Marie Louise ROBERT is my sixth great grandmother. She was born 15 December 1698 in Lachine, Quebec, New France. She died 2 April 1776 in Detroit, in what is now Wayne County, Michigan, USA.
Mary Louise was the daughter of Pierre ROBERT and Angelique PTOLEMEE. She married Jean François PELLEITER on 25 March 1718 in Detroit. After Jean François died, she married Louis CAMPEAU on 7 January 1724/25 in Ste Anne, Detroit. Her children with Jean François were Jean Baptiste, born in 1719; Jean François, born 1720; and Angelique, born 1722, all in Detroit.
Under the French, Detroit was part of New France, but France lost New France, which became Canada. I’m not sure if Detroit was part of Upper Canada or not. I have to check the dates. The English split Canada into Upper Canada, present day Ontario, and Lower Canada, present day Quebec, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
Knowing where your ancestors were is not enough. I said that last month in the profile for my fifth great grandmother. This only serves to emphasize that you have to know the history of the places where your ancestors lived. Detroit has been part of the United States since the late eighteen century. Before that, it was part of the English possession of Canada and before that, it was part of New France. It was English for only a short time before it was ceded to the US after the Revolutionary War. I have had relatives in the Detroit area the early eighteenth century, but that’s a different family line. That’s what I know about my family in this period. I need to find out more about Marie Louise. She died before the Revolutionary War, but her sons were alive then and likely active in the fighting, whether for the British or the Americans, I have no idea. They would be the ones most likely to have left records that I could find. I will have to research both sides of the war to find out which side they were on, if they got involved at all.
You mostly hear about the Revolutionary War taking place in the original thirteen colonies on the eastern seaboard, but Detroit was involved as well, if only in a limited way. Most of the fighting did take place in the east, but the wilderness, as Detroit was then, was not spared fighting. To learn more about Marie Louise, I will have to research Jean Baptiste, and Jean François, the father and the son, as well as Louis CAMPEAU.
I will need to compile a time line of her life, and theirs. Then I can see where I need to go to find out more. I will even have to delve in to the records of the Revolutionary War to learn more about her, even though she died before it took place. She might be mentioned in the records for her sons. Every little bit helps. I will also look into the records of the diocese in Detroit to learn where she was buried. I suspect her grave has been lost to time, but I may be able to pin down her death date by locating the record in the church documents. I foresee a trip to the Detroit Public Library to see if I can find her death record and perhaps the birth records of her children. Land records are another good source of information on your family. I will have to look into that as well. The more you can learn about one generation can lead you to more about the preceding one.