In France, the family name Blais has many variations: Ble, Blay, Bled, Belet, and Blet. Blais is the most popular form of the original Blaise, a physician who lived at Sebastia in Armenia, became a bishop and was martyred in the year 316. The wool-carding guild chose him as patron saint because his executioners cut him to ribbons with iron combs before beheading him. It is this Saint Blaise whose protection is still invoked against sore throats.

But let us discuss Our Ancestor Pierre Blaise, colonist on the Ile d'Orleans in the Saint Lawrence River.

DEPARTURE

Pierre Blais probably left France from the port of La Rochelle in the Province of Aunis in 1664; destination Canada. The Dutch ship NOIR, under the command of Captain Pierre Filly of Dieppe, had at least fifty men aboard. The 24 year old Pierre is mentioned on the crew manifest as coming from Chef-Boutonne, capital of the Canton of Deux-Sevres. Pierre was the son of Mathurin Blais and Francoise Peniguat. Mathurin had a wife previous to Pierre's mother. She was Marie Auchier whom he married on 9 November 1630, at Melleran, which used to be in the Province of Angouleme, but today is found in the Department of Deux-Sevres. In his second marriage on 30 April 1634, Mathurin conquered the heart of Franoise Penigaut. The witnesses to the marriage were Jean Carrier, Denis Richard, Nicolas Blanchard and the "procurer-fiscal" Pierre Alix. Moreover, and this is a rarity, we find the grandfather of Pierre at the ceremony: Jacques, married also to a Penigaud, one Louise, buried at Melleran on 2 December 1629. Our Ancestor Pierre Blaise was raised in the Parish of Hanc nearby Melleran, also in Angouleme. The records of this town do not go back beyond 1684; therefore it is not possible to find his baptismal certificate.

In the census of 1667 in New France, Pierre Blais is mentioned for the first time as living on the Ile d'Orleans and having been born about 1640, occupation laborer. Among his bachelor friends living on the Island we might note Jacques Tardif, Martin Poisson, and Francois Marcear.

HIS FARM

On 22 June 1667, before the Notary Paul Vachon, Pierre Blais received a concession of land within the limits of the future parish of Saint-Jean. His neighbors were Antoine Poisson and Hyppolyte Thiviege. In 1681, the census taker notes that Pierre owned 4 head of cattle and 15 arpents of cleared land. It was on this farm that he would live for the remainder of his life - 33 more years.

HIS FAMILY

Pierre Blais married Anne Perrot on 12 October 1669, at the Church of Saint-Famille on the Island. Anne Perrot, originally from Saint Sulpice in Paris, was the daughter of Jean and Jeanne Valta. She was a King's daughter and brought a dowry into the family estimated at 300 livres. From this union, ten children were born: 8 boys and 2 girls, of whom 4 died at an early age. These four boys founded the family line: Pierre, Antoine, Jacques, and Jean. Anne, the mother, died in childbirth on 29 June 1688 and was buried the next day in the cemetery at Saint Jean, at about 45 years of age. Pierre remained a widower with two young infants, especially the poignant little Marguerite, born 29 June on her mother's deathbed. It was she who would marry Etienne Lamy in 1714.

Pierre sought to reorganize his life, so on 18 April 1689 before Notary Paul Vachon, he nominated a guardian for his children, and had an inventory made of his possessions. On the following 5th of June, he married Elizabeth Royer at Saint-Jean; she was the daughter of Jean and Marie Targer. From this union five children were shown the light of day: a daughter Anne and 4 boys: Francois, Alexis, Louis-Charles, and Gabriel. The last, Gabriel, was born in March 1699 and adopted by Pierre Cloquet and his wife Marie Chaperon. Gabriel married at Boucherville on 31 May 1718.

Pierre Blais died suddenly on 16 February 1700 at about 60 years of age. His widow, Elizabeth Royer, married eight months later, it would be the 16th of November, to Robert Pepin at Saint Jean. She followed her husband to Montreal where she lived out the rest of her days. This couple put seven children into the world, then Elizabeth died and was buried on 22 June 1715 at Montreal.

NUMEROUS POSTERITY

Pierre left behind fifteen children of whom eleven were alive at the time of his death. Alexis, born 8 April 1693, went exploring down the Mississippi but alas he was killed, along with his companion Laurent Bransard, by the Chicahas and buried on 3 March 1722 at Kaskaskia, where Pere Marquette had founded a mission and where the French built a fort in 1736.

The first descendant of Pierre Blais to enter the clergy was Francois-Xavier-Ludger; born 16 November 1832 at Saint-Pierre de Montmagny, son of Louis Blais, Colonel, and of Marie Genest. After his ordination at Quebec on 10 May 1857, he became Vicar of La Riviere-au-Renard, professor at Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel and Cure at Riviere-du-Loup where his dynamism and devotion accomplished important works, which still exist. We also take note of Monseigneur Andre-Albert Blais, born at Saint-Vallier on 26 August 1842. He was consecrated a Bishop on 18 May 1890 and directed the Diocese of Rimouski for 28 years.

Michel Blais, grandson of our Ancestor Pierre, married M. Victoire Lemieux; as a young man he worked for the Ursuline Nuns of Quebec. In remembrance of those happy days spent in their house as a domestic, they saw fit to give him a gift of "a horse valued at 180 livres for his farm, which was prosperous." It should be remembered that is was not only the fact that Michel raise superb horses, but he had a grateful heart.

Many Canadian descendants of our ancestor, Pierre Blais, became Blaise, which family had two branches: Des Bergeres de Rigauville and Sansquartier.