March 20, 2009:

Bonjour!

Je suis à réaliser une pièce sur la construction du Canal Rideau et l'évolution de Bytown 
mais malheureusement j'ai beaucoup de difficultés à  trouver des noms francophones qui ont 
contribué à ce que Bytown est devenue dès la construction du Canal Rideau.  Pouvez-vous 
m'orienter à des documents portant des noms.  Moi-même issu de Jean-Francois Xavier Leduc, 
détaillant kiosque extérieur du Marché By, il me semble ne pouvoir rien trouver au sujet 
des francophones pour la période de la construction du Canal Rideau.  Tout renseignement 
et autres seraient grandement apprécié.  En attente de vos nouvelles, je demeure, 
respectueusement vôtre,
  
Hélène Wyskup, 
petite fille de Jean-François Xavier Leduc qui parti du feu de Hull, pris possession d'une 
terre de son père (Sr) à Forbes Ontario aujourd'hui, boulevard St-Laurent.
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Bonsoir madame Wyskup, 
 
Le premier livre de référence serait le premier des cinq livres de Georgette Lamoureux: 
Bytown et ses pionniers canadiens-français 1826-1855. Autres auteurs et historiens, 
entre plusieurs, sont Jean Yves Pelletier et aussi Paul-François Sylvestre. 
 
Il vous serait très utile de consulter la salle de lecture et recherches de la Société 
franco-ontarienne d'histoire et généalogie, régionale Samuel-de-Champlain, au 2445 
boul. St. Laurent, pièce B-140, dans l'édifice des Ecoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario 
Ottawa. Vous y trouverez, je crois, plusieurs livres sur la famille Leduc, qui est une 
vielle famille pionnière de l'Est ontarien.
 
Pour la construction du canal, les ouvriers étaient plutôt des Irlandais catholiques mais 
il y avaient des canadiens français. Il faudrait consulter divers fonds aux archives du 
Canada pour trouver des noms. Au tout début, avant même la construction du canal, un bon 
nombre de canadiens français avaient été employés par les arpenteurs anglais pour les 
mesures nécessaires dans le plein bois entre Ottawa et Kingston. Des Algonquins servaient 
probablement de guides. Au tout début, il y eut beaucoup de francophones très influents 
tels que Joseph Balzara Turgeon et ses cousins Joseph Ignace et Charles Aumond, tous de 
l'Assomption, Québec. La demi-tante de ceux-ci, mère Elisabeth Bruyère des soeurs grises 
et fondatrice de l'hôpital général, vint un peu plus tard. 
 
salutations sincères, 
 
Jean-Claude Dubé
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Bonjour, madame Wyskup et Jean-Claude:
 
Merci pour vos couriels concernant les travailleurs francais au Canal Rideau.
 
J'esserais do vous envoyer quelque chose le demain (le jeudi). C'est un sujet interessante, 
et, avec votre permission, madame Wyskup, je veux commencer un nouvelle page sur notre 
site web pour ces hommes francais.
 
Je chercherais les registrements de l'eglise Notre Dame, pendant les annees 1829 jusqu'au 
1832 quand le canal etait fini. J'enverais des noms a vous. Je pense que les gens francais 
qui travaillant sur le canal attendaint a cette eglise (maintenant Cathedrale). Beaucoup de 
familles francaises dans le region d'Ottawa etaient ici avant de 1830 and il y a beaucoup 
de leurs descendants qui sont ici aujourdhui.
 
Aussi, the McCabe List (www.bytown.net/mccabe.htm) contient les noms de c. 700 
hommes qui ont etes dan le region de Bytown en le Fevrier, 1829. La plupart de ces noms 
etaient Irlandais, travailleurs sur le canal, mais il y a quelques noms francais aussi. 
Je vous les envoyerais aussi.
 
Merci beaucoup pour vos couriels.
 
... Al Lewis
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Bonsoir et grand merci pour tout l'aide.  J'aimerais bien pouvoir vous aider aussi.  Je 
suis à faire des recherche surtout de ma famille Leduc qui je crois a grandement contribué 
Bytown.  Je suis au courant du site de bytown.net.   Et, il y en a beaucoup d'autres.   
Au plaisir d'avoir de vos nouvelles.  You may write to me in English if you so wish.  
I will gladly reply.  
À bientôt!  
... Hélène Wyskup
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Bonjour, Hélène et Jean-Claude:
 
I have been going through the records of Notre Dame Cathedral from 1829 to 1832. There are 
a lot more names there than I originally realized. I don't know if I will be able to 
extract all of the names for you, but will start sending some today, for 1829.
 
I believe that most of the Francophone people who were in Bytown in the Rideau Canal days 
were not working on the construction of the canal but were rather involved in the commercial 
activities in Lowertown. Here are the names of three Francophones who explicitly state that 
they were working on the Canal in 1829 (Source: The McCabe List)
 
1. Thomas Brunette, from Montreal
2. Loius Rainville, from Montreal
3. Etienne Gagne, also from Montreal
 
Jean-Baptiste St. Louis was a well known Francophone entrepreneur. He was also in Bytown 
in 1829. He was a contractor who worked on the canal and was responsible for building the 
St. Louis Dam at Dow's Lake to divert the water from flowing to the Ottawa River via what 
is today Preston Street. His web page above includes a picture of a mill which he 
built at Rideau Falls in 1830, later bought by Thomas McKay.
 
As Jean-Claude says, the majority of the canal labourers were Irish Catholics. What is 
interesting in the Notre Dame records is the number of marriages and family connections 
between the better-off Francophone and the better-off Irish Catholic families. Especially 
as the lumber trade developed, there were many connections between the two linguistic groups.
 
If you go to the search engine on our main web page at www.bytown.net you should try 
searching for the major French-Canadian surnames (one at a time). For example, there will 
be information on the Turgeon, Aumond and Aumier families who all appear in the Notre 
Dame records early on. There is a Google Search box near the top of our main web page, but 
if you go to the very bottom of that web page, there is another search box by Freefind.com 
which may yield additional results.
 
The earliest Leduc appearance in the Notre Dame records is an Augustin Leduc who appears 
in 1833 as the best man at the baptism of:
 
4 Feb 1833
Baptism of Maria, daughter of Theodore Duplanty and Mary Ann Scia
Godparents: Augustin Leduc & Marie Rose Gauthier
 
By the 1850-1855 period there are many references to the Leducs. One of the problems with 
the Notre Dame records is that there can be spelling errors as the microfilmed pages can
be difficult to read.
 
The ND records are available from the Drouin collection at ancestry.ca. It's interesting to 
note that the Drouin records also include churches in the Ottawa area which had as few as 
10 per cent of their parishioners who were Francophone. For example, after the canal was 
finished in 1832, many Irish and French Catholics squatted on land around the big construction 
project at Hog's Back. From here, they gradually acquired farmland, up until the 1850's, and 
helped to build new churches at South Gloucester (Potvin, Pelletier and Albert families), 
Richmond (Villeneuve, Deslaurier and Fournier families) and St. Bridgid's near Manotick (
Laplante family). 
 
If you don't mind, I'll continue to write in English but whatever I post to the web site 
will be posted in either English or French. 
 
... Al

 March 22, 2009:

Hello Al, 
 
Thank you for the input.  
 
Here are a few thoughts, off the cuff:
 
My theory about inter-marriage early on between francophone men (mostly) and Irish lasses 
was that many of the francophone men were bachelors, fresh off the farm while the Irish girls 
were daughters of Irish men who came with their families. In fact, many of these girls could 
have been orphaned because of the hardships of building the canal. This is just a theory. I 
have no proof. A generation later, Irish men were marrying french girls and girls with french 
names whose mothers had been these Irish lasses. 
 
Joseph Balzora Turgeon married Mary Ann Donaher and his cousins, Joseph Aumont and Charles 
Aumont married Jane Cumming and Clare Cumming. I have not yet been able to find the parents 
of all of these women. In the Sandy Hill Cemetery of old Bytown, there was a Capt.T.Cumming, 
d. dec.11,1866; J.T.Cumming d. aug. 22, 1832 at 42 years of age, Richard T. Cumming, 4th son 
of J.T.Cumming, d. dec 22 1850 at 19 years of age; and 3 children of deceased F.A. & 
C. Cumming, oct. 1863.  
 
The early catholic churches in Bytown and Wrightstown were under the administration of the 
french diocese of Montreal (Mgr Bourget) which caused friction with the bishops of the 
diocese of Kingston since Bytown was in Upper Canada. Churches such as Notre Dame and St.Joseph
were initially bilingual. It's only later on that catholic churches were re-aligned along 
linguistic lines. 
 
In your research on squatters (which is extensive!), did you come across "Notch of the Montain"
as a residence? This was the area on both sides of the canal between Landsdowne Park and 
Dow's Lake named on certain maps as the Mutchmore Cut.  We would now say between the Glebe 
and Old Ottawa South. This is of interest to me as a member of the Ottawa South History 
Project (check OSCA website). 
 
Jean-Claude 
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Hi Jean-Claude:
 
Here is a quote from our Timothy Collins page:
 
The marriage of  Timothy Collins recorded at Notre Dame in 1831 shows Timothy Collins 
as being from Black Rapids and his bride is from "Notch of the Mountains". 
Finally, in a book called "Sights and Surveys, Two Diarists on the Rideau Canal", by 
Edwin Welch of the Historical Society of Ottawa (1979) I've located "Notch of the Mountains" 
- if you stand on the Bank Street Bridge over the canal and look west towards Dow's Lake, 
the steep banks on either side, a stones throw from the bridge, were called "The Notch of 
the Mountains".
 
This term is used in the records of Notre Dame and also in early Bytown newspapers.
 
The "Deep Cut", also referenced in the Notre Dame records was on the west side of the 
Canal at Somerset Street, across from Ottawa University.

Both my grandfather's ancestor (Lawrence Burns) and my grandmother's 
(Patrick Christopher) ancestors were squatters at Hog's Back in the 
early 1830's. I have a list somewhere of the ND records which list the persons who explicitly 
gave their residence as "Hog's Back". Almost all of them ended up on farms in Gloucester, 
Nepean or Osgoode by the 1840's. My GGGrandfather, bought 200 acres in Gloucester from the 
Canada Company in 1835 and, in 1843, as a young widower with family, he remarried and moved 
to the Manotick Station Road. Amazing stories of all of these people! What they went through!
 
... Al