Re: Benoit dit LaForest-- OR---??
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In reply to:
Benoit dit LaForest-- OR---??
Kathy Fuhrman 4/18/02
A large number of young French Canadians worked for Hudson's Bay and the Northwest Company as Voyageurs to take merchandise out west around the three prarie provinces. It was generally a 2-3 year trip, though there could be a longer stop over, getting employment at a trading fort in a trade. Established forts had a large range of trades on staff, from labourer to gunsmith, woodcutter to baker. This is very well detailed in "The Fur Trade in Canada" by Harold A. Innis. In otherwords it could be a possibility that a young man would get himself an Indian wife and settle down out west. Up to 1850 or towards the end of the fur trade, an estimated 45,000 French Canadian men did not come back. You might have to consider he's one of the few who came back.
The solution is to take a look at the age difference of the couple, obtain their marriage contract, and search his notary records for a land contract as he settled down. If he bought a producing farm, for a goodly amount of cash, and did not get a concession from the government, or donation from his parents or the inlaws, then probably he left a family in the west.
Our French Canadian Metis,speak French and are Roman Catholics gnerally.
I hope you find an easier answer