We Remember / Je Me Souviens
One of my interests is genealogy and I recently started on researching my wife’s family, which has lead me to learn more about Quebec and its history.
The provincial motto for Quebec is Je me souviens, which is “I remember” in English. All four of her paternal great-grandparents were from Quebec. Of my wife’s surname, the Audet family, genealogists have traced their history to their arrival in Quebec from France in the seventieth century.
Nicolas Audet was born in Maulais, France, in 1637. His future wife, Magdeleine Després, was from Paris and was born around 1655. Magdeleine came to New France as a Filles du Roi, or one of the King’s Daughters. This was an initiative to help grow and populate New France. Magdeleine was fourteen when she married the thirty-three-year-old Nicolas. This is hard to understand and accept from our current morals and ethics. These were colonizers living on stolen land. Despite all of this, I think we can agree and respect the heroic courage required for young Magdeleine to start this new life in the new world.
The Encyclopedia of Canada, explains:
The Filles du Roi (King’s Daughters) were unmarried women and sometimes widows who were sponsored by the king to immigrate to New France between 1663 and 1673. Because private interests gave priority to bringing over male workers, the French government and religious community attempted to correct the gender imbalance in the colonies. Even though the first women arrived in Canada in the 1630s, only the 800 or so who arrived during the first 11 years of royal government in New France were called Filles du Roi.
Nicolas obtained a grant of three acres of land by Monsignor François de Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec and Lord (Seigneur) of Beaupré. This was in Île d’Orléans and they established a farm, which later grew to seventy-five acres. This island is just northwest of Quebec City and over three centuries later the land is still dotted with farms.
There is an organization that has tracked and shared the history and ancestors of Nicolas and Magdeleine, the Association of the Decendants of Nicolas Audet dit Lapointe. Their database contains over 90,000 descendants of those two brave pioneers. I don’t think they could ever imagine this and the impact they would have in the future.
We all have a rich and interesting family history, though it may oftentimes be hard to uncover. The efforts of our ancestors in early times may seem unimaginable to us. With the current state of the world, I think back to my grandfather’s generation and their fight against fascism. My father-in-law, a descendant of Nicolas and Magdeleine is the second oldest of twelve children. He was born while his father, Joseph Edward Lionel Audet, was in the United States Army fighting in Europe.
The story goes that Pépére (a French name for grandfather) his son for the first time only when he came home from the war. He walked up to their home to the warm welcome of his wife, Marie Laurette Noelle Beausejour, and met his son. What a joyous reunion that must have been! Their own courage and those of that generation helped save our world from widespread war, fascism, and systematic annihilation. They did this so selflessly and against difficult odds.
These same struggles exist today, in places like Ukraine, Palestine, and Iran. People just want to be free, treated with respect, to live in dignity and peace. The same courage exists today, too.
Instead, we again have creeping fascism. Hateful and corrupt people have loud voices and unreasonable power over others. They crave power, money, and domination. They have big machines of propaganda, influence, and manipulation. The magnify fear to create hate.
What can we do? As a start, we need to resist and eliminate hateful and manipulative voices in our lives, and the lives of those we care for. Too many people forget that their families were once immigrants, or newcomers or outsiders. Or simply different and needing help and acceptance.
Everyone in their soul yearns to be loved, and to love. To me, that is the foundation that everything else rest upon. As a Christian, we believe in the Two Great Commandments: to love God and love your neighbours. Everything hangs on that. We need to help lift each other up and not punch down. We need to look beyond our own selfish interests. We need to stand up for those in need and work together to improve the world.
The time for fence sitting is long past. Do not subscribe to the hateful rhetoric. Stop doomscrolling and inundating yourself with anger and fear. Instead, think about what you can do to change things for the better and get started.
How will our own descendants and future generations view our work and our courage?
Remember the courage of your ancestors.
We remember you, Nicolas, Magdeleine, Lionel Edward, Marie Laurette, and so many others. May we match your courage in making the world a better place.
Note: If you want to get started on genealogy, my church has a free platform that is open to anyone at www.familysearch.org.
