That area covers almost the whole of what is the USA today.
Following the destruction of
Fort Desjarlais Joseph had moved his family and had settled along the shores of beautiful Lake Manitoba, some had settled
in St. Laurent. There they had fished the lake and planted a small garden. They would spend many an hour sitting outside their
home in front of the log fire under the canopy of stars and
dream. In the winter they would snare rabbits and hunt caribou and deer and even bear, which had been used to make
pemmican, that dried lean meat from the bear pounded into a paste with melted fat. Pemmican had been the usual food of the voyageurs because it had preserved
well and lasted for months. Many had still worked the time honoured fur trade as independents. Others had cut timber in the
forrest. Everyone had gone into the woods with their Swede saws to cut cord wood for fuel.
Of
the union of Joseph Desjarlais and Josephte Richard are born thirteen beautiful children, listed below.
1. Francois Born 1835 Baie St. Paul
Married 29 Aug 1864 Henriette WisKup/Wiskeys
2. Stanislas
Born 6 Nov 1838 Oak Point
Married Virginia
McKay
3. Marie
Born 1840
Married 27 Aug 1860 LesKok Houle
4. Alexander
Born 30 Sep 1843
5. *Antoine Born 19 May 1846 Oak Point
Follows,
6. Julie
Born 1846
Married Pierre Chartrand
7. Joseph
Born Jan 1849 Oak Point
Married Marie Slater
8. Emilie
Born July 1851 SFX
9. Jean Baptiste Born 03 Oct 1853 SFX
10.
Caroline
Born 16 May 1854
Married
Norbert Trottier
11.
Patrice
Born Jan 1858 SFX
Married Harriet Moore
12.
Pierre
Born 1858 Moosehead
13.
Isidore Born
03 Dec 1862 SFX
Antoine
Desjarlais, born 19 May 1846 at Oak Point, situated on the Assinaboine River continues our lineage. He is my great-grandfather.
Antoine
was twenty-one years old when he married. He courts and woos the young and beautiful Marie Chartrand, and works up the courage
to ask her father for her hand in marriage. And with her fathers blessing the
marriage takes place in the church in St. Laurent on the14 Oct 1867.
And that had been a beautiful fall weekend, sunny and warm. She was the daughter of Paul Chartrand and Josephte Cadotte.
Josephte Cadotte is the lady that had lived to a fantastic age of 99 years young. She was born 9 Apr 1849,
and she died the 4th of Jun 1948. Antoine had died in 1912 killed when struck by a train from behind. He had been deaf.
Okay, but what was the guy driving the train doing...sleeping?
Out of the union of Antoine Desjarlais and Marie Chartrand's 12 beautifull children are born, they are listed below.
1. Antoine
Born 22 Aug 1869 Pointe-des- Chenes
Married 21 Nov 1892 , St. Laurent, to
Esther Richard, daughter of,
Elzear Richard and Marie Pangman
2. Pierre
Born 04 Nov 1871 Poplar
Possen
3. *Philippe
Follows
4. Alexandre
Born 10 May 1876 (died
at birth)
5. Joseph Born 03 Mar 1877, Pointe-des-Chenes
Married 07 May 1901 St. Laurent, to,
Marie-Emerise Richard, daughter of,
François Richard and Charlotte
Chaboyer
6. Marie-Julie Born 25 May 1879 Pointe-des-Chenes
Married 05 Jul 1898 St.
Laurent, to
Jean-Baptiste Roulette, son of
M. Roulette and (Unknown)
7. Jean-Baptiste
Born 26 Mar 1883 Pointe-des-Chenes
8. Marie-Madeline Born 26
Apr 1885 St. Laurent
Married 24 Nov 1903 St. Laurent, to,
Pierre Nabes, son of
Roger Nabes and Philomene Fidler
Died 09 Mar 1928 St. Laurent
9. Louis
Born 17 Aug 1887 St.
Laurent
Married 01 Feb 1910
St. Laurent, to
Madeline Richard, daughter of,
St. Pierre Richard and Adele Rochblave
10. Louise
Born 01 Apr 1890 St.
Laurent
Married 18 Feb 1910 St. Laurent
Agustin Chaboyer, son of
Ambroise Chaboyer and Catherine Nabes
11. Jean\ James Born 02 Apr 1892 St. Laurent
Married 21 Nov 1915 St.
Laurent, to
Marie-Alexandrine
Richard, of,
Isaie Richard and Julie Boucher
Died 20 Apr 1929 St.
Laurent
(a voluntary act)
Also, I think it appropriate that I list the twelfth child of this union, another boy named Antoine. He had
lived 10 days. They had probably known that he wouldn't live and had Baptised and named him Antoine, for reasons unknown?
He had been born 22 Aug 1881.
It would seem that history has taught us that every family has a
skeleton in it's closet. Well our family is no exception, the Desjarlais skeleton is buried in Manitoba and pertains
to James. Information available on request.
Out of this family of twelve
beautiful children we are interested in the third born, the son baptised Philippe. Out of the marriage of Antoine Desjarlais
and Marie Chartrand had been born the cantankerous old Philippe Desjarlais, my Grandfather, and a man of simplicity and an
amazing strength of character.
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