A DeShane/Deschenes Puzzle |
Joseph DeShane (b c1797 Québec Canada, d 1851 Hastings Co. Ontario Canada) and Olive Dafoe (b c1808 Trois-Rivières, Québec Canada d 1882 Lennox & Addington Co. Ontario Canada). They were married in 1826 in Belleville, Hastings Co. Ontario Canada. |
There is a Joseph Marie Deschenes (b 1797) who married Marie Grenier in 1818. Joseph's parents Jean Bernard Milville-Deschene and Suzanne Vertefeuille were married in 1778 in Trois-Rivières, Québec Canada. |
Were these two Josephs the same person? He could have married at age 21 in Quebec and then later moved to Ontario, anglicized his name and married again at age 29. |
In August 2000 I made a trip to
Trois-Rivières to visit the library in the center of the city. There are
several volumes there with birth and marriage records. There are very few early
records. I found two listings for the marriage of Joseph Marie Deschenes and
Marie Grenier. Here they are:
jn-vertefeuille suz. aug.-venne marg. I found no Dafoes or Defoes in the record books, but many DeFoys. I also found a book in a bookstore (Our French-Canadian Ancestors by Thomas J Laforest, Vol. XXV) that has an article on the descendants of Louis DeFoy. I am convinced that Olive's surname is DeFoy, rather than Defoe. Thomas J Laforest also has a volume (XXVII) with an article on the descendants of Pierre Miville dit Le Suisse, the ancestor of Joseph Marie Deschenes. I am almost convinced that this is my Joseph DeShane; that he married twice-once in Québec and once in Ontario. Some more hard data would be the clencher. To purchase the Laforest books: http://www.ourfrenchcanadianancestors.com |
If anyone can make the connection with harder data, please let me know. |
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