October 19, 2008:

Hello, 

I have been researching my family tree and ran into a brick wall with a Mary La Rock 
(Laroque?) of the Renfrew / Richmond Ontario Region of Ontario Canada.

My most accurate information is from the original marriage record from Richmond, Carleton 
County, Ontario. Married 2 April 1826 - Mary "La Rock"(this is the spelling on the church 
document, other spelling found on a daughters' death certificate lists her mother as Mary 
Laraque or Laroque no "c") and Ezekiel Cole both of Goulbourn. Witness Mr. and Mrs. Daley. 

As per the 1851 census, they had moved to Renfrew Ontario. Ezekiel was born in 1787 (approx.) 
in Enland, -- Mary La Rock was born in December of 1811/12 in Quebec. 

Ezekiel is in the 1821/22 Goulbourn census as living alone. As per the census info, Mary 
was about 14ish for the wedding, Ezekiel 40ish.  Ezekiel was a soldier, who settled in the 
Goulbourne area to farm, Mary was born in Quebec, and almost nothing is known about her. 
Some family legend has it that she was a daughter of one of the many Larocque fur traders 
who frequented the area, but nothing has been confirmed. In the 1822 Goulbourn census, 
there were very few if any french names, and the Larocques that moved to Glengarry appear 
to have moved there after the 1840's, well after Mary's 1826 wedding. At 14, doubtful she 
was out finding herself and hooked up with Zeke.

There is info on several web sites that she is Marie Archange La Roche, born to Gabriel and 
a Mrs. Gaudin (sic), but this has proven incorrect, as that Marie married someone else.

Any info any of you have on this mysterious young Mary La Rock of  Quebec who ended up in 
a very English part of the world in 1826 to marry a British War vet, would be greatly 
appreciated.

... David Laing
____________________________________

Hello, Mr. Laing:
 
Thanks for your interesting e-mail regarding Ezekiel Cole and Mary Laroque/ Larock in 
Goulbourn Township and in the Renfrew area.
 
I had a quick look for these folks and will take a more detailed look on the weekend. 
There was a Robert Cole who was disbanded from the 99th / 100th Regiment of Foot in 1818 
and received land in Goulbourn Township. He may be related to Ezekiel but the name Ezekiel 
Cole does not appear on the list of disbanded soldiers from the 99th Regiment who received 
land. He may have belonged to a different regiment.
 
Almost all of the early Coles in this area were Protestant but a couple of them appear 
in the Catholic Church records beginning about 1829.
 
Was Mary La Rock Catholic? There were a few Larocque families in early Bytown and district 
and a Joseph Laroque shows up in the records of St. Philip's Catholic Church in Richmond, 
as being confirmed in 1843. Also, here's a record mentioning a Marie Laroque in Richmond 
in 1858:
 
16 December 1858
Baptism of William, aged 10 months of unknown parents. The sponsors were Philip Plouffe and 
Marie Laroque. Source: Drouin Records of St. Philip's, Richmond, Ontario at ancestry.ca

Some of the early Francophone Laroques are recorded as "Rockburn or Rockbrune" in the 
Catholic records at Notre Dame Cathedral in downtown Ottawa.
 
Is it OK with you if I start a new web page on our site (www.bytown.net) for this family? 
I'll add your e-mail to the page and we may hear from other researchers who will be able 
to add more information? Please let me know if this is OK with you.
 
I'll also add the 1851 census records for them in Renfrew County to the new page.
 
Thanks again for this.
 
... Al Lewis
___________________________

Thanks to Frank Watters for the following:

Hi David;
 
Further to what Al wrote, there is a record of a Joseph Lerock, perhaps related to the 
one who was confirmed in 1843 who was baptised in the same church on Sept. 10, 1837, born 
on 8 August the same year. Unless I'm wrong, many R. C. people from the Goulbourn area 
went to Richmond for church services.  He was the son of Joseph Lerock and Esther Sego 
(sic). Sego is probably Seguin.  I searched for that couple but couldn't find it.  Nor 
could I find them in the 1851 census.  There's a Larocque Family web site on the 
Internet with thousands of Larocque couples but that couple is not listed there either. 

As Al wrote, the name is also found under Rockbrun and Rockbrune in Ottawa, but in the 
French Quebec parishes it's also under Rocbrune, Rochbrune, Larocquebrune and even in a 
few cases as Roque.    
 
Incidentally, that Philip Plooff and Marie Laroque were probably husband and wife being 
Philibert Plouffe and Marie Rocbrune-Larocque, d/o Charles and Marie Rose Leblanc who 
were married on 3 August, 1824 in Montebello, Quebec.  The parents of Marie Larocque 
came from St-Eustache, Qc.  
  
... Frank Watters
Here are Ezekiel and Mary in the 1851 census for Horton Township, Renfrew County
Source: 1851 Census at ancestry.ca
Ezekiel is 64 and Mary is 40 in 1851 and are Presbyterian



Horton Township in 1879, including the Town of Renfrew
Source: McGill University Digital Map Project


 January 22, 2009:

Ezekiel Cole ( 1787 - 1871) was my maternal great-great grandfather.  The following is an 
outline of the information I have of him and of his wife, Mary LaRoche (1811 - 1860).   
The sources for this info are as mentioned below.
 
A professional researcher in southern England was consulted in 1997 in an attempt to 
establish his birth place there and other family info.  The following was confirmed.
 
There is a record of his military service confirming that he served in the 37 Regiment of 
Foot (North Hampshire Regiment), was discharged in Canada and that he remained there.
 
The Muster Rolls for the 37th Regiment disclose that he had been a volunteer from Hants 
Militia, Hampshire County, in southern England, and had joined the regular army on May 12,
1812.

Payroll records show that he served for more than 7 years, qualified for extra pay, but did 
not serve his full 21 years to qualify for a service pension.  I have copies of these records 
which also confirm his discharge in Canada as a settler.
From the Hampshire County Record Office at Winchester, England the records of more than 100 
parishes in North Hampshire were searched for the baptism records of Ezekiel Cole, circa 
1787, but no record was found.  So for the present, nothing more has been determined 
regarding his ancestry.
 
The following comes from various other sources.  Following his military service, as a 
veteran he opted to take up a 100 acre land grant in the Richmond Military Settlement in 
Goulburn Township, Carleton County, Ontario, about 10 miles from present day Ottawa.  His 
claim to this land was approved in 1818 by the Executive Council of Upper Canada in session 
at York ( now Toronto) on Feb. 4, 1824. after he had "performed the prescribed terms of 
settlement" which presumably had to do with occupying and improving the land.
 
Shortly after this, on April 2, 1826, he married Mary LaRoche in Quebec City. Reportedly he 
had met her or her family there during his years of military service.  Mary's father was 
French, her mother was English, and she was born in Quebec City in 1811.  At the time of 
their marriage this would make him 39 and her 15 years of age.
 
About 1839, Ezekiel, Mary, and their family relocated a few miles west to Horton Township, 
in Renfrew County. They had a family of 10 children, the first 2 born in Goulburn Twp., the 
others in Horton Twp.
 
Two of the historical record books I have, "Horton - The Story of a Township", published by 
Juniper books in 1986 and *Founding Families of Admaston, Horton and Renfrew Village", 
published by Juniper Books in 1992 have conflicting information concerning Ezekiel and Mary's 
marriage.  The former book states that Ezekiel's first wife died after the first 2 children 
were born and it was following that that he married Mary LaRoche.  Almost certainly this is 
not correct as their marriage date is a matter of record and their first born was following 
that date.  This is also confirmed by a letter written by Elizabeth Cole, a granddaughter of 
Ezekiel, in letters written to her nieces in the 1940s and 1950s confirms that Ezekiel's 
only wife was Mary, that they were married before he took up his land grant in Richmond.  
These letters also confirm they Mary was half English (although her mother was born in 
Quebec) and that she wasn't Catholic. ( I guess that was important to Elizabeth!).
 
Incidentally, the Cole farm in Refrew County is very close to the city of Renfrew, and as 
you likely realize there are a great many descendants of Ezekiel and Mary throughout the 
Ottawa Valley.
 
Another source book is "Renfrew County - People and Places" published in 1989.
 
Ezekiel's son Thomas was my great grandfather.  His son Alexander was my grandfather. He 
emigrated west in 1888 to farm in the Brandon, Manitoba area.  

I hope there is something useful to you all in the above.
 
... Don McKenzie