I got this comment yesterday on a post that I had published on January 28, 2011. This is what Matt Kinnell had written…
Hi there. I recently discovered that Quesnel was the original spelling for my family name, which knocked around from Quesnel to Canell to Canal and finally to Kinnell as ancestors of various degrees of literacy moved back and forth between the US and Canada. The best I can tell I descend from the Dominique Quesnel (1776-1849) line, so it seems we may be cousins of some form.
Thanks for sharing this article!
This is the original article Matt is talking about.
Click here.
I have modified it a little.
Rosina Quesnel is my maternal grandmother, and as many people looking for their roots, I found much valid information on the Internet. Rosina is a direct descendant of Olivier Quesnel who was a gunsmith in the 1600s.
In this picture Rosina Quesnel is seen with her first husband Venance Paiement. Venance was baptized “Valence” by the priest who was thinking his given name was Valence… like Valencia a town in Italy. Sometimes such errors are found in the parish registers.
On the Internet Georges de Quesnel is often linked to be the father of Pierre de Quesnel who married Marie Poulard, these two being Olivier Quesnel’s parents. Olivier Quesnel is known to be the ancestor of the Quesnel descendants in North America. As I searched for Rosina Quesnel’s roots, I stumbled on this information posted on Ancestry…
This information is supposedly taken from this book: Les Quesnel 1488 – 1983 Du Château de France à l’Amérique, Volume 1, aux Éditions Quesnel de Fomblanche, éditeur Albert Aimé Quesnel.
Olivier Quesnel is linked to French nobility…
IV PIERRE NICOLAS DE QUESNEL seigneur des seigneuries Du Fresne et des Brosses, chevalier de l’Ordre du Roi, capitaine de 50 chevaux légers, épousa Barbe Le Blanc, veuve d’Estienne Le Prévost, qui était fille d’honneur de Catherine de Médicis, qui épousa d’Henri II, 3 enfants:
1. Georges
2. Anne
3. Helene
I searched for more information and found that Georges de Quesnel was married to Charlotte Malvoue who was a widow…
I found this information in a book dated 1879. On page 230 it says Georges de Quesnel did not have any descendants.
Modification done on March 31, 2022
Transcript of part of page 230
Louis de Quenel fut créé chevalier en 1519; il était mort avant le 18 août 1524. Françoise Le Boeuf, veuve de Louis de Quenel, chevalier, rendit hommage pour Le Fresne en 1532 (1).
Jean de Quenel, fils de Louis, fut après lui seigneur du Fresne.
En 1568, Pierre de Quenel, sieur du Fresne, chevalier de l’ordre du Roi, gentilhomme de sa maison, gouverneur de Conches pour Henri III, épousa Hélène de Beaumaître, fille d’honneur de Catherine de Médicis.
La postérité masculine des de Quenel, s’éteignit en la personne de Georges de Quenel, esc., seigneur du Fresne, marié a Charlotte Malvoue. Cette dame était veuve, sans enfants, lors de la maintenue de noblesse de la famille, le 13 janvier 1668.
Translation
The male descendants of the de Quenels ended in the person of Georges de Quenel, esc, lord of Le Fresne, married to Charlotte Malvoue. This lady was a widow, without children, at the time of the maintenance of nobility of the family, on 13 January 1668.
Quenel: bandé d’or et de gueules; au franc quartier d’or, à la croix de gueules, chargée de cinq coquilles d’argent.
Anne de Quenel, soeur de Georges, porta la seigneurie de Fresne dans la famille de Sarcilly, par son mariage avec Claude de Sarcilly, esc., seigneur et patron d’Ernes (2).
Pierre de Sarcilly, esc., fils de Claude, épousa Catherine d’Alençon et fut après lui seigneur du Fresne; sa fille et son héritière, Catherine Claire, épousa Guy de Marguerit, esc., sieur d’Aisy, dont elle eut Philippe-Auguste de Marguarit qui épousa, le 25 novembre 1714, Marie-Anne Edeline, dont il eut cinq enfants.
Charlotte – Elisabeth du Fresne, hériliere de Guy Philippe-Auguste de Marguerit, était en 1780, dame du Fresne; elle épousa le 28 mars 1797, Louis-Alexandre de Gueroult.
End of the modification
This is the link to the book.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=D_wsAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22bre%2…
People have often linked Olivier Quesnel to Georges de Quesnel who was part of the French nobility. I have found no official record of a link between Olivier and Georges.
Pierre Nicolas Quesnel, who supposedly married Barbe Leblanc, can’t be Olivier Quesnel’s grandfather as seen in many family trees which took that info from Mr. Quesnel’s book.
I don’t know where Mr. Albert Quesnel took this information about Georges de Quesnel’s descendants because I don’t have a copy of his book and I can’t verify his source.
I also found that Hélène Beaumaistre, not Barbe Leblanc, was Catherine de Médicis’ lady in waiting as found in the excerpt. I don’t know where the name Barbe Leblanc came from except in Mr. Quesnel’s book.
If you can shed some light on all this, I would appreciate it very much…
Next time on Our Ancestors II more about more descendants of Olivier Quesnel.
Our Ancestors 