Church Record Sunday: Joseph Vanasse’s 1838 Baptism Record

For today’s CRS, I’m featuring a baptism record, since I wrote about burial records for the past two Sundays.

Joseph Vanasse, no. 22 in my ancestor list, is my 2x paternal great-grandfather. A younger son of (Jean François) Régis Vanasse, a cultivateur (farmer), and his wife Josephte Messier, Joseph had eleven siblings – six brothers and five sisters. His older brother Olivier (1832-1914) is also my ancestor (he's no. 20), because his son, Olivier, married Joseph’s daughter Elisabeth.

Joseph was born on 17 October 1838, presumably in the parish of St-Michel in Yamaska, where his parents resided at the time of his baptism. He was baptized the next day (October 18) in nearby St-David, Yamaska County, Quebec. [1] Alternatively, the attending priest travelled to Yamaska where he baptized Joseph in St-Michel church, but recorded the event in St-David’s sacramental register.

Joseph Vanasse baptism record (FamilySearch)

The baptism record (above) reads in French:

“Le dix huit octobre mil huit cent trente / huit nous Pretre curé soussigné avons / baptisé Joseph né la veille du légitime / mariage de Regis Vanasse cultivateur / et de Josephte Mainsier [sic] de la paroisse de St- / Michel dYamaska, parrain Antoine / Vanasse marraine Marguerite Vanasse / qui ont déclaré ne savoir signer.”

In English:

“The 18 October 1838 / we undersigned priest curate have / baptized Joseph born the previous evening of the / legitimate marriage of Regis Vanasse farmer / and of Josephte Mainsier of the parish of St- / Michel of Yamaska, godfather Antoine / Vanasse godmother Marguerite Vanasse / who have declared not able to sign [their names].”

The priest, J. Boucher, curé (curate) of St-David, recorded only the basic details. I wish he had added the relationship between newly-baptized Joseph and his godparents. His father Régis had a younger brother named Antoine, so he might be the godfather. As for Marguerite, she might be his father’s cousin, because Régis didn’t have a sister or an aunt by that name.

Source:

1. St-David (St-David, Quebec), parish register, 1835-1846, p. 65 verso, no entry no. (1838), Joseph Vanasse baptism, 18 October 1838; St-David parish; digital images, “Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979”, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ : accessed 21 September 2015). Note: To access this browsable-only image, follow this path from the FamilySearch homepage: Search > Records > Canada > Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979 > [Browse] > Saint-David > Saint-David > Index 1835-1876 Baptêmes,...ges, sépultures 1835-1846 > image 170 of 515.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.