Denevers

or Tenevers

dit Boisvert

The male-line descendants of this family are mostly known as Boisvert from their "dit" name, and some who emigrated to the United States became "Greenwoods."

The immigrant ancestor, Étienne Denevers (c1627-1678), was born in the parish of Espinay in the countryside of lower Champagne, very likely in the hamlet of Brentigny or Brantigny. He came to Québec in 1649, aboard one of the six ships commanded by Jean-Paul Godefroy. He seems to have worked for a short time for another of our ancestors, Michel LeNeuf du Hérisson, at Trois-Rivières before settling in Sillery in 1650. His first appearance in any record is an odd one: on January 15, 1650 he stood godfather at the baptism of an Indian child, Étienne, son of Kaouboukouchich and Kouekassouekoue, at Sillery. This could mean that he was working for the Jesuit mission at the time. (The Jesuit house at Sillery survives; pictured above.) He signed a marriage contract with Anne Hayot (sister of our ancestor Jean Hayot) on October 1, 1652. That document is lost, but the parish records of Sillery record the marriage on October 28. This notation includes the only known information about his parents: it reads:

Le 28 oct 1652. après publication de deux bancs de mariage le 29 de Sept et le 6 d'oct et dispense obtenu pour le troisième, ne s'étant trouvé aucun empêchement, le Père le R.P.Pierre Bailloguet à ce député, a interrogé Estienne Tenevers fils d'Estienne Tennevere et d'Agnès Luosbisec ses père et mère de la paroisse d'Espinay en Champagne; Et Anne Hayaut fille de Thomas Hayot et de Janne Boucher ses père et mère habitant de ce pays, lesquels ayant donn‚ leur mutuel consentement par parole de présent, il a sollennellement mariés dans l'Eglise de Sillery en présence de témoins connus. René Méseré dit Nopce, Jacques Archambault, Charles Gandier.

His children and later descendants used the spelling "Denevers." The name of his mother, Luosbisec, is highly unusual, but the correct spelling is anyone's guess. Anne Hayot Denevers was only twelve at the time of her marriage - not unusual, but such couples did not live together until the bride was older. Étienne was probably 25.

As early as 1654, Étienne was involved in business deals with his father-in-law (the first settler of the region, and relatively wealthy) - trading voyages to Acadia, land acquisitions, trade with the Hurons and Iroquois. In the same year, about a month after the birth of his first child, he acquired a small farm which eventually grew to a large estate, making him influential enough to call himself "sieur de Brantigny." Several invoices and other records in his name survive, mentioning fairly large sums of money. In the 1670s he was in business with his son Daniel, buying and selling land. In 1676 he negotiated a contract with the Ursuline convent to fish off lands belonging to them. By 1678 he was living in a large manor house in the seigneurie of Lauzon. He evidently died soon afterwards, as a December 1678 document refers to his wife Anne as "widow." The next year she married Léonard de Bord, Sieur de La Jeunesse. Anne died November 27, 1694 at the Hôtel-Dieu in the capital.

Children: Daniel-Jean (married 1691 Marie-Madeleine Girard); Élisabeth-Ursule (c1659-1703, married Jacques Gauthier); Étienne (married Marie-Jeanne Lemay, sister of several of our Lemay ancestors); and Guillaume (married 1671 Louise Vitar).

See Gaudrier for descendants.