Reine Marie Lagimodière

Reine Lagimodiere

• General Notes
  • "...bright blue eyes and flaxen yellow hair which the Indian and Metis women loved to fondle, born on January 6.  Given that the infant's birthplace was a teepee, the Lagimodiere's bestowed on her a rather unlikely name - Reine (Queen), honouring his most gracious majesty."  So, Reine was no doubt named for the celebration of Epiphany (visit of the Kings to the Infant Jesus).
    
    She married Joseph Lamere (Lemaire, Lamer) at age 15.  After the disastrous flood of 1826, they left Red River for the United States.
    
    Joseph and Reine went to his old home in Sorel, PQ where they lived until he died in 1858.  Then she went to Woonsocket, Rhode Island to live with her daughter (Catherine) and family.  In 1876 Reine returned to Red River (St. Boniface), one year after her mother, Marie Anne Gaboury, died.  Reine died in St. Boniface at the age of 86.
    
    There seems to be a mystery regarding dates, marriages, and births, ie Reine Lagimodiere and Michel Monet, Marie-Anne Monet, Reine's marriage to Joseph Lamere (sr.), the date of Catherine Lamere's birth.
    
    
    
    The following is a translation from "Le Mystere de Marie-Anne Monet" from Centre du Patrimoine in St-Boniface (Winnipeg), Manitoba, Canada.
    
    
    
                                                      The Mystery of Marie-Anne Monet
    
    Genealogical research sometimes raises questions which are difficult, if not impossible to solve.  Such is the case for Marie-Anne Monet, wife of Prosper Ducharme.
    
    The only official document that we find that gives the name of her two parents is an affidavit for the script1 to which she affixed her mark on July 3, 1875.  Marie-Anne (and Marianne in the text) declared that she was the wife of Prosper Ducharme, resident at Sainte-Agathe (Manitoba).  She was born in 1832 in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba), girl of Michel Bellehumeur, a Metis, and LaReine Lagimodière, French Canadian. The document, compiled in English, was explained to her in French and she affixed her cross in front of a witness at Saint-Boniface. On the other hand, three censuses: 1870, 1881, 1891, say she was 49, 59, and 68 years old respectively and thus born about 1821 or 1822. The censuses are often more faithful to reflect the ages than the affidavits because, in many cases, when we have the proof of a baptism, we note that these affidavits are erroneous by one or even several years. This could be explained by the fact that the people giving the information did not speak English and that the representatives of the government who took information were often unilingual English-speaking.
    
    However, here are the problems which the affidavit for the scrip signed by Marie-Anne Monet poses. We find Marie Monet mentioned her parents, Michel Monet dit Bellehumeur and Reine Lagimodière, characters in the history of the River-Red, but they were not a married unit.
    
    The registers of the parish of Saint-Boniface would undoubtedly have thrown light on this, but the majority of those, going back to 1818, were lost in a fire which destroyed the cathedral and the presbytery in December 1860.
    
    Let us examine, to start, who could have been this Michel Bellehumeur. The probable candidate would be Michel Monet dit Bellehumeur (and Belhumeur), son of Michel Monet dit Bellehumeur, a French Canadian, and of Marguerite Grant, Metis. Born in August 1802 in the West, he was baptized on September 7 at Berthierville (Quebec). One finds him in the West in 1822, the year of the birth of a son, Michel.  He   married Josèphte of the nation of Sauteux on February 5, 1839 in Saint-François-Xavier (Manitoba). He would be deceased before 1875, but Marie-Anne said in her affidavit that Michel " was my father ".  The Monets were in the area of Saint-Boniface from the very start of the 19th century, but Michel (father) sign, in 1817, the request requiring of missionnaires for the River-Red. Also, in his biography of Marie-Anne Lagimodière (born Gaboury)2, the Dugas abbot says that, in 1816, there was at the place where later the Gray Sisters were going to build their convent, a hut out of wooden built by an old Canadian of the name of Bellehumeur (undoubtedly Michel Monet dit Bellehumeur). in October 1816, the house not being occupied, Mrs Lagimodière sought refuge with her children while waiting for the return of her husband.
    
    Let us examine now which could have been this "LaReine Lagimodière".  It seems rather clear that there is only one candidate: Reine Lagimodière , the first white child to be born in the area, girl of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière (and Lagimonière) and of Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first European-Canadian to be established permanently in the Canadian West. Reine Lagimodière, born on January 6, 1807. It was the day of Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Kings to the Infant Jesus. This being customarily the third important feast of the Christmas season in Quebec, devout Marie Anne looked for an appropriate name. Since the baby was a girl she called her "Reine" (Queen).
    According to a document found in the provincial files of Colombia-Britanique3, Joseph Lamère married Reine Lagimodiére in 1823 in Saint-Boniface. Part of the registers of the parish of Saint-Boniface for the years 1825 to 1834 were saved from the fire of 1860. When we compare the marriages of the above mentioned document with the register, they agree perfectly for the years. There is thus no doubt as for the year of the marriage of Joseph Lamère and Reine Lagimodière.  Certain sources4 indicate that elder couple Lamère-Lagimodière, Catherine, would have been born in November, 1822. The censuses and her death certificate lead us to believe however, that
    she would have been born rather between 1823 and 18265.  According to the family tradition, the Lamère couple and their children would have left the River-Red after the flood of 1826 which devastated the colony.  Thereafter one finds the family in the area of Sorel and Saint-David d' Yamaska in Quebec. Become widowed, Reine would be established during a few years with her daughter and her grandchildren in the United States. It is on June 24, 18766 which Reine and the members of her family leave Woonsocket (Rhode Island) to return to Manitoba where she spent her last years. She died on May 27, 1893, and was buried two days later in the cemetery of Saint-Boniface.
    
    In 1870, the Ducharme-Monet couple remained in Saint-Vital.  Since 18767 they were in the area of
    Saint-Jean-Baptiste with River-with-Plums.  After the death of Prosper which occurred on August 4, 18878  Marie-Anne would remain with her daughter, Marie-Rose, and her son-in-law, Mathias Jacques9.  This family left the area between 1892 and 1900, we do not find any trace with the census of 1901. The death certificate and burial of Marie-Anne remain untraceable.
    
    Would Marie-Anne Monet be the natural daughter of Reine Lagimodière and Michel Monet, described above? The indices let suspect that it is very possible. It is interesting to note that she carried the same first name as the mother of Reine Lagimodière, Marie Anne Gaboury!  Marie-Anne Ducharme, born Monet, affirmed in her affidavit that she was born in Saint-Boniface, that her father was Métis and her mother a Canadian-Frenchwoman. The two only people who fill all these criteria are above mentioned Michel Monet and Reine Lagimodière.  Reine Lagimodière could, before her marriage with Joseph Lamère,  have had a girl, Marie-Anne, with Michel Monet. But of the questions are posed. Who would have raised Marie-Anne? With the Lamère family in 1826, or would she have remained in the area of the River Red?  On the dates, the answers remain untraceable.
    
    
    
                         Children of Marie-Anne Monet and Prosper Ducharme
    
       1.Sara Ducharme, born on January 12, 1850 in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba)10. She marries Daniel
         Branconnier on February 4, 1868 in Saint-Boniface.
       2.Ducharme queen, born on December 22, 1851 in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba)11. She marries Louis Vandal,
         May 6, 1873 in Saint-Norbert (Manitoba).
       3.Marie-Rose Ducharme, born on March 15, 1854 in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba)12. She marries Mathias
         Jacques on November 28, 1889 in Saint-Jean-Baptiste (Manitoba).
       4.Joseph Ducharme, born about 1857. Deceased 9 and buried on October 11, 1865 in Saint-Boniface
         (Manitoba).
       5.Ducharme elects, born about 1861. Died 11 and buried on October 12, 1865 in Saint-Boniface
         (Manitoba).
       6.Melanie Ducharme, born 26 and baptized on June 27, 1863 in Saint-Boniface (Manitoba). She marries
         François Berthelet on September 26, 1876 in Sainte-Agathe (Manitoba).
    
    
    
         1. The affidavit for the scrip made it possible the Mongrels to take part in the programme of ground concession which had been promised under the terms of the input of Manitoba in the Canadian Confederation in 1870. The affidavit confirmed the statute of Mongrel and made it possible to the person to receive a certificate, which gave to the carrier the right to receive a " homestead " on presentation of the document to the authorities.
    
         2. Dugas, George. The First Canadian one in the North-West, or Biography of Marie-Anne Gaboury, arrived at the North-West in 1806, and died in Saint-Boniface at the 96 years age. Montreal, Cadieux, 1883.
    
         3. " Names of the men who were married by missionnaires Catholiques since the establishment of the Mission E the River-Red in 1818 until February 15, 1831." ASHSB
    
         4. Melt Lagimodière. Files Shsb
    
         5. The census of 1881 gives him 58 years; that of 1891, 66 years, and that of 1901 known as which it was born on June 4, 1826. Its act of burial (parish of Saint-Boniface, August 31, 1901) indicates that it was 77 years old with its death.
    
         6. Joyal, Jean-baptiste. Memory of family (new manuscript). Files of the SHSB.
    
         7. Register of the parish of Sainte-Agathe (Manitoba), September 12, 1876.
    
         8. Register of the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste (Manitoba).
    
         9. Census of 1891, municipality of Montcalm (Manitoba).
    
       10. Affidavit for the scrip, 1875.
    
       11.Ibid.
    
       12.Ibid.
    
    
    
    Stories of families and genealogy
    
         Greeting
    
              shsb@escape.ca