Bonaventure Connection

While randomly perusing old digitized vital records from Bainet, I encountered another person named Bonaventure. Remember, Bonaventure was also the name of a brother of our great-great-great-grandfather, Beresfort Francois. Bonaventure Francois, according to one marriage license from the 1880s, was born in or around 1816. Knowing that their sister, Almaide, was also born in c.1818 helped me guess that Anne Marie Joseph Gaury and Pierre Francois had their children in the 1810s (and possibly 1820s). The family was usually mentioned as residing in the valley section of Bainet or in the bourg. Bonaventure appears to have also had at least a few children of his own. One of his sons, with a woman named Marie Rose Cupidon, was a Joseph Francois dit Desvelus, who married in the 1880s. According to this marriage license, Joseph Francois was 42 years old, so likely born sometime in the 1840s or so. In addition, a fils naturel of our Beresfort also named one of his sons after Bonaventure, his uncle. 

Learning that the half-brother (Pierre, or Pierre Michel, born in the early 1850s to Beresfort and an Adelaide Gabriel) of our great-great-grandfather named one of his sons after Bonaventure suggests that he probably wanted to honor Bonaventure. This Bonaventure Francois, born in 1891, was the son of Pierre and his wife, a Dubresil. Well, there may be evidence of another relative of Beresfort Francois and Bonaventure Francois naming a child Bonaventure. 

This time the evidence is more difficult to decipher from the text, but it would explain the Barreau connection of someone related to Bonaventure and the Alexandre. In this case, in 1848, a Jean Baptiste Barreau and a woman named Belpomine (?) Francois, residents of the valley, had a son they chose to name Bonaventure. We cannot help but wonder if Belpomine Francois, who lived in the same area of Bainet as Beresfort Francois and similarly born in the 1810s or 1820s was a sister of the two. Or, perhaps more likely, Charles Barreau was related to the Francois through his marriage to Izile Francois, something that could explain his connection to them.

If Belpomine (?) Francois was also related to Beresfort and Bonaventure, that might explain why someone said to have been a daughter of Bonaventure was related to Charles Barreau. Indeed, when Veronique Francois, wife of Destin Carriere, passed away in 1912, her death certificate listed Charles Barreau as a relative and Valerius Adrien as a neighbor of her home on "Church Street." If Veronique Francois truly was a daughter of Bonaventure Francois and Justine Alexandre, another woman who had at least 2 children with Bonaventure, her kinship to Charles Barreau could perhaps be explained if Barreau was a son of Belpomine Francois. Of course, other documents suggest the wife of Destin Carriere also went by another name, Izemie (?) Francois.

Another child of Bonaventure Francois and Justine Alexandre also has a death record from 1907. Confusingly, the widow of a Tournesy, Dexes, was likewise identified as a child of Bonaventure. However, this record seems to confuse Bonaventure with his brother, since it names the mother of the child as "Ifloride" Michel (presumably an error for Iflorine or Ifloride, the wife of Beresfort Francois. This woman, bearing a name that looks like it could be the Isemerie, was perhaps named after Veronique or the officer of the etat civil may have mistook the two, who were likely cousins.

So, after perusing through these records from Family Search again, one begins to see Bonaventure everywhere. He must have lived a long life, probably from the 1810s until the end of the 1880s or even into the 1890s. We do not know yet, since we are missing so many years of records for Bainet. Nonetheless, it is clear that he was married at least twice, had children with different women, and it is interesting to note that another woman, who may have been his cousin, named a child after him. Beresfort, his brother, had a grandson named for him. One also begins to see the various connections between these families in a small area like Bainet. Indeed, even our old friend Roselin Carriere was arguably connected by marriage to Beresfort and Bonaventure. Indeed, according to his 1852 marriage record, Roselin Carriere, or Jean Marie Francois dit Roselin Carriere, was the son of a Francois Marie Guillaume and rooted in the valley. The Destin Carriere who married a Francois is a descendant of him.