The starting point

 

click to enlarge

Names in this chart (for the search engines): Ovide Maurice; Simone Rouleau;Thomas Maurice; Élodia Robitaille; Théodore Rouleau; Yvonne Leclerc; Joseph Maurice; Oléa Toutant; Silas Robitaille; Julie Michel; Onésime Rouleau; Désanges Morissette; Alfred Leclerc; Camille Guay; Abraham Maurice; Flavie Marchildon; Jean Toutant; Zoée Monplaisir; François-Xavier Robitaille; Marie-Félicité Giroux; Jean-Baptiste Michel; Julie Bisson; Pierre Rouleau; Madeleine Lecours; Pierre Morissette; Olivette Lacroix; Benjamin Leclerc; Marie-Anne Duchesneau; Joseph Guay; Marguerite Carbonneau

     This 5-generation pedigree chart is  the center piece of my genealogy and family history.  It extends from present day (me) to the mid-1800's and it represents the relatively short period of time for which photographs of my ancestors exist. This is an important feature of this blog, not only because I, like most people, enjoy looking at old photos, but also because I consider that they add enormously to any written account about the past.  A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say.  Furthermore, that century and a half is generally better documented than the earlier times, which makes the stories about this period more interesting.  But I do have most of the genealogical data (i.e. names, places and dates) going back at least six or seven generations for every one of my great-great-grandparents.  These are shown later in this blog.  Six or seven generations (eleven or twelve generations altogether) takes us back to the mid-1600's which is when my ancestors arrived in Canada from France.

      All my ancestors who came to Canada in the 17^th century, without exception, originated in France. The majority arrived in Quebec, most of them laying roots near Quebec City, although a few families ended up in Acadia, and settled in the Annapolis Valley in present day Nova Scotia. The MAURICE surname, however, is more recent.  My direct line ancestor, to whom the surname MAURICE is attributed was not himself a MAURICE; his name was Maurice ARRIVÉ (i.e. Maurice was his first name).  But within one or two generations – some of his children, in fact – went by the name of LARRIVÉ and LARRIVÉ dit Maurice. The "dit" name, which was commonly used in 16^th and 17^th century Quebec, may have been used by Maurice ARRIVÉ's descendants to distinguish themselves from other ARRIVÉ/LARRIVÉ who were settling in the same region as them.  Much later, towards the middle of the 19^th century, LARRIVÉ was dropped as well as the "dit" in "dit Maurice" and the name MAURICE on its own was adopted.  My great-great-grandfather Abraham (see chart above) was one of the first to go by the single surname MAURICE.