A few years ago, I learned that I have ancestors among the Filles du Roi, kind of Quebec's version of the Mayflower immigrants. I was fascinated by the story of these brave women leaving France to help colonize Quebec, some maybe seeking a better life or more opportunities in the new world (though given its underpopulated state, I'm not sure what opportunities they were expecting). As I began researching my French-Canadian ancestry, I found several of these Filles du Roi in my family tree. I thought this was really cool, and wanted a way to commemorate these ancestors.
After a few minutes of searching on Google, I found a lineage society called "La Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan," based out of Virginia interestingly enough, not Quebec like I would have imagined. I asked them if I would be able to join, given that my link to my French-Canadian ancestors was discovered through DNA research and not via paper trail genealogy. Surprisingly, they hadn't seen genetic genealogy used to prove a relationship to a specific individual. They knew about ethnicity results, and how that could show a general relationship to an ethnic group, but they hadn't seen it applied to a specific individual and family. I wrote back, and sent them a proof argument I'd written a few years ago, where I showed how I came to the conclusion that I was a descendant of William Vadnais. They wrote back and said the argument was very interesting, and I should apply for membership!
It took me a while to get my documentation together. Part of the delay was the amount of documentation I felt I needed to prove the connection between my chosen ancestor, Marie Boisleau (born about 1651 in Dercé, Vienne, France) and me, her ninth-great-grandson. That's 12 generations covering over 300 years, and I wanted to prove every birth, marriage, and death in the chain that I could. Then I realized that some of my documents were pretty poor quality images, so I needed to go dig up better images of them. Then came the task of filling out the application with all these names, dates, and places. But I kept at it, and eventually I had everything together. I sent it off, and didn't hear anything for a while. Then just yesterday, I got an email back welcoming me to the society!
The society seems to have some cool benefits, chief of which is access to the society's newsletter. As I don't have a ton of personal research time, this is a great way to get access to information (hopefully a lot of historical context too) on this branch of my family tree without having to spend a ton of time learning it all on my own. They also have a really cool medallion you can buy, which would be neat to have. Most of all, I'm just excited that I was able to apply for this organization in a way they hadn't seen before, and was able to prove my ancestry well enough to be accepted. It makes me feel like I really do know what I'm doing, and it gives me a way to honor and celebrate another branch of my family history. I have a few other lineage societies I'm interested in joining - there's one for descendants of War of 1812 soldiers (my ancestor Elisaph Sanford was one), descendants of Civil War Union Veterans (I have at least two of those), and one I just learned about for descendants of American Farmers. At first I thought that was a joke, because who doesn't have ancestors in the US that were farmers? But then, don't all of our ancestors deserve to be celebrated and remembered, even (perhaps especially) those that don't seem to have the glamorous or noteworthy story or background? So yeah, lots still to do. Which is why I love this work!
Showing posts with label Filles du Roi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Filles du Roi. Show all posts
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
The Fillies of Roy
A few days ago, Dick Eastman wrote briefly about the Carignan-Salieres Regiment, a troop of about 1200 soldiers sent to Quebec from France by King Louis XIV to push the Indians back and help ensure the colony's survival. Once the situation stabilized, the soldiers were told they could go back to France if they wished, or they could remain in Quebec and live there. About 1/3 of the soldiers elected to remain in Quebec and settle there. Because the colony apparently didn't have enough women to offset this sudden increase in the male population, France organized the Filles du Roi (pronounced Fee du Wah, not fillies do Roy), or Daughters of the King. This group of between 700-1000 women, not actually daughters of the king but ordinary women (sometimes even orphans) basically agreed to help colonize Quebec by marrying the soldiers and other settlers and having big families. This was a big deal, because Quebec only had about 2600 people, compared to the 80,000 or so in the British colonies to the south. Dick includes several links to some very interesting articles in his post, so I recommend going through them all.
While reading Dick's article on the subject, a few things caught my eye. First was the illustration of how the soldiers dressed. To me, they look like traditional depictions of Davy Crockett but with a French hat instead of a coon-skin cap.
The other thing was the fact that there were apparently no restrictions on who could join the regiment, except for one - they had to be at least 5'3" tall. Interesting requirement.
I wanted to see if I had any ancestors among this group, so I went through my file and looked for anyone far back enough to have qualified, and I found one! Jean Bessette, born about 1642 is the most distant paternal ancestor of Eleanor Bessette (who I have written about before), and he just happens to be one of these soldiers.
According to Sandra Goodwin of the Maple Stars and Stripes podcast, when the ladies of the Filles du Roi were brought to Quebec, they lived in convents under the care of nuns. The nuns would organize socials where the local men would come and meet the ladies. The ladies would ask them about their occupations, whether they had a house built, if it was ready to live in, etc. Sometimes there would be an offer of marriage on the spot. The ladies were not under pressure to accept, and could decline if they wanted to. If they declined, they could move on to the next town and attend the social there. They could keep doing this all the way to the end of the settlement, which was Montreal at the time (which actually led the men at Montreal to complain that all the pretty girls were getting married back east). But the end result of all these socials was that most of the Filles du Roi were married very soon after arriving in Quebec.
That seems to have been the case in my lineage. Anne Seigneur, daughter of Guillaume and Madeleine Seigneur, arrived in Quebec on the ship La Nouvelle France on March 7, 1668. She was married to Jean Bessette on July 3 that same year. Just enough time for her to get situated, meet Jean, confirm that he was a suitable match, and go and get hitched.
There's a lot more written about the Filles du Roi and the Carignan soldiers than I've had time to read so far, and it sounds like a fascinating story and time. I wonder if any other of my French lines lead back to the fillies of Roy?
While reading Dick's article on the subject, a few things caught my eye. First was the illustration of how the soldiers dressed. To me, they look like traditional depictions of Davy Crockett but with a French hat instead of a coon-skin cap.
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| Carignan Soldier, courtesy of Dick Eastman's blog
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The other thing was the fact that there were apparently no restrictions on who could join the regiment, except for one - they had to be at least 5'3" tall. Interesting requirement.
I wanted to see if I had any ancestors among this group, so I went through my file and looked for anyone far back enough to have qualified, and I found one! Jean Bessette, born about 1642 is the most distant paternal ancestor of Eleanor Bessette (who I have written about before), and he just happens to be one of these soldiers.
According to Sandra Goodwin of the Maple Stars and Stripes podcast, when the ladies of the Filles du Roi were brought to Quebec, they lived in convents under the care of nuns. The nuns would organize socials where the local men would come and meet the ladies. The ladies would ask them about their occupations, whether they had a house built, if it was ready to live in, etc. Sometimes there would be an offer of marriage on the spot. The ladies were not under pressure to accept, and could decline if they wanted to. If they declined, they could move on to the next town and attend the social there. They could keep doing this all the way to the end of the settlement, which was Montreal at the time (which actually led the men at Montreal to complain that all the pretty girls were getting married back east). But the end result of all these socials was that most of the Filles du Roi were married very soon after arriving in Quebec.
That seems to have been the case in my lineage. Anne Seigneur, daughter of Guillaume and Madeleine Seigneur, arrived in Quebec on the ship La Nouvelle France on March 7, 1668. She was married to Jean Bessette on July 3 that same year. Just enough time for her to get situated, meet Jean, confirm that he was a suitable match, and go and get hitched.
There's a lot more written about the Filles du Roi and the Carignan soldiers than I've had time to read so far, and it sounds like a fascinating story and time. I wonder if any other of my French lines lead back to the fillies of Roy?
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