January 30, 2006:

I have been researching the Mousseau, David, and McLean families and would 
appreciate any information. My great grandparents were Ovide David and Jane McLean 
of Clarence Creek, and Joseph Mousseau and Melina Leveillee who lived in Aylmer QC 
at the time of the 1901 census. 

Jane was from the John McLean family that settled in Cumberland around 1873 after 
leaving Ste-Scholastique QC. There were four other daughters who also settled in the 
Clarence area and four brothers, George, Daniel, Thomas (married Theresa Madden), 
and John who married Anastasia Brennan (they moved to the U.S.) 

Ovide David was originally from Ste-Rose QC, the son of Luc David and Justine Ouimet. 
Joseph Mousseau was the son of Louis Mousseau who was the first settler on 
Lac Mousseau (Harrington Lake). I have Melina's parents as Pierre Mongin-Leveillee 
and Marguerite Chaput. 

If anybody can contribute more names of family members, it would be much appreciated.
 
Christine de Schneider
___________________
Hi Al

Thank you for the reply. Yes, go ahead and add my message to your website. I 
have been researching for about three years and have accumulated quite a bit 
of information on these families but there are many gaps especially with the 
Mousseaus. I know there are many Davids and Mousseaus in the area but the 
families were so big, that the descendant families are probably are diverse 
and disconnected. Louis Mousseau and his wife Adelaide Hudon-Beaulieu are 
buried in St. Pauls' Cemetery in Aylmer. On the website 
http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca./carto.asp?Speci=106924&Latitude=45,57083&Longitude=-75,95778&Zoom=1700, 
there is short history of Lac Mousseau which mentions Louis and his father 
Thomas. Another connection to the Mousseaus is the former Hull alderman, 
Edgar Dussault. His mother was apparently Mary-Alice Mousseau, daughter of 
Louis.
I know the McLean daughters (my great grandmother and her sisters all 
married francophones and many of their descendants still live in the eastern 
part of the region. There is mention of McLeans on the Martin Brophy and 
Michael Madden sites so hopefully there is more to learn here.
As to the Davids of Clarence Creek, there are probably many descendants 
around here. My grandfather, Leo David, was the youngest of Ovide and Jane's 
large family. He ended up in northern Ontario but most of his siblings 
remained in this area. I have been in touch with a fourth cousin who lives 
here - he is from another branch of the family and has provided me with a 
good base from which to start.
Hopefully, someone will have more to offer.

Thank you again.

Christine de Schneider 
_____________________

Yes, this is our Thomas. Interestingly, I have a son Georges for Thomas and 
Marie-Charlotte but my entry has his birth date as 4 July 1828. I do not 
have that date verified however. I have the 1881 census entry for the 
Davids. One thing I haven't been able to sort out is the presence of three 
Leduc children in the household - ages 6, 5, and 3. Some of the names are 
spelled wrong but that is common. Levore must have died as an infant and I 
do not have Nelly in my database either. My grandfather Leopold was born in 
1887. Most of my information about the Davids is derived from the Clarence 
Creek history, "Notre Histoire", which was just updated late last year.
I will be making an effort to get back to the Quebec Archives and tie up 
some loose ends.

I will add another bit of information. Many Catholic Irish settled in the 
Mirabel region of Quebec - my ancestor, Michael McLean (aka McLaughlin) 
apparently arrived here around 1820. There are villages such as St-Canut, 
Ste-Scholastique and St-Columban which had large Irish populations. There is 
a relatively new website about the Irish in St. Columban 
http://www.stcolumban-irish.com/. I am sure many Irish who ended up in this 
area started out there. (See also our seigneury page ... Al)

Anyway, thank you for your interest. I will keep in touch.

Christine 
January 31, 2006:
I believe those villages were part of that seigneury. I had found this 
letter a while ago at the Rootsweb site: 
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/QUEBEC/1999-05/0927174123 which may 
contribute to your research. It is written by Frank Watters.

Have you searched the Rootsweb mailing lists? 
They contain quite a bit of interesting information. There are hundreds of 
topics. Start with Canada - Quebec - it keeps subdividing to get more 
specific.

I believe those maps on the St-Columban Irish web site are seigneury maps. 
Hard to read though.

On the St-Columban site there is a short history of the area. 
http://www.st-colomban.qc.ca/.

Christine

_______________________________

Thanks to Frank Watters for the following:

Hi Al and Christine;
 
Perhaps both of you have the book entitled "Pioneers of the Upper Ottawa and 
Humours of the Valley" by Anson A. Gard, published originally about 1906 and 
republished in 1999 by Global Heritage Press.  But in case you don't here is 
what Mr. Card had to say about the Mousseau family in Aylmer about 1900.  

Most of his information on the families was obtained by visiting the descendants 
of the pioneer families still alive then.  The names are written as they are 
in the book.
 
"Mousseau, Thomas - came from L'Assomption, P. Q. in 1830.  He came to where is 
now the Ritchie farm at the edge of Aylmer.  He married a remarkable woman - 
remarkable as being the mother of 22 children.  She had first married a Gellerneau 
by whom she had three children:  Pierre, Charles and Angel.  Mousseau children so 
far as I could find the names of the nineteen were:  Thomas, who built (1840)  
the "Mousseau Hotel", which still stands at the edge of Hull City, just west of 
Edward Skead's (Skead), married Margaret Bourgeois;  Louis married Adelaid Baulieu 
(Beaulieu); George married Isavbelle Gravelle;  Filonese married the noted Joseph Lebel;  
Josephine married Agapit Lesperance;  Orilia married Augustus Lorange (L'Orange).  
Of the other sixteen, I could find no record.
 
Notes:  Agapit Lesperance (L'Esperance) built the house, afterward owned and occupied 
by the late Sheriff Coutlee, near the Deschenes cross-roads.  He built it for a hotel.  
He was one of the four petitioners for the first Catholic church in Aylmer.  
Joseph Lebel, another son-in-law, was also one of the petitioners.
 
Louis Mousseau went up to what is now known as Mousseau's lake in Maham.  He later 
went to Deschenes Village."
 
I can't vouch for the accuracy of all the information, but Mr. Gard was fairly 
accurate in his information, although as one can see, his command of the French 
names was not that good.  From the internet, it seems that Thomas Mousseau's wife 
was Charlotte Vaillant who was married first to Pierre Galarneau.  She had 5 children 
from her marriage to Galarneau, but perhaps two had died by 1900.  That would 
account of 11 of her children - 5 with Galarneau and six with Mousseau.
 
Thomas Mousseau died in Aylmer on 5 August, 1874, and was buried there on 
6 August, 1874. Identified as the husband of Charlotte Vaillant.  
(Source:  Répertoire de B. M. & S. , 1851-1900 by the SGO).
 
I also have some information on the Chaput family.
 
Frank Watters
November 14, 2007:
Dear Cousins,
      I am also a descendant of Thomas Mousseau (who died in 1874) and
his wife Charlotte Vaillant, so I was very interested to find your
letters (in January 2006) to each other on the internet.  One thing that
has always puzzled me the most is trying to find out when and where the
wife of Thomas Mousseau (Charlotte Vaillant) died.  I assume she died in
Hull County (in Hull or Aylmer), but was it in the 1840's, 1850's or
1860's (at least I always assumed that she probably died before Thomas,
who was pretty old when he died).
        -----Your Mousseau cousin,
                 Ken Kinman of Kansas, USA
 November 21, 2007:
Hi again,
       Finally had time to get out my notes, so I could send more
information.  I am a descendant through Thomas and Charlotte's daughter,
Denise Mousseau (1817-1896). She was married in 1839 to Augustin
L'Orange.  The family tradition that Augustin married Orelia Mousseau
(Denise's sister) is perhaps because Augustin and Denise did have a
daughter named Orelia (apparently named for her aunt).  I have nothing
on her sister Orelia except the baptism date, so she may have died young
(I doubt that she ever married Augustin).  

      Anyway, their son Augustin Isaac L'Orange (my great great
grandfather) was born 09 November 1840, although I haven't yet found a
baptism record to confirm this date.  He was married 12 August 1867, at
Aylmer, Quebec, to Bridget Devereaux (but I haven't found anything on
the Devereaux family of the area).  Bridget was born in Ireland.

(See www.bytown.net/devereaux.htm for a Devereaux family from Ireland ... Al)

      Augustin L'Orange and Denise are found at Aylmer, Quebec, in the
1851 Census (p. 35) and in Logansport, Indiana in the 1870 U.S. Census
(page 147).  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find them in the 1860
or 1861 Census (Indiana or Quebec), but assume that they were probably
still in Quebec.  After they moved to Indiana, Augustin L'Orange changed
the spellings of his first and last names to Augustus LaOrange.
     -----Happy Thanksgiving,
                     Ken Kinman
_______________________
Al,
     That is very interesting, because Olivier L'Orange was an older
brother of Augustin L'Orange, so at that time (1836), Olivier was
Denise's *future* brother-in-law.
     -------Ken
P.S.  My Devereaux's were from County Wexford (just south of County
Wicklow).  They were no doubt related, but can't say just how closely
related (or whether they knew one another).  In any case, my Bridget
Devereaux didn't immigrate until the 1850's, but possibly knew (and
therefore settled near) the Devereaux's that settled in Canada in the
1830's.  But there were so many Irish coming over that it might be a
coincidence that they settled near one another.  But then again, my
Bridget Devereaux's father was apparently a Stephen Devereaux, so there
is also the sharing of names Steven and Bridget in both families.  That
makes mere coincidence seem less likely and a close connection seem more
likely.  :-)
... Ken