Joseph
VILAT dit BEAUSOLEIL
Born: 22 February 1745 in Trois-Rivières, Canada, New France
Marie GAUDREAU Helpful background for understanding names and places that may appear in Joseph's Québec records.
Québec has been described by several names during different periods of its history. Knowing the period name can make older records easier to recognize.
Thanks to Micheline Gadbois MacDonald for providing this information.
When the first settlers came to Québec from France, it was a custom to add a "dit" nickname to the surname. The English translation of "dit" is "said." Colonists of Nouvelle France used dit names as distinguishers. A settler might use one to differentiate a branch of the family from siblings, sometimes choosing a name connected with the place to which the family had relocated.
A dit name could also result from a casual adoption or from honoring the family that had raised someone. In other cases it identified the town or village in France from which the person originated. The custom ended around 1900, when people increasingly used only one name, either the dit nickname or the original surname.
Source: American-French Genealogical Society, Woonsocket, Rhode Island (www.afgs.org/ditnames/index1.html)
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Postcards and Memories of Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada (Three Rivers)
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Birth — 1745
1763 - France cedes its North American posessions to Britain by the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). Quebec City French-speaking Catholics were now under the rule of Protestant Britain under King George III.
1774 Marriage / Partner
1775 - The Battle of Québec was fought on December 31 between the American Continental Army and British defenders of Québec City. It was the first major defeat for the Americans in the Revolutionary War.1782 Birth of Child
1784 - The bifocal lens is invented (Benjamin Franklin, United States)1791 - The Constitutional Act divides Québec into Upper and Lower Canada
Death — 1812View charts and other tools for this ancestor and family.
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