Hi, I am Lisa. Never having known anyone on my father's side, and no one other than my mother on her side, and have been researching my parents' ancestry for years. On my father's side are the Bourgoin, Gosselin, Michaud, and Simon. My mother thought she was Polish, but it turns out her father side was from Canada, with the name Novelle/ Novell. I was hoping to find out about a particular cause of early death on my mother's side, which after tracing 4 generations through her father, some living some not, it would seem so. All the Generations before that have half the ancestors dying in their 30's and the other half living into their 80's or 90's. As I was tracing back through records seemed... to just stop. Then I found a picture of the family headstone with large lettering "Novell" right above "Longval." I thought it must be some special inscription in French, so I spent a couple years learning French so I could try to find its translation and to read old documents. Though I clearly still have some ways to go, I found marriage records for the same woman, listing her husband with last name Longville. However, within a year the records shows her living with a man, at the same location, same first names and birth month, year, by the name Novell, as well as a new baby also bearing the name Novell. All records list the woman's information exactly the same... but Longval is in huge letters right below Novell on their headstone. There are only Novell's and their wives, none with maiden name Longville or Longval. So I am wondering if they changed their surname from Longval / Longville to Novell. I hope to find anything on this.
