The Birth and Baptism of Désanges Martin – 1817

After finding the Birth and Baptismal Record of Ausite Martin in the records of the parish of Ste. Marguerite de Blairfinde in L’Acadie in 1818, I started searching backwards in time, year-by-year, looking for the marriage of Ausite’s parents, Nicolas Martin and Marie Giroux. Before finding the marriage, I found the birth and baptismal records of several of Ausite’s siblings, including that for Désanges Martin, born on 16 April 1817. The record of her birth and baptism is recorded as baptism number 114 at the bottom of the image, below.

The Birth and Baptismal Record of Désanges Martin – 1817

SOURCE: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montréal, Québec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin. Parish of Ste. Marguerite de Blairfindie, L’Acadie, St. Jean County, Lower Canada, 1817. Birth and Baptismal Record of Désanges Martin, Front of Folio 17, B.114.

Click on the link for a PDF copy of the Birth and Baptismal Record of Désanges Martin – 1817. Translated from the French, the record states:

Baptism
of
Desanges
Martin
114

On the seventeenth of April one thousand eight one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, by us, the undersigned parish priest, have baptized Desanges, born yesterday of the legitimate marriage of the undersigned Nicolas Martin, and Marie Giroux. The Godfather was Joseph Lebeau and the Godmother was Marie Noreau, who declared that they cannot sign as required.

[signed] Nicolas Martin          [signed] J[ean] B[aptiste] Paquien, priest

In the original record, the priest wrote the words “mil huit” twice, and so in the translation above, I’ve faithfully recorded the translated year of birth as “one thousand eight one thousand eight hundred and seventeen”.

At first, I wasn’t certain whether Désanges was the name of a male or female child, although I found the name in a list of French Canadian given names. The key to the child’s sex lies in the French word for “born”, which is spelled “née”, indicating that the child is female. If the child had been masculine, the verb would have been “né”, rather than “née”.

Oddly enough, the Birth and Baptismal Record for Ausite Martin, born of the same parents a year later, the priest wrote that the father could not sign his name. This record shows that the father was perfectly capable of signing his name in 1817, so why couldn’t he sign in 1818?

This record can be found in the Québec Vital Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 on Ancestry.com as image 17 of 55 in the records for L’Acadie L’Acadie Ste.-Marguerite-de-Blairfindie for the year 1817. The record appears on the front of folio 17.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko