The Meunier Family Tree
2.1. The Main Family
2.1.1. Head of Family
Madame Delia Meunier (née Gingras)
Born in 1864, Delia Meunier’s roots in Québec run deep. She is married to her teenage sweetheart Elphage Meunier and is the mother of five children: Isala, Loyola, Adrian, Flora, and newborn Arthur. The Meunier family lives on a farm at the base of Gingras Hill just outside the Québec village of Saint-Honoré. Gingras Hill is named after Delia’s great-grandfather Charles Gingras who first farmed its fields in the 1750s. Growing up on the same farm she now lives on with Elphage and the children, Delia would toboggan down Gingras Hill with her friends in the winter and ride a wagon down in the summer with her sister Victorine. The wagon was made by Delia and Victorine’s grandfather Antoine Charron. An assertive but kind woman, Delia will be firm with the children and animals if need be but is more inclined to give a freshly baked pie than a scolding. Delia is frequently seen wearing a large and beautiful turquoise shawl. The shawl was originally given to Delia’s 6th-great-grandmother Marie Madeleine Miteouamigoukoue by Delia’s 6th-great-grandfather Pierre Couc on their wedding day.
Elphage Meunier: Elphage Meunier proposed to his wife Delia under the old oak tree at the bottom of Gingras Hill when they were nineteen years old in the fall of 1883. A quiet, but hard-working farmer, Elphage is always interested in trying the latest things and is the first farmer in Saint-Honoré to own a kerosene-powered traction engine (A Waterloo Boy traction engine).
2.1.2. The Meunier Children
Isala Meunier
The oldest Meunier child, Isala is very observant of what is around her and is sensitive to the feelings of others. Isala is very interested in hearing stories of family history. Her best friends are Gaëlle and Maëlle LaRue.
Loyola Meunier: The oldest Meunier son, Loyola, is anxious to grow up and take on adult responsibilities, and is eager to own a farm of his own one day. He has a crush on the identical LaRue twin girls, Gaëlle and Maëlle.
Adrien Meunier
The middle Meunier child, Adrien is inquisitive and loves science.
Flora Meunier: The youngest Meunier daughter, Flora, was happy to be spoiled as the youngest until the birth of her baby brother Arthur.
Arthur Meunier: The youngest Meunier child and the only one born in the 20th century.
2.1.3. Other Family Members
Victorine Meunier (née Gingras)
Madame Delia Meunier’s older sister. Victorine enjoys rides in the country on her 1902 Indian motorcycle imported from Springfield Massachusetts. She lives in the nearby “big city” of Sherbrooke Québec with her husband Adelard Meunier and her yappy French bulldog named Bernadette. Adelard and Victorine have several children, but they are grown up and on their own.
Adelard Meunier: Elphage Meunier’s older brother and husband of Victorine Gingras.
Phileas Savoie
A young toolmaker from Saint-Germain, Québec. On his way to Woonsocket Rhode Island to find work, he meets Isala at the Saint-Honoré at the Autumn Festival Ball. Later that night, Isala and Phileas meet the trickster animals who indoctrinate Phileas as an honorary member. Isala would later marry Phileas and join him and other Québécois immigrants in Rhode Island. Phileas and Isala are the author’s great-grandparents. They have many living descendants today.
2.2. Delia and Victorine Meunier’s Ancestors
Adelaide Charron: Delia and Victorine’s mother. Adelaide Charron gave the turquoise shawl to Delia on her wedding day to Elphage Meunier. Her father was Antoine Charron dit Cabana.
Antoine Charron dit Cabana: Delia and Victorine’s maternal grandfather. Antoine built a small wagon for Delia and Victorine when they were small girls so they could ride down Gingras Hill. Antoine’s wife was Marguerite Charron, the 4th-great-granddaughter of Pierre Couc and his wife Marie Madeleine Miteouamigoukoue.
Marguerite Charron: Marguerite Charron was the wife of Antoine Charron dit Cabana and the grandmother of Delia and Victorine. On her wedding day, her maternal grandfather Jean Baptiste Gaboureau gave Marguerite his great-great-grandmother Miteouamigoukoue’s shawl to her. Marguerite later passed on that same shawl to her daughter, Adelaide Charron, the mother of Delia and Victorine.
Jean Baptiste Gaboureau: Jean Baptiste Gaboureau is the great-great-grandson of Pierre Couc and Miteouamigoukoue. His grandmother, Marguerite Menard, gave him Marie Madeleine Miteouamigoukoue’s shawl to him when he married Francoise Lebeau. He, in turn, passed on the shawl to his granddaughter Marguerite Charron when she married.
Francoise Lebeau: Francoise Lebeau is the wife of Jean Baptiste Gaboureau and a great-great-grandmother of Delia and Victorine.
Marguerite Francoise Menard: The granddaughter of Pierre Couc and his wife Miteouamigoukoue. Her grandmother Miteouamigoukoue gave her the shawl when Marguerite was sixteen years old. Marguerite later gave the shawl to her grandson Jean Baptiste Gaboureau. She is the 4th-great-grandmother of Delia and Victorine. Her husband Pierre Boileau was born in France.
Pierre Boileau: Pierre Boileau is the husband of Marguerite Francoise Menard, and is the 4th-great-grandfather of Delia and Victorine. He was born in Poitiers in western France.
Pierre Couc
Pierre Couc was a French soldier and farmer who settled in Trois-Rivières, New France in the mid-1600s. He is Delia and Victorine’s 6th-great-grandfather. He was born in Cognac, in western France in 1624. While in Trois-Rivières, he became close to the Weskarini band of the Algonquin while serving as an interpreter. He later helped to defend their settlement from a Mohawk raiding party that unfortunately resulted in the death or capture of many French settlers and Weskarani people. Among the dead was Miteouamigoukoue’s first husband Assababich who died saving Pierre Couc’s life. Miteouamigoukoue and Assababich’s two children were also captured in the raid and never seen again. Five years after the death of Assababich, Pierre Couc married his widow Miteouamigoukoue.
Father Paul Ragueneau officiated their wedding. On their wedding day, Pierre gifted his new wife Miteouamigoukoue a large gray shawl that would later be passed down to their descendants and eventually find Delia Meunier.
Jeanne St. Aubim
Jeanne St. Aubim is Pierre Couc’s paternal grandmother. When Pierre was a child in France, she told him that the stars are pinholes in the dome of the sky and that the light of Heaven shines through them. She is Delia and Victorine’s 8th-great-grandmother.
Miteouamigoukoue
Miteouamigoukoue and her husband Pierre Couc are the 6th-great-grandparents of Delia Meunier and her sister Victorine. Miteouamigoukoue was a woman of the Weskarini band of the Algonquin people. While her birth name is Miteouamigoukoue, her baptized French name was Marie Madeleine. As a young girl, she would sneak out at night to look at the stars while her family slept. She also loved to visit Mikcheech the Turtle’s Pond and would annoy him by leaving messy footprints along the shore, looking under rocks, and moving logs. However, she and Mikcheech the Turtle became close friends after Miteouamigoukoue’s wedding to Pierre Couc. She treasured the shawl given to her by Pierre and only finally gave it to her granddaughter Marguerite Francoise Menard while she was on her deathbed. Muin the Bear trickster admired her wisdom and respected her as one who would become the grandmother of many. As such, he called her “Old Grandmother.”
Catherine Assababich and Pierre Assababich
The daughter and son of Assababich and Miteouamigoukoue. They are the 5th-great-aunt and 5th-great-uncle of Delia and Victorine. The children were taken from their home in Trois-Rivières by Mohawk raiders in the same raid that saw the death of their father Assababich. Miteouamigoukoue never heard from them again.
Marie-Madeleine Couc dite Lafleur and husband Maurice Ménard dit LaFontaine: The 5th-great-grandparents of Delia and Victorine. Marie-Madeleine Couc dite Lafleur is the fourth child of Pierre and Miteouamigoukoue Couc. Maurice and Marie-Madeleine were born near Trois-Rivières in 1664.
Grandfather Charles Pachirini: Charles Pachirini was the maternal grandfather of Marie Madeleine Miteouamigoukoue. He was a leader of the Weskarini band of the Algonquin people and is Delia and Victorine’s 8th-great-grandfather. He was baptized as Charles on April 2nd, 1643, by French priest Father Imbert Duperon. He was a witness to the wedding of Pierre Couc and Miteouamigoukoue. When Miteouamigoukoue was a little girl, Grandfather Charles told her that the stars are the campfires of all The People who have died and that they watch over their families on the Earth from the sky. Grandfather Charles was the best wrestler in the region around Trois-Rivières. During the wedding festivities of Pierre and Miteouamigoukoue Couc, Grandfather Charles challenged his new grandson-in-law to a friendly wrestling match.
Sehamou: was the wife of Grandfather Charles, the grandmother of Miteouamigoukoue, and Delia and Victorine’s 8th-great-grandmother.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha: Kateri Tekakwitha’s mother Kahenta was an Algonquin woman of Weskarini band and was possibly a cousin or sister of Marie Madeleine Miteouamigoukoue. Kahenta was captured in the same raid as Madeleine’s children and was taken to the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Kateri’s father was a Mohawk chief named Kenneronkwa. The French-Canadian genealogist and educator Normand Léveillée, a descendant of Miteouamigoukoue, believed that Miteouamigoukoue and Kahenta were related. Although, he freely acknowledges that there are no written records documenting such a family relationship. However, his belief was something he felt was true in his heart after an experience he had while visiting Saint Kateri’s Shrine in Fonda, New York. The Shrine was built on almost the exact location of the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, where Saint Kateri was born. The author also believes there is a family relationship between Kahenta and Miteouamigoukoue. As such, in the book Old Grandmother’s Tree, Grandfather Charles and Sehamou are the grandparents of Kahenta and are therefore the great-grandparents of Kateri Tekakwitha.