1662-2012, 350th Family Anniversary

On 18 August 1662 in Quebec City my ancestor Jean Philippe Lebel de Beaulieu arrived in Canada. He will join the French army regiments like Le Régiment de la Reine and the Régiment de la Franche Marine sent by the King Louis XIV, the Sun King to protect the borders of the French Empire in North America from the English south of Montreal. From humble beginning to today. We know that he was only 16 years old and illiterate, had come to New France to make a life for himself. Hired himself as a man-servant and worked for friends of  the Governor of New France, he then decided to join the regiments arriving from France. He saw quite a lot of action in what is today Vermont, Lake Champlain area and Albany, New York. He was then posted on the St-Lawrence river at Fort Chambly. Finally returning to Quebec City he received a deed of land and managed to triple his landholding. He will, later in life, do battle again in 1690 when Quebec City is attacked by Admiral Sir William Phipps, the English are quickly defeated. The rest is family history, of farms along the St-Lawrence river and of settlement.
We no longer have farms and are now all city dwellers, involved in different trades and the family now spans Canada and the USA. I wonder what our ancestor would think of such success.

I dedicate this popular musical piece of the 17th Century to his memory.



Malbrouque s'en va en guerre, referring to the Duke of Marlborough and the battle of Malpaquet 1709.
Who has not heard or learn this song in their childhood. I like this clip because it shows the uniform and flag of the regiment under which my ancestor served. There is one funny family trait we all share to this day, the Beaulieu nose. We all have the same nose it is quite funny at family gatherings, anyone looking at all of us would notice that family trait.

Douce France, cher pays de mes ancêtres

Convalescing at home, I have some time on my hands, so I started to look up some family genealogy and found that certain first names in my family keep reappearing over and over again from one generation to the next. I was not really aware of this tradition in my family.  We now have 12 generations in Canada. One ancestor Nicolas Philippe was born in Normandy in 1633 in the small village of Illeville sur Montfort, on the Eure River, population today of 720 persons. He marries in 1650 with Marie Lebel who is from Gruchet le Valasse another small village, it is known for its old Cistercian Monastery, near the Seine River, population 1200 persons.

They have one son Jean Philippe who will immigrate to New France (Canada). He is illeterate like most people of his time being a poor peasant but he can sign his name and hires himself out to work for another farmer in the area of Quebec City, this is how with a work contract you could then immigrate to Canada. It appears that he married Marie Coipel from the Parish of St-Jacques de la Boucherie in Paris but then his marriage is annuled in 1680 by the same Quebec City notary Pierre Duquet de la Chenaye who appears to be the notary of many other families in the area and who will also prepare legal documents for the other branch of my family the Hudon dit Beaulieu.

Jean Philippe Lebel dit Beaulieu will remarry in 30 July 1685 in Charlesbourg near Quebec City with Catherine Galarneau. He dies in Quebec City in January 1703. This is the ancestor who takes on the surname of Lebel dit Beaulieu, he will use both the family name of his father Philippe and add the family name of his mother Lebel and then a third surname Beaulieu. His children will drop the family name Philippe and keep only Lebel dit Beaulieu. Upon his death in 1703 his wife will remarry a man by the name of Savard who has 7 kids of his own. Her children from her first marriage will keep the name Lebel dit Beaulieu.

Our other ancestor Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu of the village Notre-Dame de Chemillé, Cholet, Angers, Maine et Loire, is born in 1648, from the age of 15 in 1663 he works as a domestic for a gentleman named Nicolas Marsolet de Saint-Aignan, said to be a colleague of Samuel de Champlain. As for the Beaulieu surname which is the one that will become the family name, it apparently comes from a forest known as la fôret de Beaulieu, near the village of Beaulieu sur Layon in Maine et Loire and this is the reference Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu will use.

Church of Notre-Dame de Chemillé (old Church XII century), Cholet

He comes to Canada as a soldier with the Compagnie of Grandfontaine in the Regiment of Carignan (which is a Regiment whose original purpose was the protection of the King's person), sailing from LaRochelle on the French Royal Navy ship L'Aigle d'Or de Brouage on the 13 May 1665 and arriving in Quebec City on 19 August 1665, he is 17 years old.  He will participate in battles against the Iroquois (Agniers), will participate in the building of Fort Chambly near Montreal. The Iroquois are defeated, 5 villages are burned and Albany is threathened, Peace is established and by the fall of 1666 he is a baker in Quebec City and then a farmer, he becomes wealthy, owning cows and bulls, has 2 rifles and land 10 hectares fronting the St-Lawrence river which at the time was considered a large piece of land. We also know that he distinguished himself in battle when General Sir William Phipps attacked Quebec City with a British Squadron in October 1690, Louis de Buade Conte de Frontenac is Governor General of New France at the time. The British are defeated and will not attack Canada until the 7 year war in 1759.

Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu and Marie-Ange Gobeil will marry in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Quebec City in July 1676, they lived up to 1681 in La Bouteillerie, Quebec on land given to him by Sieur Jean-Baptiste François Des Champs de la Bouteillerie, who is a French Aristocrat and a Major of the Garrison of Quebec City. He will die in April 1710 at Rivière Ouelle. He and his wife will have 12 children and they in turn will all have many children.

On my mother's side of her family, their ancestor Pierre Gougeon was born in 1659 in Aubigny in Vendée this is the Pays de la Loire region near the Atlantic Coast and the famous Sables d'Olone beach, he was a master mason, he married in Montreal, Marie-Catherine Danis in 1686. I remember La Vendée, in 1969 my parents and us kids visited the region, it was very green countryside, the Loire river and very old French villages, local markets, etc.

A plaque to an ancestor Jean or Giovanni Goujon in Bologna.

So on my father's side of the Family, first names are usually Jean, Philippe, Louis and Laurent.
On my mother's side, Pierre is common. It is as if someone is keeping track of the names of the ancestors and is passing it along to the next generation.
The name Laurent is derived from the Parish church St-Laurent a reminder of their home parish in France. Strangely enough they settle in St-Laurent Parish in Canada. So my family has lived in Canada for  345 yrs.