February 6 2019: Suprise

February Themes:

6 Surprise

7 Love

8 Family Photo

9 At The Courthouse

I have spent many hours doodling on the internet, just putting in names to see what will pop.  A lot of good information has been found that way, a lot of useless stuff as well.  One day I put in the name of Nicolas Rivard.  I was bound to find something, we had at least 6 Nicolas Rivards’ in our ancestry.  After reading several articles and finding nothing to speak of, I clicked on a Facebook page and hit pay dirt.  The Canadian woman whose page I found was married to a descendant of the first Nicolas Rivard to come to North America.  She had photos and stories.  There was a picture of the baptismal font that the first Nicolas was baptized in, under a plaque that listed his name, a photo of the church in the village, as well as a photo of the original family home in Tourouve, France.  The first Nicolas was born in 1591, and his son Nicolas emigrated to North America in 1648. Several Nicks later, Nicolas Rivard was born in Grondines, Quebec, on January 6, 1726.  All that information matched what I had already uncovered, and I had already found the photo of the baptismal font.

Then that Canadian woman said that our Nick had fought with the British during the American Revolution!  Oh No, Nick! It couldn’t be.  The French despised the British.  They took New France away from them.  The Quebecois still avoid the English language. This fact demanded more research.

I had never thought I would have a Revolutionary War veteran in my family tree.  My Polish and German ancestors didn’t come to United States until the mid 1800’s.  My French ancestors came to Frenchtown Settlement, which was French territory and not part of the colonies. They were in the territory as soon as the early 1700’s, but again, it wasn’t America yet.

There was no basis for the idea that Nicolas fought with the Americans other than my stubborn idea that Nicolas wouldn’t have fought for the British.  I had to find documentation.  And, I found it!  There were three references that verified Nicolas left his home in Quebec, went to America, fought with American forces, then returned to Quebec to live out the rest of his life.

The first documentation was an index to “French Canadian Revolutionary War Patriots”, compiled by Debbie Duay. It listed Nicolas Rivard, date of birth 1726, and his spouse, Marie Anne Gauthier.  It matched with the birth date and spouse I already had documented. I then found a paper titled “Canadian Participants in the American Revolution, An Index” by Virginia Easley DeMarce.  It listed Nicolas Rivard of Grondines, as a sergeant of the Militia for the rebels.  Two items of proof!  The final proof was a book called “Quebec During the American Invasion, 1775-1776 The Journal of Francois Baby, Gabriel Taschareau, and Jenkin Williams” by Michael P Gabriel, Editor.  It stated that Nicolas Rivard was a sergeant, under Capt. Louis Trotier (another family relation!).

Bingo.  My American pride was assuaged. Take that! Canadian Lady! Thus armed, I printed all the documentation, listed the lineage, and contacted the Daughters of the American Revolution.  Many emails later, I finally got the news that my application was approved, and I should be able to get my certification at the next meeting of the Nancy DeGraff chapter of the DAR, here in Monroe, MI in March!  The decision to join the DAR was based on the fact of all the research my quest had demanded of me was worth a little recognition, and that I was proud our Nick had fought for this country.

Nicolas stayed in Canada, and no Rivard ancestors came to live in the United States until my Great Grandfather Edouard Rivard came to Frenchtown in 1864, married my Great Grandmother Rose Anne LaDuke in 1879, and became the parents of several children, including my beloved Grandmother Paulina Eliza (Lena) Rivard Wickenheiser. (Lena sent 3 sons and two nephews she had raised to fight in WWII, and prayed them all home safe – but that is another war, another story.)