Posts Tagged Quebec genealogy

#52 Ancestors – No. 15 – Suzanne Botfaite

This post is number 15 in the series of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge where a group of us blog about a different ancestor for each week of the year.  To learn more about the 52 Ancestor Challenge visit Amy’s website.

Is it Botfaite or Gotfaite, that is the question?

There are several printed transcribed records of the immigrants and settlers of New France (Quebec) as well as the handwritten records of of the church.  The handwritten records are in French.  Specifically I am looking at the Drouin Collection. The collection is the work of Joseph Drouin, founder of the Drouin Genealogical Institute.  The collection contains French-Canadian and English historical records from 1621-1967. The institute microfilmed the Quebec parish records back in the 19060’s.

My 10th great grandmother is Suzanne Botfaite. She was born in England about 1630 and died in Quebec in 1694.  She is the daughter of Gilbert Botfaite and Anne Bonne. I have not been able to find the family in England.  They have French names and good have easily moved back and forth from England to France before making the move to find a new life in Quebec.

The printed records stated various spellings for the Botfaite name.  They include Betfer, Bedfer, Bedford, Bottefer, and a few others. There is another microfilmed capture of a Suzanne Bottefair that I am unable to decipher the flourish handwriting.

I find the microfilmed Drouin record interesting.  In reviewing the record that last name appears to be spelled with a “G” not the letter “B”.  I have looked at words starting with a capital “B” or “G” in this particular register and see a distinct pattern.  The lower case “b” and “g” look similar.  It most cases the “B” has a flourish or stroke on the left stem of the letter. I can see why a transcriber would think the first letter is a “B”. The more I look at the handwriting, the more I think the last name started with a “G” and may be Gotfaite instead.  Now I just need to confirm my hypothesis.

Below is the entry of Suzanne’s 1649 marriage record to Mathieu Hubou at the Notre Dame parish in Montreal, Quebec. I highlighted words with the letter “G” in red.  The blue circles are the letter “B”.  Suzanne’s father, Gilbert is in one of the red boxes.  The “G” in his name is written is similar to the first letter in Gotfaite. So, what do you think?  Is it a “G” or “B”?

Botfaite_Gotfaite

Source Information:

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: Gabriel Drouin, comp. Drouin Collection. Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Institut Généalogique Drouin.

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