The Dumas America
Francois Dumas
Dumas American ancestor

The adventure to the New World is not fairy tales. He needed a dose of temerity to dare cross the Atlantic to conquer a country still wild.

François Dumas, your ancestor is one of those men came to New France to probably escape misery and poverty that prevailed then in Europe. He left numerous descendants who became famous in many spheres of Quebec society.

In Dumas, the three most prolific pioneers from France in the seventeenth century's first name was Francis, your ancestor, and two soldiers: Rene Dumas said Meeting, and Pierre Dumas said Langoumois. They were from the Angoulême and Touraine.

Several others of this name also came to Canada. Especially Calvinist brothers John, Anthony and Alexander, originally from Languedoc.

The name

The man nicknamed "the farmhouse", the one who lived in the farmhouse, the small isolated rural property (or the hamlet of that name), was certainly the origin of this name.From the Occitan "mas", farm, farm hamlet. In Central, the name "mas" had a sense of enclosed pens, arable land, in Switzerland, he pointed to a vineyard: "In another mas vine, named Cloz St. Anastasius" .

His homeland

We know little about French life of Francis. From our first Canadian census, he was born in 1642. Son of Francis and Anne Rollin, Francois, who was hired as a mason and had the same name as his father had Nanteuil-en-Vallée in the country Angoumois the past.It is today a municipality in the canton of Ruffec about 1500 inhabitants, situated in the borough of Angouleme in the Charente, on the D740, about ten kilometers east of Ruffec.

As we have previously seen, Francis was a committed and, for a certain Claude Charron M. de Labarre. The latter became one of the leading merchants of the colony and was the owner of a fee to the island of Orleans.

His family

January 23, 1667, before the Notary Rageot Francis leases for three years the fief of Mr. Claude Charron, a farm, as mentioned previously in the present territory of Saint John in the Isle of Orleans, while just east of the river Maheu. In the census of that year, Francis operates ten acres of land under cultivation and has two cattle. Its immediate neighbors are Jean Morisset and Dieppe Jean Desmarais.

July 5, 1667, before the royal notary Gilles Rageot Francis marries Marguerite Foy, daughter of Peter Foy and Catherine Blanchard residing in Poitou. Unfortunately, we can not say when and where the wedding took place, because the marriage could not be located in the civil registers. and can not be found.

Their first child was born in July 1669 in the Isle of Orleans. A few months ago Francis had been granted land in the same place February 26, 1669 by none other than Bishop Francois de Laval, a distance of three acres of land fronting on the river with a depth that reaches the proposed road (approximately 63 acres). This concession is located in the Isle of Orleans is now known as the land ancêtrale. It is the cradle of the family of Francois Dumas. The first 6 children were baptized in the parish of Holy Family in the Isle of Orleans while the youngest will be in the parish of St Lawrence in the same island.

Francois Dumas and Marguerite Foy lead a peaceful life in the Isle of Orleans not seeking a quarrel with their neighbors. Four son and three daughters were the fruits of their love. Two of their only son had contributed to today's blood Francis and Margaret can still have a chance to flow into your veins.

Francis, born 12 and baptized July 15, 1669.
Charles, born and baptized on 7 May 9, 1671.
Marc Anthony, born 26 and baptized July 29, 1672.
Jeanne, born August 19 and baptized September 3, 1673.
Gabriel, born and baptized on 8 September 23, 1674.
Catherine, born 17 and baptized May 28, 1677.
Mary, born and baptized October 28, 1680.

Francois Dumas spent nearly forty years in Québec, when suddenly, at the honorable age of 74 years, according to the record, he disappears in the middle of winter in Quebec, February 24, 1714. You can read the register that he died as a result of indigestion after "Sestre confessed and received labsolution. A physician would likely conclude today with a heart attack. As for Margaret Foy, she went to join her husband January 12, 1718 and received his burial in St. John, two days later, a Friday. The priest Nicolas Boucher recorded that she was aged about 80 years.