My Journey Into My Past

My Great Uncle Phil did not go west on a wagon train.   He ran away from home at age 13, hopped a train, and went west.   He related many adventures from his time away.   He was born Felix Joseph RIVARD on May 15, 1884 to Edouard RIVARD and Rose Ann LEDUC, in Oldport, MI.   With 8 siblings, he decided the small farmhouse was too crowded and there wasn’t enough to eat, so he left home.   When he got out west he worked as a cowhand.   He related one story of being stranded in a line cabin in Montana one winter, with little to eat.   There was a good supply of canned tomatoes though, which sustained him and his partner.   He swore he would never eat tomatoes again!   That saved his life later   during a cattle drive.   The chuckwagon served stewed tomatoes, and he and another cowboy refused the dish.   The tomatoes caused 10 men who ate them to die of botulism.   He later worked at a circus as a horse handler.   He was r...

  I first heard of Marie Pontonnier and Pierre Gadios being cursed by a witch in a fact based novel.   I later found many references about the event in other books about the early French settlers in Canada. Pierre Gadois was my 7 th great grand uncle, the son of Pierre Gadios 1694-1667 and Louise Mauger 1598-1690. He was born in 1661 in Basse-Normandie France and travelled to Montreal in New France and was an upstanding good man and alter attendant.   Marie Pontonnier was born in France in 1643 and went to New France as a Fille a Marier in 1656 at the age of 14.   She was first interested in a man named Rene Benard but was cautioned by her friends that Rene was not a good man. She then transferred her affections to Pierre, and they were married in 1657.    Rene  was upset that he lost Marie, and he told her “If you marry Pierre I will put a curse on you. Never will you have children. The couple travelled to  Quebec to ask the bishop for ad...

  Thanks to Facebook, I joined the DAR.  Eligibility had never crossed my mind, but one day I was just messing around googling names, and I found a Facebook page.  I had put in the name Nicolas Rivard which was sure to bring up a hit, since 5 of my grandfathers had that name.  I found many modern day Nicolas Rivards,  a few uncles, cousins, brothers and hockey players, but then I hit pay dirt.  A woman had posted about Nicolas Rivard, my 5 th great grandfather.  She had the same date of birth, death date, spouse, and photos from his home in France, even the Baptismal font in his French church with a plaque with the names of the men who had gone to “New France” on the same excursion.  Definitely a match, until she uttered blasphemy.  She stated he fought for the British in the Revolutionary War!  My first reaction was “Oh no, Nick! Say it isn’t so!”  The history of the French and British in the early days of Quebec was not a friendl...

  OOPS This is late…. My biggest oops was a beginner’s mistake of not citing references.   So many times I tried to go back and find a document or a piece of information, and not be able to find it.   I have had a stressful last couple of weeks.   That is all I have for this post.