I have noticed lately a lot of common ancestors for my two children. These are French Canadian ancestors usually with the name dit Grandmaisson.
The Genealogy
The genealogy for my children Heather and JJ goes from Morrow to Tacy to Barbary to Barbary dit Grandmaison. My understanding is that a dit name is like a nickname or further identifier for a surname. In this case, it appears that Barbary was the original name, but Grandmaison was the dit name.
Starting with Heather
Heather seems to have more of the French Canadian matches. Here is one of Heather’s first French Canadian ThruLines:
It was a genealogical breakthrough when I figured out that the Tacy name was originally Tessier.
The best way to check the connection between JP and Heather is to recreate a tree for JP. JP’s Tree at Ancestry does have a Tessier:
Almina show as Albina in the 1920 Census for Central Falls, RI:
My Tree for JP at Ancestry has a lot of suggestions:
This appears to be Valentine in 1871 in Montreal:
The Marriage record for Valentine is on two different pages:
I can make out that Valentine’s father was Pierre. Her mother was something like Edessa Cyr? That fits in with the Ancestry hints. The ThruLines have Pierre as Tessier dit Lavigne. Here is how my tree looks now:
Here is Pierre in 1891:
I found this 1849 Marriage record from someone else’s tree at Ancestry:
Here, Pierre’s father is another Pierre.
It looks like JP’s tree does match up with Heather’s:
A Tessier DNA/Genealogy Tree
Heather and JJ’s ThruLines
Here is what I see when I look at Heather’s ThruLines for Joseph Tessier:
This shows that there are a total of 8 DNA matches under the descendants of Michel Pierre who I call Pierre Tessier and Ancestry has as dit Lavigne.
Here is what JJ has:
This shows that JJ has fewer matches on the Tessier Line.
Heather and Erica
This shows going up to Morrow but he married Nellie Tacy who was originally a Tessier. It may be difficult to go all the way to Erica as her mother is shown as private. I have Nellie Morrow in my tree, but no further information:
Nellie appears to have also gone by Helen and married Thomas Glancy. It appears that there must be a connection between Heather and Erica:
Heather’s Grandmaison ThruLines
JJ’s Grandmaison ThruLines
Again, JJ has fewer:
Here again, we see the issue where it appears that there should only be one Marguerite Barbary, but they show as two.
JJ and Ransom
Heather and JJ both match Ransom:
Ransom also has a good tree:
However, Ransom’s tree goes from Vilandre to Franche and ThruLines goes from Vilancre to Salisbury.
Here is Theona and family in Providence in 1930:
Here is Charles’ baptismal record:
Ancestry has Theona incorrectly transcribed as Therese. Her last name is Philandry which is different from Ransom’s tree showing Vilandre. My tree so far:
Ancestry thinks Theona’s mother is Lafranboise. My thinking is that Villandre is a variant of Philandry.
This birth record for Theona’s daughter has her as Vilandre. Now I just need a marriage record or baptismal record for Theona. Here is her baptismal record from 1878:
Her full name is Marie Theona Cordelia Vilandre. Her mother’s last name appears to be Franche or Fraiche?
It looks like Theona married in Rhode Island:
Here is the 1891 Census:
In the 1891 Census, Theona’s mother appears to be Lefranboise.
Here is the 1881 Census:
I am assuming that these are the same family, but I may be wrong. I can see why there is so much confusion in the Ancestry trees.
I can look for more information. The 1891 Census has a Pamel or Pomela born about 1874.
We see her parents were also Fabrien Vilandre and Elise Franche.
Here is some information on another sister:
The marriage place may not be right.
Here is a record from another child of the family:
Here is where Sawyer comes in:
Corliss appears to be here in the 1900 Census:
Here, Corliss is understandably transcribed as Corlier. I say close enough. At this point, I ready to give up on this line.
What Might I Learn from This Excercise?
- There is still a DNA match, so something is going on
- The general area of this line of Ransom’s ancestors is the same as the general area of the line of my children’s ancestors (around Montreal)
- There may be another line Heather and JJ are connected with Ransom on or I may have misunderstood his Line or Heather and JJ’s
- I learned a lot about some of Ransom’s ancestors
Heather and Rose
I am ready to try a new line:
Heather matches Rose by DNA. He shows a possible link to Joseph Grandmaison by way of Benjamin Grandmaison. I’ll try the same method which did not work so well previously, by making my own tree for Rose. I picked Rose because her tree is public:
Rose’s tree ends part way up the ThruLines:
This record got me to Imelda’s father:
Here is a scrawly record for Imelda:
It looks like Imelda’s mother’s name is Adelaide Gauthier and that the baptism happened in Noelville, Ontario:
Based on location and time frame, this appears to be William St. Louis:
Here are Elzear aka Joseph and his father Benjamin in 1911:
Of interest, we see that the family was from Quebec and moved to Ontario between four and six years before 1911.
Looking for Benjamin’s Mother
If I am to get agreement with the ThruLines, I need to find a Barbary for Benjamin’s mother. Here is Benjamin’s marriage record:
I have underlined the name of Benjamin’s mother. Here is the abbreviated view of my tree so far:
Here is the 1851 Baptismal record for Hermaline:
Here are Benjamin and his wife with what appears to be Benjamin’s parents:
Hermaline recorded as Ameline was on the next page:
I think this is where the family was living at the time near the top left of the map below:
Here is Benjamin’s marriage record:
That means that I can build a Barbary DNA/Genealogy Tree:
Barbary DNA/Genealogy Tree
Here I left out the dit Grandmaison as I didn’t see this name much in the official records.
Expanding the Tessier Tree
I’ll look at Heather and Mambo:
Mambo appears to be from Canada and has this tree:
Mambo’s tree goes back to Malvina Tessier. Here is Therese in 1931 in Montreal:
Next I would like to follow Lucienne. She is identified on Therese’s baptismal record:
Lucienne’s marriage record gives Lucienne’s mother’s name:
Unfortunately, the transcriber saw Tessier as Gausier. I don’t see it that way.
Here is Malvina’s baptismal record:
Here is St Timothee to the SW of Montreal where Malvina was baptized:
Here is how my tree is shaping up:
Here is an 1851 Marriage record between Louis Tessier and Catherine ‘Chorel’:
This record goes on to another page, but the date and place look right. That gets us back to Lambert Tessier who I hope to be the son of Joseph Tessier.
Here is an 1818 Marriage record for Lambert and Felicite:
Here is the name of the father of Lambert:
I can possibly make out Josephe Tessier.
Here are some Tessiers in 1851 St. Timothee:
Updating My Tessier DNA/Genealogy Tree
I could continue on a bit more with this tree, but I will leave it as is for now. This shows Saloman with two of his siblings and some descendants. It is always interesting to me how far back the DNA can go.
One More for the Barbary Tree
I’ll add one more line to the Barbary DNA/Genealogy Tree and then I’ll end this long Blog.
Now recall in Heather and JJ’s tree, they have a Joseph Barbary dit Grandmaison who married a Marie Grandmaison. So I assume that these two were relatives in some way. When I check the descent from Marie Grandmaison, there appear to be more lines.
I would be tempted to look into the Rosalie Line as there are 5 matches, but I had trouble when I looked into Ransom’s line:
Before I decide, here is the marriage record for Joseph Barbary and Marie Barbary:
It gets confusing as most people had a Joseph or a Marie in their names. Here Joseph is called Francois.
Oddly, I see no Francois in the Baptismal record, unless this is a different person:
Rosalie Barbary
Here is page two of Rosalie’s marriage record from 1842:
Her parents are given as Joseph Barbarie and Marie Barbarie. Here is St. Benoit:
Here is an Ancestry Tree for Rosalie:
Here I don’t see Eliza from 1849, though this is probably Marie Elise. I don’t see Cleophyre from 1840. Plus this would be two years before Rosalie’s marriage.
The Glephire Line
It seems the logical choice is to try out the Glephire Line.
Here is the maternal part of kjp’s tree:
I want to head towards Bourgon. I’ll make more own tree for kjp in the traditional way, starting with kjp and going back in time.
kjp had this record for his grandfather:
Here is a wedding announcement:
Unfortunately, Arthur does not look like the father’s name Ower? in George’s baptismal record.
Coming Down from Rosalie
Due to the fact that people had so many names, I am having trouble tracking down independently of kjp’s tree. For example kjp has:
But if I just use this information, then I am not verifying it. I did find a photo of Louis Franche:
However, this must be his second wife. This is from an Ancestry Tree:
This must be the family in 1861:
My guess is that Ogliphire is the same as Glephire. Glephire was baptized as Marie in 1845:
It looks like Glephie married a Paquet:
Or did she marry this guy?
This person was transcribed as Felix Gonquet, but I suppose it can be the same person.
Confusingly, this is the hint from the ThruLines:
The ThruLines follows Hillaire Hilion to Amanda Filion. So, I am stumped for right now unless Glephire married twice.
Summary and Conclusions
- I was able to check up on my children’s French Canadian ThruLines
- Those ThruLines go back to the 1700’s on the Tessier and Barbary surnames
- I ran into a bit of confusion on the Barbary side. I was close on a few ThruLine connections but couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
- The Tessier Lines were a bit more straightforward
- I enjoy making my own DNA/Genealogy charts for these two lines
- I may come back and fill out more of the charts if I can.