Re: Celine Bessette and Francois Benjamin, Iberville

Hi, Cynthia.

I have a little more to add on Francois, Celina and Octavie:

Celina Besset was born & baptized Marie Celina 3 Oct 1841 @ St. Athanase, QC; godparents were Flavien Nolin & Anastasie Patenaude. Celina's parents, Francois Besset & Julie Patenaude, had 17 children that I know of. For reasons unknown to me, 7 years after Celina was born, in Nov 1848, Francois & Julie baptized another daughter Marie Celina. This second Celina is the one who later married Alfred Mochon. Confusing, I know, but I have personally seen the parish register entries.

Francois Benjamin was born 30 Oct 1835 and baptized as Francois Isaac 1 Nov @ St. Athanase, QC; godparents were Francois Denicourt & Emelie Deragon. (Note: Francois' surname of Benjamin is also sometimes written as Benjamin dit Saint Aubin. Keep that in mind when looking through records and indexes as "dit" names were used interchangeably).

Octavie Benjamin was born 18 Nov 1857 and baptized 19 Nov @ St. Athanase, QC; godparents were Pierre Benjamin dit St. Aubin & Julie Patenaude. Octavie's father signed the entry.

Also:

Francois, Celina and Octavie are listed on the 1861 Quebec census in Ville-de-Iberville, QC; Francois' occupation is listed as 'navigateur'.

If you would e-mail me privately with your home mailing address, I can send you copies of the afore-mentioned register entries (I have access to them) and compiled family group sheets I have done.

Hope to hear from you!
Jeri