My Fifth Great Grandparents
Marie Louise was born September 9, 1752 in what is now the Windsor, Ontario, Canada area. what we now know as the Windsor area was made up of several communities referred to in genealogical records, so locations are imprecise. Many areas currently make up this area which may include Malden, Amherstburg, River Canard, LaSalle, and Assumption which is the area around the present day church. Present day Windsor was created in 1934 with the merger of Sandwich, Walkerville, and Ford City. It appears that Louise was born in River Canard or Amherstburg. She was the second great granddaughter of another Fille du Roi (Marguerite LeClerc).
Louise’s sister, Mary Catherine, also married a Meloche (Pierre) who was at least a cousin of Antoine (Anthony). The population of the Detroit area (north and south shore was in the hundreds at this time. Families were large so it is not difficult to envision a bachelor male having several eligible females among the neighboring farms and, of course vice versa.
Anthony was born September 16, 1754 on the Northeast coast. Marriage records from St. Anne’s church in Detroit show their marriage on April 24, 1767. Louise was only 14 at the time. The groom’s father is shown as a tradesman and an ancient Marguille (church warden) of St. Anne’s living on the north coast of the Detroit River. The bride’s father lived on the south shore in an area knows as Misere. The Misere is a less than flattering comment on the quality of the farm land in Petite Cote.
The couple settled in River Canard where many current day headstones bear witness to the many Meloche and soon to be united Drouillard families are buried.
Antoine and Louisa had eight children with at least on dying soon after birth. The last of the childen was born on June 3, 1785 with Louisa dying soon after on September 9, 1785. No cause of death is currently available.
In “The Windsor Border Regions” by Ernest J. Lajeunesse numerous listings are shown for Antoine. In a survey of the settlement of the south shore, the Antoine household is listed as having:
1 Married woman, 3 boys, 3 girls, 5 horses, 3 oxen, 2 cows, 10 hogs, 250 lbs. of flour, 22 bushels of wheat sown, 6 arpents of corn sown, 4 bushels of oats sown, and 64 arpents of cleared land. It would appear that the was a very prosperous family.
The same source with a “Census f Families and Farms in the Petite Cote” in 1792 list Antoine as having: 1 boy under 15, 1 boy over 15, 2 girls, 4 arpents in front (on the river) and 40 arpents in depth. A note states that these farms were occupied by several individuals, partly since the conquest of Canada by the British herein mentioned possess them by purchase and exchange. with no titles to produce. However, on August 3, 1792, a government land board examined Anthony Melosh’s (Meloche) claim was confirmed and he was awarded a title to the land. We should note that this establishing owner ship of the land was a problem for many French families after the British gained control of the Detroit area after defeating the French at the Plains of Abraham.
Lajeunesse, also, shows a Antoine Meloche as a resident of Petite Cote n 1778 from an account book of the Assumption Church archives account book. Antoine is shown as having paid for a pew for one year and is listed as a warden of the church before 1781 and elected during the term 1781 to 1795. This source further sold a lot of 2X40 arpents to Charles Fontaine for 2,000 livres on December 7, 1776, The last entry in this book listed him among others as a proprietor of lots at Petite Cote 1792-1794. This list is especially interesting as many other family names occur in my family genealogy (Drouillard, Pageot, bigras, Cignac, Prudhomme, Monforton, and Cote among others).
Lousia died on June 5, 1785. Antoine marries a second time to Reine Angelique Guillet dit Tourangeau on November 28, 1793. She was the widow of Antoine Soumande.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102541518/mary-louisa-meloche
Anotine dies on August 31, 1808. He was buried from Assumption Church and is buried at its cemetery.
