Durand, LaCroix Notes

Definition: From the Latin name Durandus meaning strong and enduring, the Durand surname comes from the "duro" meaning to harden or make strong. This surname is believed to have evolved simultaneously in several different cultures.

Many researchers with French-Canadian Ancestors are often confused or stopped in their research by the ever-present usage of what is called a "dit" name. A very brief way of explaining this is that a "dit" name (in the case of a man) or "dite" name (for women) is a form of an alias. Its usage is almost only in France, New France or Quebec, or occasionally in Scotland where clan names may include a "sept" or subgrouping name. We will focus here on the usage of these names in New France or Quebec.

The word "dit" or "dite" comes from the French verb "dire" which means "to speak" or "to say". When used with a name, as in our examples here, it literally means "so-called". In the simple way of understanding, our Ancestors used these "dit" names to distinguish one member of a family from another. It was very common to name a son for his father or grandfather, a daughter for a mother or beloved aunt. But with the same given name appearing with the same surname repeatedly (and especially in the small communities of New France), one could easily become confused as to who was being spoken of......Marie, daughter of Marie, whose aunt Marie is the neighbor, all of them of the surname Belanger, can quickly confuse a

Catherine de Baillon is one of the most interesting of our Quebec Ancestors. Born of an upper-class family in France, she emigrated to New France as one of the King's Daughters and married Jacques Miville dit Descenes on 12 Nov 1669 in Quebec City. Catherine's ancestry has been widely researched. Her ancestry (and ours) contains many Kings and Queens of [the remainder of this note has been truncated by computers].

She arrived in New France in 1669 - As one of the Filles du roi (Daughters of the King), she arrived as part of one hundred and thirty-two arriving that year escorted by Madame Bourdon, bringing with her a dowry estimated at 1,000 pounds. Having died at Rivire-Ouelle, she is buried at the parish of Notre-Dame-de-Liesse. Her marriage was under the contract Duquet 19-10. Source for Les Filles du Roi - Book: Les Filles Du Roi du xvii iemesicle by Yves Landry. (Both in French and in English) Volume I

Jacques Miville, Pierre Miville's son, was living with his parents in 1667. He is 27 years old and is believed to be a coureur des bois living off fur trade as well. For example, in January 1668, he buys goods from Jean Maheux, a merchant in Quebec City, and promises to pay him in the springtime, "when he gets back from his trip" In October 1669, he marries Catherine de Baillon, daughter of the late Alphonse de Baillon and of Lady Louise de Marle, who had been provided with a large dowry. The wedding attended by numerous personalities among whom Courcelles and Rouer de Villeray.

To our knowledge, the marriage contract is the first document in which Jacques Miville, the groom, is identified as "Sieur Deschnes. We cannot explain the reason why Jacques gives himself this "title", which becomes the Deschnes surname after which many of dit descendants were named. A short while after the signing of the wedding contract, he hires two men to cut down trees during the upcoming wintertime on his concession land located in Grande Anse au Cap Martin, this is, most likely, in the “Cantons des Suyisses fribourgeosis" (township of the Swiss from Frigoug) awarded to his father in 1665. In the spring of 1670, to perform “navigation and every day work".

During the 1670's he carries out fur trade: in 1677,he is known to promise payments in form of beaver skins. However, the way he buys property gives the impression he wants to do agriculture. In June of 1674,he buys from the Sieur de La Bouteillerie, Lord of Riviere-Ouelle a domain measuring 12 acres in width to the Saint-Jean River, at a short distance west of Riviere-Ouelle who is today in Pocatiere. This concession was however situated in an area fought over by the Lord of LaPocatiere and the Lord of Riviere-Ouelle. Finally he is guaranteed the ownership of land by the lady of La Pocatiere. He settles on this land before 1675, since his daughter Marie is born in Riviere Saint-Jean, not in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, as mentioned in Jette's dictionary. In 1676, he sells this property and buys another one in Riviere-Ouelle, where he lives for seven years. In 1684, he comes back to Riviere Saint-Jean to work as a farmer on his former property owned by Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye, one of the richest notable in Nouvelle-France. This man owns this land and many other domains he uses for fur trade. Could it be that Jacques Miville was his associate in anyway?

Jacques Miville dies in Riviere-Ouelle Saint-Jean on January 27th, 1688:he was only 49. His wife dies the very same day. He is buried the next day and his wife the following day. These simultaneous deaths are still unexplained. He was the father of six children aged from 6 to 17. This is when Francois comes and settles in Riviere Saint-Jean, and becomes the guardian of his brother's children. Francois has ten children of his own, ages 2 to 20, all of them born in Lauzon between 1663 and 1686. He pays for the farm lease from 1689 to 1693 at which time he gets married to Jeanne Sauvenier, his second wife, and moves to Riviere-Ouelle where he dies in 1711 at the age of 77.

Jacques children and grandchildren were known as Miville, Mainville, Deschnes, Dechne and even Duchaine. They mainly settle in Cote-du-Sud, Saint-Roch, Sainte-Anne, Riviere-Ouelle and Kamouraska from where their offspring scattered to neighbouring parishes and other regions. One of his descendants is le "grand neuf pieds" (the grand nine feet", named by Leon Roy. This legend started on a simple mistake in reading. According to road construction minutes of the time, an eighteen-foot wide road would be built using the line of Little Pierre Duchaine and Pierre Duchaine said the great nine feet on each piece of land up to 42 acres in-depth. A comma placed right after the word "great" allows us to understand that 9 feet were used on each piece of land and brings thereat Pierre to more human dimensions. Another grandson of Jacques Miville, Joseph-Marie, born in 1739, went to St. Louis. Missouri, where he had many children. Le Fribourgeois, Vol .1 No. 2

BIRTH-MARRIAGE: Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Canadiennes, L'Abbe Cyprien Tanguay; by Province of Quebec 1924; Volume 1 Page 435. Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles du Quebec; by Universite de Montreal & Rene Jette; Page 817.

Stories abound about French Canadian Voyageurs who traveled the famous waterway routes as fur traders and explorers during the 1700's and 1800's. Louis Durand was a predecessor to many of these excursions having blazed the way beyond where many of the other Voyageurs dared or ventured to travel. This is a story about the Legend of Louis Durand and his famous Voyage in 1696.

Louis Durand was born November 13, 1670 at Sillery, Quebec, Canada to Jean and Katherine (Annannontak) Durand. Louis was the third and last child to this marriage. His older brother Ignace, born 1669, also became a voyageur, "coureur de bois", and made many trips up the Ottawa River. Louis Durand's father Jean Durand, died when Louis was just one year old at the age of thirty-five of unknown causes. His mother soon remarried Jacques Coutourier and together they reared Louis in addition to having six additional children, of which (five survived). Louis also had an older sister named Marie, born June 4th 1666. She married Mathurin Cadot at Montreal on July 31st, 1688. Since his mother Katherine was a full blooded Huron Indian, (see the Amerindian Princess April edition), it was likely that Louis was at least bilingual in French and Native American Languages. His mother Katherine was reported to have spoken many languages. Katherine's father was a distinguished chieftain from the Bear Clan of the Huron nation, before the Iroquois warriors massacred him when Katherine was just an infant. (see article, The Huron Indians , April edition).

Louis Durand began his life as a Voyageur at the age of 17 years old when he was invited by a trading company about the first of Sept. 1691 to replace a voyageur, Joseph Guillet also known as squire de Bellefeuille., who had suddenly become sick, just before a voyage was to begin. Louis agreed to "go up to the Outaouais country with the company to help transport merchandise, to trade for fur, and all that was honestly and lawfully expected of him" He, was permitted to trade his gun, a blanket, six shirts and one coat for his own profit and to transport the fur belonging to himself in the returning canoe which he manned. This was Louis Durand's first known voyage. He had also participated in additional voyages before the voyage of 1696.

On April 11, 1696 in Montreal, Louis Durand (now age 29) and Joseph Moreau signed a contract with Marie-Therese Guyon, the wife of Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac. In this contract, Durand and Moreau agreed to leave Montreal for Michellimakinac with merchandise to be delivered to Commander Cadillac at Michillimakinac. They were to leave with the next canoe convoy leaving Montreal. Upon return the following Sept. they were each to be paid a salary of one hundred pounds in silver. They were each permitted to take along one hundred pounds of merchandise to trade for their own profit.

Cadillac later encouraged them to form an association after their arrival in late April at Fort Michellimakinac and to plan a voyage to establish trading relations with the Sioux Indian who lived far to the west. Cadillac also encouraged them to join up with another Voyageur by the name of Mathieu Sauton.

Because of legal problems and wrangling with Commander Cadillac at Fort Michillimakinac, Louis Durand and his fellow Voyageurs did not depart on their voyage until sometime after July 27th 1696. Additionally, Cadillac had seized many of their trading possession and they had to borrow from other traders in order to make this voyage.

With resupplied canoes of trading goods and staples the Voyageurs left to navigate the waterways on this famous voyage. When they arrived in the area of what we now call Green Bay WI. they entered the mouth of the Fox River. There, they probably traded with the local tribes to obtain the smaller canoes to travel the Fox, Wisconsin and Mississippi River waters.

Louis Durand had been a Voyageur for twelve years by the time he and his fellow Voyageurs made this historic trip. He was comfortable in the beauty and ways of nature. The Huron Indians had lived amongst nature and the rivers for hundreds of years. They were known to have developed the advanced agricultural methods including cultivation and gardening and also lived amongst the harvesting of natural foods and herbs. They were known as "dwellers amongst the rivers" and were known to dry and preserve fish as well as other meats. Louis was particularly noted for being an excellent Voyageur since his survival skills had withstood the test of time since he was a young boy. He enjoyed being amongst nature and being a Voyageur meant freedom from the regimented life of the Colony. Louis and his fellow Voyageurs wintered in the region (probably along the Mississippi or Missouri River amongst the Sioux) and returned the following year with furs and hides as well as new information which became a part of the oral and written history of the Durand family This voyage may of had an impact on our Ancestors eventually migrating to the Mississippi region.

Even though Louis Durand and his fellow Voyageurs were intimidated and had many of their original possessions taken from them by Commander Cadillac, records indicate that Louis did not back away from confronting Cadillac and pursued him in court upon his return from this historic voyage. Louis Durand also saw to it that his mother, Katherine, was cared for when he was on this voyage, by arranging credit for her at local merchants, and to be paid by him upon his return from the profits of his trading.

Louis Durand never attended school, and could neither read or write, however, at a very young age he could read the great book of nature which taught a great deal of practical knowledge. The forests, lakes, and rivers held no secrets for this "coureur des bois". He knew the trees and herbs of the forest, the properties of each, the habits of all the animals of the forests, how to hunt and trap them. He knew all the kinds of fish how to catch them. He knew how to make a canoe from the bark of a tree and how to navigate it up and down the rivers and rapids. He knew how to put on a pair of snowshoes and overcome deep snow for twelve to fifteen miles in one day.

There was a time in his life when he thought nothing of leaving for the wilderness of Labrador in Eskimo land, the shores of the Great Lakes, the Missouri River in Sioux Country or just a short voyage in neighboring forests. Very few situations found him unprepared; he was the man for unforeseen circumstances. Had he not journeyed America from Labrador to the Western Prairies Frequented the many Indian nations to hunt? Was he not familiar with the dialects and customs of the many tribes he met in his travels?

As I walk along the banks of the mighty Mississippi today, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, I can imagine my ancestor Louis Durand and his fellow Voyageurs navigating the beautiful river way singing in French the famous songs which distinguished and glorified their role in the history of this great land. I can feel the presence of their spirit and know that within my own being, my spirit is filled with the will and determination of our ancestor, Louis Durand and his Voyageurs.

The region of Dauphine, in the French Alps, was the ancestral homeland of the prestigious surname Durand. The surname Durand is a nickname surname, which belongs to the category of surnames known as hereditary surnames. This particular surname was originally derived from the Old French word durant, which means enduring. It was a nickname commonly used for a stubborn, unbending person. A broad and miscellaneous class of surnames, nickname surnames referred to a characteristic of the first person who used the name. They can describe the bearer's favored style of clothing, appearance, habits, or character.