Charles-Joseph Hamelin: (1693 - ?)
Charles was the son of Louis Hamelin, seigneur
des Grondines & Antoinette Aubert. In 1726 he was employed in the western
fur-trade.
Charles Hamelin La Gueniere: (1714 - ?)
Charles was the son of Jacques Hamelin LaGueniere
& Antoinette Richard-LaVallee (m.10 aug.1706). He married first Marie
Athanase (b.abt.1708), a "Sauteux" woman who died in 1745 at Pte.St.Ignace.
Charles then married on 4 feb.1748 at Michilimackinac, Catherine
(daughter of "Sauteux" named Mouus). Charles children included Louis-Charles
(b.mar.1737), Jacques (b.22 jan.1733), Marianne (b.10 jan.1731),
Pierre-Charles (b.15 feb.1746 Sault Ste.Marie), Pierre (b.21
feb.1735), Marie Francoise (b.4 nov.1739) & Jean Bte.
(bapt.27 aug.1741). He was the nephew of the above Louis Hamelin (1681-1693).
Francois-Marie Hamelin: (1729 - ?)
He was married to Marie-Catherine Roy (daughter
of Francois Roy & Madeleine Truteau) in 1754 at Montreal. Francois-Marie
was employed in the Green Bay trade in the 1740's & 1750's (also
employed in the Green Bay trade during this time was Charles Hamelin, Michel
Hamelin & Augustin Hamelin Jr.).
Alexander Hamelin (Amelin):
Alexander was a trader in the Prairie du Chien area in the winter of
1786-87.
Jacques Hamelin:
Jacques was born to Jacques Hamelin &
Marie Anastasie Landry (m.25 nov.1771 in L'Assumption, Quebec) on 3 sep.1772.
He was by 1801 in the neighborhood of the Red River of the north where
his wife (Angelique Tourangeau) gave birth to Marguerite-Marie. At some
point Marguerite moved to the U.S. and died in Little Canada, Mn. on 24
feb.1890. She had married Antoine Pepin who died on 31 jan.1851 in St.Paul,
Mn. Jacques & Marie's other children that I am aware of were Jean Bte.
(b.1805) & Solomon (b.1810).
Jean Baptiste Hamelin:
Jean led a Spanish force from Cohokia against
the British (French/Native) settlement of St.Joseph (today's Niles, Mich.)
in the autumn of 1780, in retaliation for the Canadian attack on St.Louis
earlier that year in which many mid-western Native & French participated
in. Jean managed to take the settlement (taking prisoners & furs) but
upon returning west, was overtaken by British Lt.DeQuindre and a force
gathered around the St.Joseph area. Hamelin's force was mostly killed or
captured.
Joseph Hamelin (Hamel/Amelin):
1800/01-voyageur with Alexander Henry's Northwest Co. brigade on the
Upper Red River of the north.
After 1801-sent by Henry to replace Lagasse at the Hairy Hills post
(northeastern North Dakota).
1800/05-empoyee of the Northwest Co.'s Red River Department.
jun.1807-hired by Francois Freniere & Co. to winter on the St.Peters
River (today's Minnesota River.).
Thanks to Joe Hamelin for the following email:
The proper spelling, if there is such a thing, is "Laganiere"
-- it's a corruption of St. Mathurin
de la Dagueniere, the town in old Anjou, France, where the Hamelins
are from.
The "Salteux woman" who died, according to Tanguay, took the
name "Marie Athanese." She
supposedly died, he took another Salteux wife named "Marie Anastasie,"
and had three more
children by her. Pierre-Charles, Georges and Marie Joseph.
Don't drift off. This gets better.
I assumed Charlie just lived out his days in the Sault Ste-Marie
wilderness. But then I got to
researching the branch of the family that, in 1762, resettled in LaPrairie,
across the St.
Lawrence from Montreal. I wondered how Rene Hamelin came to meet a
woman there,
marry and move from Grondines... so I did a search for Hamelins in
LaPrairie on the
University of Montreal's site listing notary records. And guess who
turned up...? Uncle
Charlie -- literally, Rene's uncle, who in 1760 -- at age 45 -- applied
for a marriage license at
Montreal to marry a girl of 18. He listed wife Marie-Athanese as deceased.
He died four
months later. Those 18-year-olds are hell on old voyageurs.
I kept searching. And guess who I turned up? Marie-Athanese!
-- who, in 1757, was very
much alive and in Quebec, applying for a marriage license of her own.
She listed her husband
Charles as deceased!
No computers in those days. No phones, no communications between
towns.
If you didn't like your life, you paddled your canoe for a couple
of days and then started
another one somewhere else. Not such a bad system, after all.
Anyhow, it took us 240 years to catch them...Yours, Joe Hamelin