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Episode 094-August 1, 2020

In today’s episode, we’ll explore why caution is needed when using online trees. The emphasis will be on the importance of finding original records and dissecting them for every clue available. Last, we’ll weave a bit of DNA into our paper search. After another AFGS Moment and Journal Rundown, we’ll see what, if anything, is happening in the French-Canadian world.

I also mention a little project I’ve been working on–the publication of my new book, French Language Lifelines for the Anglo Genealogist. It does exactly what the title says. It offers help for French-Canadian genealogists who don’t have a workable grasp of the French language. It’s available on Amazon. You can read more about it and find the link at maplestarsandstripes.com/lifelines.

Here are some early comments:

Super excited! I received my copy today. Just flipped through it and this book will be at hand on my desk (top of the pile) as the most useful tool for my family history. Thanks Sandy for answering so many of my questions with just the few pages I have reviewed. -Lisa

Well done! If you can’t read French you need this book! -Pat

Your book is masterfully organized and will be a beneficial aide going forward. -Norah

Methodology 101: A Cautionary Tale

Marguerite dite Julie Bousquet, my 3x-great-grandmother, married Antoine Griveau dit Boisjolie 28 November 1826 in L’Assomption. This case study focuses on trying to determine her parents.

That should have been easy since I had her marriage record. However, her parents’ names are missing. I figured either the priest forgot or Julie is illegitimate.

I decided to check online trees to see if anyone had already figured it out. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

In Ancestry’s public member trees, Marguerite dite Julie Bousquet married to Antoine Griveau dit Boisjolie appears in 148 trees. Tree after tree after tree pointed to Cécile Goyette and Antoine Julian Bousquet as Julie’s parents.

With so many people believing that, it must be right. Right? Not really. Digging just a little bit deeper would have had them questioning their trees.

First, I checked the PRDH (see episodes 26 and 65) family card for Antoine and Julie. They were having children together in St-Jacques-de-L’Achigan and L’Assomption between 1827 and at least 1849.

Then I found the family card for Julie’s supposed parents, Antoine Bousquet and Cécile Goyette. Yes, they had a daughter Julie, born in 1814. A little young for an 1826 marriage, but not for her 1834 marriage to Joseph Messier Duchene Chene. When someone marries more than once, the first marriage only is listed on this family card. This Julie first married in 1834, not 1826.

Then I checked the family card for Julie and Joseph, and surprise! They were having children at the same time that my Julie and Antoine were building their family. Cécile’s Julie cannot be my Julie.

Before we check out more online trees, let’s go back to Antoine and Julie’s actual marriage record to search out more clues. I’ve included my translation below.

Parish of L’Assomption- 1826

M : Antoine Griveau dit Boisjoly and Marguerite Bousquet

28th November 1826, after the publication of three banns of marriage made for three consecutive Sundays during the parish mass and similar publication made in the parishes of Lanoraie and of Lavaltrie …[priest’s info] …between Antoine Griveau dit Boisjoly residing in this parish, minor son of Jean Marie Griveau dit Boisjoly cultivateur and of Therese Cusson his father and mother of Lavaltrie of one part; and Marguerite dite Julie Bousquet of the other part; …[found no impediments, got everyone’s consent]…[he married them] in the presence of Jean Marie Griveau father, of Jean Griveau brother of the groom, of Louis Bousquet maternal uncle, of Alexis Panneton friend of the bride, and several others…

Let’s look closely at the clues in this record:

Clue #1: The church published three banns of marriage on three consecutive Sundays during the parish mass. This wedding took place in L’Assomption. So the banns were read in that parish. But it also says that similar publication was made at the parishes of Lanoraie and Lavaltrie. Lavaltrie makes sense because that’s the parish where Antoine’s parents, Jean Marie and Thérèse reside. But why were the banns read in the parish of Lanoraie? That’s the first place I would begin looking for Julie or her parents. She may or may not have been born there, but there’s a good possibility that she resided there before her marriage. Or perhaps her mother was from that parish.

Clue #2: Look at the witnesses. Usually the first two mentioned are witnesses for the groom, and the last two mentioned are witnesses for the bride. One of Julie’s witnesses is “Louis Bousquet, maternal uncle.” That means Julie’s mother was a Bousquet, not her father. And that would fit in with the theory that the priest did not mention parents because Julie was illegitimate.

Next, I looked at FamilySearch’s great big everybody-join-in family tree. There are two trees for Antoine Griveau and Julie Bousquet. The first one doesn’t mention Julie’s parents. That’s my tree.

The second tree lists Antoine Bousquet and Cécile Goyette as her parents. But this time, her birth information is different. This profile says that Julie was born 7 June 1806 (much more believable than 1814) in St-Jacques-de-L’Achigan and baptised in 1806 in Saint-Philippe, Rousillon.

The fact that a full date is not given for the baptism usually indicates that the researcher did not actually find a baptism record and is just estimating, but I checked the parish registers for Saint-Philippe anyhow. (I also checked St-Jacques; nothing there.) What I found was that there was no Saint-Philippe in 1806. The parish was St-Jean-François-Régis. And I did find a Marguerite Bousquet, the daughter of Joseph Bousquet and Marie Anne Levasseur, born on December 7 and baptized on the eighth. This Marguerite marries François Desrochers in 1827, right when my Julie is starting her family with Antoine Boisjoly. Plus this Julie has a Bousquet father, not a Bousquet mother.

Tree after tree was wrong, and the evidence against it was not all that hard to come by.

Now let’s take a look at the DNA evidence. I’ve had my DNA tested at Ancestry as well as FamilyTreeDNA, and I’ve uploaded my raw data to MyHeritage and GEDmatch. I’ve also uploaded a GEDcom of my tree to all four sites. On my tree, I stop at Julie and don’t include parents. Yet Ancestry suggests that Antoine Bousquet is her father based, of course, on the multitude of trees that perpetuate the incorrect information.

If you tested your DNA at Ancestry, you’re familiar with Thrulines. My fourth great-grandparents are listed as, you guessed it, Antoine Bousquet and Cécile Goyette. But if you look closely at Antoine and Cécile’s Thrulines, I have thirty-six DNA cousins all supposedly descended from them, but they’re also only descended from Julie. None of them are descended from any of Antoine and Cécile’s other children, and their Julie had at least one brother and sister who married. Shouldn’t I have DNA cousins descended from them also?

But then along came evidence that refuted that. Finally, I had matches who shared ancestors further up the line. If I continue up one more generation in Thrulines, I find Antoine’s parents Julien Bousquet and Marie-Josephe Archambault. Not only do I share DNA with several cousins through Julie, but now I also have two DNA cousins through one of Antoine’s brothers, Jean Baptiste Bousquet, and one through brother Julien. If I truly am not descended from Antoine and his father Julien, then I shouldn’t also have DNA links with Antoine’s brothers unless I am connected genetically through a different line. You know how we are sometimes connected to these French-Canadian families in many ways through several different children. So that needs more research.

Cécile’s parents are François Goyette and Marguerite Dachet. Through them I have an inexplicable forty-one genetic cousins. Twenty-one are descended through Julie. But twenty are descended through six of Cécile’s siblings.

Disproving a theory is just as important as proving one. It’s the best way to get to the truth. So I have no answers yet, but I have several avenues for future research:

• • I can research the other Bousquet/Goyette lines to see if we’re actually related in a way other than going through Antoine Griveau and Julie Bousquet.
  • I can search for Louis Bousquet, the maternal uncle.
  • I can search records in Lanoraie. Not just baptism records, but also notary records for the Bousquet family.

 

Now if only I had more time!!

If anyone can shed more light on this situation, feel free to write in with your findings. I’ll air them on a future podcast.

AFGS Moments

Annette Smith of the American French Genealogical Society of Woonsocket, RI, shares a tip about nationality misconceptions that can lead your research down the wrong path.

Journal Rundown

ACGS’s American-Canadian Genealogist, volume 46, number 1: articles on a Levesque ancestor in the American Revolutionary War and on ground-penetrating radar and Acadian graves at Grand-Pré.

French-Canadian News

The Quebec Family History Society

August 2, 1 to 2 PM, a virtual meeting on Zoom. Dr. Penny Walters will speak on Mixing DNA with a Paper Trail.

The American-Canadian Genealogical Society

NEW LOCATION: Due to COVID-19, reservations are needed to visit the ACGS library in its new location at 1 Sundial Avenue, Suite 317N.

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