Can you help Marie-Catherine de Baillon, the Quebecois Project, and Collab. Profile of the Week?

Question

The Quebecois Project and Collaborative Profile of the Week Present

Marie-Catherine Baillon

Marie-Catherine Baillon (1645-1688) was one of the few Filles du Roi who had noble ancestry, and as a result she is the link between many French Canadians and royalty, including Charlemagne.

1. Marie-Catherine has a lot of family attached. Could someone or more than one someone check the profiles to see if they have a source and a brief biography?

2. What were the cirucumstances of her immigration to Canada?

3. Her biography could use some filling out.

4. Which source points to her birth, which to her death etc.

Remember, when you start to work on some aspect of the profile, post an answer here first to let us know what you're going to work on. That way we won't duplicate work and the question will stay fresh (toward the top) of the G2G forum.

Quebecois Project

The French were the first Europeans to permanently settle in parts of what is now Canada, including southern Ontario and Quebec and the Maritime area. One of the territories of New France was called Canada; its first permanent settlement was Quebec (now Quebec City), a fur trading post founded in 1608. The Quebecois Project works on creating and improving profiles for those who settled in Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as their descendants.

Thank you.

Comments

Thanks Lianne, for posting the question

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You might be interested in this link - http://habitant.org/baillon/index.htm

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Thank you James, I've added the link to the profile.

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This pdf is in French but seems to have a lot of information:

http://www.unicaen.fr/mrsh/prefen/notices/6607cb.pdf

And this pdf, also in French, tells of Catherine de Baillon on page 20

http://www.genealogie-miville-deschenes.com/dossierPDF/LafamilleMivilleDechêneVersionfinale.pdf

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Judith, why don't you make a public comment on Marie-Catherine's profile putting the two links there (I could but you'll get credit if you do). Then the managers will be able to take a look.

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Judith, very nice finds.  Have included them in the external links of the profile.  She appears to be my 4th cousin umpteen times removed.  Still need to chase that stuff up though.

Answer 1

Added: bio content gleaned from census report; data from 1681 census w/ web-link to source document.

Some question my "coding" of census reports. My reasons for the methodology:

*Linking each individual in the census to a WikiTree profile may reveal people not yet profiled.

*Linking to profiles of non-family members in the census provides an otherwise unavailable context (back story) to all the enumerated individuals' lives.

*Providing a web-link to the original hand-written colonial document allows the discovery of errors found in typeset books, and the further errors produced when the pages of the books are subjected to OCR.

To my discouragement, my linking to profiles is sometimes removed as redundant, and my citation is replaced to cite a book or the widely available OCR documents.

Should I continue using my methodology?  Is there a better way.?

Comments

George, Thank you for adding the information to the profile. I've never seen anyone make links to profiles in census data before, but certainly there is no harm, and I can see the usefulness of doing so. Also linking to the original makes sense, especially if it's free as this one is. I do not see the data on the page you linked, nor in the next few pages, but this may be my unfamiliarity with Canadian censuses. The page linked seems to be a summary with 78 horses etc. Did you just put in the wrong link?

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Anne, I have not been ignoring your posting. I checked the profile a few times in the past week, and not once have I been able to replicate being taken to a summary with 78 horses. At this point, I kinda want to see the horses. Did the issue resolve itself? Or do you still see the horses?

The link takes me to the first page of the 1681 census document. The handwritten French document is very lengthy, consequently I have not yet discovered the precise page the transcript was taken from. The 1666 and 1667 documents are manageable, the 1681 might defeat my patience.

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Ah.. it's the first page of the census. That's what I'm seeing "Recensement du Canada ..." 9710 personnes..... etc. including 78 chevaux.  I had flipped through several pages and didn't find anything that made sense for Catherine's profile. Is there a printed index or transcription somewhere that we could link in addition to the original?

Answer 2

Hi Lianne,

have found a nice bio in French for her, will add that to the profile.  To answer the question of what led to her immigration to Canada, seems the parents were in reduced circumstances.

Comments

Or may have been sent against her will, since she still had 1,000 livres of dowry.  The question will remain I think.

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I often wondered the same thing, because I was under the impression that her father was a Lord and her Mother's father was also a Lord. I always wondered why she would have left a comfortable life in France to go to much less comfortable circumstances in Canada. Was she just adventurous? Did her parents want her to marry someone she found unsuitable? I would love to find out. She was my 8th Great grandmother. Whatever the reason, she was very brave.

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Seems her father was dead, and she got into a brief fling with her brother's lord and protector, and when said lord married, she was loosed lipped about it, and her brother locked her up then shipped her off to the colony.  If you look at the profile, I've entered a translation of the discussion I found on this.

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Wow, what a great movie her life story would make. The poor thing.

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Hardly poor, with 1000 livres in dowry.  :D

This is pretty standard for the mores of the time.

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So sad though.

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Danielle,

It is my personal observation that it was not uncommon for families of girls of marriageable age to encourage their marrying, or instead place the daughter in another household or in a convent. All these practices had the blessing of the Church of Rome. It cannot be denied that placing a daughter in another household or in a convent was a convenience for poor families. For rich families, the motive to place a daughter in another household or convent could be the parents spiritual conviction, or to “save” the daughter from inappropriate moral thoughts or activities. Of course, a daughter may well have personally chosen to leave the home because of abuse, or her altruistic goals or spirituality conviction.

The church especially encouraged the rich to give their daughters for service to God because the rich had funds to expend to support their daughter and the clergy, as well as finance the support and growth of the church. You need not research deeply to know if my statements are accurate, as the Church of Rome likewise indoctrinated the faithful through mid-twentieth century. Feminism quickly eroded the church's ability to sustain their recruitment of female missionaries within economically advantaged populations. Additionally, many of the social ills previously relieved by the Church are now addressed at taxpayer expense, where individuals with altruistic goals or spirituality convictions can marry and are financially compensated.

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George, in this specific case, the girl had a brief fling with her brother's lord and protector, who then married someone else, and she was indiscreet about their fling.  This was at the very least an embarrassment to her brother.  So he locked her away in a convent and then shipped her off to the colony.

As far as what you say about the church's activities, my answer is, yes and no.  ;)  I was brought up in that church, and what you describe is not totally accurate.