We are all immigrants

 

As I have researched my family tree and that of my husband, I have been reminded that we are all immigrants. This is the centuries old story of our Continent; Canada and the United States were British colonies. Not so very long ago our ancestors were new immigrants in this land. That some of our families have been here longer than others does not change that fact.

Monument to Scottish Immigrants in Philadelphia, PA

Even the reasons that people have come to this country are basically the same as centuries ago; freedom of worship, freedom from oppression, the opportunity to forge something new. 

    As a father, my husband's dad did not contribute a lot that was positive to his life. He did however bring a fascinating heritage. Had Lynn's dad married his mother under his birth name, Lynn would rightfully have had the family name Croteau. He may not bear the name, but his DNA will connect him to the first Croteau to come to Canada and to whom all those bearing the name can trace ancestry.

1669 Notarial Record of Vincent's marriage

Lynn's direct line goes like this; 

Lynn<Jean Louis<Josaphat<Fidolin<Anicet<Jean Baptiste<Jacques<Jacques<Jacques<Vincent

Vincent was born in 1644 in Veules-les-Roses, in Normandy, France. It is on the English Channel not very far from Dieppe. In the 8th century, Charlemagne ordered the strengthening of defenses in Veules-les-Roses against the invasions of Vikings from the north. The church where Vincent Croteau was baptized, St-Nicolas, was erected in the 13th century,, destroyed (except for the tower) during the Hundred Years war, then rebuilt in sandstone in the 16th century. This is all that remains of it today.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Nicolas_%28Veules-les-Roses%29.JPG

 The cross in the foreground is called a Hosanna Cross which has funerary significance and was common in Western France between the 12th and 16th century.

"The religious wars between Catholics and Protestants tore the population apart and destroyed agriculture and commerce in the years preceding the emigration of Vincent Croteau. By the time he left in 1665, religious division had destroyed the economy and was even marked by the way women dressed: Catholics wore red skirts and Protestants wore blue." (source: https://www.veules-les-roses.fr/son-histoire/)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%89glise_Saint-Martin_de_Veules-les-Roses.jpg

Eglise Saint Martin is where Vincent would have attended mass with his parents. It remains unchanged for well over three centuries.

 Many Veulais move away to other towns like Dieppe; many of the fishermen leave the small port and take to the seas; Vincent travels to New France. There must have been some arrangement attached to his passage as documents show that he had to serve a period of time as a "domestique" to the Jesuits, after which he plied his trade as a shoemaker. Vincent married Jeanne Godequin in 1669 and had a family of 10-11 children thus establishing a dynasty in the New World. 

Entry in the Tanguay Genealogical Dictionary for Vincent's son Jacques

Clearly there is so much more to Vincent's story, and that of the generations that follow, but one of the most striking facets to me, is the that these lives are so clearly documented. There are many families today whose history past three generations or so, has been completely erased. Sometimes this is a result of war's many destructions;  sometimes histories were oral and not written. Fire destroyed many early records that had been kept in wooden churches, and then too, there are people whose ancestors were not only moved from their country of origin, but deprived of their names. Here we have 10 generations of family history chronicled through documents that tell us who they were, who they married, when they lived and where. It is an astonishing gift.

Rhineland Palatinate in Germany

When searching for my mother's ancestors, I found that her immigrant roots were 'Foreign Protestants' or Huguenots, from the Rhineland Palatinate. This refers to the Upper Rhine area of present-day Germany, from the French- and German-speaking Swiss cantons, and from the French-speaking principality of Montbéliard (now part of France). Mom's ancestor, Johann Peter Rudolf, her 5th great-grandfather, escaping religious persecution, landed in Nova Scotia almost 100 years after Vincent Croteau. Apparently these immigrants were actively recruited because the predominantly English population in Halifax had been diminished by desertion and disease and it had been noted that the German and Swiss families already in Halifax were more industrious. In order to make this move more attractive, free land, tools and implements, and a year's supply of food were part of the inducement. In return for a period of municipal labour, even those who could not afford it, would be granted passage.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=78318

One of the four panels of names of Foreign Protestants at a memorial sight in Lunenburg

Many of my Rudolph ancestors ended up in Cape Breton and were Mariners, fishermen and miners. 

On my father's side, the first immigrants came from Scotland, Ireland and Britain in the early 1800's but all ended up in Ontario. My 3rd great-grandfather, James Panton Thornton, a tailor from Manchester, England, brought his wife and 3 children to Canada. In 1819 he petitioned the Consul General, whose residence was in New York, for a parcel of land. Documents show that he received a parcel of 100 acres. He ended his life in Glen Williams, in the historical Township of Esquesing having owned several properties in Georgetown, and served as a Justice of the Peace. 

The document reads; 'I herewith forward to His Majesty's Province of Upper Canada, J.P. Thornton, Wife & three children, a British Subject, a native of England by trade a tailor who has produced satisfactory evidence of industry, being desirous of bringing up his family to agricultural pursuits & from my knowledge of him I recommended him to proceed to Canada & therefore ... by law to recommend him to His Majesty's Government'

James Panton Thornton

His monument in Glen Williams Cemetery

From James P.'s will it is clear that he had money sufficient to pay his debts, erect a monument, and leave something to his family, including his grandchildren. I don't know what prompted him to leave England, but this seems to be a story not as fraught with the danger and misfortune of some others. 

Just a few years later, my 2nd great-grandfather, Hugh Nixon, left County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. His Land Petition is dated 1825, at which time he also made the required Oath of Allegiance at York (later called Toronto).

May 5th 1830

Celebrated marriage, by License, between Hugh Nixon of the Township of Esquesing in the Gore District, Upper Canada, Bachelor and Matilda King of Etobicoke, Home District, Spinster.

To this union were born 11 children, only three of whom, survived to see the turn of the next century. My great grandmother Maggie, was one of them.

My great grandparents Francis Leonard Thornton and Margaret Nixon Thornton

Another 2nd great-grandfather, Neil Paul, came to Canada before 1837 and was considered an original settler in Nottawasaga, Ontario. A large number of Natives of the Isle of Islay emigrated together. Despite reforms and improvements made by the ruling Laird in the late 1700's, increasing numbers of inhabitants were leaving for North America. These families left a life of hardship, but faced much more on the long, arduous journey. They did however escape before the Potato Famine struck in the 1840's and which was then followed by massive, heartless land clearances. The Islay families settled here in groups allowing for support, community and the ability to speak and worship as they wished. The 1861 Canada census shows that Neil was farming a variety of crops with good yield, living in a frame home and speaking Gaelic. He donated a portion of one of his fields so that a cemetery could be established, with the proviso that he was buried on the boundary line to his property. 

Neil's monument in East Nottawasaga Presbyterian Cemetery, with what was his property showing behind it.

My great grandmother Flora McEachern, was also born in Islay, in a home that would have looked like this one in Conisby where her father was born. I believe Flora and her family arrived in Grey County, Ontario sometime in the 1860's, judging by census records. This is almost 200 years after Vincent Croteau, making them fairly recent immigrants. They clearly did not escape the desperation of the potato famine, but managed in some way to survive it. I wonder now if my grandma learned to speak Gaelic at her mother's knee and why it is that she did not have a Scottish burr to her speech. I wish I could ask her.

'Natives of Islay, Argyllshire, Scotland' - Many Scots, like my great great grandfather, Neil McEachern, had this engraved on their gravestone connecting them to their homeland even in death. 

As I return to my husband's family, the connection is not to France, but to Britain, via the British colonies established in the United States. Lynn's 3rd great-grandmother, Maribah Barlett married into the Bryant family, Lynn's maternal line. While I have not yet been able to trace that line back to Britain, but Lynn's 8th great grandfather, Richard Bartlett came from Stopham, Sussex, England to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1635, making him the first documented British immigrant to the colonies. 

This brings Richard to the New World several years before Vincent Croteau was born, making him our earliest immigrant ancestor, quite astonishing really when you consider that is nearly 600 years ago. Whilst Andrew Bryant and Maribah Bartlett Bryant remained in New England, their son Christopher, born in Enfield, NH in 1775, brought his family to Canada by 1825 establishing a Canadian branch of the Bryants. He is buried in a small, rather hidden, family cemetery in Austin, Quebec.

Many of Christopher's descendants remain to this day in the Eastern Townships.  The draw of work in the mills and factories south of the border in Maine, especially, drew English and French-Canadians alike and many of those families never returned to Canada. This is an age-old reason for emigration.

We are made up of so many stories; so many we will never hear, about people to whom we are related but will never know except as a name and a set of dates. Our DNA will confirm those places of origin and what mixture of them we represent. It may be the only way we can acknowledge all of those lives that contributed to ours. It makes me wonder what those drops of Viking or Celtic blood contribute to me, to my appearance, temperament or abilities. I wonder what brought my ancestors to this particular country and realize that my story could have been so very different. All because my ancestors immigrated and hoped for a better future.