Admittedly, my approach to genealogy is scattershot. Whether it’s an interesting photo, one of Mom’s poems, or a geographic location, when something interesting catches my eye, that’s the rabbit hole we scamper down for hours and sometimes days.

And then there are the overriding questions about our ancestors’ origins. Case in point: How far back on Dad‘s side of the family must we go to find ourselves in France? We know they came to Maine by way of Canada several generations ago, but what about before that?

Meet Jean-Baptiste Legendre.

We don’t have a photo of him because he was born in 1699. On August 13 to be exact. Where? Contigné, in western France.

It was 70-odd years before the start of the French Revolution, but Jean-Baptiste had decided living conditions were already pretty misérables. He launched a plan in 1717 to escape to La Nouvelle France.

That’s Canada, “the new France.” Jean signed up to work as a sailor on a ship sailing from Le Havre to Montréal.

We’ll never know if this was his plan all along or if Jean simply couldn’t stand the thought of one more day on board, but he hatched a plan toward the end of the voyage. The ship was making its way up the St. Lawrence River. They’d passed Québec City and were heading toward Montréal.

After scoping out his options, Jean awaited the cover of darkness to make his escape.

And then he jumped ship. Literally.

Jean swam to shore, about a mile away. He’d chosen a southernly direction as the water appeared calmer. Once on shore, he rested. At dawn he climbed up to where a few houses were located and knocked on the door, hoping for the kindness of strangers. An old woman answered.

Yay for old women! She took Jean in and fed him. Then she sent him to hide in her provisions storehouse, just in case there was a search party. He was now a fugitive, after all.

After spying a longboat in the water, presumably looking for Jean, she sent him further away from shore, to her son’s house. As the weather turned, the search was abandoned.

Jean-Baptiste Legendre, my great-grandfather six times over, had found his new home: Sainte-Croix de Lotbinière.

One theory is that he found work on a nearby farm, because on April 2, 1720 he married the farmer’s daughter, Suzanne Bourbeau. She was 18. They had two daughters, Marie-Anne and Marie-Charlotte, over the next few years.

Then, sadly, on June 15, 1726, Suzanne died. Poor thing hadn’t even turned 25 yet.

Eighteen months later, Jean took another bride, Marie-Anne Lemay. They had a son in 1735; they named him François d’Assise. He would become our fifth great-grandpère. His son and namesake was fourth. Marie-Adelaide Legendre Delisle, his daughter, became our third great-grandmère. The next generation brought daughter Clarense Mary Delesle Hurley. Her daughter was Jane Anne Hurley Plante, my dad’s Grandma Jennie. Her daughter Lucie was the first in that branch of our family tree born in the United States.

And there you have it. A young man named for John the Baptist settles in a town named for the cross of Christ’s crucifixion. According to Our French-Canadian Ancestors by Thomas J. Leforest, Jean was involved in building the town’s church and was even named mayor before his death at age 50.

From La Nouvelle France to Quebec, Canada:

Wondering exactly what those French words at the top of the Legendre monument in the Sainte-Croix Cemetery say?

Dans cette Terre, qu’ils ont defrichée et cultivée, sans interruption, de père en fils depuis les origines de cette paroisse jusqu’a nos jours, reposent les corps de:

Translation: In this land, which they cleared and cultivated, without interruption, from father to son since the origins of this parish until today, rest the bodies of:

Reposez en paix, nos ancêtres. Et merci toujours.

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