I think we tend to view history as a constant, something carved in stone, but the truth is that when you are compiling an ancestor’s history, there is no one book that contains all of the information and as a result, their history may change depending on what is found.
A case in point is my 2nd great-grandfather Charles Peltier. I thought that I had done my homework in uncovering all, maybe most of what, there was to know about him. Well, I was wrong!
While searching through records for a different ancestor in the Saint-Sulpice L’Assomption area northeast of Montreal I ran across a record that caused me to question what I knew about Charles’ family. What I had found was a baptismal record dated June 24, 1824 for Rosalie Peltier and the parents were Charles Peltier and Rose Perrault, the parents of my 2nd great-grandfather Charles Peltier; Rosalie was Charles’ older sister.1 I had previously thought that Charles was an only child. Could there be more children?
The facts were that Charles and Rose were married in 1823, Rosalie was born in 1824, Charles was born in 1825 and Rose died in early 1830. To possibly find other siblings I knew that a query searching the records by last name would not be a good approach, because often just the spelling used for a surname can keep one from finding a record. Also, if a record is not indexed, it is not searchable. That meant that I would need to look page by page through the church records from 1826 to 1830.
After looking through hundreds of pages of records I found 2 more of Charles’ siblings: Sophie born in 1827 and Henriette born in 1829.2, 3 I didn’t find any other records and I had looked at all of them up to their mother Rose’s death in 1830, just 3 days after Henriette’s first birthday.
Finding these children made me wonder if I was missing children from the father Charles’ second marriage in 1831 to Melitilde Hetu. Although their children would be half-siblings to Charles and his sisters, I felt it was important to determine if I had identified all of their father Charles’ children.
This search would prove to be a bit more difficult. Melitilde was 21 when she married Charles and the several children associated with them, listed in my tree, had no documentation verifying that Charles and Melitilde were their parents. I would need to look through 20 plus years of records until a gap of at least 2 years happened between children. To start I would look in the church records at Saint-Antoine, Lavaltrie, Quebec because that is where they were married. However, I had to question if I should be looking at the church records for Saint-Sulpice l’Assomtion in Quebec because that is where Charles’ had attended church and where his 4 children from his first marriage were baptized.
My search began in 1832, the year following their marriage. I looked through the Saint-Antoine records and didn’t find any baptisms associated with them so I switched to the Saint-Sulpice records and just a few months into the 1832 records I found a baptismal record for their first child, Marie Adeline Pelletier who was born on March 3, 1832.4 Saint-Sulpice was where I needed to look!
As I continued through the Saint-Sulpice records across the years I found more of their children. I ended up deleting at least 5 unverified children I had previously entered because of Ancestry member trees I had utilized. It is one of the main reasons why I don’t allow my tree to be public. I may enter people, but at some point they must be verified in order to remain in my tree. My family tree is a work in progress and I know that not all that is entered in it is correct.
After looking through records 3 years beyond the last known child, it turned out that there were 10 of Charles’ and Melitilde’s children entered in the Saint-Sulpice church records: Marie Adeline born in 1832, Remesille born in 1833,5 Leon born in 1835,6 Rose Delima born in 1836,7 Sin born in 1838,8 Marie Olive born in 1839,9 Adelaide born in 1840,10 Eusebe born in 1841,11 Cleophas born in 184312 and Emilie born in 1844.13
Melitilde was 34 years old when the last child that I found, Emilie, was born. I thought it odd that I didn’t find other children being baptized at Saint-Sulpice after 1844. Maybe I was missing something. One of the next clues I looked at was the burial records for Charles and Melitilde. For Melitilde I only had a notary record stating she died and was buried in Joliette, Quebec.14 However, Charles’ church burial record was from Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare just outside of Joliette.15
(a distance of about 28 miles)16
Had the family moved to the Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare area? I switched to the records for Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare and began my search in 1845. Not long after I started to look I found another of their children; they had moved and I needed to continue through these church records.
I searched the records through 1852 and found 5 children of theirs who had been baptized at Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare: Hedwige born in 1845,17 Adeline born in 1847,18 Marie Esther born in 1848,19 Mathias Zotique born in 185020 and Francois Xavier born in 1852.21
Were there more children? Melitilde was 42 years old when Francois Xavier was born, so she could possibly have more children. I continued my search and looked through 1853 to 1856 and did not find any other children. I think I identified all of the family members.
What I discovered after working on this project for 3-4 days was that my 2nd great-grandfather Charles Peltier had 3 sisters and 15 half-siblings. Additionally, I found that 3 of them that did not survive to adulthood.
The history I had written about Charles (I launched that post on December 10, 2021) had changed or maybe I should more accurately say that it had been uncovered. After all, his siblings were recorded in the church records over 150 years ago, they just needed to be attached to Charles.
I updated the post about Charles and his wife Mathilde (Domitille). Only a few sentences were changed/added. Charles was no longer an only child. Instead, the changes to the post now read: … They had been married just over 2 years when Charles joined his older sister Rosalie who had been born on June 24, 1824. There would be 2 other siblings born after Charles: his sister Sophie born on February 20, 1827 and his sister Henriette born on January 24, 1829. And … The couple was blessed with 15 more children between 1832 and 1852.
Finding these siblings caused me to think a bit differently about the family dynamics. Charles’ father’s family consisted of over 10 children by the time Charles immigrated to Minnesota. Was the family size a factor in his leaving? May be, maybe not, I will never know.
Charles’ post is not the only one I’ve updated because of new information. When I find something is incorrect and I can verify that it is, I go and make the change. Family history is constantly in flux.
Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cindy
© 2022 Copyright by Cynthia Vadnais, All Rights Reserved
wow!! what a detective! another amazing history lesson. Thanks oxoxox