The Richer dit Louveteau
in North America
*
This site of genealogical and historical
interest refers to the Richer dit
Louveteau in North America: that is to say, the
descendants of Jacques Eriché (Richer) and his spouse
Marie Joffrion (Geoffrion)
who were married on the 7th of April 1698 in the church of
Notre-Dame in Montreal.
The contents of this site are of necessary
evolutionary. Following your commentaries and suggestions I will be able to add
further information. It will also be interesting to add the results of other
inquiries respecting our family. I invite all of you to come forward and add
your information to the family saga.
I suggest reading Jeanne-Elise (Richer) Olsen's
book called As I remember them,
published by the University
of Calgary Press in 2002.
She gives a vivid account of her family living in Quebec
and then leaving to settle in Saskatchewan,
in the 1920s.
In each generation the family circle increases.
Also it becomes very difficult to follow all of the branches. For my part I
shall present the seven first generations of my ascendant line up to that of my
grandfather, hoping to place them in their historic context.
The contents of this site have been made
possible by research undertaken mainly in the parish records and the notarial documents from and around Montreal,
in general genealogical works and in history books related to Quebec. Citation of all of my sources would
have unnecessarily encumbered this text.
But with the name of the parish for the vital
records (birth, marriage and death) and of the notary for the legal documents
(sales, wills, donations...) and the date, in the text, one may very well refer
to the original documents now kept at the National Archives of Quebec.
Names and texts in italics are
transcriptions of the original documents.
*
THE RICHER DIT LOUVETEAU TODAY
Most of the Richer dit
Louveteau are to be found in Quebec, notably in the
Montreal region; in the Laurentides where in
Saint-Eustache I believe is the largest concentration; in the Outaouais and a few in the Quebec City area and in the Saguenay Lac-St-Jean region. In Ontario
one finds them in the Ottawa
region and in the East and North of the province.
One finds them also in the West of Canada where a
few are established - some spell the name Richier. In
the United States they are
to be found in New York, in Kentucky,
in New Mexico, in Oregon, where they have taken the name of Lefto, Leftault, Lifto - all derived from 'Louveteau'.
It seems that none of the Richer dit Louveteau family followed the
major trend of emigration from Quebec to the New England states in the second
half of the nineteenth century to work in the manufacturing industry of Rhode
Island, Massachusetts or New Hampshire.
*
There exists another Richer
family in North America, the ancestor of which emigrated to Canada in the seventeenth century.
Pierre Richer, from Anjou, was married to Dorothy Brasssard
on the 5th of November 1671 in Quebec.
Early on, this family established itself in the
region of La Perade, between Quebec
and Three Rivers,
while Jacques' family remained on the island of Montreal.
Most of the Richer in Central Quebec and of
Three Rivers are descendants of Pierre and his wife Dorothy.
There is no family link between Jacques and Pierre,
as we can see by their patronymics and their differing places of origin.
In Quebec
among the thousand most common patronymics that of Richer (including the Louvetot and Laflèche) counts as
207th in frequency between Charest and St-Jean.
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THE NAME RICHER DIT LOUVETEAU
All through the eighteenth century one
encounters in various writings, in registries of marriage and of burial, the
names Eriché, Hériché, Héricher and then Richer, followed by Louveteau
and sometimes by Louvetot. It was only in the nineteenth
century that our ancestors adopted definitely the name Richer.
However the name Héricher
is still today met with in France.
It ranks 7,017 in the list of the most common names! Most are living in the
Seine-Maritime area where our ancestor came from. Between 1966 and 1990, there
were 203 new borns with the name Héricher
in this area.
The origin of the name Héricher
Before we speak about our own family name, let
us go back in History. According to the dictionary Larousse de la généalogie, names or family names appeared in Western Europe in the tenth century and became general in
the twelfth.
Before, that is during the Roman era, each
person had three names whereas the Germanic invaders had only one, usually
related to warfare. With the coming of Christianity in the third century, newly
converted were given only one name. It could be of christian, german, latin or even greek origin as
long as it marked a break with one's pagan past.
In the tenth century, people began to give
nicknames so as to differentiate the four Joseph and the three Mary living in
the same community. Gradually these nicknames became family names in the tenth
century. These family names can be divided into four categories.
First and the most popular one was the unique christian name already mentioned.
For instance Bernard was a germanic
name, Thomas came from the bible and Antoine was of roman
origin. Second were names of geographical places such as Picard
or of a neighborhood like Dupont
(bridge). In third place were names linked to a craft such as Boulanger (Baker).
The final category were actually nicknames
expressing a physical characteristic such as Leblond
(the blond one), Legrand (the tall one); a
trait of character such as Courtois (the
polite one), Gaillard (the strong one) or Lépine (the thorny one); or parenthood such as Cousin,
Gendre (son-in-law) or Besson
(twin).
The name Héricher
belongs to the last category. According to the Dictionnaire
Larousse des noms et prénoms, the name Héricier
and his derivatives Hérichier and Héricher
(Eriché as it was written in Jacques' marriage
certificate in 1698), with or without the article Le, means hérissé that is 'with bristling hair'.
Does that mean that our ancestor had a
difficult character who became irritated easily. In
French hérissé comes from the animal hérisson (hedgehog).Or was he a brave man always
ready to go to the barricade to defend himself? I guess one has to question his
own character to have part of the answer!
Origin of the nickname Louveteau
It was a military tradition to give nicknames
to new recruits. When Jacques joined the army, Louvetot
was added to his family name. This was the name of his home town in Normandy.
This nickname will gradually disappear from the
written documents but will live up to this day in the oral tradition of the
family. Even today, in the United
States, some have their names Lefto, Lifto, Leftault
derived from Louvetot.
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THE PLACE OF ORIGIN OF OUR ANCESTOR
Jacques mentions at the time of his marriage in
1698 that he comes from Louveteau (Louvetot) in Normandy.
We find mention of this name in the Marriage Certificate in the church and in
the Marriage Contract drawn in the office of the Notary.
At the time there were in Normandy two places called Louvetot (meaning meeting place of wolves). The first is
now a commune (municipality) situated near Yvetot, to
the north-west of Rouen.
Picture of the town hall of Louvetot. There are fewer than 1,000
inhabitants in the community.
Hotel situated at a crossroads coming in to Louvetot.
The second Louvetot
is a hamlet which is now part of the commune of Grigneuseville,
also in Seine-Maritime, but to the north-east of Rouen. The ancestor of the Leduc of America,
Antoine, comes from this last place and a public square has been dedicated to
him.
Thanks to the research initiated by Jean-Claude
and Francois Richer, we know now that our ancestor Jacques came from the first Louvetot. Although the birth certificate of Jacques has
been lost, the parish register being incomplete for the 1660s, the birth
certificate of his sister was found. She was born on April 1st, 1671
and named Catherine. Then, on June 12 of the same year, his mother Catherine
Pain is buried. Two months later, on August 16th, there is a mention
of his father's burial.
Jacques, our ancestor who came to North America was therefore orphaned at the age of seven.
We have to wonder, then, what happened to him between 1671 and 1698 when he
joined the army and came to New France.
A few years later, on March 5th,
1688, still in the parish of Notre-Dame of Louvetot,
there is mention of a Jeanne Hericher who acted as
godmother. Could this be another member of the family of Jacques the father
(and Catherine Pain)?
Were our ancestors Protestants for a
time?
Jacques the father birth certificate was
probably found : August 24th, 1636, in the
registry of the protestant church at Lintot. His
parents are Jean Hericher and Magdallaine
Desruyaux of Gruchet, a
locality situated about 20 kilometres from Louvetot.
Is it possible that our French ancestors were tempted for a time by
Protestantism?
From 1598 to 1685 the protestants
- the Huguenots - were tolerated in France
except in Paris
and in other very precise locations. From 1560 to 1598 France was torn by wars of religion
between the followers of John Calvin and the majority Catholic church.
During the wars of religion we saw the
assassination of Henri III and the accession of Henri IV (Bourbon), a
protestant. In order to achieve peace and to reconcile the warring factions in
his kingdom, Henri IV is said to have remarked "Paris is worth a mass". Five years later
the Edict of Nantes restored freedom of religion
to the protestants in all centers but in Paris and in royal cities.
Less than a century later in 1685 Louis XIV
revoked the Edict of Nantes.
Everyone had to become a Catholic or quit France:
which edict provoked an important exodus of persons affected, principally to Scotland.
This was not the case with our ancestor's
family. Between 1636, the year Jacques's father was baptised in a protestant
church, and the 1660s the family had return to the catholic fold.
*
My name is Louis Richer and I was born on March
9th, 1945 at Coteau-Station in Quebec. My parents are Eloi and Laurence Dupont. I am of
the ninth generation of Richer dit
Louveteau in North America.
I studied History at the University of
Ottawa and then Public Administration
at the University Laval.
I worked close to thirty years in the field of Conservation of Canadian
Cultural Heritage in Quebec.
Since 1975 I have been living in the City of Quebec. I am now retired.
During the past years I have prepared a book on
the history of my family. By the same token I became interested also in the
genealogy of the Richer dit Louveteau in North America.
Over the last thirty years I have collected more than 5,000 names of Richer and
compiled more than 2,000 records of marriages. All of these names, which extend
to twelve generations of Richer dit
Louveteau, are recorded on the computer, which makes
it easy to refer to them. I am still adding names to my data base.
If you wish to know if you are a member of our
family I shall be happy to send you a list of your ancestors. In order to
locate you in the family tree I need your parents' and grandparents' names.
Send your request to my e-mail address. Also, your comments and suggestions
regarding this site will be much appreciated.
