MY JOURNEY TO THE DAR
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
would not have fought for the British. I
had to find documentation. And, I found
it! There were three references that
verified Nick fought with American forces, in and about his home in Trois Rivieres,
Quebec.
The first documentation was an
index to “French Canadian Revolutionary War Patriots”, compiled by Debbie Duay.
It listed Nicolas Rivard, born in Grondines, Quebec, 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
on June 28, 2019! 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.
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