Dubé - Rivard
Was Christine Dubé a descendant of either Robert or Nicolas Rivard?
This week’s case study: E. knew that her great-grandmother, the mother of her grandfather James Leo LaCoursier, was Marie Raiche, born around 1885, and her great-great grandmother Christina Dubé, born around 1846. Family lore had it that they were descended from either Nicolas or Robert Rivard who had emigrated from France to “New France” in the 17thcentury. There was also a rumored descent from “filles du Roi”.
The challenge: more than 200 years to bridge to verify this claim.
The two Rivard brothers have been extensively studied and their descendants are well documented. The Qubecois Project on Wikitree has great profiles for both Nicolas and Robert from where we can follow their lines of descent. Nicolas has 2177 (!) 3rd great-grandchildren documented on Wikitree, Robert, 947. Can we connect Marie Raiche and Christina Dubé to one of them? A quick search shows that three female descendants of Nicolas married a Dubé in the first half of the 19thcentury, but none of Robert’s.
As always, we start at the beginning. The first document I was able to find was the marriage of Marie Raiche to Levi LaCoursier on 15 Aug 1904 in Hermansville, Menominee, Michigan, USA. The marriage register confirmed that Marie was born in Canada in about 1885 and that her parents were Frank Raiche and Christine Dubé (anglicized to Duby).
Next, I looked for Marie’s baptism and found Marie Alice Raiche, baptized on 27 May 1885 in Bic, today part of the city of Rimouski in Québec. She had been born the previous day. Her parents were recorded to be François Raiche, farmer, and Chrétien Dubé – note the anglicization of both names after they had crossed the border into the US. The godparents were a brother and sister, Louis and Cécíle. Remarkably for the time, both her father and her siblings were able to sign the parish register.
François Raiche and Chrétien/Christine/Christina Dubé married on 28 Oct 1862 in the Cathédrale St-Germain in Rimouski. But before they did, they had a marriage contract drawn up by a notary. They all met at the home of Mr. Louis Dubé, Christine’s father, in St-Germain, on 26 October 1862. In the afternoon, if you must know. There, they agreed, in the presence of François, his father, Christine and her entire family, including Hermine Dubé, her sister, and Louis, Joseph, Pierre, Delvina, and Desnieges, her other siblings, that they couple would forgo any dower or preciput (a preferential legacy should one of them die) but instead would treat everything they owned or acquired as a common good. François brought into the marriage “everything that was ceded to him by his father”, presumably land and whatever came with it. Christine would contribute “curtains, a trunk with her clothes and body linens, a spinning wheel, two sheep, one pig, which her father and mother give her in advancement of their succession [i.e., as an advance on her inheritance], the said furniture and animals to be delivered by her father and mother between now and next autumn.” The only ones actually able to sign the contract were Christine’s mother, Christine Landrie, and the notaries - which they duly did, with everyone else being witnesses.
Tracking the Dubé family further back in time, we find them in the 1861 and the 1851 census, with the usual fluctuation of a few years regarding their ages.
Louis Dubé and Christine Landry (note spelling variation) married in St André, Kamouraska on 21 Jan 1845. The marriage registration notes that Louis’ parents were Pierre Dubé, deceased and Marie Josephte Larue from St. Paschal (Pascal), about 5 km away from Kamouraska. Christine was the daughter of Germain Landry and Thècle Levasseur. The witnesses were Pierre Dubé, brother and Germaine Landry, father.
Louis’ parents, Pierre Dubé and Marie Josephte Larue, married on 25 Jan 1808 in St-Roch-Des-Aulnaies, about 45 km away from Kamouraska. They, too, had a marriage contract drawn up before the marriage. According to the marriage register, Pierre’s parents were Zacharie Dubé, labourer, and Marie Catherine Leveque of St. Louis de Kamouraska. Marie Josephte’s parents were Raphael Larue, labourer, and Marie Angelique Dubé, deceased, of St-Roch-Des-Aulnaies. Present at the wedding were Zacharie and Louis Dubé, Pierre’s father and brother, and brother-in-law Joseph Nadeau as well as Raphel Larue and Marie Josephte’s two brothers Joseph and Jean.
Pierre Dubé already has a profile on Wikitree. It is very well researched and documented, with a beautiful ancestry tree, every single line documented all the way back to 17thcentury France (and beyond) and not a single Rivard among them. So, no connection to the Rivard brothers through the Dubé line. BUT – no less than four of Pierre’s eight 2ndgreat-grandmothers were “Filles du Roi”!
The Filles du Roi ("King's Daughters") were approximately 800 women, mostly from France, who emigrated to New France between 1663 and 1673 under a royal program designed to address the severe gender imbalance in the colony. The Crown subsidized their passage and provided a dowry (a small cash sum, clothing, and supplies) to encourage rapid marriage to male settlers. Most were recruited from Paris and the surrounding regions, predominantly from charitable institutions and hospitals such as the Hôpital Général and the Salpêtrière, though a significant minority came from other French provinces and were not institutionalized. Most came from modest but respectable backgrounds - the persistent myth that they were prostitutes or criminals has been thoroughly debunked by modern demographic research.
Christine Dubé’s “filles du Roi” ancestors were Marie Campion, Jeanne Savonnet, Jeanne Crossonneaux dite Rossignol and Jeanne Marguerite Chevalier.
We had seen in Louis Dubé and Christine Landry’s marriage registration that Christine’s father was Germain Landry. Since the Dubé line hadn’t yielded any connection to Nicolas or Robert Rivard I decided to investigate the Landry line. Two of Nicolas Rivard’s known female descendants married a Landry, none of Robert’s.
Marie Christine Landry was baptized in St André de Kamouraska on 21 Feb 1825. The record notes that she had been born same day and that her parents were Germain Landry and Thècle Levasseur. The godparents were Jean Baptiste Landry and Christine Levasseur.
Germain Landry, minor son of Alexandre Landry, farmer, and Marie Sirois married Thècle Levasseur, minor daughter of Benjamin Levasseur, farmer and Rosalie Paradis at St. André de Kamouraska on 11 Feb 1817. Present were François Landry, grandfather, François Benjamin Landry, brother, the father of the bride and other friends and relatives.
Germain and Thécle also had a marriage contract, dated Feb 8, 1817.
Germain and both of his parents, Alexandre Landry and Marie Sirois, have established profiles on Wikitree. And here was a surprise: Alexandre Landry’s profile is part of the Acadians Project on Wikitree! While Alexandre himself was born in Quebec, his parents were both Acadians who had fled to Quebec during the expulsion of the Acadians. If you have read my previous newsletters, you have already heard something about “Le Grand Dérangement”, but for those who haven’t, here is a brief overview.
The Expulsion of the Acadians (Le Grand Dérangement) began in 1755 when British colonial authorities, fearing Acadian loyalty during the ongoing conflict with France, ordered the forced deportation of the French-speaking Catholic population from Nova Scotia and surrounding regions. Approximately 10,000–18,000 Acadians were deported over the following decade, scattered to British colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, to France, and to the Caribbean. A significant number evaded deportation by fleeing into the interior — particularly to the Saint John River valley, Île Saint-Jean (PEI), and northward into what is now New Brunswick and Quebec. Those who reached Quebec settled primarily along the south shore of the St. Lawrence, in areas such as the Bécancour and Nicolet regions, as well as around Montreal. Some deportees later made their way back north from the colonies and joined these Quebec Acadian communities. The exile formally ended with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, though by then Acadian society had been fundamentally disrupted and dispersed.
With all of Alexandre Landry’s ancestry being well researched and documented Acadians well back into the 17thcentury, this line was also excluded from being a potential Rivard connection. But what about his wife, Marie Sirois?
Baptized on 7 Oct 1762 at St. André de Kamouraska, Marie Victoire Sirois (spelled Syrois in the baptism register) dite Duplessis was the daughter of Augustin Sirois dit Duplessis and his wife Marianne Boucher. As it turned out, she also has a profile on Wikitree with a well researched and documented ancestry tree back to 17thcentury France – and no Rivards. But – wait for it – three more “filles du Roi” ancestors: Marie Major, Marie Leclerc and Barbe d’Orange.
That was as far as I was able to take things for this week’s challenge. We found no Rivard connection, but 7(!) “filles du Roi” and a previously unknown Acadian branch of the family. There is also one more branch left to explore for a possible Rivard connection: Pierre Dubé’s wife, Marie Josephte Larue and her parents, Raphael Larue, and Marie Angelique Dubé. It is also possible that the Rivard connection did not come through Christine Dubé at all but through her husband François Raiche. A quick search did not reveal any Larue or Raiche among the descendants of Nicolas or Robert Rivard, but the connection could be hiding in one of the female ancestors further back. Goals for future genealogical explorations!
See you all next week!
Maria
PS: Have a Canadian ancestry challenge of your own? If you haven’t yet submitted your case, you can do so here. I select one each week to research and feature in this newsletter. And if you know anyone else who might be interested, please pass the word.
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