David Joyal Jr. Joyal Jr.

• General Notes
  • David Joyal, Jr. farmed land at St. David de Yamaska until he moved to Sorel with his family in 1852.  Here, his seventh child, Jean-Baptiste, was born on May 6, 1853.  The whole family soon moved again, this time to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where five of his children were married.  It appears that many members of the Joyal family and their relatives left Woonsocket for Manitoba in 1876 (September 12).  After David died, his wife Catherine remarried to Michel Petrin.
    
    Catherine Lamere was the daughter of Joseph Lamere and Reine Lagimodiere.  Reine Lagimodiere was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiere and Marie Anne Gaboury.  These two were married at Maskinonge, Quebec in 1804 and came to the prairies in 1806 (see notes for Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiere.)  They were the first voyageur and fur trade family in the west.  Their oldest daughter Reine, was the first white child born on the prairies, at what is now Pembina, North Dakota.  Their fifth child, Julie, grew up to marry Louis Riel (sr.)  Reine Lagimodiere (Ken Joyal's fourth great-grandmother) and her husband, Joseph Lamere were Riel's aunt and uncle.
    
    After the terrible flood of 1826, like many other families, the Lameres (Joseph and Reine) and their two children (Catherine and Joseph, Jr.) along with Reine's mother (Marie Anne Gaboury) left the Red River settlement.  Joseph took his family to his old home at Sorel, in Quebec, where they lived until he died in 1858.
    
    Catherine, who married David Joyal, Jr. went to live in Woonsocket, Rhode Island with her husband and children.  After the death of her husband (Joseph Lamere), Reine also went to live with her daughter in Woonsocket.  In 1876, Reine accompanied by most of her descendents, left Woonsocket and returned to Red River one year after her mother, Marie Anne Gaboury died at the age of 95.  Reine died at the age of 86.  Her descendents bear such names as: Joyal, Lamere, Petrin, Forcier, Levesque, Hogues, Millette, Decelle, Lavoie, Sales, Doucette, and Payette.