Sometimes I start something and I never know where it will lead me. It happened so many times since 2009.
Just like this translation of the comment I got two weeks ago on my other blog Nos ancêtres also about genealogy. The original was posted on this blog with the title Sometimes…
Good morning Mr. Lagacé,
I am starting my family tree, and I have some problem making sense of all this. I was born in Montreal and my father Yvan Frobe comes from the Mont-Joli region. I know we are of German descent (of what I can remember about my father’s history lessons when I was young), but I also know that my father said that the name Frobe had been modified – a sort of a scission for Freve or something of that kind. – My grandfather Wilfred Frobe was the son of Obeline Ross and Alphonse George Frobe who got married July 28, 1887 in Ste Flavie – he was probably the son of François Frobe and Honorine Langlais or Langlois who got married in 1856 in Cacouna. My great-grandfather had the surname Freve??? and a half-brother named Gédéon –
I know there are not a lot of Frobes in Quebec, but my father is the last male of our branch. He only had girls. My grandfather’s brother, Fortunat Frobe, also only had daughters.
Can you tell me where to look to help me in my search so I can visit the country where my ancestors lived?
With this comment, I started to get a little curious about François Froebe.
This is the story behind this ancestor.
I found it on the Internet from a reliable source… so I thought.
François Froebe, son of archduke Germain Froebe and Louise Rupelle, was born in 1759 in Mulhausen, Alsace. He was enlisted by force in the Anhalt regiment. He managed to escape from the frigate Delight anchored near Rivière-Ouelle in 1780 with four other soldiers, including Dickner, Phristern and Hurst.
He was sheltered by Antoine Lizotte. After, he worked for Joseph Francoeur, a farmer in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and after, he worked for Jean-Baptiste Pelletier who had a boat used for cabotage.
Renuncing his religious faith on January 2, 1786, he then married Marie Dépau on February 20, and legitimized his son Joseph-François‘ birth, born on January 1784.
With this is mind I started looking a little more and stumbled on this amazing Website where the name Lizotte was mentioned. I got more curious and I found that Antoine Lizotte’s ancestors were among the 13 Rivière-Ouelle’s heroes.
This little step back in time opened a new door for more interesting facts about some of our ancestors like my cousin Dennis Lagasse who now has roots going back to Charlemagne!
I don’t know if Dennis is reading this… or his father?
Our Ancestors 