Thursday, March 13, 2008

Meet Charles Auger...

Charles Auger
22 Dec 1828 - 30 May 1899


Meet one of the great patriarchs of my maternal pedigree. Charles Auger, born in the parish of Ste. Elisabeth, Joliette, Quebec. This would be my great great grandfather, or the grandfather of my Memere (french for grandmother). My Memere never knew him as he died nearly 20 years before she was born.

I would love to know more about this man. This was one prolific cat! He was married twice in his life. His first marriage was to Genevieve Coutu. They married 5 FEB 1850 in St. Thomas, Joliette. Family lore testifies that this union produced 12 children, I've found evidence for these 10 thus far:

Marie Rose, 1851
Pierre Israel, 1852
Marie Amanda, 1858
Thomas Lactance, 1860
Pierre Fabian, 1861
Charles Gaspard, 1863
Francois Xavier, 1865
Thomas Gaspard, 1867
Joseph, 1869
Olive, ?

Sadly, Charles' wife, Genevieve died in 1871. One suspects the cause of death might have been exhaustion! Not being one to let the death of a spouse put a crimp on populating the Earth, Charles went on to marry Marguerite Lafond, my Great great grandmother.


Marguerite Lafond
14 April 1849 - 18 January 1917

As you can see Marguerite was significantly younger than Charles. If I didn't know better I'd be seriously wondering if this guy was Mormon! Again family lore says Marguerite went on to bear 12 more of Charles' children. I have evidence for seven:

Joseph Edouard, 1879
Marie Emma, 1880
Francois, 1881 *my great grand father
Marie Albertine, 1883
Marie Dina, 1886
Joseph, 1887
Marie Leontine, 1890

Charles died on his farm in 1899. Not long after many of his children, along with his widow, left Quebec to settle in the booming textile town of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Marguerite lived until 1917, 2 years before my Memere was born. She was buried on the Francois Auger family plot at Precious Blood cemetery in South Hadley, Mass.


R.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow Robert, that Auger guy was one prolific dude. Seventeen to twenty four children. I wonder if he was the one who had to go through the pains of child birth he might have stopped at one or two. :) I can't imagine giving birth to one child let alone twelve.

To raise that many children he must have been financially prospers as well. If he ran a farm or business he would have had plenty of cheap labor. Do you have any idea what his occupation was?

That window to the past in our own family does make research more personal and meaningful.

Anonymous said...

Hi Robert...this was great!!! I absolutely love family history! Hey, you have Charles ears....lOl

Hope ur family is feeling better!

Robert said...

Back in 2001 when I found out my wife was pregnant with my first child. I became interested in where I came from. Doing the research of my Mom's side was fascinating. Turns out that my my Mom is descended from one of the first explorers of New France (Quebec). I plan to do more of this type posts. Perhaps I'll find some other distant relations this way!

R.