Sophie Peine (abt. 1815 - aft. 1881)

Born about 1815 in Québec [uncertain]

Wife of Benoni Arseneau — married before 1831 in Havre-aux-Maisons, Îles-de-la-Madeleine

Died after 1881 after about age 66 in Québec or New Brunswick [uncertain]

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Biography

Sophie was born about 1815 or late 1814, possibly at sea, but more likely in Québec. In any event, “she came from the sea”. “So the story goes”, she was found washed ashore with the debris from a shipwreck off Les-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, believed to be about 6 months old at the time. Local residents helplessly watched the dismasted brig, foundering and battered by the waves, during what was called at the time “the storm of the century”. Although never identified, the vessel was believed to have been coming from Québec, but could have originated almost anywhere within a couple hundred kilometre radius of Les Îles. Sophie appears to have been the only survivor. She was raised at Havre-aux-Maisons.^[1]

She passed away at some point after the 1881 census, possibly in Québec or New Brunswick.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ (See Book 1: Harvey, Azade. CONTES ET LEGENDES DES ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Vol. 3, 1977, pp 70-71).
2. ↑ ct. – Dec. 2018 SOPHIE PEINE - La Petite Misère (an update) https://afgs.org/volume414.pdf [© 2018 by Dennis M. Boudreau]: “In our genealogical research, there are some questions that continue to pursue all of us, some good stories take time to research and develop, and in this case, several decades to unravel. The first appearance of the story that follows took place some 38 years ago, in the October 1980 issue of Je Me Souviens, at a time when I was just a novice to this hobby. At that time, I wanted to contribute something to our Society’s journal as its editor to show that oftentimes the stories we heard from our grandparents as children stay with us throughout our lives, that these form the deepest impressions on us, and that they can often be the catalysts behind our wanting to research our family histories. In this case, what started out as a story from our family’s oral tradition, was based also in part by several facts and by undisputed documentation. But despite that and the challenges to its veracity over the years, the story remains to this day founded in the realm of oral tradition... but one that was ultimately true. The original article was written at a time when few books or sources were at my disposal, and certainly, well before the founding of the Internet, with its seemingly endless reserve of genealogical and historical material. Since then, the question of who this individual truly was and what became of her, have been questions that needled me, to a point that as more printed and digital material became available to me, I set about gathering these facts. Although I have found nothing really new about her, having exhausted the paper trail left behind her, I can finally close the chapter on her life. Even some 38 years later, it was only during this past year that I was able to definitively answer the several still persistent questions surrounding the identity of this woman from our family’s past. So here, from my yet unpublished book of “Research Essays,” is a newer version of what I have learned since 1980 concerning “Sophie Peine – La Petite Misère” of the Magdalen Islands. As a child and into my teen years, I would often sit and listen to my grandparents as they recounted the family stories of the Magdalen Islands that they themselves had heard growing up. The oral tradition of the Islands is renowned for its trustworthiness, and often times in my research, I have been surprised that many of these could be backed up by some grain of truth or some piece of documented evidence. One such story concerns a baby girl, the sole survivor of a shipwreck at the Magdalens, of which there were hundreds over the centuries. Her importance to the tale lies in the fact that she was the grandmother of my grandparents’ sister-in-law, Éliza (Petitpas) Gaudet. Thinking that I was one of the only persons who had heard her story was quickly dispelled in a visit to the Islands in 1979, when I purchased three small volumes of the Contes et Légendes (Stories and Legends) des Îles-de-la-Madeleine by author–storyteller, Azade Harvey. In his third volume of vignettes was a chapter on “Sophie, La petite misère.” Obviously, he too had heard the tale growing up and had recorded it in text for future generations to read. Here follows a translation of this chapter from his book, published in 1977 (pages 69-70): “For two days the storm raged. The east wind raised clouds of sand over the dunes, blinding those who ventured there, and giving the sand dunes the appearance of a desert. The waves, swollen by the wind, rushed over the capes with such force that they eroded the cliffs, dragging large chunks of red rock into the sea with a deafening crash. Cold and wet as it was that morning, the unleashed wind took the appearance of a real hurricane. On this day, the fishermen did not dare to venture off because of the storm that had already damaged several sailboats and destroyed several fishing vessels, and especially the autumn herring nets that had been stretched offshore. The Havre-aux-Maisons embankment was completely engulfed by the disassembled sea, thus preventing people from crossing from one island to another. It was, in a way, the storm of the century; never in anyoneʼs memory had they seen such wind. The fishermen of Grosse-Île, kept at home by the storm, were content to look out the window at the raging sea. While scrutinizing the horizon, a brig was suddenly seen off the coast between Île Brion and Grosse-Île, one whose mast was broken and sails torn. The barge, which did not seem to be steered, appeared on the surface only to disappear a few minutes later in the hollow of the waves. What could be done for this distressed boat and her crew? Carried away by the waves, it advanced towards the rocks of Pointe-de-lʼEst, where it was surely going to be wrecked. Having foreseen this, towards noon, the brig struck the deadly rocks head on, where it broke into several pieces which the waves threw on the shore. Crew and passengers, thrown into the sea, were desperate to clutch pieces of wreckage. Some fishermen who witnessed this shipwreck, and despite the furious wind, hastened immediately to harness their horses and go to the place of the shipwreck hoping to find its survivors. Cries of despair reached them on shore, then, soon after, the waves hurled the first corpses on the cold sand. They ran from one body to another to see if there was anyone alive. Alas! none of them were still living. Suddenly, through the infernal noise of the crashing waves, one of the fishermen thought he heard a barely perceptible cry: it was that of a young baby. He ran to the side from which the weak cries had come; they were indeed those of a little baby – a girl of about six months old – clinging to the arms of a young woman’s corpse. She wore no identification, so no one ever knew her real name. The baby, who looked healthy, was brought to a couple in Havre-aux-Maisons who offered to keep her. When she was baptized, they gave her the name of Sophie. Sophie grew up, got married and finally became a grandmother. Throughout her life, those who knew her story called her “Sophie Sorrow.” That Sophie actually existed is a fact. Despite the lack of identification, it is said that Sophie was raised by William Cummings and his wife, Sophia Payne, and was named after her, so they are two distinct persons. As for her baptismal record, it has never been found in the Islandsʼ parish registers. Her “Peine” surname is in French also a play on words, from Payne to Peine (the latter meaning sorrow). At Havre-aux-Maisons lived a young man named Bénoni Arseneau, the son of Pierre Arseneau & Geneviève Boudrot. He was born and baptized at home on 7 Sep 1803. The rest of the baptismal ceremonies were later supplied by Father Jean-Baptiste Allain, the pastor of Havre-Aubert, on 6 Sep 1804, almost a year after his birth on Entry Island. He married his first wife, Esther Bourque, the daughter of Pierre Bourque and Angélique Bourgeois at Havre-Aubert on 24 October 1826. Their marriage lasted but a year. Esther gave birth to their daughter, likewise named Esther, on 5 Aug 1827 at Havre-aux- Maisons. The next day, 6 Aug 1827, following the baptism of the child, Esther Bourque died from complications of childbirth, aged but 22 years old. Her burial on 7 Aug 1827 in the parish cemetery was witnessed by Ignace Giroux and Isidore Boudreau. As an aside, young Esther was to marry at Havre-aux- Maisons on 8 Jan 1851 with Gilbert Boudreau, the son of Louis Boudreau and Julienne Arseneau. She lived to more than 80 years of age, last having been found in the 1911 census of Grande-Entrée, as a widow living in the home of Bénoni Deraspe in that village. In that census, Esther is called the “mother” of Bertha Cyr (Bénoniʼs wife), but in actuality, she was her aunt, and a sister to Berthaʼs mother, Luce, who follows. Left a widower with a small child, Bénoni found a second wife in the person of Sophie Peine, whom he married before the 1831 census, and wherein the young couple and child of his first marriage all appear as a household of three persons. Of their marriage were born an additional ten children, who were: 1. Mélanie, n (selon Rc 1861) Havre-aux-Maisons, QC ca 1831; d (selon her daughter, Vitaline Petitpas) Grand-Ruisseau, QC in Jun/Jul 1891 (victim of an epidemic); m Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 12 Jan 1858 to Firmin PETITPAS 2. Élise, n (selon Rc 1861) Havre-aux-Maisons, QC ca 1834; d Rg Havre-aux- Maisons, QC 19 Jun 1891 (53y, sic); m Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 10 Jan 1860 to Benoît BOUDREAU 3. Angélique, n (selon her d) Havre-aux-Maisons, QC ca 1836; d Rg Havre-aux- Maisons, QC 24 Jun 1851 (15y). 4. Eulalie, n (selon Rc 1861) Havre-aux-Maisons, QC ca 1838; d (selon Rg La Vernière) Grand-Ruisseau, QC 21 Feb 1912 (76y); m Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 13 Jan 1857 to Théodore HARVIE 5. Vitaline, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 14 Jul 1841; d Rg Néguac, NB 20 Dec 1910 (69y); m Rg Natashquan, QC 1 Jul 1871 to Bénoni HARVIE 6. Placide, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 23 Feb 1845; d Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 24 Sep 1845 (7 mos). 7. Gildas, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 11 Nov 1846; d (selon Rg La Vernière) Grand- Ruisseau, QC 14 Sep 1880 (31y); unmarried 8. Placide, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 24 Apr 1849; d (selon Rg La Vernière) Grand- Ruisseau, QC 24 Dec 1924 (74y); m Rg La Vernière, QC 9 Oct 1883 to Marie TURBIDE 9. Luce, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 25 Oct 1851; d (selon cim) Grande-Entrée, QC ... 1924; m Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 10 Jan 1871 to André CYR 10. Appolonie, n Rg Havre-aux-Maisons, QC 12 Jul 1854; d Rg St-Théophile, QC 10 Apr 1931 (79y); m (selon Rg Betsiamites, QC/Labrador Missions) Île Betchouan, QC 16 Jan 1876 to Joseph BOURQUE Bénoni Arseneau died four years later on 23 Apr 1858 at Havre-aux-Maisons, aged 55 years old. We later find the widow Sophie, aged 49 years old, and her children in the 1861 census of Havre-aux-Maisons. Of her children, Mélanie, Élise and Eulalie had all married; daughter Angélique and their first son named Placide had passed away young. In 1861, Vitaline, Gildas, Placide and Appolonie were all living with their mother. Her daughter Luce was either absent from home or inadvertently omitted from the household enumeration. Ten years later in the 1871 census, we find Sophie still a widow, aged 56 years old at Havre-aux- Maisons. Living with her were her sons, Gildas (24 years old) and Placide (23 years old), and her youngest daughter, Appolonie (16 years old). From the registers of Natashquan on the North Coast, we learn that her daughter Vitaline had moved there and married on 1 July 1871 to Bénoni Harvie, the son of Narcisse Harvie and Henriette Boudreau. Living at Pointe-aux-Esquimaux (todayʼs Havre St-Pierre), it was probably Vitaline and her husband who invited her mother and sister to also make their way to the North Coast of Québec. Thus, it was towards 1875, that mother and daughter set sail for their new home. In the pages of the Labrador missionary registers of Betsiamites, we find that Appolonie married on 16 January 1876 at Île Betchouan to Joseph Bourque, the widower of Luce Harvie, and son of Simon Bourque and Julie Landry. Five years afterwards, Sophie still alive at 71 years of age, was living with Joseph and Appolonie in their household during the census of 1881. By the 1891 census, daughter Appolonie and her husband had removed to St-Théophile in the Beauce Valley (just above the Maine border) with their family, but Sophie was not with them. Had she gone to live with her other daughter Vitaline and her husband? I never found this couple in the 1891 census, and by 1901, still childless, they had removed to Néguac, New Brunswick, where they both died, she in 1910 and he in 1913. As mysteriously as Sophie had appeared at the Islands, she mysteriously disappeared into eternity. To date, no record of her death has been located in any of these three locations, nor at the Magdalen Islands. From all indications, she must have died at Île Betchouan before the 1891 census and the removal of the Bourque family to the Beauce Valley”.

See also:

• http://ephotocaption.com/a/108/108.html

Two Different Persons: Sophie Penn and Sophie Peine

To distinguish between two female individuals named alike (i.e. Sophie Peine and Sophie Penn), Dennis Boudreau [a priest and renowned genealogist] writes:

Sophie Peine is not to be confused with [Sophie Penn or Payne] the wife of William Cummings [after her first marriage to James Gould]. Sophie Payne and William Cummings are believed to be the adoptive parents of “La Petite Misère”, Sophie Peine. This second bride of Benoni Arseneault [Sophie Peine] was found as a six month old child on the beach after a shipwreck at the Islands towards 1815. She was raised at Havre-aux-Maisons. (See Book 1: Harvey, Azade. CONTES ET LEGENDES DES ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Vol. 3, 1977, pp 70-71).

• https://grandquebec.com/legendes-du-quebec/contes-et-legendes-iles-madeleine/

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sea-is-slowly-consuming-quebecs-magdalen-islands-180980467/

• https://www.centredarchivesdesiles.org/p/cimetieres.html?m=1

• https://www.genealogie-acadienne.net/?action=indiDetails&I=19744