More searching on the Poissons Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Today I picked through the Drouin records with the goal of eliminating one or more Hectors, Zepherins and Charles from the mix. At this point, I must use original records as the source since there are too many ways to be confused by others' trees and interpretations. Here's what I found to date:

Francois Poisson
+ Charlotte Poisson
I. Isaac Poisson b. 8 Aug 1816
+ Olympe Toutant
a. Joseph Hector b. 28 Mar 1850
==> Not our "Victor" but probably the "Hector" listed in 1870 US Census
+ Marie Jeanne Dontigny m. 2 Mars 1872 (Gentilly)

b. Charles Boromee b. 17 Dec 1847
==> Is our "Charles" in Escanaba
+ Marie Agie Fontaine m 7 Jan 1880 (Champlain)

c. Zepherin b. 16 Feb 1846
==> a Zepherin marries Georgine Auger not sure if its this one
.... married in the US - no parents listed for either

Gabriel Poisson
+ Marie Trottier
a. Joseph Hector b. 11 Aug 1847
==> no French-Canadian marriage found to date

David Poisson
+ Eleanore Dorval
a. Joseph Hector b. 20 Aug 1848
==> no French-Canadian marriage found to date

Finally, a note on one more generation back:

Joseph Poisson
+ Marguerite DesHayes
a. Isaac b. 5 July 1815
==> Not the Isaac married to Olympe Toutant above
b. David b. 15 June 1817
==> May or may not be the David Poisson that married Eleanore Dorval

The research continues ....

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Sentimental Sunday: A visit with a 2nd cousin Monday, July 26, 2010

This past weekend I had a wonderful visit with a Fish 2nd cousin once removed. Our common ancestor is the elusive Victor Fish, born Hector Poisson (or Joseph Hector Poisson).

We swapped notes on ancestors, and strategized on how to determine which of three Hector Poisson entries in the Drouin records might be "ours".

My cousin was able to identify some people correctly in one photo that I showed her - that of Edna Fish and Bill Schragle whom she had met in person.

She gave me a book entitled "The d'Amours Family in Canada" written by Marbey Colburn Hornstein in 1961. Its a lot of fun to bone up on the history of French Canada.

The best surprise was when I turned to page 227 and saw my 9th or 10th great grandfather, Nicolas I Gamache, Seigneur of l'Islet listed as another of my cousin's ancestors too!

Its so great to live in SoCal - where everyone is bound to have a lot of distant cousins in the neighborhood - this most recent visit was to East of San Diego.

Good to meet you "Cousine"!

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Monday Madness: Ziegler - Steckmeyer - Koehler

Today the madness is mine! I thought I'd look for "Georg Ziegler" who was a mayor of a small town in the early 1800s in Wuerttemburg.... fun with google.de - why not! What I found wasthe name Georg Ziegler as a mayor is actually kind of common! Drat. Well, there were two towns Weil am Rhein near Basel and another further south with a great listing of their buergermeister for each year. In the end, this did not lead my any closer to an answer on which village the Wisconsin Ziegler came in the 1850s.

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Monday Madness: Poisson Ancestors Monday, June 28, 2010

I spent a good deal of energy in 2009 researching my grandmother's paternal branch - Fish/Poisson. The challenge being that I can not find a document in US records that clearly indicates the parents of my 2nd great grandfather Victor Poisson. What makes this challenging is that my ancestor Victor was apparently born "Hector". I learned he was from the Trois Rivieres/Gentilly region - but when I search the Drouin records - I find two likely candidates and do not currently have any additional information to break the "tie" as to which "Hector" is my ancestor.

That being said, I learned that Jean Poisson (b. abt 1612) is the ancestor of all French Canadians with the name Poisson and I was lucky enough to find several living distant cousins along the way to share the experience. But I wasn't prepared for what happened next!

I started researching my grandmother's maternal branch - Courtois. I again encountered the name "Poisson" - this time, it is first as Anne-Marie Poisson, my 5th great-grandmother.

Then, I found an article in the Southern California Genealogical Society newsletter with transcribed names of those who went to Canada from a village in France. Turns out that Jean Poisson is on that list, as well as his spouse, Jacqueline Chambois. See some photos here of Tourouvre, France.

While I can not yet complete the connection to Jean Poisson on my "Poisson" branch, I'm now able to trace back to him via my "Courtois" branch! Super!

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Surname Saturday (2): Courtois (France > Canada > Wisconsin > Michigan)

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".

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