Pauline Johns, a descendent of Louis Lamarche and Margaret Dorian has done extensive research on the ancestry of this LaPasse family. She has most generously submitted her research to this site. It is copied here in its entirety. Thank you very much Pauline for sharing this valuable work.
The Ottawa River serving as an inter-provincial boundary did not have much importance to early settlers who cleared land and built their homesteads on both sides of the river. Fort Coulounge and LaPasse are examples of this and families like the Lamarches lived on both sides, as they wished.
Louis Bricault dit Lamarche(1801-1851) and Margaret Dorian (1813? – ?)
Origins of their ancestors
The first Bricault dit Lamarche in New France was Jean (sometimes called Jacques) Bricault who had been a farmer in Vay, Britanny, in the canton of Nozay, near Chateaubriand in the diocese of Nantes. Jean came as a soldier in the Compagnie DuGue of the Carignan Regiment. https://anecdoteshistoriques.net/2019/11/25/le-regiment-de-carignan-saliere-piliers-de-lhistoire-canadienne/
The surname “Lamarche” was a “dit name”, a nick name likely given to him by his commander. He left LaRochelle with his regiment aboard the ship “La Justice” on 18 May and arrived in Quebec city on 14 September 1665. A few days after their arrival, Monseigneur Laval held ceremonies to confirm the soldiers and confer on them the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It was said that whoever wore the scapular would not burn in Hell and the scapular was seen as a sign of salvation, a protection in time of danger. The soldiers were put to work building Fort Chambly and Fort Ste-Therese along the Richelieu River, then, when winter started, his Company was assigned quarters within the fortifications of Montreal, living in the homes of local habitants. Later that winter there were expeditions back to the Richelieu valley to fight the Iroquois and, if not for the help of the Algonquins, many more soldiers would have died of starvation or the cold. When peace with the Iroquois was established in 1667, Jean Bricault dit Lamarche and many of his fellow soldiers decided to remain in New France. Over the next few years, he obtained a plot of land on the St-Lawrence River in the Pointe-aux-Trembles area and started cutting trees to turn it into farmland.
On 12 November 1674 he married Marie Chesnier who was 14 years 7 days old. He was 28 years old. At this time, girls as young as 12 could marry. Their first child was born when Marie was 17 but this daughter did not survive. In all they had 15 children of which 7 survived and went on to have descendants.
More information on Jean Bricault dit Lamarche can be found in the book written by Michele Lamarche which is available on this website maintained by the author Claude Lamarche: http://www.despagesetdespages.com/genealogie-lamarche.htm#Obj2
Two of his descendants, Louis and Stanislas (Tannis) settled in LaPasse. Louis Bricault dit Lamarche was married to Margaret Dorian, an Irish immigrant.
“Dorian” is of one of the English spellings for the Gaelic “Ō Deoradhain” and other English spellings of the name include Doran, Dorain and Dorrian. The motto of this clan is “Hope is the anchor of life“.
Legend has it that the Dorians were hereditary Brehons (judges) to the Leinster kings and were the keepers of one copy of the Tripartite Life of St-Patrick, a very old manuscript, probably dating from the 11th century that contained, among other works, the life story of Saint Patrick. A translation of this manuscript from the Latin is available online at https://archive.org/details/tripartitepatrick00stokuoft.
This manuscript preserved many of the Irish stories that have come down to the present day.
Louis Bricault dit Lamarche(1801-1851) and Margaret Dorian (1813? – ?) – A couple surrounded by mysteries.
Louis Bricault (sometimes spelled Bricot or Bricaut) dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian were married in Bytown (present day Ottawa) on November 11, 1833.
The spelling of Margaret’s name is uncertain. In most documents it appears in French as Marguerite Dorion but she is consistently Irish in the census so the spelling Dorian which is the name passed down in the family might be more appropriate.
Father Gravelle, who wrote genealogy columns in an Ottawa newspaper in the 1960s thought it might even be Dolan but he had nothing to support this. (Le Droit 1963).
The marriage record does not indicate the names of parents which is somewhat unusual for Catholic records, though it occurred with some frequency for marriages in Bytown around that time period. Perhaps it was because they were new to the area with no parents present to vouch for them. The priest must have thought they were of age or would not have married them. Their witnesses were Joseph Bourgeois and Sophie Turgeon.
By contrast to her husband, Margaret Dorian appears to have had no relatives in Canada, only a close friend, also from Ireland, Mary McCarthy whose parents are also unknown. Efforts to find relatives for these two women have been unproductive or inconclusive. For example, in 1839, there was an innkeeper in Bytown named James Doran who was a veteran of the battle of Waterloo. His establishment was known as the Doran Hotel and was located on Wellington Street about the site of the current Bank of Canada. In 1839 there was also an innkeeper in Bytown with the name of John McCarthy. There was also a John McCarthy among the Peter Robinson Settlers on the ship Brunswick who had a 2-year-old daughter named Margaret when he came to Canada to settle in Emily township in 1825.
It was undoubtedly employment opportunities which brought Louis and Margaret to Bytown which was a booming town in the late 1820s. The construction of the Rideau Canal started in 1826 and it was opened in 1832. There were also many lumber camps in the vicinity.
Bytown was a growing city and likely there were many opportunities to find work, though the cholera epidemic which swept through in 1832 caused many deaths and may have taken the lives of family members of Margaret Dorian, though this is speculation. Her date of birth is surmised by census records and her date and place of death is unknown. DNA matches among some of her descendants have
indicated her parents may have been James Dorian and Ann (maiden name unknown). James was a mason in Northern Ireland who later emigrated to Scotland.
According to an article written by Father Gravelle in Le Droit in 1963 (seen above), Louis Bricault met Margaret Dorian in Levis,
across from Quebec city in 1284, a typo which should probably be corrected to 1824. If it was 1824, she would have been about 12 or 13. She had immigrated at the same time as Mary McCarthy who was 5 years younger than her. Who had they immigrated with? Where were they living from 1824 to 1833?
So many unanswered questions.
From John A. Lacroix’ (1906-1984) recollections of family stories, there were 2 Lamarche families who lived in the vicinity of the Lacroix Bay Road and the Bromley Line and they were devastated by a fire which killed some of the children. According to him, there was at least one adopted child and after the fire, the children of both families worked together to rebuild. (The conflagration which severely impacted the region in 1853 may have been that fire.) He also said that Louis Lamarche, who was one of his ancestors, was well respected and had a very good reputation among the inhabitants of LaPasse.
Generation 1
Louis Bricault dit Lamarche was born on 25 Mar 1801 in L’Assomption, Canada East. His parents were Jean-Baptiste Bricault dit Lamarche and Marguerite Vaillant. He married Margaret Dorian on 11 Nov 1833 in Bytown (Ottawa). She was born in about 1812 in Ireland according to census records. No records of her birth or parentage have been found. DNA matches appear to indicate she came from County Down and that her father, James Dorian was a mason who probably moved around Northern Ireland for his work. He eventually emigrated to Scotland to live near one of his daughters.
(Any descendant of Margaret Dorian and Louis Lamarche who is interested in trying to find DNA matches to
confirm the parentage of Margaret Dorian is asked to contact Pauline Johns at pjohns2014@outlook.com.)
After land went on sale in May 1832, Louis Lamarche purchased the certificate for Lot 12 East Front, Westmeath Township, and several years later in 1839 is neighbours swore affidavits that he had improved it. After a mix up in lot numbers was resolved, he was granted the land in 1842. Based on the location of where the children were baptized, he and his family likely had moved to LaPasse as early as 1833 and certainly by 1835.
When the Westmeath Township Council was set up in 1837, Louis Lamarche was voted in as Path Master in his area. He was re-elected in 1838. In 1844 and 1847 he was elected Pound Keeper.
He died on 5 Feb 1852 in LaPasse, Westmeath, Canada West. In his burial record his age is given as about 45 years but he was actually 51. The years 1852-1853 must have been the worse in the life of Margaret Dorian, first losing her husband then her son Delphis in 1852, then living through the devastation of the fire of 1853. Somehow she persevered through these difficult times. The Walling
map of 1863 shows that Mrs. Lamarche (Margaret Dorian) owned the land, one of the few women to do so in that area. It is believed that all her surviving children lived on that land at that time. In 1912, her son John Lamarche paid his living sisters their share of their inheritance ($100 each) and was given the deed to the land.
It is not known when Margaret Dorian died. There is no record of her burial in LaPasse or -Fort Coulonge. She does not appear in the census for the Westmeath or Pontiac townships after 1871. There is a census record with a Margaret Derian (sic), widow, aged 68 living in St-Brigid’s Asylum, a home for aged Irish women in Quebec City in 1881 but no record to indicate whether the woman living in Quebec is the same as the one who had lived in LaPasse, nor has a record been found for the death of a Margaret Dorian in Quebec city.
Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian had the following children:
1) Joseph Lamarche (foster son of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 12 Apr 1830 in the province of Quebec according to census records. He was baptized on 16 Mar 1833 and Louis Bricault and Margaret Dorian were the sponsors. The baptism record indicates he was illegitimate and his biological parents were Calvin May and Mary Sharon (Charron?). In the census record, he appears as
Joseph LeMay in 1851 but after his foster father dies, he helps his foster mother and takes on the Lamarche name. Joseph Lamarche married Mary Burns/Byrns (daughter of Murdoch Burns and Sarah Neddleton/Nettleton) on 26 Oct 1857 in Chapeau, Ile-aux-Allumettes, Canada East. Note that there is an error in the marriage record; his mother is listed as Mary Dorion. Mary Burn/Byrns was born about 1831 in Ireland. She died 10 Jun 1907 and is buried in the village of Fort-Coulonge.
Children of Joseph Lamarche and Mary Burns:
Therese Lamarche was born on 26 Feb 1856 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec and died in Fort-Coulonge Quebec on 18 Feb 1928. She married Damase Durocher on 2 April 1877 in LaPasse, Ontario.
Joseph Lamarche was born on 18 Sep 1858 in Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec and died on 21 Aug 1938 in Nipissing, Ontario. He married Sophronie (Fanny) Gervais (1862-1941) on 20 Jun 1881 in LaPasse, Ontario.
Thomas James Lamarche was born about 19 May 1862 in Pontiac County, Quebec and died on 15 Jan 1957 in North Bay, Nipissing, Ontario. He married Marie Jane St-Jean on 19 Jul 1909 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec.
Catherine Caroline Lamarche was born on 29 Dec 1863 in Ile-aux-Allumettes, Chapeau, Pontiac, Quebec and died on 9 Apr 1865 in Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec, Canada.
John Louis Lamarche was born about 13 Feb 1866 in Quebec. He died on 9 Mar in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He married Emma Bessette.
Mary Jane Lamarche was born on 7 Nov 1868 in LaPasse, Renfrew, Ontario
William Francis Xavier Lamarche was born on 31 Jul 1871 in Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec.
Laura Lamarche was born about 1874 in Fort-Coulonge, Pontiac, Quebec and died on 4 Jan 1886 in Fort- Coulonge, Pontiac, Quebec.
Louise Ann M. Lamarche was born on 18 Dec 1874 in Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec.
Thomas Guillaume Lamarche was born on 16 Jun 1877 in Pontiac County, Quebec and died about 25 Dec 1885 in Fort-Coulonge, Pontiac, Quebec.
Marie Alice Lamarche was born on 29 Jul 1882 in Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec and died in 1882.
2) Marguerite Bricault dit Lamarche (daughter of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 20 Dec 1835 likely in LaPasse. She was baptised by a missionary priest from Ottawa on mission to Fort-Coulonge on 1 Feb 1836. Twenty-five children were baptized on the same day ranging in age from a month to 7 years. Marguerite died sometime before the 1851 census.
3) Caroline Bricault dit Lamarche (daughter of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born in 1837 in LaPasse, Canada West. Sometime around 1854-55 she married William Landon (1829- 1861), the son of Thomas Landon and Roxa Smith who was her neighbour and a Methodist. Caroline had children with William Landon but only one is known to have survived into adulthood. After William died, she married Norbert Thibault (1835-1881), son of Charles Thibault and Isabelle Leclair on 6 August 1864 in LaPasse and they had several children. Caroline died sometime between after the birth of their daughter Mary Jane (Luminara) Thibault in 1879 but before the census of 1881.
Children of Caroline Bricault dit Lamarche and William Landon (first marriage) :
James William Landon born on 18 Jul 1855 in Westmeath, North Renfrew County, He died on 11 Oct 1918 in Bonfield, Nipissing, Ontario. He married Justine Graveline (1862- ) on 12 Jun 1879 in LaPasse, Ontario. James and Justine were living at the farm of William James Bryson in 1891 where James was a farm foreman and his half-sisters Caroline and Jane Thibault were domestic servants. In the 1901 and 1921 census he was a retail merchant in Bonfield.
Horace Landon was born on 15 Oct 1856 in Westmeath, Ontario.
Margaret Rosa Landon was born on 2 Aug 1860 in Westmeath, Ontario.
Laura Adeline Landon was born on 26 Feb 1862 in Westmeath, Ontario.
Children of Caroline Bricault dit Lamarche and Norbert Thibault (second marriage):
Isabelle Thibault born about 1865 in Ontario
Marie Marguerite Thibault born 17 May 1865 in LaPasse, Ontario
Delima Adeline Thibault was born on 3 Apr 1867 in LaPasse, Ontario. She died on 27 August 1928 in Fort-Coulonge, Pontiac, Quebec. She married Francis (Frank) Soucie (1861-1927) on 13 Apr 1885 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec. He was the son of Francois Carisse Soucie and Marie Graveline Baudreau.
Justine Thibault was born 12 Jan 1870 in LaPasse, Ontario. She died on 7 Jul 1941 in Pembroke, Ontario. She married John Christopher Arnold (1875-1935) on 27 May 1907 in Renfrew, Ontario. He was the son of Philip Arnold and Catherine Kelly.
Charles Gilbert Thibault born in June 1872 in LaPasse, Ontario
Edward Frederick Thibault was born on 4 Oct 1874 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec and died on 4 Sep 1953 in Bonfield, Nipissing, Ontario. He married Elmina Amyotte (1882-1973) in Bonfield, Ontario. She was the daughter of Joseph Amyotte and Adeline Lariviere. Edward was a farmer and worked in the lumber camps.
Caroline Thibault was born 15 Jun 1877 in Fort-Coulonge. She married Benjamin Lavoie (1852- ) on 30 May 1906 in LaPasse, Renfrew, Ontario. He was the son of Benjamin Lavoie and Elisabeth Beauchamp.
Mary Jane (Luminara) Thibault was born on 10 Dec 1879 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec and died on 2 Apr 1947 in LaPasse, Renfrew, Ontario. She married Henri Lacroix, son of Louis Lacroix and Elizabeth Clermont on 7 Jan 1896 at the Cathedral in Pembroke, Ontario.
4) Octavie Bricault dit Lamarche (daughter of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 19 August 1839 and baptized in LaPasse on 2 Sep 1839 by a visiting missionary priest. She died prior to the 1851 census.
5) Louis Bricault dit Lamarche (son of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was baptized in the mission of Aylmer (not clear where) on 28 Aug 1841. He died prior to the 1851 census.
6) Jean-Baptiste (John) Bricault dit Lamarche (son of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 17 Apr 1844 in Lapasse Ontario according to 1901 census information. He married Philomene Gervais (1846-1916), daughter of Cyrille Gervais and Veronique Sabourin, in LaPasse on 22 Jul 1867. He died on 21 Apr 1915 of peritonitis brought about by chronic cystitis.
Henriette Caroline (Harriet) Lamarche was born on 7 Jul 1884 in LaPasse, Ontario. In the 1921 census she was lodging with her brother and working as a seamstress.
Charles Euchere Lamarche was born on 12 Jun 1886 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 28 Jan 1919 in Westmeath Township from pneumonia caused by influenza. He was a carpenter.
Alexander Lamarche was born on 29 Sep 1888 in LaPasse, Ontario and died in 1950. He was a labourer. He married Mary Couturier on 30 Oct 1913 in LaPasse, Ontario. She was the daughter of Napoleon Couturier and Marie Louise Gratton.
Children of Jean-Baptiste (John) Lamarche and Philomene Gervais:
Marguerite Veronique Lamarche born on 5 May 1868 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 28 Jul 1956 in LaPasse, Ontario. She married Toussaint Lacroix, son of Louis Lacroix and Elizabeth Clermont on 9 Jul 1889 in LaPasse, Ontario. He was born on 12 Aug 1860 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 16 Aug 1925 in LaPasse, Ontario of chronic pielonephritis.
Adeline Delima Lamarche born about 1871 in Ontario.
Josephine Larmache born on 15 Apr 1871 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 4 Jul 1937 in the Pembroke Hospital, Pembroke, Ontario. She married Mederic Labine, son of Joseph Labine and Theresa Dolbec Belair in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec on 25 May 1909. He died in 1925. After her brother Gilbert died, his wife having predeceased him, she adopted their daughter Anita Lamarche. On the 16 Nov 1926 she married Napoleon Laderoute, son of Alexandre Laderoute and Amanda St-Denis.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarche born 27 Dec 1872 in LaPasse, Ontario.
Rosa (Rosalie) Lamarche was born on 18 Dec 1873 in Lapasse, Ontario and died on 17 Jan 1946 in Fort- Coulonge. She married Joseph St-Denis, son of Louis-Joseph St-Denis and Victorine Lagrandeur on 4 Jul 1894 in LaPasse, Ontario.
Louis Cyrlle Lamarche was born on 28 May 1875 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 6 Aug 1952 in Eganville, Ontario. He married Elizabeth Lamarche, the daughter of George Lamarche and Excelsior Dallaire on 20 Jun 1917 in Timiskaming, Ontario. She was born on 29 Jul 1886 in Gratton Twp., Ontario and died in 1944 in Eganville, Ontario. Louis worked in lumber camps in his youth and became a
carpenter.
Samuel Lamarche was born on 30 Oct 1877 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 31 Oct 1942 in Pembroke, Ontario. He married Margaret Ranger, daughter of Napoleon Ranger and Ann Hearty. He died of pneumonia following a stroke.
Gilbert Lamarche was born on 24 May 1878 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 15 Jun 1915 in Fort- Coulonge but was buried in LaPasse. He married Albina Elouise Sicard, daughter of Pierre Sicard and Marie Victoire Gauthier on 11 May 1908 in Ile-du-Grand-Calumet, Pontiac, Quebec. He worked in the lumber camps and was a baker.
Edward Delphis Lamarche was born on 3 Sep 1881 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 28 Oct 1918 in the village of Westmeath of influenza. He was a carpenter and a widower. He had married Mary Jane Bourbonais, daughter of Isaac (Zotique) Bourbonais and Denise (Theresa) Bertrand in 1911 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec. She died in childbirth on 17 Oct 1912. It was a stillbirth.
Mary Jane (Minnie) Lamarche was born on 19 Jul 1882 in LaPasse, Ontario and died on 14 Mar 1912 in Haileybury, Ontario, of acute heart failure. She had married Joseph Allard, son of Louis Allard and Catherine Lariviere on 9 Aug 1910 in LaPasse, Ontario.
7) Delima (Adeline) Bricault dit Lamarche (daughter of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 17 Apr 1846 in LaPasse and baptized in the Westmeath mission by a missionary priest on 10 May 2846. On 4 Oct 1869 she married Charles Labine, son of Joseph Guildry Labine and Mary McCarthy (a long time friend of her mother) in LaPasse, Ontario. She died of Bright’s disease (kidney disease) on
18 Sep 1916.
8) Emilie Lamarche (daughter of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born in 1848 and baptized at about nine weeks on 5 Jul 1848 on Ile-du-Grand-Calumet. She died and was buried in the LaPasse cemetery on 1 Aug 1850. This was the same day her cousin John Lamarche, son of Stanislas Lamarche was buried aged one year old.
9) Delphis Bricault dit Lamarche (son of Louis Bricault dit Lamarche and Margaret Dorian) was born on 8
Sep 1851 and baptized on Ile-du-Grand-Calumet on 21 Sep 1851. He died and was buried in LaPasse
cemetery in August 1852, about six months after the death of his father.