Marie Celina and Marie Vadnais

I was shocked this last week when I stumbled upon a record with children Married (Marie) and Marie Celina Vadnais that gave my great-great-grandparents Francois and Tharsile (Hus-Lemoine) Vadnais as their parents.  Did they have more children than previously thought?  (Here is the link to the earlier post about them: Francois Vadnais (1826-1902))

Up to this point I only knew that Francois and Tharsile had 4 children: Marie Theresa, William (my great-grandfather), Cordelia and Mathilda.  All of them were born in Minnesota between 1858 and 1870.  The record I just found showed that twins Marie and Marie Celina were born in Canada on March 17, 1849 when Francois was 22 years old and Tharsile just 16 years old.  This was almost 10 years before the previously known oldest child Marie Theresa’s birth.    I needed further confirmation: the one document was not enough.  So my hunt began. 

First I decided to see if there were any other trees on Ancestry showing Marie or Marie Celina.  Even though another person’s Ancestry tree is not close to valid proof of parentage, I hoped I would find more records related to them and that they would be in a tree that had Francois and Tharsile as their parents.  To my surprise, I only found Marie Celina in one tree and she was attached to the wrong parents. 

As a side note, for any of you that use Ancestry to build trees, you should be aware that there are many, many trees that are incorrect.  I think most people trust that the tree builder has done their due diligence to confirm all its branches, but that would be a bad assumption.  For the most part I look at other trees for the documents they may contain. You have to verify each person for yourself.  You know what happens when you assume?  

Back to Marie and Marie Celina –  I was beginning to think that the one record (shown below) I had found might be wrong, a fluke, but I didn’t want to give up. Then it dawned on me that it had the name of the church where they were baptized, St. Aime (Massueville).  I had a place to look.

I was off in search of the baptismal record and, sadly because both died shortly thereafter, the burial records.  It can be a daunting task because any one church file may cover 100 years and contain over 1,000 pages.  Further barriers include illegible writing, damaged or missing pages and of course the fact that they are either written in French, or possibly in Latin.

I found the St. Aime records and dove in.  First I needed to find the area in the records with the correct year: mille cent huit quarante neuf.  Next the month and day: dix-sept mars for the baptism and dix-huit mars or dix avril for the deaths/burials and then finally the names: Marie Vadnais and Marie Celina Vadnais.  As it turns out, the death dates were not the burial dates, but I found them.  I had the scans of the original church records!

Translation:

Baptism 53 and 54

Marie Celina and Marie Vadenais [Vadnais]

Today, March 17, 1849, the undersigned parish priest were baptized by us Marie Celina and Marie, born today twin daughters of Francois Vadenais and Tarcile Lemoine.  Godfather and godmother of Marie Celina, Francois Vadnais and Henriette Beaudreau.  Godfather and godmother of Marie, Pierre Parenteau and Marguerite Vadenais, who did not know how to sign, the father absent.                                             (Signed) Ed: Lecours, priest

End of translation.

Marguerite Vadnais was Francois’ sister and Pierre Parenteau was her husband.  I am not sure about which Francois Vadnais the record refers to as Marie Celina’s godfather and I have no information on Henriette Beaudreau, the godmother.

Translation:

Sepulture 33 [Burial]

Marie Celina Vadenais [Vadnais]

Today, March 20, 1849, we, the undersigned parish priest, have buried in the local cemetery the body of Marie Celina, who died two days ago, three days old, daughter of Francois Vadenais and Tarcile Lemoine.  Present Basile Lavallee and Joseph Pepin who did not know how to sign.                                             (Signed) Ed: Lecours, priest

End of translation.

Translation:

Sepulture 34 [Burial]

Marie Vadenais [Vadnais]

Today, April 4, 1849, we, the undersigned parish priest, have buried in the local cemetery the body of Marie, who died two days ago, seventeen days old, daughter of Francois Vadenais and Tarsile Lemoine. Present Basile Lavallee and Joseph Pepin who did not know how to sign.                                             (Signed) Ed: Lecours, priest

End of translation.

The church records are the only original documents that were created during Marie’s and Marie Celina’s short time on Earth. They are the confirmation needed to verify that they were the oldest of the (now) 6 children born to Francois and Tharsile (Hus-Lemoine) Vadnais.  Marie and Marie Celina are my great-grandaunts and can now be added to our family tree.

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cindy

© 2022 Copyright by Cynthia Vadnais, All Rights Reserved

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Footnotes for Marie Celina and Marie Vadnais post