Prisque Henri Beaupre (abt.1794-1845) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Prisque Henri "John Dieudonne" Beaupre

Born about 1794 in Berthier-en-Haut, Lower Canada

Ancestors

Son of Pierre (Beaupre) Beaupré and Anne Angélique Martin

Brother of Pierre Xavier Beaupre, Marie Anne (Beaupre) Gauvreau, Charles François Beaupre, Joseph Beaupre, Étienne Beaupré, Marie Charles Beaupre, Marie Angelique Beaupre, Charles Beaupre, Sophie (Beaupre) Poitras, Louis (Beaupre) Beaupré, Seraphine Beaupre, Dieudonne Beaupre, Amable Beaupre, Valier Beaupre and Louis Severin Beaupre

Husband of Soulange Marie (Fortin) Beaupre — married 27 May 1816 in Kingston, Upper Canada (Ontario), Canada

[children unknown]

Died 15 Aug 1845 at about age 51 in Cheektowaga, Erie, New York, United States

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Profile last modified 15 Mar 2021 | Created 27 Jan 2021

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Biography

Creating a biography for some of Pierre Beaupre and Marie Anne Martin's children has been challenging but none have been as challenging as Prisque Henri Beaupre aka John Dieudonne Beaupre. Between not being able to find a birth record to apparently changing his first name in mid life, it has been difficult to create his story. Some records started to appear after his marriage in 1816.

There are enough records available to confirm that Prisque Beaupre was the son of Pierre Beaupre and Marie Martin. His birthdate and birth location are not so easily determined. If his gravestone is to be used as a credible source, when he died in 1845 he was 51 years old which puts his birth year at 1794. If that is the case he was likely born in Berthier-en-Haut, Lower Canada (Quebec). No record was found. Even the PRDH-IGD file on this Beaupre family does not have a record for him. That file had ten of Pierre and Marie-Anne's children living to adulthood. ^[1] A poem written by Pierre in 1815 about his family indicated that he had eleven children. Prisque would be the one who was missing from that PRDH-IGD file. Other family researchers have listed Prisque's birthdate as 1783 which would mean he was likely baptized in Quebec City. It is a mystery.

On January 19. 1815, Pierre composed a poem about how proud he was of each of his children for their military involvement in the War of 1812. He devoted one verse to each of his sons and sons-in-law.^[2] ^[3] The verse for Henri went as follows:

"Henri, you in Acadia did fight, With boldness and courage and fearlessness had. When you come back to Kingston, t'will be with delight that we offer our homage and welcome to you."

This is one of the mysteries of Prisque's story. Efforts to find Prisque Henri's name in the British Naval Records were unsuccessful. His brothers' names were prominently shown but not Prisque's. Acadia was the name given to what is today known as Nova Scotia when French settlers lived there. In the mid 1700's the British overcame the French, exiled them, and started to populate the province with British Protestants. Pierre in his poem still refers to the French colony name of Nova Scotia as Acadia. It is pure conjecture but it is thought that since Prisque's name did not appear in the British Naval Records that instead he contributed in another way by becoming part of a crew of a privateer ship. The privateers of Nova Scotia played an integral role in closing American ports during the War of 1812. They were a valuable source of intelligence for the Royal Navy on American strength and ship movements. They would block commercial American ships, overcome them, then return with them to Halifax complete with their crew. Despite being helpful to the war cause, the privateers were not part of the navy they were private commercial enterprises. While 15 commissioned ships from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia failed to capture any prizes and another 10 only took one each, the remaining privateers made fortunes for their owners.^[4] Once again this is pure conjecture because no payroll documents were located listing names.

On May 27, 1816 the first concrete evidence of Prisque's existence and his parents' names was recorded in his marriage record. On that day Prisque, son of Pierre Beaupre and Marie Anne Martin, married Marie Soulange Fortin, daughter of Jean Baptiste Fortin and Marie Josepht Fontaine at the parish church (likely St. Mary's) in Kingston, Capital of Upper Canada. Prisque's brother Amable was shown to be one of the witnesses. ^[5]

The next record located was the birth of Prisque and Soulange's first child Pierre Ubin. He was baptized May 29, 1817 in Kingston. ^[6].

It is apparent from the next records that Prisque and Soulange moved to Amherstburg, Essex, Upper Canada in 1818. Prisque's brother Charles was part of the Provincial marines out of the Navy yard there. He lived and worked there during the War of 1812 as his British and Naval records show. ^[7] Provincial Marine vessels were used to transport troops and government stores in peace time, with the capability of being transformed into fighting vessels if necessary.^[8]. There are no records showing that Prisque was part of the Provincial Marines so it is unknown what his job was. On May 11, 1818, Soulange became the godmother of Charles and his wife Josephte's third child, son Edouard, at St. Jean RC Church in Amherstburg while Charles' brother Amable became the godfather. ^[9]

While in Amherstburg, Prisque and Soulange had a child of their own. On March 10, 1819, the couple had a daughter Marie Anne. The baptism was on March 28. It is difficult to read on the record but it is believed that Prisque's brother Amable's wife, Agathe Caisse, was the godmother of the baby. ^[10]

Sadly just a few months later Charles passed away. Prisque was present for the burial of his brother at St. Jean Cemetery, Amherstburg on November 7, 1819. ^[11]. It was also learned that Charles' wife Josephte (Josette) was pregnant at the time of her husband's death. Marie Anne Beaupre, daughter of the late Charles Beaupre and Josephte Plante was born on March 26, 1820. Her baptism was held on April 2, 1820 at St. Jean RC Church and her godfather was her Uncle Prisque. ^[12]

The next record located was for Prisque and Soulange's child, Bruno. He was baptized February 9, 1823 in Kingston, Ontario. ^[13]. This was the first record where Prisque's first name was first shown as John. The name John was crossed out then the priest wrote down Prisk and Sulange as the baby's parents' name. This is clearly supposed to be Prisque and Soulange.

Sadly there are gaps in the birth records of Prisque and Soulange's other children. Some of the Kingston records were missing but after the couple moved to New York state, there were no birth, marriage or death records there at all. Thankfully someone posted a transcription of a family bible entry listing the family members on ancestry. It was thought to be credible because the birth record dates for the first two of Prisque and Soulange's children matched up with the dates from the bible. It appeared that a future generation had recorded the information (sometime after 1904) as there are some gaps and errors in the information.

In that Family Bible the parents' names were shown as Dieu Demy (perhaps Dieudonne??) Beaupre and Mary Soulange Fartile (perhaps another spelling error by a later descendant). Their marriage date was listed correctly as May 27, 1816 as was supported by the church marriage document in Kingston, Ontario. ^[14]. Their children were listed as follows: Peter (baptized as Pierre Ubain) (May 28, 1817- July 13, 1893), Marie Anne (March 10, 1819- December 11, 1857), Dieu Demy or Denys (January 21, 1821- died about 1895), Bruno (incorrectly listed as December 16, 1823 ... should be February 9, 1823- 1896), Sophia ( July 6, 1825- August 1827), Lewis/ Louis (December 5, 1827- June 11, 1886), Agnes (November 16, 1829- August 29, 1851), Henry (July 24, 1830- April 16, 1877), Georgiana (March 10, 1833- Nov. 17, 1904), Eliza (February 22, 1835- July 16, 1872), and George E. (September 28, 1837- ?) Since there is at least one error in the birth date of Bruno it is unknown if there are other errors. It does show Dieu Demy's death date as August 15, 1845 at age 51 years and Mary Soulange's death date as July 1, 1880.

One other noteworthy record was the marriage date of Bruno and Emilia Bamford on August 8, 1854 in Kingston. It shows Bruno's parents as John D. Beaupre (deceased) and Mary Soulange, formerly of Kingston and now residing at Buffalo, New York. ^[15]. This now begs the question: "Why did Prisque Henri change his name to John Dieu Demy (or perhaps Dieudonne)?" Dieudonne Beaupre was the name of Prisque's perhaps younger brother Dieudonne who was born October 19, 1792 and died May 28, 1793 in Berthierville/ Berthier-en-Haut, Quebec. It would be pure speculation to determine why he made this name change to that of a deceased brother.

The next question is "When did Prisque and Soulange move to New York state?" Their son, Bruno, became a prominent citizen in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1886 a book was written by T.M. Newsom called "Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota" which provided biographies of prominent citizens of the time. A biography was written about Bruno. In it Bruno recalled moving to Oswego, New York at age fourteen with his family in 1840. ^[16]. This is supported by a naturalization record showing John Beaupre(s) ' arrival date in Oswego, New York as 1840.^[17] The absence of birthdates for most of his children is disappointing as that would have pinpointed when New York births could have been noted. It is noted on the 1860 US Census that Louis/ Lewis was born in Canada.^[18] That would have been in 1827 (according to the family bible entry). Georgianna, in that same census record (Louis lived in her household in 1860), showed her birthplace as New York. According to the Family bible entry that would have been in 1833. It is logical to speculate that someone would not be able to apply for US naturalization in the year they arrived. It can be surmised then that Prisque/ John and Soulange arrived in the US in or before 1833.

Nowhere in either the Canadian or US records found was there a reference to what Prisque/ John's occupation was. So that is another mystery.

The only reference to John D.'s death is found in the "Find A Grave" site. It lists his birth date as 1794 since his gravestone revealed that he was 51 years old when he died. His name is listed as J.D. Beaupre. His death date is shown as August 15, 1845. He was buried in the United German and French Cemetery at Cheektowaga, New York. ^[19]. Marie Soulange was buried there July 1, 1881^[20]. Son Louis (June 11, 1886) ^[21] and daughter Georgiana (1904) ^[22] were also buried there.

There are many mysteries here but the puzzle pieces have been assembled to attempt a credible biography.