The Wandering Mind: Spotlight ~ Cécile Poulin

Documentarian Weblog ~ Stardate 14056.7

I've decided that I need to do a better job of blogging items I find on Ancestry to help me keep track of them. Today, I'm looking at Cécile Poulin, b. 20 Janv 1676; 1st wife of Jean Baptiste Otisse I. The Tanguay Collection (Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu'á nos jours) (Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families from the Founding of the Colony to the Present Day) by Cyprien Tanguay, 1819-1902, Published in 1871 shows that she was born in Sainte-Anne. I began searching to try to find out where this is.

In this blog, when I use directions, like "north of" or "south of", I'm referring to the St. Lawrence River (Fleuve Saint-Laurent). The river itself runs in a north-easterly direction connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. So the direction south, may look clearly west in a photo, if that portion of the river turns east and west. South would mean up river, towards the Great Lakes. The same is true for north which means down river towards the Atlantic Ocean.

St. Lawrence/Great Lakes Watershed

Karl Musser

I found a Sainte-Anne-des-Chênes in Manitoba, near Winnipeg, but I am thinking that is a bit too far away for this time frame. Jean Baptiste lived in Baie-Saint-Paul, just off the St. Lawrence River, north of Quebec City. He was taken into captivity and brought to Canada from New Hampshire by the Abenaki Indians in 1689 when he was just 9 years old. This is an unimaginable story that I will cover in another post.

At first, I had to check and make sure that Cécile wasn't born in France. It is clear from the collection that her parents were born in Canada.

Here are two examples that show first generations in Canada with their parents and where they are from.

This Michel O'Brien is the son of William and Margaret from Dublin, Ireland.

This Louis Olivier is the son of Pierre and Marie-Anne Dubuc of St-Eustache Parish in Paris, France.

"Roman Numerals. Roman numerals indicate generations. A person with I beside the name is the first ancestor listed in Tanguay's Diccionnaire. II is a child of the first ancestor. III is the grandchild of the first ancestor, and so on."

Next I found a river, Rivière Sainte-Anne near Église Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade which is south of Quebec City. This is getting closer to Baie-Saint-Paul. Then I found another river, Rivière Sainte-Anne-du-Nord, near Beaupré. It flows through Canyon Sainte-Anne near Mont Sainte-Anne, a ski area. Then I found south of Beaupré, the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. It lies between Quebec City and Baie-Saint-Paul. I believe this to be the town where Cécile was born.

Google Maps

To confirm this I consulted The Genealogy of the Otis Family by Gérard Malchelosse, ©1921. It states ~ "Jean-Baptiste Otis married in 1703 Cécile Poulin, born in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré January, 20 1676, daughter of Jean Poulin and Louise Paré." He goes on to say that the records do not show that they were married in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, but he surmises that they were because this is where her family lived at the time.

Next, I made an amazing discovery. I was under the impression that Jean-Baptiste Otisse I had first settled in Baie-Saint-Paul after his captivity, but he didn't. He only lived a portion of his life there. I remember reading that he ended up with the Seminaire de Québec in Québec City. There is some question about this though because he never learned to read and write. He does show up in records around 1702 at La Petite Ferme (the Little Farm) which was run by the seminary. The amazing discovery is that I found La Petite-Ferme just north of Saint-Joachim (which is just north of Beaupré and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré). This must be how Jean-Baptiste and Cécile Poulin met. He was living in the area.

The astonishing part is that there is a building at La Petite Ferme that was recognized by Canada's Historic Places in 1992. The building is shown to have been constructed from 1692 to 1732, which is in the time frame that Jean-Baptiste and Cécile Otisse lived there. They were married in 1703. What an exciting discovery and it's definitely a place I would like to visit!