Friday, November 28, 2014

52 Ancestors: #48 Jean-Baptiste Lepage, died in 1779, not 1764

Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small has issued herself and her readers a challenge for 2014. It’s called “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks”, and as Amy explains, the challenge is to “have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor”.

For the 48th week of this challenge, I chose Jean-Baptiste Pagési (Lepage) dit St-Amand (1692-1779).

Jean-Baptiste is my paternal 6x great-grandfather and is number 266 in my ancestor list. 

An only son among the five children of Jean Pagési (Lepage) dit St-Amand (a French immigrant) and his wife Marie-Catherine Gladu, Jean-Baptiste was born and baptized on 26 October 1692 in the village of Lachine (now part of the city of Montreal). [1] When he was about two years old, the Pagési family moved to Boucherville, where his father died suddenly in April 1695. [2]

Near the village of Lachine
On the St. Larwrence [sic] near the village of Lachine, Lower Canada.*

* Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1995-28-35.

On 3 July 1717, Jean-Baptiste and twenty-year old Marie-Anne Ondoyer entered into a marriage contract, followed by their marriage ceremony two months later on 6 September in Quebec. [3] Their son Jean-Baptiste was born a year later in October 1718. He was the first of twelve children that were born over the next twenty-four years. [4]

Many years ago, I found my ancestor Jean-Baptiste in Tanguay’s Dictionnaire. [5] According to this source, he died accidentally in the seigneurie of Beauharnois on 28 November 1764. [6] I entered this information in my notes, and moved on.

Earlier this week, I did some background research for my blog post. I also took the time to search for Jean-Baptiste’s burial record at Généalogie Québec.com. I found the record, and then compared the details. [7] They seemed to match those in Tanguay – name, date and place of death, and date and place of burial. I figured I was good, and again, moved on.

The next day, I searched the Internet for the circumstances of Jean-Baptiste’s death, because neither his burial record nor Tanguay indicated what type of accident he had. I came across a database that said Jean-Baptiste died in Montreal on 14 April 1779. [8] I assumed this date and location were incorrect, since it differed from Tanguay. Just in case, though, I looked for the 1779 burial record at Généalogie Québec.com. I found it. [9] Name, check; date and place of death, check; date and place of burial, check. These details matched those of the Internet search.

What was going on? Which source was correct and which source wasn't?

I was confused for a moment, but then realized what happened. I had trusted one source all these years and hadn’t verified it. When I originally found my ancestor Jean-Baptiste in Tanguay over twenty years ago, I was still a beginner researcher, I didn’t know about genealogical standards, and I hadn’t heard of reasonably exhaustive research. [10]

Thank goodness for having a blog. Writing about my ancestors in a public forum is a good way to ensure that I review the work I’ve previously done, and that I don't forget to move beyond using just one or two types of resources.

So, which Jean-Baptiste died when?

I put the various burial details into a table. That’s when I realized that I had overlooked one important piece of information: their ages. One Jean-Baptiste was 48 years old at his death/burial and the other was 94 years old.


Comparison table

One piece of information was still missing, though. Neither of the men’s burial records indicated the names of their respective wives. I went to the online Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) to see if its databases could help. I located each of their “Individu” file. It turned out that the Jean-Baptiste who died in 1764 was the son of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Anne (Ondoyer) Pagési/Lepage. [11] The Jean-Baptiste who died in 1779 was the son of Jean and Marie-Catherine (Gladu) Pagési dit St-Amand. [12]

I now knew that Jean-Baptiste père (my ancestor) died on 14 April 1779 and that Jean-Baptiste fils (my ancestor’s son) died on 28 November 1764.

Thank goodness I chose ancestor no. 266 for this article. The prep work I did for it became a teachable moment for me: don’t trust only one source and do a reasonably exhaustive research.

Sources:

1. Sts-Anges-Gardiens (Lachine, Quebec), parish register, 1676-1756, p. 43 recto, no entry no. (1692), Jean Baptiste Pagesy [sic] baptism, 26 October 1692; Sts-Anges-Gardiens parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

2. Très-Ste-Famille (Boucherville, Quebec), parish register, 1669-1695, no page no., no entry no. (1695), Jean Baptiste Pagesi dit St Amant [sic] burial, 28 April 1695; Très-Ste-Famille parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

3. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec (Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 864.

4. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 30 June 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Pagesi Page – Marie Anne Ondoye Martin [sic], Famille no. 12592.

5. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, 7 vols (1871–1890, reprint, Montréal: Editions Elysée, 1991), VI: 194.

6. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, VI: 194, right column, note (1).

7. Ste-Anne (Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec), parish register, 1758-1768, p. 170, no entry no. (1764), Jean Lepage dit St Amant [sic] burial, 30 November 1764; Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue parish; digital image, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 25 November 2014).

8. Genealogy of Canada (http://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/genealogie.aspx?lng=en : 26 November 2014), entry for Jean-Baptiste Lepage, ID No. 29759, spouse of Marie-Anne Leber.

9. Notre-Dame (Montreal, Quebec), parish register, 177[7]-1779, no page no., no entry no. (1779), Jean Baptiste Lepage burial, 15 April 1779; Notre-Dame parish; digital image, “Le LAFRANCE”, Généalogie Québec (http://www.genealogiequebec.com : accessed 26 November 2014).

10. The Board for Certification of Genealogists defines this term as “reasonably exhaustive research – emphasizing original records providing participants’ information – for all evidence that might answer a genealogist’s question about an identity, relationship, event, or situation”. Board for Certification of Genealogists, Genealogy Standards, 50th anniversary edition (Nashville, Tennessee: Ancestry.com, 2014), 1.

11. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 26 November 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Page [sic] (1718-1764), Individu no. 121531.

12. “Dictionnaire”, database, Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) (http://www.genealogie.umontreal.ca : accessed 26 November 2014), Jean Baptiste Lepage StAmand Page [sic] (1692-1779), Individu no. 59741.

Copyright © 2014, Yvonne Demoskoff.

1 comment:

  1. Love this post -- a great reminder to check and re-check, especially as we improve our skills.

    ReplyDelete