The Chauvin Family Tree Website is back. For more information, feel free to contact me. The database has been revamped with a new section for places. Whereas every place mentioned in any record was a separate entity, collecting these places into a single database showed massive redundancy. Some places were duplicated over a hundred times, or more. A simple program merged identical Place records, but synonymous place records had to be merged by hand if there was even one character difference. This took a great deal longer than I had expected. Instead of a few weeks, it took 4 months. Many records were corrected, the original places being some garbled version of actuality - this often happened as near-illiterate priests took verbal information from new parisioners who were, in many cases, illiterate. The biggest surprise was the vast number of bloody saints. This was complicated by the numerous different abbreviations used for each one. These were standardized to Saint and Sainte, in place of St, Ste, St., Ste., St-, Ste-, S., Sn, &c. There are still differences between french (Saint-, Sainte-) and english (Saint).
Three large documents have been merged to create this file. The original Chauvin Family Tree consists mostly of my mother’s ancestors. Information on my father’s side is much sparser mainly due to the fact that women in the British tradition do not possess names of their own and documents do not usually include the full names of the parents. (unless they were aristocrats - another story)
The Dagneau line of my grandmother, Nadia Marion, has been extended beyond an ancestor, Charles d'Aigneaux de l'Île, although a person recorded in an earlier seach Blanche de Dreux-Morainville, previously thought to be an ancestor in another line which has not yet been verified. The information on the core of this line is quite accurate, being thoroughly researched by others. (Notes refer to these people.) I have added much information to this section which comes from the Internet and is therefore not as reliable and must be treated with skepticism. It is only there for interest. There are attached notes to that effect.
Canada’s French inhabitants, having been in the New World for up to four hundred years, tend to be interrelated in a complex manner. For instance, I am descended from Jacques Archambault and Françoise Tourault through nine different lines. In fact, I am probably more of an Archambault than someone bearing that name. My mother was a Chauvin. She had Chauvins of a very different line on her mother’s side as well. Yet another Chauvin line from Marin Chauvin dit Lafortune is on my mother's paternal grandmother's side.
"Dit" names are mostly particular to the New World French inhabitants. Many are military designations (e.g. Picanier, Fontenay, Le Grand Pierre), having arrived in New France in a certain unit or having distinguished themselves in the military. Many, as well, are descriptors, designating a certain line having a common surname with a new name (e.g. Malboeuf dit Beausoleil). Yet others had names given to them by the King (e.g. Pépin dit Tranchemontagne). Still others took the names of the territory over which they ruled(e.g. d'Aigneaux, du Trembley, Tessier dit Lavigne). Even others were sobriquets related to a physical characteristic, the mother’s family name, father’s first name, and so on. Some go back to the ancestor, while others are introduced by descendants; some are transmitted, others not; some belong to an entire family line, while others concern only a single branch.
I was stuck for several years attempting to place Kezia Lean in a specific family. I have been assured thet her parents were Christopher and Mary Bate, although I am not absolutely certain of this (maybe 85%). Confusion over the exact family has led me to make two families here. Hopefully, I shall clear this up soon. Using the GEDCOM file graciously provided by Alan Baker of Plymouth, England, I have added some antecedents of this family.
This Christopher's parents both include Manuel Roger as an ancestor. Kezia's sister Elizabeth also married an 8th cousin, Christopher Lean. This couple had a daughter Keziah, lending support to Elizabeth's parental family being the correct one.
Speculation
One of my Québec ancestors, Jean Bourbon, presents a mysterious past. He arrived in New France in the company of Paul Benoît dit Livernois, who had been in Piedmont with the Carignan-Salières Regiment. Benoît had, in fact been one of those guarding "The Iron Mask" - the true heir to the throne of France. Jean was married to Benoît's daughter, Marie-Anne - a good way to control him. There is a large Bourbon tree, with some sources given, going as far as I could find data, with links where ancestors are continued in the Richards tree.
Connexion to the House of Windsor
Curious as to the relative proximity between my immediate family and that of Elizabeth II, I made a rough tree of the House of Windsor going back 16 generations from her Majesty and also from prince Phillip. I pulled it all from the Web and there are no references given in most cases. This tree is just for my curiosity, not for scholarly study.
The closest link between families given by a cursory examination yields 15th cousin and 14th cousin once removed. It would appear that I have a defined but very remote claim as heir to the throne.
Remote but Vast Royal Connexion
Previous searching led to Waast de Marle, as my 10-times great-grandfather. Louise de Merlle, mother of Charlotte Maugis, both verified in my data, was thought to be the daughter of Waast. This may be a case of mistaken identity. His granddaughter, also Louise de Marle, married into the Miville family – my ancestors. I have severed the first Louise from the putative parents for the time being.
However, the new line through Blanche de Dreux is the link to Charlemagne. There are numerous lines from Blanche to Charlemagne as well as to many other notables as Mohammed (the Prophet) and Alexander III (the Great).
I have taken the work typed by Margaret Claire Kilroy just before her death on July 16th, 19O6, and from Bill Martin of Thunder Bay, and linked together a GEDCOM file containing Baptisms, Marriages and Burials at Assumption Church in Sandwich, Ontario. The three sections covered slightly different spans but covered mostly 1760 to 1786.
I linked what individuals as I was able from these sections into families. I added Individuals from other sources to link siblings from this section into families. I then created "Associations" from godfather (parrain) and godmother (marrain) to godson (filleul) and goddaughter (filleule). Priests added to the database because of their burials were not linked to weddings, baptisms or burials but witnesses were, when they were present in the database.
A recent enhancement to GEDitCOM II, the GEDCOM editor I use on my Mac, allows the accretion of a Places database, so I merged many individual but identical places into this database, refined the data, and provided coordinates for the places.
The 193K zipped version is available now for download.
From Reality to Fantasy
Where references are not given to baptismal, birth, marriage, death records, et cetera, attach a lesser credibility. Noble lineage has some claim to credibility except at the tops of the lines, where fantasy may have crept in, in order to give the lineage a cachet of legend. One portion was deliberately included by myself, entirely out of whimsy, that being the fictitious children of the Christ, perpetrated by the so-called Priory of Sion. I make no claim to have descended from this person. Joseph's paternal line is, however, documented.
Another possible abberation is Makhir Theodoric, who is thought by some to be a fictional link to join his "offspring" to earlier notables. When I removed his family from the database, it was discovered that four of his "mother's" sisters (Adèle, Plectrude, Regentrude, and Bertrade) were already my ancestors. His paternal grandfather as well as the siblings of his paternal grandmother were also ancestors. As a result of removing Makhir Théodoric, only three other people above him were removed from my line. In any event, I feel that as some members of the jewish exile community (known as Exilarchs) were merovingean and carolingean nobility and held in high regard, Makhir Theodoric was an actual Exilarch who changed his name to suit the court. Attempts to discredit him are possibly racist in origin.
of Saints and Sinners
well... saints, anyway. A quick global search of the database yielded 108 saints (so far) and 2 beatuses (beati?) with at least one muslim saint. Read on about this topic. I've Included one person who is not a saint. Can you pick her out?
This page created December 20, 2002; tree updated Apr 20, 2014.
Gravissima calamitas umquam supra Occidentem erat religio Christiana.
