Work Continues!

Good day everyone,

I know it has been a long while since I have written anything for this blog, but I hoping that will change this year. I see some great finds and wonderful stories on the horizon. I hope that my family and friends find some value in this blog and I hope that you learn a little something about our family and the lives of our ancestors. Remember, we are a product of those that came before us.

Current status of the family tree:
- 1029 individuals in the family tree
- 370 unique marriages
- 196 unique sources

All I can say is that I have been rather busy of the last fifteen months! I have been rather fortunate in my research for three reasons. The first, many of our ancestors are French Canadian and Acadian and the Catholic and Jesuit priests keep very detailed records of Baptismals, marriages, and burials. Their extensive record keeping has allowed for me to more quickly find our ancestors. Second, these same church records are made available online through the Church of Latter Saint's FamilySearch genealogical website. Lastly, I have been in contact with several instrumental French Canadian and Acadian genealogical researchers that have help me immensely when I get stuck.

Many of the French Canadian lines have been successfully traced back to their points of origin in France. Some of which date back to the early 17th century. I plan to periodically search the available online French archives for these ancestors in an attempt to add a few more generations to the family tree. The earliest ancestors I have been able to locate is Gatien Chuisnard (Chouinard) and his wife Cathrine Venier, both of whom were born about 1585 in France. Their grandson, Jacques Chouinard, was the first Chouinard to arrive in Canada before 1692. This evidence was found in a book titled : "Famille Chouinard". Gatien Chuisnard is my 10th Great Grandfather.

The Mageau family line is rather interesting. Louis Majot dit MaisonSeule was part of the Carignan Regiment when he arrived in Nouvelle France in 1665. Louis is the Mageau's first North American ancestor. The Mageau name has had many variations since 1665. I have noted the following variations: Majot, Maio, Majault, Majeau, Mageau. The variation that is seen most often is Majeau. To those family members that think Viola Lague was the originator of the change from Majeau to Mageau, I think you are wrong. I have documentary evidence in both Canada and Massachusetts of both spellings. At this time I have not been able to isolate when exactly the change occured.

So what will the future hold for the family tree? I will continue my research to try and fill in many of the holes that exist. More importantly, I am considering writing some articles for publication that pertain to our ancestors and lives' in colonial Canada. Should I get something published, I will be sure to let everyone know.

I am searching for documents (copies) or more importantly photographs of any of ancestors that someone might be willing to share. If you have something to share, please email me at modoc31(at)gmail.com

Until next time,
Keith

Making Headway on the Chouinard and Lague Family Lines

Well, it has been a little over a month since I my post to this blog and what a busy month it has been. Since my last post I have added in excess of 200 more ancestors to the family tree. While that is a large number by itself, now think about each person the events of that person's life. For example, people are born, baptized, work, marry, die and are buried. I have made every effort to identify these events and others for each person when that information is available and supported by evidence.

I have spent the majority of my time working on the Chouinard family line and also the Lague family line. While I still continue to locate church records for the Chouinard line, I can take it back to Gatien Chouinard who is believed to have been born in 1590 in Nouzilly, France. The Lague line is just as extensive as the Chouinard line, but I still have lots of records to retrieve from the church records that are available online. it will likely take me another month to finish this line. At that time I hope to proceed with the Mageau line.

Today, was a great day for me. The Vermont State Archived emailed me the index record for Joseph P. Lemay's marriage for Marie Alphosine Moquin. I have been hunting fo this one record for several months now.

This Lemay ancestor would be the my mother's and her siblings great grandfather on their mother's side.


If anyone is actually reading this, I am in need of pictures for any relatives or deceased ancestors that you  might have. I do not need/want originals, but I would like digital pictures to that I can add them to my family tree software. If you can help with that or by providing copies of original documents, please email me at modoc31@gmail.com

Until next time,
Keith

And the work continues!

Good day to everyone, I wanted to take a few minutes to post an update and what an update it is. I have been working for the last few weeks with Elaine LaRoche from Canada and she has been doing an outstanding job! She has been able to locate primary (original) sources that prove when our ancestors were born, baptized, married, and died. When those records have been lacking I have been using secondary sources that are scholarly in nature and derived from the original documents.

Research throughout the month of January has focused primarily on the Lemay family line and that work will continue for another week or two. At which time I should be finished and will move over to either the Camerlin or Mageau lines. For the time being my research will focus on our French-Canadian and Acadian ancestors for no other reason than I have help from Elaine and records are readily available.

Interesting facts that I have found regarding our Lemay ancestors:
- Lemay can and has been spelled many ways throughout history - Lemee, Lemai, Lemai dit Poudrier, Lemay dit Poudrier, and Lemay.
- The "dit Poudrier" was an add-on name to distinguish some of our early ancestors as "powder makers" the dit name was keep for many generations afterward.
- The earliest Lemay in Canada was Michel Lemay. He originated from France at the age of 27. The following is Michel Lemay's Baptismal record.

- In 1829, the Soly (Solie) family married into the Lemay family. Following the Soly line back to 1744 we find Laurent Soly. He was possibly of Spanish decent, but he found himself in Acadia (modern day Nova Scotia) as a soldier in Swiss Karrer Regiment. In December 1744 he and two other men lead a bloodless mutiny at Ft. Louisbourg to demand better treatment and rations from the french for whom they were employed by.
- The family tree thus far goes 14 generations back from my son, all the way back to Michel Lemay's parents in France.
- Every few generations there twins born in the Lemay line.

Well, that is my update for now. If you wish to receive a copy of your portion of the family tree, please email me at modoc31@gmail.com.

Warmest regards,
Keith Mageau

Happy New Year!

Well, the past month or so has seen little little in the way of progress on the ancestry hunt war front, but things have changed drastically in the last week.

Several months ago I posted a request for assistance on Ancestry.com regarding the Lemay family line. It wasn't until Dec 31st that I finally got a reply that someone was able to help. This someone, who is appearing more and more like a godsend happens to have, both Lemay and Mageau lineage as well. Not sure how we are connected, but somehow I am sure there is a common ancestor. The best part, she lives in Ontario and is willing to search for and translate documents for me.

In the last few days she has sent me, via email, several Baptismal records for:
- Joseph William Lemay
- Marie Jeanette Yvette lorette Lemay
- Marie Yvonne Lauretta Lemay

All three of these are the siblings of Joseph A. Lemay (My Great Grandfather) and the children of Joseph P. Lemay and Marie Alphonsine Lemay (Moquin)

I also received the baptismal record for Ovila Mageau. Guess what? That's not his full name! His full baptismal name happens to be - Charles Joseph Avila Majeau. Looks like it was he or maybe his wife Elizabeth Mary-Louise Mageau (Camerlin) that changed the "J" to a "G" in Mageau.

Each day sees new evidence with translations being sent to me from Canada. These new developments have re-motivated me to continue on. So much so that I purchased semi-professional genealogy software and have been inputting my data (with sources when known).

Now all I need is a year's subscription to ancestry.com's worldwide access, but the cost is prohibitive right now. Oh well, I will press on without!

Until next time,
Keith

New Updates

Well, I have been very busy scouring the internet and numerous databases to locate the latest information. Below is a summary of some of the highlights.

Much of my efforts over the past few days have focused on the Berger lines. I was able to trace Claire Berger (Lemay) back to her grand parents and great grand parents. I am comfortable that I have located accurate and reliable information except for having several variation for Alphonsine Lemay, Claire's great grand mother on her father's side. I have evidence (which needs to be further researched) that indicates her name was most likely Mary Alphonsine Moquin (or Moguin or Maguin).

I have also determined that Josheph A. Lemay the son of Josheph P. and Alphonsine Lemay was born in Burlington, VT and moved to Canada shortly after birth for 18 or 19 years. He served in the Canadian Army in both 1916 and 1918 during World War One.

On Janel's side of the family, I have obtained a copy of her uncle Chuck's genealogical research and it is rather in-depth. I will be contacting him at some point in the future for copies of his work and notes.

For the record, as I find information that is credible I am saving copies of it to my computer, so if you see someone you want more information about, just ask. If I have something on them I am more than happy to pass it along.


If you have any vital records, pictures, or other documents on anyone in the family tree, please consider making copies and sending them to me for my files. I would greatly appreciate it.

If you want to see, for free, the family tree at ancestry.com let me know and I will email you an invite so that you can see it.

Pedigree chart as of 15 October 2010.

Welcome to the Mageau family Blog

Welcome,

For those that do not know who me, my name is Keith Mageau. I have decided to piece together the very fragmented stories of the Mageau family into some type of orderly fashion. I hope that this project will benefit all those in the family.

Work is underway to build a basic pedigree chart that centers on the my son Brian and goes back in time from there. Thus far, I have begun tracing the ancestral lines on my father's (Kenneth Mageau) side which includes the Mageau, Lague, Camerlin, Mongeau, Mecurio, and Salvanelli surnames. As information becomes available I will begin tracing the my mother's surname, Berger and all that that entails as well. My wife's family, Donoughue, has already been traced back many generations. I hope to have these records soon.

What can you do to help?

I am always searching for information regarding any members of the family. The type of information I am seeking is birth dates and location, death dates and location, marriage dates, etc. I am also seeking any documents (copies of course) of any pertinent civil records. Pictures would also be very useful.

The following is particular information I am seeking.

Conrad Mageau [Father of Normand Mageau]
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Viola Mageau (Lague) [wife of Conrad]
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Ovila Mageau [father of Conrad mageau]
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Francois Lague [father of Viola Mageau (Lague)]
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Mary Lague (maiden name unknown) [wife of Francois Lague]
- Maiden Name
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Michael Mercurio [father of Aida Mageau (Mercurio)]
- Mother's Name
- Father's Name

Elizabeth Mercurio (Salvanelli) [mother of Aida Mageau]
- Middle Name
- Date of Birth
- Place of Birth
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Cesare Salvanelli [father of Elizabeth Mercurio (Salvanelli)]
- Middle Name
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

Ippolita Salvanelli (maiden name unknown) [mother of Elizabeth Mercurio (Salvanelli)]
- Maiden Name
- Middle Name
- Date of Death
- Place of Death

I am also looking for information on Cesare and Ippolita's parents.


If you have any information you which to contribute, please email at modoc31@gmail.com

Respectfully,
Keith Mageau

Ps. When I figure out to manipulate this blog better I will post more detailed information about our family tree.