My thesis is a microhistory of the origins of a small parish 55 kilometers south of Winnipeg called Aubigny. Its church, named for saint Antoine (or St. Anthony), opened a registry in December of 1903 soon after the arrival of its first parish priest, Mathias Desrosiers. Part of the introduction to the thesis is dedicated to an examination of registry-keeping in the Catholic church; its origins in France in the 14th century and the method of its propagation in Canada. But forming the basis of the thesis are the questions that arise from Aubigny’s registries themselves. From names recorded at baptisms, burials and marriages emerge families and over time, a genealogy. Where were these families before they came to Aubigny? How did they arrive?

Chapter 1

As family histories stretched back in time, decades before Aubigny’s foundation, it was possible to organize families into groups based on the periods in which they settled within the parish territory. Thus, the first category is dedicated to the Métis families whose names are recorded in the registries. Of the five family names, four have ancestry that can be traced to the fur trade. And while microhistories can, in their tight focus, disconnect individuals from larger historical events, this is not the case for Aubigny’s Métis families. Among them are active participants in the tumultuous years of Louis Riel’s election as minister in the federal government, and a member of parliament during Manitoba’s establishment of a provincial government. Notable in Aubigny’s case is the predominance of one Métis family in particular whose descendants stretch into the 1960’s. Their name persists through decades of registry data which prompted a look at the Métis land question that forced many others to leave the area as well as a brief examination of Métis identity in Canada’s census records between 1870 and 1911. The registries, a memoir, and a local history provide little glimpses of their relationships and integration in the community.

Chapter 2

The second category of families to arrive in the parish are French-Canadian repatriates from the United States. The repatriates’ genealogy shows ancestry in Quebec, migration to the United States and residence in New England cities. Thus families are found working in mills and heads of families as laborers. They are also members of French-American parishes. Encouraging them to leave their life in the United States behind were the efforts of Manitoba’s French Colonisation Society. Le Métis archives provide an overview of the propaganda in this period and the various methods used to convince families to immigrate. It also provides a means of tracing these families’ travel routes in fair detail. Their arrival to Aubigny in the late 1870’s marked the parish’s first French-Canadian pioneers; it also marked the crest of Manitoba’s repatriation movement.

Chapter 3

Finally, the third category of families, and the largest in this parish’s case, are those who came from Quebec. Of the 19 families, ten came from the region of Lanaudière. Although travel routes were continuously improving in this period, the decision to take up farming in Manitoba was not easily executed. The Colonisation Society’s efforts ebbed and flowed and were constrained by Quebec clergy’s favourability toward the scheme. Correspondence preserved at the Société historique de St-Boniface shows how the priest’s arrival in Aubigny was partly based on a misunderstanding. It is also a window onto the financial challenge of the new parish’s establishment and growth within the St. Boniface diocese.

Chapter 4

As family genealogies filled-in, one feature stood out: a complex web of connections among families which solidified a sense of community. The fourth chapter is therefore dedicated to the ways that a registry uncovers kinship. There are the relationships that facilitate the decision to migrate, for example, and the marriages that occur among settlers to an area. As couples have children baptised, their choice of godparents from among immediate and extended family or from among friends of no apparent relation, flavour the definition of community. The registries having been maintained over a century also offered a chance to analyse families’ persistence in Aubigny.

A few thoughts conclude this thesis: it is an appreciation of pre-existing local histories, a tangible application of information from a variety of archives and databases now available, and a defense of in-depth, tightly-focused research. Perhaps by rendering a higher-definition picture of one French-Canadian parish on the prairies can the endeavour spread and sharpen appreciation for other communities’ particularities and participation in Canada’s history.

The complete thesis can be found here.

The story goes that before becoming a Trappist monk, a rich French nobleman named Jacques d’Aubigny donated money toward the foundation of a parish and that Aubigny was consequently named in his honour. But there are a number of things that contradict this scenario.

Jacques d’Aubigny was indeed a young French nobleman when he came to Canada in 1893. His trip had two main destinations; the World Fair in Chicago and Ste Rose-du-Lac in northern Manitoba. He had a few connections in Ste Rose including the town’s Oblate parish priest Fr. Eugène Lecoq, and Joseph de La Salmonière, both former classmates in France. Perhaps charmed by the place, perhaps at home amid the small community of French who were establishing the town, perhaps also inspired by the opportunities, he settled his affairs in France and established a small ranch for himself in Ste Rose the following year. He was generous toward the local church and busied himself raising horses, opening a general store and starting a cheese-making business. On a visit to Winnipeg in 1898 for dental work followed by a second retreat at the newly established Trappist monastery he felt called to religious life. The following year he took the name Brother Marie-Antoine.

At the time the Trappist monks are housed in a rudimentary wooden building. When Jacques d’Aubigny took his vows in 1901, he returned to France with his superior to sell his property and to solicit the generosity of his family members. Conforming to the vow of poverty every monk takes, he donated this to his community on the condition that the money be used to build a suitable stone church. Permission was granted for this project and the church was completed in 1904. Brother Marie-Antoine lead a humble life in its shadow, working alternately as a nurse, beekeeper, hotel keeper, rabbit breeder, sacristan, and stamp collector until his death in 1958.

The town that bears his name does so because of Mgr Langevin. We know this because in 1907 when Aubigny’s parish priest, Fr Desrosiers, wrote Mgr Langevin to inform him that the town’s name was being abbreviated from St-Antoine-d’Aubigny to Aubigny, Mgr Langevin replied and explained that he had chosen St Antoine as patron because of the religious Trappist, the once rich Viscount, hoping that he might be provoked to donate something to the fledgling mission. But nothing came of it. Langevin admits in this letter to Desrosiers that he doesn’t know if Brother Marie-Antoine was even made aware of the town’s naming.

Langevin’s wish was granted only in the mistaken re-telling of the town’s foundation. Jacques d’Aubigny’s most generous donation stands on the grounds of the St-Norbert Provincial Park shrouded in anonymity.