Surname Saturday (2): Courtois (France > Canada > Wisconsin > Michigan) Monday, June 28, 2010

The surname Courtois first appears on the maternal branch of my family tree with Marie-Flore Courtois, my 2nd great-grandmother. Flore, was born in Trois Rivieres, Nicolet, Quebec, French Canada on 9 Aug 1851 according to the Drouin church record for the St. Edouard parish.

I recently wrote about Flore in my blog post "A Material Mystery". I had requested her marriage certificate and found it was not an accurate record - or at least did not list her parents.

The breakthrough occurred when a Delta County (MI) Genealogical Society researcher sent me a copy of Flore's obituary. From that I learned the names of her three brothers, i.e., Louis, Victor and Arthur. I was then able to look up the brothers' marriage certificates on the no fee familysearch.org pilot site and learned the names of the parents, i.e., Gregoire Courtois and Marie Chene. From there I was amazed at what I learned in only a couple of hours .....

I learned the list of male Courtois ancestors back to the 1600s!
They are from Gregoire's father Charles, on back to Etienne, Francois, Gabriel, Charles**, and Antoine.

**Charles was born in 1647 in St Martin, Rouen, Normandie, France but emigrated to Quebec between 1670 and 1672.

I located the Gregoire Courtois/Marie Chene family in the 1861 Canada Census to verify the family unit -- the entry listed Marie Chene, Gregoire, Lea, Lucie, Louis, Marie-Flore, Victor, Arthur and Jean.

I look forward to researching this family line as Gregoire is listed as a "navigateur" while his father is listed as a "cultivateur".