My October 2018 blog was about our ancestors, their roots in Normandy, France and how our original surname “Bonhomme,” later became Beaupre in the early 1600’s. We had some fun discussions about that Louis!
Update!!
A few weeks ago my geneology loving friend Richard LeHoullier (who I went to elementary and high school with) discovered a book entitled “A genealogy of the Bonhomme family,” published June 1995 by Paquette Press.
Goldmine!
It’s filled with fascinating background about our descendants. With Grammy and I visiting France in May, his timing couldn’t be better. After Paris, we’ll be visiting the Normandy region to walk the ground of my ancient ancestors.
Some of the book facts:
- While we’re descendants of “the Normans,” who lived in Normandy (the northern coast of France), there’s a new revelation: we’re also descended from Vikings in Norway! The Vikings (also called Norsemen) were famous explorers, conquerors and traders who many believed discovered America (way before Christopher Columbus).
- The book says, “They moved out of Norway in search of new lands to settle because they had a surplus population… The Norsemen established themselves in France and became the Normans.” This happened (or began to happen) in the early 900’s, over one thousand years ago. In 1204 the Norman Kingdom became part of France. Norwegian Viking blood runs in our veins.
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- The pioneer who started it all for us was Nicolas Bonhomme. He was born in 1620, the same year the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. He came from the parish of Ste. Croix in Fecamp. “Normandy was the “alma parens of Canada,” the book explains, meaning it was the “nourishing parent” of “New France,” later known as Canada. Fecamp located along the English Channel, was an important port… “many fishing vessels left from Fecamp.”
- Amazing facts: “the city of Fecamp was right on the sea, across from Portsmouth, England.” No wonder I’m drawn to Portsmouth, NH! Fecamp is in the Caux region which means “chalk” – the coast there resembles the famous Cliffs of Dover with its white chalk cliffs. In 1067, William the Conquerer, returning to Normandy, “received a triumphant welcome and then went to Fecamp to celebrate Easter.”
- Some historians believe the Holy Grail (subject of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the First Indiana Jones movie) was brought to Fecamp “transported there from King Arthur’s England” (source: The Holy Grail by Norma Lorre Goodrich, Perennial Library, Harper, New York, 1992).
- Samuel Champlain, the famous French explorer first arrived in New France in 1608, going to a place the Indians called Kebec. (Lake Champlain is named after him; it borders New York state and Vermont). He set up a trading post for furs and “in doing so, he founded the City of Quebec.” His first colonizing expedition (bringing pioneering Norman settlers from France to New France) was in 1628. On March 23, 1633 he left Normandy with three Norman ships, 200 people and two Jesuit priests. Nicolas Bonhomme was on one of those ships. Note: 1633 was the same year Edward Winslow became Governor of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
- The Normans who made this voyage were courageous, “with the pioneer spirit that runs so clearly through the family’s blood, with the entrepreneurial spirit that is a mark of the Bonhomme.” It continues, “We can imagine the type of men these must be, to be one of the first boat load of people to come to Canada with the purpose of building a country. What pride we can feel to know this same blood runs in our veins today.”
- Catherine Goujet, the wife of Nicolas the pioneer came from Bayeux in Normandy. “We are told she is the daughter of a “bourgeous” member of the growing middle class, probably a merchant.”
- The book tries to clarify our name change from Bonhomme to Beaupre. “Many people, including our ancestors, began having an appellation after their names, the word “dit” followed by a name. This is true of the Bonhommes. This probably became necessary for the Bonhommes after the birth of the third generation with its proliferation of Nicolas and Ignace in each generation.”
The Canadian Library blog says, “In France, nicknames were added to surnames to distinguish between families with similar names living in the same geographical area. When immigrants coming from France settled in New France, this custom continued. “Dit names” were created by taking a person’s family name, adding a nickname that described one of the individual’s unique characteristics, and connecting the two with the word “dit.”
- Cote de Beaupre – In the case of Nicolas Bonhomme and his wife Catherine Goujet, they took on the dit name of Cote de Beaupre, the geographical area outside Quebec where they had settled. As legend has it, when explorer Jacques Cartier first caught sight of the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in 1535, he exclaimed, “Quel beau pré!” (“What a lovely meadow!”), because the area was the first inviting piece of land he had spotted since leaving France. Today the Côte-de-Beaupré (Beaupré Coast), first settled by French farmers, stretches 40 km (25 miles) east from Québec City to the famous pilgrimage site of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré. Historic Route 360, or avenue Royale, winds its way from Beauport to St-Joachim, east of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré. The impressive Chute Montmorency (Montmorency Falls) lie between Québec City and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré.
