This is the area where Pierre Roy dit Desjardins moved to (the area in light green). The yellow circle is the area of Manitoba where my Marie Louise Desjardins was born.
During our drive to the campground located on Ile dOrleans, we passed through Kamouraska. This place has some family history to it. Much of the family history will be found in the next blog with Ile dOrleans, but this little town played a big part of it for one side of my family. If you clicked on that link for Kamouraska, you will see someone named Roy dit Desjardins. Hes a relative of ours! He is my third cousin, five times removed....lol. He was a cousin to my third Pierre Roy dit Desjardins.
It was Pierre who was one of the many Desjardins who made the decision to leave their farms and livelihoods in Kamouraska to venture west to begin a new life for he and his family. He went as far as Manitoba settling in the Da Salaberry area just south of Winnipeg (where he died in 1916). My Marie Louise Desjardins, was born just west of this region in Aubigny on 8 December 1907. It seems that my grandfather, Roy dit Desjardins, was born on during the family journey from Kamouraska, Quebec to Manitoba. He was born in English River, Ontario (near modern day
Thunder Bay) in 1879. It also appears that somewhere after leaving Kamouraska, or just before, Pierre Roy dit Desjardins, his father, dropped the Roy dit and adopted simply Desjardins as a last name. This is speculation on my part, but is supported through ancestral searching and census data.
grew up in this area of Manitoba and met his future wife from a neighbouring French speaking area just north of Aubigny in Ste Agathe. Marie Louise was the first born of their many children. By 1920, they had made the move from Aubigny to the north west area of British Columbia settling in Terrace. His son, Jean Desjardins, was the first one to be born in BC in 1920.
I went through the museum in Kamouraska and it was three floors of various displays showing what life was like back in the day. There were many items and artefacts to look at. Voluminous bits of information (en Franais) to read. I think it cost me 12 bucks to get in? Worth it.
After viewing the museum, I went through the cemetery located beside the museum and found a few Desjardins headstones. Ill have to match them to
From there, we continued up the highway to go over the large bridge and skirted the outside of Quebec City back east and down to cross yet another more harrowing bridge to get onto the Ile dOrleans where our campsite was located.
The campsite was very nice when we arrived. Beautifully kept and located in a nice little village that we looked forward to exploring later.
