Marie Angélique (Gregoire) Grégoire dite Valentin (1724 - 1795)

Born 19 May 1724 in Contrecoeur, Canada, Nouvelle-France

Ancestors

Wife of Pierre Louis Claude (Labossiere) Laboissière — married 1 Feb 1745 in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Canada, Nouvelle-France

Descendants

Died 8 Jan 1795 at age 70 in Contrecoeur Bas-Canada

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Biography

Marie Angelique Magdeleine Gregoire dit Valentin was born on a Friday, May 19, 1724 to Mathurin Gregoire, the son of a Carignan soldier and a Fille du Roi and Marie Elisabeth Fayol, the grand daughter of another Carignan solider and another Fille du Roi.

She appears to be the third child in a family of seven children of which five were girls. Marie Angelique was one of only three children out of seven who survived to adulthood and married. Her lineage in Quebec is even older and more illustrious than that of her husband. Marie’s paternal grand parents and one set of her maternal great grand parents were both Filles du Roi – Carignan Soldat couples. In Quebec this is comparable to being descended from two separate Mayflower couples.

Marie Angelique Magdeleine Gregoire dit Valentin married Pierre Louis Claude Laboissiere on a Monday, February 2, 1745 at St. Denis sur Richelieu which is inland a little from Contrecoeur and as the name suggests, is on the Richelieu River. She was about 16 months older than her husband. Pierre was the son of Jean Baptiste Laboissiere and Marie Catherine Martin.

Sadly, Marie’s father was already dead, having died five years earlier, but the other three parents were there. It is interesting that they were married at St. Denis as the register lists them both as living at Contrecoeur. Although he was not present, a Father Beaudouin of St. Ours and Contrecoeur had signed the permission for the marriage. Several witnesses are listed, but none were able to sign. The priest was a Father Gervaise.

Pierre was a farmer and also a Lieutenant in the militia. He assisted the Captain of his group by preparing new recruits and giving them weapons training. In 1768 at age 43, he was appointed as judge of the Seigneurie of Contrecoeur.

The previous Labossiere family trees and books list that Pierre and Marie had 15 children, but it is almost certain that this is incorrect, and that the birth order given is also not correct. For example, the fifth child is recorded as being born only 25 months after the marriage. Another child, Pierre is listed as marrying at only age seven and then becoming a father the next year at eight years old. It is believed that several children from the next generation or some of the grandchildren were inadvertently assigned to the grandparents. The complete baptism, marriage, and burial records have been found for this entire family and are believed to be complete.

From a careful review of the parish records, Pierre Louis Claude Laboissiere and Marie Angelique Magdeleine Gregoire dit Valentin have been found to have had 12 children, six girls, again, all named Marie with different middle names and six boys, two of whom were twins who each lived only 18 days. All of the other ten children lived to adults, married and most had many children.

Their first child was a girl, Marie Angelique, no doubt named for her mother. Pierre lived to see her marry and have ten grandchildren for him and his wife, however two died while he was still alive. Three more would be born in their grandmother’s lifetime, but sadly they also died as infants for a total of 13 children, but five infant deaths.

Pierre and Marie’s 2nd. child was another girl, Marie Ursule. Marie had eight children while her father, Pierre was still alive, but tragically five died as infants. Then as if it was not enough for the young mother to lose six of her babies, her husband also died young. While no record of his burial has been found, it was likely before 1780 as Marie Ursule remarried that year and had another six children and this time only two died young, but another child died as a toddler, giving her a total of 13 children, but a staggering number of eight who died for about 62% mortality.

The third child was Jean-Baptiste, no doubt named for his grandfather, who lived to see him grow to a young man. Jean-Baptiste was widowed and remarried and appears to have had at least 23 children from his two wives, but again there was very high infant mortality with 10 dying as infants.

Marie Louise was the fourth child and third daughter. She lived to only 49 years old, but she did survive both her parents. Marie Louise and her husband, Joseph Gosselin had ten children. One died as an infant and then tragedy struck the family in the fall of 1783 as three children died within 11 days; one only 8 months old; another about two years and three months and the third, about three years, ten months. This must have been some sort of epidemic, but the burial records give no clues. Three years later, the family would lose a fourth child, this time a teenager, not quite 14 years. Out of ten children, they had six survive.

Marie Josephe or Josette was the fifth child and she herself died young at only 25 years, just nine days after delivering twin girls. The little girls also died, one living for about 1 ½ months, the other for about five months.

The sixth child is Pierre Louis, the direct ancestor of the author of this family history. Pierre Louis was born when his father was only 29 years old, but as Pierre Louis Claude did not have a long life, dying at only 57 years old, he was already dead for six months when his son, Pierre Louis married. Pierre Louis had a total of 14 children and his family seems to have beat the odds as only two died as infants.

The next two children, the seventh & eighth, were twins boys, Charles-Michel and Joseph. As has been explained earlier, it is believed these are the twin boys who were incorrectly attributed to their grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Laboissiere and Marie Catherine Martin. The two twin boys survived only 18 days and were buried together at Ste Trinite de Contrecoeur. This is verified in the PRDH records and the Cyprien Tanguay Dictionnaire.

Another boy, the fifth son and ninth child for Pierre and Marie was next and he was also named Joseph. Joseph and his wife, Marie Coitu married about three years before Pierre Louis Claude died. They also had their first child in that same time period, but sadly the little boy, Pierre Louis, died just a few months before he was five years old, but after his grandfather’s death, so it is hoped the old man had some happiness from this to compensate for all of the loss. Although, Joseph Labossiere and Marie Coitou would live to see their 53rd. marriage anniversary , then die within ten months of each other, records could only be found for two children for them, both sons, the one who died young and a second, born 12 years after his older brother whom he would never have known.

After, Joseph, the tenth child was another girl, Marie-Archange or Archangel. She married two years before her father’s death and none of her children died while her father was still alive, so this must have been something of a blessing to Pierre and Marie as they grew older. Marie-Archange eventually had eight children, all but one before her mother died, although two of these grandchildren also died before their grandmother.

Marie-Amable was the 11th. child and the last daughter of Pierre Louis Claude and Marie Angelique. She was 23 years old when she married Barthelemy Menard who was about eight months younger than her. Only 10 ½ months later Marie-Amable gave birth to a son whom they named after his father. Sadly, Marie-Amable died only nine days later. Her husband would live on for another 64 years. He did remarry about 3 ½ years later.

The last child of Pierre Louis Claude and Marie-Angelique was a son, Francois Marie. When he was 27 years old, he married Angele Angelique Gendron, a younger sister of Marie-Anne Gendron, the wife of his older brother, Pierre Louis, thus their children became double first cousins. Francois Marie and Angele Angelique had 12 children, eight boys and four girls and remarkably, all of them lived to adults. It is also interesting that the eldest sister, Marie-Angelique Laboissiere had earlier married Hyacinthe Gendron, an uncle of Angele Angelique and Marie-Anne Gendron. This further complicates the interrelationships.

Most of this family information has been learned by finding and studying the Quebec parish church records. These records have been microfilmed and subsequently digitized by the LDS or Mormon Church and are freely available on their FamilySearch.org website. It is generally quite easy to separate families as both parents are almost always listed for baptisms, marriages, and burials and women are always listed by their maiden name except occasionally when it is a second or third marriage, then they will be listed by the most recently deceased husband’s name. However, as good as the records are and they are very good and in most cases, very clear images, about 94% of records searched for have been found. While this is quite high, it means about 6% have not been found and in a large number of records this still is a significant number, for example in dealing with 1000 records, 6% missing means 60 missing records. Each person will have at least two records, a baptism and a burial and if they were married, then a third record and more for each subsequent marriage, so on average with high infant mortality rates, 1000 records could represent between 350 and 400 different people. Infants who die within a few days of their birth often only have a burial record that mentions the brief life span. A married couple has one marriage record for the two of them, so these two factors reduce the overall total of separate records.

Some examples of missing records are that a baptism is found for an individual and then a marriage record, but no burial can be found. Or a more interesting mystery is where a burial is found for an infant or a young child and no baptism could be found. In each case, the records are clear that the individual existed, just that the complete record set could not be found. There are even instances of only one of a set of twins having a baptism record.

While carefully going over the family records for Pierre Louis Claude and Marie-Angelique in trying to determine just how many grandchildren they had and how many each parent saw or at least knew about before they died, some fascinating anomalies have been noted and about 7% of the records were not found. Their eldest daughter, Marie-Angelique’s 7th. Child, Marie Catherine Josepthe Gendron’s baptism record was not found, but her marriage exists.

The next missing record is the burial of the second daughter, Marie-Ursule’s first husband, Thomas Stanislas Jacques. Marie Ursule married a second time in September 1780, so her first husband must have died. The next absent record is for Marie-Ursule’s last and 13th. child, Joseph Emory Coderre. No baptism record could be found, but his burial record exists listing him as having died March 10, 1793 at about 11 months old, so he must have been born in March or April of 1792.

It has already been stated that Pierre Louis Claude and Marie-Angelique’s first son, Jean-Baptiste lost his first wife after nine children and then re-married. It is his 2nd. Marriage with Marie Therese Gervais that has the most unusual records. In all there are three records missing for this family. The first is the baptism of possibly their first or second child, a son, Laurent for whom no baptism record could be found, but only a marriage record. In fact, Laurent Labossiere had three marriages and all three records have been found. Strangely, no burial record has been found for Laurent. The next missing record is also one of the stranger cases for the Labossiere family. The 8th. Child of Jean-Baptiste Labossiere and Marie-Therese Gervais, was a son, whom they named, Pierre and who was born May 31, 1800. Pierre survived to adulthood and married in 1831. Now for the strange record listings, Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Therese are recorded as the parents of a little girl, Marie Labossiere, buried at Contrecoeur on Oct. 2, 1800 having died two days earlier, aged only 3 ½ months old. There is no baptism record for this little girl, but it appears she must have been a twin of Pierre and perhaps was too sick to baptize, but it seems improbable as parents were so frightened of infant deaths in these times, she certainly would not have gone unbaptized for three and one half months, especially if already sick. The record book of this parish survives intact, so there is no plausible explanation for the missing record. The next missing record for this family is the burial record of Marie-Therese Gervais.

When searching an index for possible marriage records of Labossiere daughters, it is very difficult to know if they are missing or the daughter simply did not marry. The girl’s names are just too common and one can never guess at the possible spouse’s name. So while there are several grand daughters of Pierre Louis Claude and Marie-Angelique for whom no marriage record could be found, these may not be missing, it could be that the girls did not marry or perhaps entered the religious life. There are only two possible missing marriage records of the Labossiere grand daughters, however any of the other grand daughters with other surnames were not followed past their baptisms or any infant deaths unless it was needed to prove their existence.

While not all of the daughter’s possible marriages may have been found all of the marriages of the sons and grandsons have. Pierre Louis Claude Laboissiere and Marie-Angelique Gregoire dit Valentin had four sons survive to adulthood and have many children, in fact 20 of their direct Labossiere grandsons married and continued the name.

In total, Pierre Louis Claude Laboissiere and Marie-Angelique Gregoire dit Valentin had 97 known grandchildren, although 34 died as infants or young. That is a terrible 35% mortality rate and if one excludes their two children, Charles-Michel and Joseph, the twin boys who died as infants, that is an average of 3.5 infant deaths per family, but exclude the two who had no infant deaths and now it is over four per family. Their average family size, again excluding the twin boys is almost 10 children per family, but take away five children from the three smallest families and one now gets 93 grandchildren from seven children or almost over 13 children per family. This was typical of the families in those days and sadly the infant mortality rate was also typical. It was only by having a high birth rate, that the population survived and increased. It is still strange how the survival rate was so different within such closely related families. There were perhaps other things at work besides mere genetics. A brief look on the Internet for infant mortality rates of the 18th. century indicate this was certainly the norm.

It is not known how many great grand children Pierre Louis Claude and Marie-Angelique each had before they passed on, because most of the grand daughters who did not carry the Labossiere name were not followed, however it is known that at least three of their first daughter, Marie-Angelique’s daughters married between 1791 and 1792 before their grandmother died, so one would expect that she would have been at the weddings. This must have brought some happiness to the elderly lady and she would likely have been treated as the matriarch of the family. All of the other grandchildren married after both grandparents were gone.

After just over 38 years of marriage, Pierre Louis Claude died near the end of March 1783. He was buried on a Wednesday, March 26, 1783 at the cemetery of Ste-Trinite-de- Contrecoeur. It is not recorded exactly when he died, but in those days, bodies were generally not embalmed and were buried within a day or two. He was listed as being about 60 years, but in fact was about 57 ½ years from his baptism record. It is also recorded there were numerous witnesses, but none could sign. The priest was a Thos. Kember. Pierre Louis Claude is the patriarch of the junior or cadet branch of the family.

Marie Angelique Magdeleine lived not quite another 12 years and died on January 8, 1795 at the age of about 70 ½ years. She was listed as being about 71 years old, which is close to her true age. Her body was laid to rest at Ste-Trinite-de-Contrecoeur two days later on January 10, 1795. Again, none of the witnesses were able to sign. The priest was Laurent Aubry. Marie Angelique died only three days after the death of her oldest daughter, and name sake, Marie-Angelique. It will never be known if the elderly mother and grandmother knew of this last tragedy in her life and one can only wonder if this hastened her own passing. Marie Angelique is descended from two sets of Fille du Roi – Carignan Soldier marriages, on both her mother’s and father’s sides.

Sources

• Birth Date / Place: "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-28021-25515-89?cc=1321742&wc=9RLF-DPJ:13667601,13667602,13667603 : accessed 1 September 2015), Contrecoeur > Sainte-Trinité-de-Contrecoeur > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1668-1697, 1701-1743, 1895 Recensement 1681, 1885-1886, 1890, 1895, 1898 > image 231 of 370; nos paroisses de Église Catholique, Quebec (Catholic Church parishes, Quebec).
• Marriage Date / Place: "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-28024-11707-66?cc=1321742&wc=9RLJ-3TP:19969701,19969702,22317301 : accessed 1 September 2015), Saint-Denis > Saint-Denis > Index 1741-1896 Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1741-1754 > image 796 of 874; nos paroisses de Église Catholique, Quebec (Catholic Church parishes, Quebec).
• Death Date / Place: "Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1961-28022-29142-89?cc=1321742&wc=9RLN-7M9:13667601,13667602,15347803 : accessed 1 September 2015), Contrecoeur > Sainte-Trinité-de-Contrecoeur > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1744-1819 > image 406 of 711; nos paroisses de Église Catholique, Quebec (Catholic Church parishes, Quebec).
• http://www.mesaieux.com/
• http://www.mundia.com/us/Person/16467368/1182459173

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Stephen Lapointe for starting this profile.
• Thanks to Sylvie Gelinas for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Sylvie and others.