In researching French-Canadian genealogy, it's nearly impossible not to stumble upon at least one ancestor typically several, sometimes dozens with a dit name β which, on occasion, may make it more challenging, sometimes even frustrating, to connect one generation with another.
Carreau, for example, might be found in some old documents as Careau, Caro, or Carot. In later years, after Canada came under British control, some French surnames were anglicized. Other names were simply bastardized by English-speaking census takers who found it difficult to understand French pronunciation β Albert was recorded as Allbear, Nadeau as Nado, and Gagnon as Gonyou.
But the widespread use of dit names poses an entirely different problem for French-Canadian genealogists. Many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French-Canadians used or were known by a dit name; and it became quite common and acceptable to adopt one, for whatever reason one might choose β such as. Louis Carreau dit Lafraicheur, which may have meant that he was calm cool headed man β that he was youthful, perhaps energetic], or.
Jacques Houde dit Desruisseaux, the Jacques Houde who lived near the stream or creek], or. The toughest stumbling block for genealogists β the proverbial brick wall β is that dit names were often carried on from one generation to the next; and with the passage of time, some French-Canadiansarbitrarily chose to drop the use of their original ancestral surname β passing on, to future generations, a completely different family name the dit name alone.
Today, for example, some of Jacques Houde's male descendants go by the name Desruisseaux β though their surname is really Houde. Similarly, many of today's Labonne families in upstate New York carry the name Good β an anglicized version of the original surname because, translated, the French word bonne is good. Named after her mother, Madeleine grew up on the south side of the St-Lawrence River in a small village called Ste-Croix; but by , Madeleine's father had moved his family to St-Maurice.
