Gagnier (Gagne) History Web Site by Rev. John F. Gagnier
Section Six: The Gagne-Bellavance
Family Association
and
A Note from Father Gagnier
After
reading this section, click on the blue link below for
Section
Seven: Your place in the Family
THE
ASSOCIATION OF
GAGNE-BELLAVANCE
FAMILIES IN
The Association of Gagne-Bellavance Families in
It sponsored a reunion of over 5,000 cousins in 1953 to celebrate the tri-centennial of the arrival of Pierre Gasnier (1610-1656) in 1653.
Photos of the 1953 reunion may be seen on the French language web site of the Association. A link to that site is on the home page of this site.
Mr. Robert Gagne, a genealogist from Brossard, Quebec has served as
archivist and has indexed on computer, thousands of birth, baptismal, marriage
and death records of the descendants of Louis and Pierre Gasnier, our first
immigrants from France.
The present archivist of the Association is Jean-Yves Bellavance.
As a matter of uniformity, the two brothers and their wives are considered the first generation. Each member upon joining may request a genealogy outline tracing back to the first generation. Some lines of the family have reached the 14th generation.
Another reunion of over four hundred cousins was held in 1994 at
The Association holds its annual meetings in September. You are encouraged to join the Association and thus support continuing research and preservation of our history.
The Association has sponsored trips to the ancestral territories in
PRESENTATION BY MR. AIME GAGNE
Mr. Aimee Gagne of
Here is a summary of that presentation:
"The Association has known two different periods, the first from
1950 to 1970 and the present one since 1991. At the start the Association was
set up only to celebrate the tercentennial of the arrival of the first Gagne
family in
For many years, it was thought that they arrived in 1643. In 1988, the
Perches-Canada Association published the fact that Louis, a miller by trade,
was the first citizen of the town of
Nine years later in 1653, his elder brother, Pierre, a baker by trade,
also came to
In 1949, David Valmore Gagnier of
Mr. Eugene Gagne, a forestry engineer from Quebec City, became interested.
He was able to interest Father Adrien Gagne of the
[Note: Mr. David V. Gagnier (July 5, 1894-May 9, 1966) died unmarried in
A committee was formed to put together the gathering. Two bishops of the
were named as patrons as they were Gagne descendants on their maternal side.
Judge J-Arthur Gagne of the
The first meeting was held on September 17, 1950 and the organization was later formally incorporated. There were three types of members, Founders, who paid $5 and Active members, who paid $3 and others who paid $1 annually.
A quarterly newsletter was started with Father Adrian Gagne as editor
with the assistance of Brothers Magloire and Antonin. Brother Magloire ( born
Ernest Gagne in the
The membership reached 2,000 by the time of the Mass Family Rally in
1953. Many regional meetings led up to this first rally of
Other family associations have placed plaques there at their own expense.
The rally drew nearly 5,000 participants, many of whom visited the 17th century house built on the original foundations of Louis Gasnier (1612-1661.) There was a memorial Mass in the Basilica at Saint Anne.
While there was much initial enthusiasm and Labor Day pilgrimages in subsequent years, the membership dropped to 171 in only three years.
On October 9, 1961, a fire at the
Some twenty years later, in 1991, Mr. Jean-A. Gagne of
(end of presentation by Mr. Aime Gagne)
This web site was announced at the 1996 annual meeting of the Association
in Rimouski, Quebec and in the March, 1997 Journal of the Association as the official
English language web site of the Gagne-Bellavance Family Association.
HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR FAMILY TREE:
For an additional fee of $20.00 Canadian over and above dues, each member
receives a family tree which gives the names of ancestors back to one of the
two original brothers, Louis and Pierre, described in this site, who emigrated
from
Americans are required to pay $20.00 in US Dollars as there is a bank fee
for cashing the check in
The Association's genealogist has thousands of records of births, deaths,
and marriages in
The addition of the information you provide will add to our database and make future research easier for your descendants.
We presently have over 140,000 persons listed in the database beginning with the first two brothers and their parents.
A NEW PUBLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION: Genealogy CD-ROM
A database gathering all the descendants of Pierre and Louis Gasnier is
now available. As a result of 6.5 years of work, with about 6,600 pages with an
index at the end, this database contains up to 140,000 names and 65,000
marriages. Each descendant is linked to a parent or a sibling.
This CD-ROM is in PDF format readable by Acrobat Reader. It is compatible with
PC or Macintosh and it is available in English and French. Each copy costs
$100.00 plus $5.00 for shipping (CANADIAN DOLLARS.) Send your order to Mr.
Jean-Yves Bellavance at the address below.
You may send your request for a family tree to:
Mr. Jean-Yves Bellavance
Association of Gagne-Bellavance Families in
C. P. 6700
His e-mail address is: jybell@videotron.ca
In response to many inquiries, Jean-Yves Bellavance, genealogist of the
Association of Gagne-Bellavance Families in
"The family tree provided is legal size, dimensions of 8 1/2 x 14 inches.
The sheet of your ascendance contains the names of your Gagne ancestors in direct line ( yourself, your father, grandfather, etc.)
For each one except yourself, I have provided the name of the spouse, date, parish, and county of the marriage.
On a white sheet, (letter size) you will find the same information, including the name of the in-laws.
I will require one month preparation. If, however, I cannot provide
the information
within the aforementioned time period, a refund will be issued."
Jean-Yves Bellavance
A
personal note from Father Gagnier
Thank you for visiting this web site.
I have created it so that English speaking descendants may benefit from
years of research done by the Association of Gagne-Bellavance Families in
The input, comments and suggestions of readers are welcome and have
already helped to improve this website. If you have comments or suggestions:
You may use the "Mail" link found at the bottom of this page or the
home page.
You may put a public or private note on my guest page with the link found on
the home page. You may e-mail me directly at gagnier@dor.org
PLEASE NOTE: I am not a professional genealogist!
Therefore, I cannot answer specific questions about your ancestry, nor
can I trace your ancestry for you. The information below will help you to do
that.
On this site you have everything I know about our common heritage.
Where do you fit in? There is one sure way to find out. JOIN THE ASSOCIATION!
HOW TO OBTAIN YOUR FAMILY TREE:
As noted on the membership form available on this site, for an additional fee of
$20.00 Canadian over and above dues, each member receives a family tree which
gives you the names of your ancestors back to one of the two original brothers,
Louis and Pierre, described in this site, who emigrated from France to Quebec
in 1644 and 1653.
NOTE: If you are an American, the Association requires that you pay for the family tree with twenty American dollars as they are charged a fee for cashing your American check.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO OBTAIN A FAMILY TREE,
BUT WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN!
You should check with a local genealogical society in your area about how
to provide as much information as you can on your application to the
Association.
If you are an American, you can help in this regard. If you are requesting a
genealogy,
it would be helpful if you could trace your own ancestry back to the ancestor
who left
Otherwise, there is only about 50% probability that the genealogist can make
the connection for you.
My ancestry below will give you a good example of how this can be done.
The genealogist will be happy to add your information so as to make his
database that much more complete.
The Association of Gagne-Bellavance Families in
In my travels to
The Internet is a way of letting others know about the Association of
Gagne-Bellavance Families in
It was my privilege to celebrate Mass at the site of Louis Gasnier's
baptism, the Church of
I also celebrated Mass in the church of the 1638 marriage of Louis Gasnier and
Marie Michel at
You will find below a chart of my family's origins in
After the chart is information about another Gagnier family in the
My great-grandfather, an eighth generation descendant of Louis, came to
They had ten more children for a total of sixteen. My grandfather was the
fourteenth.
My great-grandparents were married
on August 18, 1857 at the
Pierre Gagnier (March 11, 1836 - March 24, 1913)
Virginia Guyette Gagnier (October 9, 1838 - October 12, 1913)
The chart below outlines their sixteen children and what little I know
about them. Only one changed the spelling of the name. That was Napoleon Gagner
who lived to be 92, the last male survivor of the ninth generation of our
family line. There are many descendants of Pierre and Virginia. I do not know
many of them, but I hope they will contact me to help fill in the missing
information on the chart. The photo below shows Pierre and Virginia Gagnier
from a postcard dated September 19, 1907 at the ages of 70 and 68. The picture was perhaps taken on the
occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage on August 18 of that
year, or perhaps at the wedding of my grandparents, John William and Jennie
Schuller on August 16. They are buried in
Great-Grandparents:
Pierre and Virginia (Guyette) Gagnier, 1907
My grandparents were married at Our Lady of
(also known as "The Little
on August 16, 1907 in
John William Gagnier (October 15, 1876 - January 21, 1910)
Jennie Schuller Gagnier Englert (May 13, 1888 - December 5, 1949)
|
16 Children: Pierre and Virginia (Guyette) Gagnier of |
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# |
Name |
Birth 18-- |
Death 19-- |
Name of Spouse |
Place of Marriage |
Date of Marriage |
|
1. |
Joseph C. Pierre |
06/10/58 |
|
|
|
|
|
2. |
J. A. Oliver |
11/08/59 |
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|
|
|
|
3. |
Mary Louise |
07/29/61 |
08/06/43 |
John Arnold |
|
|
|
4. |
Napoleon Gagner |
11/17/62 |
11/24/54 |
Louise Hook |
Saint Peter &
Paul |
05/05/1892 |
|
5. |
Derick |
03/31/64 |
|
|
|
|
|
6. |
Augustine |
05/02/65 |
06/11/12 |
Emma Sellnow |
|
08/04/1888 |
|
7. |
Emma |
07/14/66 |
01/06/60 |
Albert Francis |
Our Lady of
Victory |
02/02/1889 |
|
8. |
Josephine |
08/05/68 |
|
Adolph Guyette |
Our Lady of
Victory |
02/17/1887 |
|
9. |
Marie Desilda |
07/24/69 |
|
|
|
|
|
10. |
Louis |
07/16/70 |
04/01/14 |
Jennie Stuvenhauer |
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|
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11. |
William |
01/10/72 |
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|
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12. |
Edward |
04/09/73 |
07/25/53 |
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13. |
Nellie |
02/02/75 |
06/25/15 |
Edward Springer |
Our Lady of
Victory |
02/06/1893 |
|
14. |
John William |
10/15/76 |
01/21/10 |
Jennie Schuller |
Our Lady of
Victory |
08/16/1907 |
|
15. |
George Oliver |
12/14/79 |
08/29/50 |
Barbara Reisinger |
Our Lady of
Victory |
03/30/1902 |
|
16. |
Marie Virginia |
04/29/82 |
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Another Gagnier Family in the
Dr. Gagnier, an eighth generation descendant, came from Churubusco, New York,
near the Canadian border.
At the top of the home page of this web site is a photo of the "Gagnier
On the home page of this web site you will find a link to The
Click here for the Form Letter about
this site for you to copy to your family.
In the seventh and final section below entitled
"Your place in the family,"
are instructions on how you can calculate
your relationship to me or any other family member.
On the home page is a link to membership information and a membership form.
The home page has other genealogical links.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
My guest book is available at the link below.
You may contact me by e-mail at gagnier@dor.org
or use the mail link below.
Thank you for your visit and God bless you.
Sincerely,
Father
Gagnier
Personal Arms of Father John F.
Gagnier (c) 1996
Sign my guestbook by clicking here.
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In April 1998, I celebrated my
twentieth anniversary in
A week later, I was invited to celebrate Mass with Pope John Paul II in his
chapel.
Send feedback about this site, click right here!
Click here for Section 7: Your Place in the family
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Gagnier (Gagne) History Web
Site
by Rev. John F. Gagnier
Last modified on Thursday,
December 3, 2009