A Canadian Family

Vintage Postcard: St-Joseph-d’Alma, City Hall (Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean)

This is a historic image of St-Joseph d’Alma’s City Hall.  Today, St-Joseph is part of the city of Alma along with the villages of Isle-Maligne, Naudville and Riverbend. The first settler of St-Joseph d’Alma was Damase Boulanger who arrived from nearby St-Thomas-Montmagy in 1856.

Some Genealogy Notes

A notarial marriage contract (not. Pierre-Celestien Fournier) between Damase Boulanger and Marie-Genevieve Chalifour on November 3rd, 1845, shows that his parents were Francois Boulanger and Marie-Genevieve Damien, while her parents were Frederic Chalifour and Marie-Genevieve Danglade. Damase married a second time. His second wife was Justine Alarie (daughter of Pierre Alarie and Henreitte Martin) who had been previously married to Joseph Chalifour (son of Emmanuel Chalifour and Louise Dufresne). I don’t have the Boulanger/Alarie marriage information.

Notes from the French-language website l’Histoire des Potvin.

Damase Boulanger was the first to clear land on ile Sainte-Anne in 1860. A year later he settled his family in Hebertville.  He used to visit his family in Hebertville on Sundays. He had two ways to reach them. During the summer he would go up the Petite-Decharge till he reached the lake (Lac-St-Jean), then follow the Belle-Riviere and the Riviere Aulnaies till he reached Hebertville. This was a 34 kilometre trip. During the winter he would go on foot along a 19 kilometre surveyer’s trail.

In April of 1865 Damase Boulanger finally settled his family in St-Joseph-d’Alma. The family were joined a few months later by that of Elisee Desbiens. Other early settlers included the families of  Alexis and Charles Tremblay, Fabien Perron, Romuald Maltais and son.

Some St-Joseph-d’Alma Surnames

Related Posts:

Index: Vintage Postcards of Quebec

Further Reading:

Généalogistes Associés

This site  a lot of information about early Quebec settlers on Bertrand Fleury’s website. His site is in French but you can use the AltaVista translation button at the top of the page if you don’t speak the language.

Alma  – La Mémoire du Québec

October 3, 2009 - Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | Alma, French Canadian Genealogy, Genealogy, Quebec Genealogy