ELEVENTH GENERATION

1824. Jean DEMERS @. <From Our French Canadian-Ancestors" by Thomas J. Laforest. vol.25 pg.54-64>

Demers ancestry is difficult to trace. Those who would try are often left with a headache be-cause there is a goodly mixture of surnames:
Dumets, Dumet, Dumay, Dumer, Demer and Demers. Adding the Dumas and Dumais families is the final straw.

Two ancestors, two brothers: André and Jean Demers are brought to our attention. They were the sons of Jean and of Barbe Mauger, from the parish of Saint-Jacques, city and arrondissement of Dieppe, department of la Seine-Maritime, in Normandy.

Etienne Demers, son of Jean and of Miotte Lacombe, was also originally from Dieppe and a relative or a cousin of André and Jean. Etienne was classified as a carpenter in 1646. At Québec, on 28 January 1648, he married Françoise Morin, widow of Antoine Pelletier, daughter of Jean and of Jeanne Desnouets. Etienne, a pioneer of Sainte-Foy, father of eight children, has descendants still living among us. He died at the Hôtel-Dieu of Québec on 5 January 1697.

In the sixteenth century, Dieppe was known as the biggest seaport in the kingdom of France. A resident of Dieppe, Thomas Aubert, came to the codfishing banks of Newfoundland and brought native people back to France in 1508. It was our Canadian soldiers who raided Dieppe in 1944.

THE NEWCOMER

Authorities think that Etienne, André and Jean arrived the same year and on the same ship. Well, Cousin Etienne was in Canada in 1646. As for André, we are only cer-tain that he was here in 1647, since on the first of January 1648 he was a witness at the marriage contract of Etienne Demers and Francoise Morin, in the presence of the notary Lecoustre at Québec.

AT MONTREAL

Gathered at Montréal were André, Jean and even Cousin Etienne Demers, who on 31 March 1649, had his first child bap-tized. It is difficult, however, to specify their time table.

On 4 November 1660, Etienne Demers, had obtained a piece of land from Jean de Lauzon in the present territory of Saint--Romuald, across from Sillery. Did he begin to clear or to build a cabin? A little later, Jean Demers acquired a concession bordering Etienne's, in the seigneury of Lauzon, more precisely near the Etchemin River. The nearest place of worship at that time was Sillery.

FAMILY NAME VARIATIONS

There are many known variations of the name of Demers:
Chedeville, Demair, Demar, Demarce, Demars, Demarse, DeMayer, Demer, Demers, Desmars, Duguay, Dumais, Dumars, Dumas, Dumay, Dumer, Dumet, Dumets, Mars and Mers.
He was married to Barbe MAUGER @.

1825. Barbe MAUGER @. Children were:

912 i. Jean DEMERS dit Dumets @.
ii. Andre DEMERS was born in 1628. He was baptised on 3 Feb 1628.
iii. Catherine DEMERS was born in 1629 in Dieppe, Rouen, Normandie, France. She was baptised on 5 Aug 1629.
iv. Laurent DEMERS was born in 1635 in Dieppe, Rouen, Normandie, France. He was baptised on 1 Oct 1635. He died on 11 Jul 1669. He was buried on 12 Jul 1669.