Just in time for Bastille Day, I thought I would write a quick blog on some research I've done over the past few months into our French ancestors who lived in Illinois in the early 18th Century.
First, a quick history of the French in North America. As we know, European countries began to explore and colonize North America starting in the mid-16th Century. The French got into this game with Jacques Cartier entering and exploring the St. Lawrence River on numerous voyages in the mid 1500s. In 1603, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain established a French settlement in what is now Quebec City. The French, like all of the Europeans, wanted to find a passage to the Pacific and had high hopes that the great Mississippi River they'd heard so much about from the native peoples would get them there.
It was actually 350 years ago in the summer of 1673 that French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette traveled down the Mississippi from Quebec. They learned a lot on this voyage, including that the Mississippi did not empty into the Pacific Ocean. It was on the return part of this voyage that the native guides showed Jolliet and Marquette a great short cut, the so-called Chicago portage where travelers could go from the Des Plaines River to the Chicago River through a short half mile strip of land. (Interestingly, this site--featuring the weird metal statue shown above-- is about 2 miles from my home, so come anytime and we can see it together! In fact, there is a reenactment scheduled for August 12th. Check it out at this web site: Chicago Portage Site)
In 1682, the French established themselves in Louisiana and La Nouvelle France extended from Quebec through the Great Lakes and river network to New Orleans. The French called the upper part of their territory le pays d'en haut (upper country); the middle section le pays de Illinois (named for the native peoples); and the lower part Louisiana. The French government wanted to encourage settlements along the Mississippi River for trade purposes and to establish agricultural sources for their settlers throughout New France. This map from Margaret K. Brown's book The Voyageur in the Illinois Country (p. 3) shows a nice map of the French settlements that had popped up by the early 1700s.
Let's now meet an ancestor. We have an ancestor named Francois Xavier Ripau dit Rollet who was born in Quebec in 1695 and died in Quebec in 1754. Although he was born and died in Quebec, he spent much of his adult life as a trader/merchant in le pay de Illinois. I have no information about what he did in his early life. Some French settlers in Quebec set out on westward expeditions with official groups, but others just set out on their own as freelance fur traders and were called courers des bois which means runners of the woods. I am guessing Rollet was one of those freelancers who then ended up setting up shop as a trader in the Illinois Country when he was in his mid 20s.
Here's where it gets exciting. How do you find ancestors in the historical record? Church records can be helpful for baptisms and deaths, but what else? There happens to be a great source of civic records from this time period called the Kaskaskia Manuscripts which includes around 6,000 documents from 1708 to 1816 including wills, deeds, contracts, leases, etc. These documents used to be available to researchers at the the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester, Illinois. Do I want to go to Chester, Illinois to do research? Not really. Luckily, these have been digitized and anyone can search them with the link provided at the end of this blog.
Here's what I found searching that database. As early as 1726, Rollet is listed as a trader/merchant, first in Fort de Chartres, then Cahokia and then Kaskaskia. I can first find him in 1726 as a witness to another colonist buying some land and then he leased a horse and a cart for three years in exchange for his labor. Rollet was almost age 50 by 1743 and it appears his business was thriving. Read this notation from 1743:
43:6:15:1
Deposition by Francois Xavier Rollet, trader at Cahokia, and partner of Joseph Adam, also a trader at Cahokia, that Adam has advanced 1150 livres of buckskin to the partnership, and is therefore entitled to withdraw this amount before any division of property is made in the event of a dissolution of the partnership. Executed at Kaskaskia. Marginal notation of 1 copy made for La- source and 1 copy made for Metote. De Salmon; Louis Auguste Delaloere Flaucour; Jean Chenie; Louis Labriere; Barrois. (3pp.Com.VI,48)
Well, I am not an expert on trading from this time period (or any time period), but that sounds like a lot of buckskin to me! Our Francois was a big time guy! I am also guessing that Rollet's partner, Joseph Adam, was British. That's a hunch, I have no evidence to back that up.
I have not personally done the church research into Rollet, but my dad's cousin Stella Burke as well as Theresa McDermott did terrific work in that area. From them, we know that Rollet was married to a native woman, Domitille, who died, leaving him with two young daughters. He then married again in 1745 to a woman from a wealthier family, named Marie Bequet, but she also died. Rollet then married a third time, a woman named Marianne Fouillard who is also our direct ancestor. Here is the listing from 1747 that I found in the Kaskaskia manuscript:
47:6:12:2
Marriage contract between Francois Xavier Rollet of Cahokia, son of the late Jacques Rollet and the late Marianne Hébert, widower of Domitille and of Marie Bequet; and Marianne Fouillard of Kaskaskia,
widow of Jean Bap- tiste Giard, assisted by her administrator Jacques
Mi- chel Dufrene and by her children's guardian Jean Bap- tiste Crely.
Rollet agrees to care for Giard's children. Executed at Kaskaskia.
Nicolas Thuillier Devegnois; Pierre Aubuchon; Jean Baptiste Richard;
Daniel Legras; Rev. Wentrin; Pierre Duroy dit Deslauriers; Barrois.
(3pp. Priv. V, 24)
See: 47:6:12:1, 47:6:12:3
This citation was super cool as it gives us the names of Rollet's and Fouillard's parents. That is gold for genealogists! As you can see, Marianne* had also been married and had children from her prior marriage. (We can infer that marriages were more transactional than we think of them in modern times.) Later in 1747, I see Francois and Marianne buying a house:
47:10:31:2
Sale of a house and lot on the common in Kaskaskia by Antoine Peltier dit Antayas, trader, to Francois Xavier ïiollet and his wife Marianne Fouillard for 1500 livres.
We know from baptismal records that Francois and Marianne have a child named Felicite born in 1748. She is our direct ancestor.
Thank you, Catherine, for another intriguing part of our family history. It's fascinating to read our ancestors' stories and marvel at being descended from them. What it must have taken for them and for all those who leave their families, their homes, their comforts, their "knowns" for the unknown! Courage, a strong sense of self, a vision of a better life for them and their families. I say good luck and God speed to them all.
ReplyDeleteCatherine, I am really enjoying reading your blog! I am very glad that our cousin, John, sent me the link to your blog. I would love to connect more with you.
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