If I had to tell you when I got bitten by the Genealogy bug, it was probably in the early 90s, and my Mother’s family was a giant mystery. I knew the names of her parents, and her grandparents, and that was about it really.
Early in my diggings I had made some queries on French Canadian forums with the scanty information I had to hand and was told, quite boldly, that I was related to every Gratton in North America. Pfft. I refused to believe it, but I had a reason. At the time, and with the records that were available, I had no documentary proof that we had indeed come from a French French Canadian background. Coming into New England from Canada was not a guarantee of French descent, as Montreal was a major destination for immigrants from Ireland and Scotland.
Perhaps my hesitation to commit us to a French heritage was subconsciously influenced by my grandfather, who wanted so much to separate us from that. Between 1840 and 1930, almost 1 Million French Canadians immigrated to New England, abandoning their defunct farms for work in factories that would support their families. He grew up while the stigma of being a French Canadian was still strong. As with any immigration wave, the newcomers were perceived as job stealers and wage depressors. Add to this the clannish attitudes, with the French Canadians sticking together, and not attempting to assimilate (good for them) and this new land was not very welcoming. Check out The French Canadian Genealogist for some great writings about this period https://www.tfcg.ca/history-french-canadians-manchester-nh.
Fast-forward several years later and more records became available and I finally found my link to a French Canadian family. Sure enough, I am related to every Gratton in North America of French Descent. Thirty years of research finally brought me back to where I started.
Finding that link unlocked a treasure trove of information. Social stigma or not, being of French Canadian descent is a good thing for a genealogist, because the French settlers of New France brought with them Catholic priests and their obsession with recording information, specifically, who was who and where they came from. A single birth record can reveal generations of family names and linkages, and I fell down the rabbit hole from one record to another, all available online, and the picture rapidly filled in.
From time to time I’ve written about this family and shared some of my finds, such as this discussion about surnames or this one about early settlers. Every time I publish a post I cross my fingers and hope it will be of interest to someone else, and several months ago one of those posts led to a new connection when a distant cousin reached out. After a few exchanges, this new-found cousin decided to send me an unbelievable gift — a massive, hand drawn scroll of hundreds of Grattons, all related to me.
This patrilineal family tree was put together by Sister Agathe Gratton (Saint-Agathange), who was Superior General of the Congregation of the Sister of Charity of Ottawa from 1980 to 1992, and Principal at the Pensionnat Notre-Dame du Sacre Coeur in Ottawa from 1968 to 1971. She passed away in March of 2022 at the age of 97, after 79 years a Nun. A copy of the original scroll had been passed on to my Canadian cousin Janet Gratton Greenhalgh and she felt that I might be able to do something more with it.
A Patrilineal chart is a tree that shows just the sons and their spouses, but no daughter’s names.
Even though my immediate relatives are not on it (until I add them) their ancestors are, and my place in the Gratton scheme of things was easy to find. Once a single leaf that I assumed had fallen far from its tree, I can now see the hundreds of leaves that all connect, and it is amazing.
Most people interested in their family tree might find a sudden rush of information that takes them back to the 1600s in France and think “AHA! Look at all of this information, my work is done here!”
But no, not with this family line. The Gratton line is full of mysteries. People seem to disappear (or abscond), fortunes are made (and lost), and many questions still need answering. The patriarch of the family branch that left Old France for the New, as a prime example, settled his family in Quebec, got his wife pregnant for the sixth time and left to return to France for reasons unknown. He was never seen nor heard of again. Legions of Gratton researchers are still searching for him as we speak, as yet to no avail.
So if you are a Gratton in North America, your family may be on this giant record, and I’m happy to look you up.
