|
|
(Excerpts From Our French Canadian Ancestors
Vol III. Written by Thomas J. Laforest. Published at Palm Harbor, FL 1988.
Written as notes only for information purposes, not for publication.)
No one knew and described the islanders of l'Île d'Orléans in his time better than Msgr David Gosselin (1846-1926). He devoted three large volumes, more than a thousand pages in all, to praise their worthiness and commend the virtues of the ancestors who cleared this island three centuries ago.
"Antoine was the first name of the first Canadian ancestor of the Pépin-Lachance family. He was the son of André and Jeanne de Rouville (note - not correct name) from Le Hâvre. In 1659 he married Marie Testu from La Rochelle. It is not astonishing that a father and mother who grew up in two important maritime centers provided their share of pilots and navigators.
This family has never ceased to be represented in the schools which teach these maritime arts. The parish of Sainte-Famille where the first ancestor was buried in 1703, is the cradle of this family. They were not slow to cross over to Saint-Jean, which we can aptly call the breeding ground of the Lachances. If I had to show the numerous offspring for eight or nine generations who have succeeded there, to chat a little about them, this historical account would be material for a volume."
They are mentioned in the censuses as follows in 1666, Antoine and Marie were living in Sainte-Famille, they had a 24 year old servant, Antoine Drapeau, in 1667, they owned five head of cattle and had 14 arpents under cultivation, finally in 1681, a 50 year old carpenter, Louis Bidet, lived with them. By 1681, they had nine children, eight heads of cattle, 30 arpents under cultivation and owned a gun.
Fortunately, the Pépins dit Lachance, who little by little discarded the name Pépin in favor of Lachance, left their island in large numbers in order to burrow in at Québec and the surrounding areas, where they may be counted by the thousands. Some others even went farther afield.
According to Father Archange Godbout, our ancestor Antoine Pépin dit Lachance was baptized at Notre-Dame-du-Hâvre in Normandie on April 10, 1636. The registry tells us that he was the son of André Pépin and Jeanne Chevalier. He must have left for New France about the age of fifteen, in the early 1650's, to work as the servant of the Governor. On January 04, 1653 the Seigneur de Lauzon granted him, along with another servant of the Governor, François Gaulin, and area of five arpents in frontage by forty deep in his seigneurie. He granted them both a new deed on the following 4th of June.
Our ancestor Antoine and his wife raised a dozen children. However this pales by comparison with their son Jean, who was the father of no less than twenty-two offsprings from his two successive marriages, Renée Guyon and Madeleine Fontaine.
In addition to Antoine Pépin dit Lachance, Pierre Pépin dit Laforce, Jean Pépin dit Descardonnets, Jean-Baptiste Pépin dit Cardonnet, Joseph Pépin dit Deschardonnets and Guillaume Pépin dit Tranchemontagne, there were other variations of Pépin, to include Châteauguay, De Lafond, Dupin, Lachaussée, Laforge, Lechance, Papan, Papin, Patin, Pépain, Pepaw, Pépine, Pepitt, Peppier, Piper, Pipin, Pippin, and Refort.
E-MAIL MY MOM
Sign My Guestbook