Anyone who has read census or church records knows that the spelling of names has always been far from uniform and that people often wrote names as they sounded, not as we would write them today. That poses special problems here in Quebec because we have two languages (French and English) which use different phonetics.
It is very important to keep this mind as you are tracking your ancestors--a French speaking or francophone record keeper is going to spell a name he doesn't know using French phonics, an English speaking or anglophone record keeper is going to use English phonics.
Make a note of the name of the person who recorded the census, church or even notarial records you are researching--it may give you another way to think about the records you have read and help you pass through a genealogical dead end which has been blocking your climb up your family tree.
Some of these misspellings are quite simple: Bonneau to Bon(n)o, Lefebvre to Lefave or Lafave, Bourbeau to Bobo--but others require a little creative phonics work.
For example, a man the minister called John Baptiste Abare got married at the Anglican Church in St. Armand East on Feb. 2, 1846. The John Baptiste is a give away that we are most likely looking at a francophone name.
Jean (pronounced the French way it sounds alot like John, and not at all like the English Jean) Baptiste is a common French first name. By sounding out the last name as the minister wrote it (ay-bear) we come to what was probably the name as the groom would have spelled it (Jean Baptiste Hébert).
A francophone did the 1825 Census of Sherrington Township and recorded one person as David McIlée. The "Mc" at the beginning of the surname is a tipoff that we are probably looking at an English language surname. A check of the surnames in the local Protestant church records indicate he was probably enumerating a David McClay.
For people researching francophone ancestors in the Eastern Townships there is another twist to add to the name problem--some families chose to translate their French surname either into its English equivalent or to an English word which sounded like their surname.
If you've come up to a blank wall with your Greenwood ancestors, try looking for Boisvert families in the area; Brooks might be Rousseau, Bean can be Lafave or Lefebvre, King can be Roy, Shortsleeves can be Courtemanche, Baker could be Boulanger, Miller sometimes turns out to be Meunier.
The Courchesne and Boutin families were among the early francophone settlers in Sutton Township where almost everyone else spoke English. They chose soundalike words for their new surnames and became the Cushions and the Buttons.
English-speaking information gatherers seemed to have great trouble with French surnames which ended with the suffixes "tier" or "thier" which are both pronounced tee-AY. They often replaced this with the suffix "key"--the Pelletiers become the Pelkeys, the Gauthiers the Gokeys, the Ethiers the Akeys/Hakeys and the Cloutiers the Clukeys (although I have also seen Cloutier translated into Naylor, because a cloutier was a man who made nails.)
Another suffix in French surnames which often gets mangled by English speakers is the eau/ eault/ ault. All these suffixes rhyme with ow as in the English word blow and often just get replaced with the letter o, oe, or ow. Moreau become Moro, Thibeault becomes Tebo, Brault becomes Broe or Brow, Gendreau(lt) becomes Gendro, Jendro or even Jandro.
When a French surname ends with the suffix "is" it sounds like ee as in the word eel. That's why you'll see the last name Paradis sometimes spelled Paradee.
What else? Well, another common problem pops up with surnames which end with é, et, ai, ais, ait, er--to an English speaking person this all sounds like ay as in the word play. The Dupré family becomes the Duprays, the Lahaie family the La Hayes, the Dauphinais family the Dofinays...you get the idea.
Another interesting quirk comes with the letter "H" which provides problems for French speaking people when it comes at the beginning of a word. I have seen it dropped from the beginning of surnames (turning names such as Hopps into Opps) and also added to beginning of a name which starts with a vowel (turning Emily to Hemelie, Akey (Ethier) into Hakey).
Now that more and more records are coming out in alphabetized indexes, there is a temptation to quickly scan down a list and not to think about phonetic spelling variations. You might not find Yvonne Tremblay if you don't keep in mind that to a French ear Yvonne and Ivonne sound alike, and census takers often spelled it the latter way.
Another common problem comes with first names which start with the "U" sound such as Eurania, Euphemia or Eulalie, which are just as likely to be written as Urania, Ufemia and Ulaly depending on who was writing the information down.
You should also keep nicknames in mind as you work your way though alphabetized lists of records. Abigail Smith might have been identified by her nickname Nabby Smith to the census taker, Guillaume Morin may have been known as Willie Morin to his English speaking neighbours.
Now, just because a record was collected by a francophone does not mean that a French name will be spelled correctly either, it just means that when the person makes a spelling error he/she is going to do it using French phonics. For example, I saw the surname Dauphinais spelled Dofinet in the 1825 census by a francophone census taker.
Another thing that makes genealogists tear their hair out is the French practice of using "dit" names (by the way, the word rhymes with dee as in deep, and not with hit--if you say it the latter way, none of your Quebec relatives will have the slightest idea what you are talking about.)
I won't go into the why of these names (you can get that from Denis Beauregard's Francêtres Home Page) but I want to warn you that you have to look for all variations on the name because you never know how a priest, census taker, or family member will deal with these names.
If your ancestor starts out as Boudreau dit Langevin, for example, some records will use the whole name; others will only call him or his children just Boudreau, others just Langevin--and then (and this is what makes Quebec genealogy such a challenge) he'll move into an English-speaking area and change his name to Longway. If he has 10 kids, each family may choose a different name--one son may stick with Boudreau, another with the whole "dit" name, another with Langevin, a third with Longway.......you get the idea.
Finally, be aware that many alphabetized census indexes record the names exactly as the census taker recorded them. If the census taker went down the page listing everyone by last name then first name but slipped and wrote your ancestor as "Charles Smith" instead of "Smith, Charles", then your ancestor will be indexed under "Charles, Smith" instead of the surname Smith where you would expect to find him.
Included below are a few examples of the French-English surname twists
I have noted during my researches in the records of the counties of
Brome,
Missisquoi and Shefford and northern Vermont. Books have been written
cataloguing
such name twists and are often available through U.S. based
genealogical
societies which specialize in French Canadian research.
| Aba(i)r(e)
= Hébert
Asselin = Ashla, Aslaw, Ashlaw, Aslin, Ashlin, Ashlow Aubin = Obin Audet(te) = Odet(te) Austin = Ostiguy Barrette=Borett
Chagnon = Shonyo
Dabat = LaBatt
Farnsworth = Phaneuf
Gaboury=Gabourie,
Gabori,
Gadourie
Hébert = Aba(i)r(e)
Jacks = Jacques
Kenville=Quenneville
LaBatt = Dabat
|
Lafleur
= Lafloor, Laflour, Laf(f)ler, Lef(f)ler,
Lof(f)ler,
Laflin
Laflin = Lafleur Lafloor = Lafleur Laflour = Lafleur Lajeunesse = Young Lanctôt = Languedoe, Langdo, Loncto, Lonto, Laucto, Longtoe Landreville = Lunderville Landry = Laundry Lang(ue)do(e) = Lanctôt Langevin = Longway Lareau = Laroe/Larrow Larivière = Rivers Laroe = Lareau/Larrow Larrow = Lareau/Laroe Larocque = Larock, LaRock Launcto = Lanctôt Laundry = Landry Lavigne = Lev(i)en(e), Laveen Lafave = Bean, Lefave Laviolette = Lovelette Lavoie = Levoy Lefave = Bean, Lafave Lefebvre = Lefave, Lafave, Bean Lef(f)ler = Lafleur Legault=Leguolt, Legoat L'Em(e)lin = Lemelin Lemoine = Luman Lecuyer=LeQuea Letourneau = Litno, Turner Levesque = Levick Levick = Levesque Levi(e)n(e) = Lavigne Levoy = Lavoie Litno = Letourneau Lof(f)ler = Lafleur Longtoe = Lanctôt Longway = Langevin Lonto = Lanctô Lovelette = Laviolette Luman = Lemoine Lunderville = Landreville Maison = Mas(s)on
Nadeau=Neddo, Nadae, Nada Obin = Aubin
Paradee = Paradis
Quémeneur=Kemener, Kimeneur,
Timeneur,
Kemneur, Kemener, Kimenir, Temenaire, Timenaire
Rabtoy/Robtoy = Robitaille
Sampierre = St. Pierre
Tailleur = Taylor
Vanslatte = Vincelette
Wellet(te) = Ouellette
Yandow=Guindon
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