Some notes and to-do tasks for myself, provided as-is—they may or may not make sense, or be useful, to other people.

dit names

When identifying someone by an alternate name, dit should be thought of as meaning "called," and it indicates a kind of nickname that eventually became formal. A good explanation for this custom can be found at "dit" Names. As the page explains, a dit name could become a last name for one generation, which then might or might not be retained by the next generations. A perfect example is Pierre Vallée, discussed in Our Ancestors Pierre and Jean Vallée: born Vallée, he became known as "La Vallée," a surname his son Charles adopted. But Charles' own children dropped the "La" to return to the original family name.

Useful Resources

Center for French Colonial Studies

Many-Roads.com - Researching Nouvelle France (New France)

Hard-to-Find Sources

Here are some PDF versions of some useful sources on Upper Louisiana history.

Belting, Natalia Maree (1945), Kaskaskia Under the French Regime.

Lankford, George E. (1995). Almost 'Illinark': The French Presence in Northeast Arkansas.

Reyling, August (1963). Historical Kaskaskia.

Alvord, Clarence Walworth, ed. (1909). Kaskaskia Records (1778-1790).

Rushforth, Brett (2003). A Little Flesh We Offer You": The Origins of Indian Slavery in New France.

Gregory M. Franzwa, The Story of Old Ste. Genevieve

Impossible-to-Find Sources

Lucille Basler: Pioneers of Old Sainte Genevieve

Helen Valle Crist: They Was Frenchmans

French Orthography

French Wikipedia's article on French Orthography

The spelling of words is largely based on the pronunciation of Old French c. 1100–1200 AD, and has stayed more or less the same since then, despite enormous changes to the pronunciation of the language in the intervening years. Modern French spelling was codified in the late 17th century by the Académie française, based largely on previously established spelling conventions.

This means that in French the ubiquitous final silent "s" occurs on words where the "s" used to be pronounced, but became silent over time. From my reading in linguistics I am pretty sure that, during the transition away from pronouncing the "s" you would have had some speakers using one while others used the other—or even some speakers using both, possibly depending on the social context.

This could shed some light on some issues on the AuBuchon pages.

  • Confusion over the writing of the French ancestors' home town in Saint-Saëns and the Vallée Families.
  • There is evidence on the The Janis Line, Pt. 1 page that the final "s" in Janis can be pronounced or silent. To wit: Tanguay says that "Gany" is an alternate spelling of Janis (meaning it would end in a silent "s"), but historical documents have both Janice and Jannice as alternate spellings of Janis (meaning the "s" would be pronounced).
  • In the church records on that same page, there is great inconsistency in the spelling of marraine and parrain (godmother and godfather). Is that because the missionary priests sent to New France were bad spellers? Or was it because, in the 18th Century, the number of "r"s was optional—in the way that grey is a valid variant of gray in English? But if French spelling has "stayed more or less the same since" the 12th Century, then the spelling of these words was probably not optional in the 18th Century. Ergo, the French Jesuit priests sent over to the New World were not always very well educated.

French Roots

Notes on "Our Ancestors Pierre and Jean Vallée"

The Original and a Rival English Translation

Here are some notes on Les ancêtres Pierre et Jean Vallée.

One concern I have with this webpage is that it has the ambiance of the kind of website that might sooner rather than later go down—it seems to be implemented with very basic HTML, for example. For this reason I provide a link to a PDF version of the webpage here. The .pdf file has some dicey links, but it's better than nothing.

Here's Norm Léveillée's English translation, which is no longer on the Internet.

In case I one day decide to remove the link above, you can view Norm Léveillée's translation by going to the Wayback Machine, a database of old web pages. Follow these steps:

  1. Go to https://web.archive.org.
  2. Paste this URL into the search bar:
    • http://www.leveillee.net/ancestry/AncetresPierreJeanVallee.htm
  3. It should open up to a calendar for the last backup of this website, in 2020. Hover your cursor over the last date, Feb. 17, 2020, and in the window that appears click on "10:16:13".
  4. This should bring you to the old webpage. The only thing missing are the images, and those are in the original French version.

The Crossing to America

Regarding Pierre and Jean's crossing of the Atlantic, Maurice Vallée's article has:

Our research hypothesis is that the Brothers Vallée embarked at Dieppe for New France during the summer of 1657 on one of ships commanded by Captain Poullet and financed by the merchants of Rouen, the Saint-Sebastien, and they did this in the company of Charles LeFrançois from Muchedent.

The author doesn't explain what makes him pose this as a research hypothesis. How did he come up with the name of the captain, the ship, and one specific passenger?

Naturally, as soon as I got the chance I was googling key words from this paragraph. But nothing came of it. Or almost nothing.

At https://web.ncf.ca/et116/r116x14.htm I found what looks like the notes of a genealogist-wannabe like myself. They seem somewhat disorganized, which I hope is not the way these notes appear to my readers (assuming I have any). The following come from a page that would seem to be someone's notes from a ... diary perhaps? Originally in French?

1656
Kabec, 6 ships arrived, the Rene at 80 tonnage, the Taureau at 150 tonnage captain Rlie Tadourneau, the Fortune at 100 tonnage captain Elie Raymont, the Saint Sebastin captain Guillaume and Jean Poulet and 2 unknown ships.

1657 August 20: Kabec, the ship Armes d'Amsterdam at 250 tonnage arrives with captain Jacob Gilles, the Saint Sebastien captain Guillaume and Jean Poulet and at least one ship unknamed..

1658 Kebec, 5 ships arrived, the Saint Joseph at 350 tonnage captain Fabien Marot, the Taureau at 150 tonnage captain Elie Tadourneau, the Prince Guillaume at 200 tonnage captain Jacques Jamain, the Saint Sebastien captain Guillaume et Jean Poulet and the Sacrifice d'Abraham at 300 tonnage pilopt Pierre Boileau and captain Elie Raymond.

At https://www.acadian.org/history/regiment-de-carignan-salieres/:

  • The page mentions Poulet and the Saint-Sebastian but not together.

Searching for "LeFrançois" Muchedent was a little more satisfying.

  • This link reassures me that he once existed, but there's nothing about the ship he crossed on: https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LY6R-HFG/charles-lefrançois-1626-1700
  • This page from My LeFrancois pioneering ancestors briefly mentions his crossing:

  • A pioneer of New France, Charles was a boyhood friend ofanother pioneer Romain Trepanier in France. At 30 years old he decided to go and find his friend in Nouvelle France at Beaupre. History first finds him in Canada as a witness at Pierre Tremblay's wedding on the 19 Sep 1657. On 2 Feb 1660, Charles was confirmed by the Mgr. of Laval.

  • I cannot find any link between him and the Saint-Sebastien.

Map of New France

Here's a map, which may one day be of service to my genealogy website.

New France, 16th-18th Centuries (Encyclopedia Brittanica)
New France, 16th-18th Centuries (Encyclopedia Brittanica)


Upper Louisiana and François Vallé

John Reynolds

In and around Chapter XII, John Reynolds in his autobiography devotes a lot of space to summarizing the Creole culture.

Further Research

Jeannie M. Whayne, ed: Cultural Encounters: Indians and Europeans in Arkansas

Natalia Maree Belting: Kaskaskia Under the French Regime

Allan Greer: The People of New France

M. J. Morgan: Land of Big Rivers: French & Indian Illinois 1699-1778

Carl J. Ekberg: French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times

Robert Englebert and Guillaume Teasdale: French and Indians in the Heart of North America, 1630-1815

Washington Irvine: Three Western Narratives (p. 88)

Pre-American history of the Vallés:

  • http://www.leveillee.net/ancestry/AncetresPierreJeanVallee.htm

Sophi White, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians: Material Culture and Race in Colonial Louisiana, 2012

  • Referenced in Tiya Miles.

  • https://books.google.com/books/about/Wild_Frenchmen_and_Frenchified_Indians.html?id=Mm03mQEACAAJ&hl=en

  • "Based on a sweeping range of archival, visual, and material evidence, Wild Frenchmen and Frenchified Indians examines perceptions of Indians in French colonial Louisiana and demonstrates that material culture—especially dress—was central to the elaboration of discourses about race."

  • "French officials had effectively admitted defeat of their policy by the time Louisiana became a province of New France in 1682. But it was here, in Upper Louisiana, that proponents of French-Indian intermarriage finally claimed some success with Frenchification. For supporters, proof of the policy's success lay in the appearance and material possessions of Indian wives and daughters of Frenchmen."

Anton J. Pregaldin, "Genealogies of the French Settlers in the Mississippi River Valley

  • Most comprehensive and accurate, according to Ekberg (p.29).

Robert Englebert and Bronwyn Craig, "La conquête, la liberté et l’adaptation franco-américaine au Pays des Illinois, 1778-1787"

Il est surprenant de constater le peu d’attention qui est accordée à la population créole française au Pays des Illinois par les spécialistes de la Révolution américaine. L’historiographie se fixe en grande partie sur les Américains comme George Rogers Clark, ainsi que sur les victoires et les défaites militaires. Cette piste historiographique anglo-centriste et chauvine marginalise les autres, c’est-à-dire les Autochtones et les francophones, en donnant du poids au mythe fondateur et nationaliste des États-Unis. Quelques-unes des rares enquêtes qui se penchent sur les Créoles dépeignent la disparition supposée de la population francophone au Pays des Illinois. Par exemple, l’étude de Clarence Alvord, au début du XXe siècle, souligne qu’une vague d’immigration américaine, dont la révolution marque le début, met fin aux communautés créoles. Un peu plus nuancé, Carl Ekberg déduit que la domination éventuelle des États-Unis se confirma avec le contrôle américain de la farine créole destinée à La Nouvelle-Orléans pendant les années 1770 et 1780.

It is surprising to witness the paucity of attention given to the French Creole population in the Illinois Country by specialists of the American Revolution. The historiography focuses for the most part either on Americans such as George Rogers Clark or on military victories and defeats. This chauvinistic, anglo-centric mind-set marginalizes others, specifically the indigenous people of North America as well as the French-speaking population, while giving weight to the nationalistic founding myths of the United States. Some rare research covering the Creole population does explore the "disappearance" of the francophones from the Illinois Country. For example, a study by Clarence Alvord at the start of the 20th century, makes the case that a wave of American immigration, of which the Revolution marked the beginning, put an end to the Creole communities. A little more nuanced, Carl Ekberg deduces that the eventual domination of the United States was solidified with American control of the wheat destined for New Orleans during the 1770s.

Alice of Old Vincennes

  • http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4097/4097-h/4097-h.htm
  • The preface mentions “Gaspard Roussillon's letter,” which inspired her romance. Find this letter.
    • https://greatpenformances.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/alice-of-old-vincennes/
  • There’s a chapter on Father Gibault
    • http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4097/4097-h/4097-h.htm#chap05
    • Compare to Ekberg’s account
    • His statue at the national park: https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=942C3356-D3CA-87A9-ABF314AF81E3F2F6
    • He also appears in Alberts.

Disorganized To-Do List

  • "Almost 'Illinark': The French Presence in Northeast Arkansas," by George E. Lankford, in Cultural Encounters: Indians and Europeans in Arkansas, edited by Jeannie M. Whayne
    • This is the article I quote re Jean Baptiste Janis
    • Can’t find on Arkansas University Press website.
    • Put into Amazon queue, $6.95
    • Trying to find the books referenced in this article in the Kaskaskia Under the French pdf/book:
      • Tanguay is mentioned many times; Ekberg not once.
    • Try WorldCat library resource, or ask at library.
  • John Henry Sander as Johann Heinrich
    • Kristi’s posting has Johan
  • New Vallee page using Ekberg book.
    • Tree from his parents/grandparents to Mom.
    • First section of Ekberg gives picture of conditions in France.
  • Louis Sedilot
    • See Wikipedia article.
  • Civil War prisoner
    • https://www.civilwar.org/learn/articles/ancestor-research-guide
  • Emma Lewis Coleman: New England Captives Carried to Canada Between 1677 and 1760
  • https://books.google.com/books?id=UoBIBs9HiW8C
  • Search for names in family tree here.
    • Dominique Thaumur, master surgeon
  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Archambault
  • Ekberg article: “Agriculture, "Mentalités", and Violence on the Illinois Frontier”
    • https://www.jstor.org/stable/40192931?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
    • French less prone to violence than Anglo-Americans.
  • Kaskaskia Under the French
    • Looking for names in Ahnentafel report that are mentioned in book.
    • Started at Margurrite Sédiolot and went backward.
    • p. 84: July I. Dominique La Source, son of Jean Baptiste La Source, ancien officier de milice, and Frangoise Rivard, and Elisabeth Aubuchon, daughter of Antoine Aubuchon and Elisabeth de Launay.
      • Jean Baptiste = Jean Baptiste Thaumur
      • Elisabeth de Launay = Elisabeth Delaunaise
    • p. 84: November 8, 1757. Henri Carpentier, Nouvelle Chartres, and Alaric .\ubuchon, daughter of Pierre Aubuchon and Marie Brunet. Three bans.
      • Marie Brunet = Marie Brunet Bourbonnais.
    • p. 89: Claude Caron:
      • Eighth child of Claude Caron and his second wife, Jeanne Boyer, baptized at ^Montreal July 12, 1714. (Tanguay, H, 548). He married Charlotte Lachenais, daughter of Philippe Lachenais and Marguerite Texier, February 29, 1743. Their children included:
  • Abraham P. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark
  • Alvord, Cahokia Records, https://archive.org/details/cahokiarecords1702alvo
  • Alvord, Kaskaskia Records, https://archive.org/details/kaskaskiarecords05alvo

Indian Ancestry Investigation

Check out:

Adultery

Marguerite Vallé's mother was probably a slave, Ekberg reasons, because there is almost no record of adultery between the French in Upper Illinois.

Corroborating this are these paragraphs from Chapter XII of John Reynolds' autobiography:

Chastity with the Creoles was a sine qua non, and a spurious offspring was almost unknown among them. It is the immutable decree to man from the Throne itself, that in proportion to the introduction of sin and guilt into the heart, the same proportion [of] happiness abandons the person.

The early French were forced to practise that excellent injunction in the Lord's prayer, "lead us not into temptation." This was a negative lever, if such can exist, in their humble and innocent happiness.

Also, the paragraphs above this quotation give you a good sense of their culture.

  • Could I squeeze this into the early part of the Jean Baptiste pages?

Marguerite's mother: Indian slave or African slave?

It seems safe to presume that Marguerite's mother was an Indian rather than a black slave.
  • Indian slaves were more often married. There is precedent for Frenchmen to free Indian women and have families with them. (See Tiya Miles notes.)
  • On the other hand, p. 245 of Ekberg's François Vallé and His World says that Vallé had only one Indian slave in the census of 1770, and that was a man. So how would he have access to an Indian woman for long enough that he would learn she became pregnant by him and he would feel responsible for raising their child?
  • The answer could be that he owned Marguerite's mother when she was conceived (1759 or 1760), but that her mother later died or was freed.
Try to find genealogy of Louis Carron.

Old Indian Ancestry Notes

(Note: I compiled these notes in 2015. As of Fall, 2021, many of the links are dead. I'm hoping that a little bit of scrounging around wherever the links lead you will turn up the reference in question.)

Here are some links and notes that I hope to explore in the (apparently) never-ending quest to answer the question, "Are we part-Native American?" Some of these also appear as links on the Our (Supposed) Indian Ancestry page.

Historic Missourians page on François Vallé. This is the first stop if you'd like to learn more about Vallé. It has a passing reference to Marguerite: "Together the couple had six children: four boys and two girls. Vallé had another daughter, Marguerite, from an extramarital relationship. No details are known about her birth mother, but Marguerite was raised in the Vallé household along with the rest of the Vallé children."; book cited: Crist, Helen Vallé. They Was Frenchmans: The Vallé Family Legacy. Brea, CA: Creative Continuum, 2003. [REF F508.2 V242cr]. But this book is probably not useful since the article says ""little is known," and it was published only a year after Ekberg's biography.

National Register of Historic Places, including 483 Roberts Street in St. Genevieve. A record of historical St. Genevieve houses that mentions a "Louis Caron, son of Claude Caron and Charlotte La Chense. He married Marguerite Vallé, daughter of François Vallé Sr., in 1778." A PDF version can be found at National Register of Historic Places. You'll find the quotation above on p. 62; you should also be able to find it by hitting Ctrl-F and searching "Marguerite."

Marguerite Vallé at Ancestry.com Has "Marguerite Vallé - daughter of Indian slave (1760-1804)"

Dictionary of Missouri Biography (1999). An entry written by Carl J. Ekberg on François Vallé's wife, Marianne, which reads in part: "In addition to these six children there was a seventh child, Marguerite, whom Vallé raised in her household. Marguerite was the illegitmate daughter of François Vallé, but the evidence suggests Marianne accepted her into the family as one of her own. Marguerite was perhaps the product of a passing liaison between François and an Indian woman, but in any case Marianne's acceptance shows a wonderful generosity of spirit."

Car(r)on family page at Ancestry.com. "Louis Carron was born abt 1756 in Kaskaskia, ILL to Claude and Charlotte. Louis was given a land grant on the forks of Gabourie about 3 miles north of Ste. Genevieve, MO. Louis was one of the first men to examine Iron Mountain on the St. François River. On Nov. 24, 1778, he married Marguerite Vallé who was half indian and the illegitimate daughter of François Vallé. They had 11 children."

Discussion of Brian Joseph Oster's website on Upper Louisiana genealogy. So far I have been unable to find this website on the internet.

Ancestors of George Louis Grimshaw. Not much here about Marguerite, but it may track some of her descendants. The source for Marguerite seems to be Tom Stevenson. I have tried to contact him at the given email address, with no reply so far.thomass@dca.net/thomass@dca.net

Brenda Weeks' Email

Here is the text of Brenda Weeks' email from June 27, 2019.

I am Brenda Weeks - an officer of the Blair Society for Genealogical Research. I wanted to address your comments about DNA testing being an iffy sort of thing. Quite the contrary it is not at all iffy. DNA testing will positively link one to one's relatives. I know this from my work with the Blair Society - see Blair DNA project - and also from my own DNA testing. I used a company called 23&me because I am a woman and tracking the DNA that was passed to me from my mother (mt DNA) would not get me very far that I could follow with a paper trail. Because I am a woman my Y DNA can't be traced this way. As my father is an Eggemeyer and there is no Eggemeyer DNA project with any company we chose 23&me. We tested independently of each other and the results are that I am connected to my dad - showing the appropriate 50% match and I have also matched a 2nd cousin on my father's side -who I knew ahead of time - and she showed up there in my DNA matches and a different distant cousin who I had been in contact with about genealogy on my mother's side. Most recently I found another descendant of Francois Valle in my DNA matches. I went looking for that connection after I had a good paper trail back to Francois Valle. Since, in my case, it was 6 to 8 generations back according to the DNA company I looked for someone in my DNA connections in that range who had a French surname and without much trouble was able to find someone related to me and who also descends from Francois Valle. It sounds to me like Aunt Gennie also tested on 23&me since it told her what percent was Indian. I am .2% so more diluted than your Aunt Gennie and my daughter doesn't show a trace of the Indian ancestry saddly. My father though is .7% - this I can't explain this percentage except to say that the DNA does not give you exactly 50% from each parent that is an average.

I too had a family story about a grandmother who was an Indian. I too descend from Marguerete Valle. My lineage is this me- my dad - his mother - Lena Brase Eggemeyer Rhodes, her mother, Jennie Carrow Brase Smith, her father Charles Carrow, his father Louis Athanasius Carron, his father Athanaise Cigfroid Caron "Anton" his mother Marguerite.

Aunt Gennie can look for me and my father on 23&me but we will not show up as very closely related to her. If I knew what Gennie's real name was I would also look for her in my matches.

By "Aunt Gennie" I think Brenda means my Aunt Ginny/Virginia. See my Indian Ancestry Notes for my take-aways from Brenda's email.

Kristi AuBuchon

√ Notes for Kristi, on her sheet:

  • Bertha Louis Franck “married an unknown spouse”.
  • Daniel Adam Franck “was born on 08 Mar 1851 in Alsenbruck-, Langneil, Bavaria, Germany”
    • Couldn’t google this until I found a page that described it as “Alsenbrück-Langmeil Pfalz Bavaria”.
      • Searching on that in Google gives good results.
    • https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsenbrück-Langmeil
      • https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsenbr%25C3%25BCck-Langmeil&prev=search
        • “Until 1880 the municipality name was only Alsenbrück”
  • “Mary Rebecca Wessel was born in 1801 in Twistringen, Kingdom of Hanov”
  • Should be Hanover.
    • Friedrich Jakob Franck “was born on 1 Juni 1808”
  • “Friedrich Jakob Franck, son of Daniel Frank”
    • Is the father’s last name spelled correctly?
  • √ Notes for Kristi, other:
    • It looks like John Henry Sander’s widow eloped a couple of years after his death.
      • https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/148698526/
      • The Cape Girardeau Democrat from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, December 8, 1900, Page 5
      • “Perry Hopper and the widow of the late John Henry Sander, it is reported, eloped the other day and got married.”