The first Martin ancestor of whom we are absolutely certain is Jacques (1706-?), who was living with his wife Claire Landry (married 1728) in the Ile-de-France when their son was married in Québec in 1760. We know nothing at all about Claire Landry's ancestry. Jacques had been previously married to Marie Collinet. When his son married, he reported that his father was (or had been) a master locksmith. But before talking about his descendants we must speculate about his ancestors.
Various French-Canadian sources differ on where exactly he lived. Several place him at a parish called St-Jean-Baptiste Dennemond, and one source says that this was in the pays Gâtinais, which is the region of the modern départment of Loiret just south of Nemours. There is a Dennemont a short distance west of Paris, in the Yvelines départment (part of modern Follainville), not far from Versailles. But as far as I can determine there is no parish called St-Jean-Baptiste in Dennemont (though there is a St-Martin), and only one in the pays Gâtinais (at Chevry-sous-le-Bignon, which is about eight miles south of Nemours). Another source places Jacques and Claire in Gif, which is just south of Paris. The most reliable source, the DGCF, suggests that they came from Nemours - and there is a St-Jean Baptiste parish there; in fact it was the only church in town (see photo) until the eighteenth century. I suspect that "Dennemond" is a misreading of "de Nemours." The DGCF says that three of the younger Jacques' siblings were baptized in this church: Claire in January 1729, Marie-Jeanne in July 1731, and Jean in October 1738. It's likely that there were Martins in Nemours, Gif and the pays Gâtinais, and perhaps Jacques and Claire lived in one or more of these places at different times. The fact that Martin is the most common surname in France today does not make the search easier.
The Y-chromosome connection
Y-chromosome DNA results complicate the situation further. We have (so far) only one known exact match, Romeo Martin of Colorado, who is descended from René Martin of Bourgeuil in the Touraine (a village near Tours). There were evidently two Renés, or maybe René's father was Robert; in any case the René born about 1580 emigrated to Acadia, and died there. If Romeo's research is correct, the eldest son Pierre (born 1601 in France) was the father of another Pierre (born 1632 in Acadia, and married a Micmac or Abenaki woman). This Pierre was the father of a third Pierre (c1662-1739), who married Anne Godin in Port-Royal, but they must have moved to Ile St-Jean (Prince Edward Island), where he is buried. (There was a mass migration there in 1750 and in 1755, urged by the French government.) In 1758 the British took Ile St-Jean and began to round up and deport the inhabitants - many of them to France. A French government report lists 2400 refugees living on public welfare there in 1763.
Pierre's son Barthélemy (one of fifteen children) disappears from the Acadian records, and may have returned to France when the Acadians were displaced. (However, other descendants of Pierre and Anne ended up in Louisiana, which makes it seem less likely that Barthélemy went to France). Romeo says that this Barthélemy was his ancestor.
In any case, Bourgeuil - this family's place of origin - is a hundred miles southwest of the Ile-de-France, making it unlikely that Jacques could be René's descendant, even if some family stayed behind. However, the DNA evidence proves that René (if he really is Romeo's ancestor) must have been a very close relative of Jacques. It is also not possible that our line comes from the Acadian Martins, as they did not return to France (if in fact they did) until 1758, just about the time Jacques left the Ile-de-France for Québec. At best, our Jacques could be descended from a brother of the René who went to Acadia.
The Martin Y chromosome is in the I haplogroup (common to about one-quarter of French men today), meaning that the paternal ancestor was a Viking (most likely a Norman). Most French paternal lines are either Roman or Frankish. It is also in the subclade I1a1, which is relatively rare even in France, and is thought to come from a common ancestor who lived in Norway about 4000 years ago. The highest incidence of this subclade is today found in Iceland, but it does turn up here and there all over northern and western Europe. We can guess that the Martin ancestor settled in Normandy along with other Vikings in the ninth century (though the surname Martin was probably not adopted until three or four hundred years later; many non-noble French families who lived in the Touraine, just south of Normandy, adopted the name out of reverence for St Martin of Tours). Some English and French noble families (such as the Humphreys) are in the I1a1 subclade too; they are descended from knights and companions of William the Conqueror who came to England from Normandy in and after 1066. Among the surnames that come close to an exact DNA match with us are Einerson, Boström, Pedersen (Scandinavian) and Julian (French), but other matches are common English surnames such as Johnson, Yates or Wright; some are Scottish, such as McInnes, Gordon and Hamilton. So far, Romeo Martin is the only exact 37-marker match.
There seems to be an exact 12-marker match with "group D" of the Hamilton DNA Project, a group which are all descended from Alexander Hamilton. (The Scottish Hamiltons were Norman by origin.) We do not know the place of origin of the Julian family, but their descendant tells us that his Huguenot ancestor came to South Carolina from France via Ireland in 1695.
See the Martin Y-chromosome table here.
Jacques Martin's decendants
It is somewhat of a mystery why Jacques Martin came (unmarried) to Québec at the age of about 31, just as the French were losing the colony to the British in the Seven Years' War. (He was born on December 30, 1728, probably in Nemours.) In 1759 the French defeat at the Plains of Abraham had sealed Québec's fate. He may have known of Acadian cousins, but he did not go there, and in any case most of the Acadians were removed to Louisiana in 1755 and 1758. Or he may have been a soldier in that war, and decided to stay. As he got married very quickly, he may have fallen in love with a local girl. Whatever his reasons, Jacques settled in St-François-du-Lac, which is a very small town on the St-François River near where it empties into Lac St-Pierre (a wide place in the St Lawrence River). Thereafter, we find the Martins and their related families in this same region (Yamaska County). French-Canadian families with common names are often differentiated with an added "dit" ("called"); these were the Martins dit Beaulieu. Jacques is supposed to have come to America in 1760, but his oldest child is recorded as born in that year, so it was probably a year or more earlier. He married Marie-Anne Joyelle or Joyal (dit Lafrenière); they had ten children: Marie-Rose (1760?-1814), Marie-Anne (born and died 1761), Jacques-François (1762), Michel (1764), François (1765), Marie-Anne (c1765, twin?), Cathérine (1768), Laurent (1770), Marie-Antoinette (c1771), and Joseph (1776- ).
Joseph Martin appears to have lived all his life in Yamaska County; his birth and marriage are recorded at St-Michel d'Yamaska, but there is no such town; it is a parish just outside St-François-du-Lac on the road to the town of Yamaska (photo above). His wife was Marie-Marguerite St-Germain (1775-1804). They had five children: Marie-Marguerite (1796?, perhaps died young), Marguerite (1799), Joseph (c1800) Pierre (c1800), and Paul (c1801).
Joseph married Marguerite Parenteau on June 2, 1823 at St-Michel d'Yamaska. They may have had several children who died young, because the first we know of was not born until eight years later: Maxime (1831-1880); then Joseph (c1832-a1922). Some time after this they appear to have moved to St-Charles-sur-Richelieu, which is some 25 miles southwest of Yamaska and closer to Montreal, on the river which was then the main highway south into New York via Lake Champlain.
Maxime is recorded at St-Charles in the 1861 census, when he was working as a "journeyman" (day laborer). He married Louise Boucher at St-Charles in October 1852, and they had at least seven children: Maxime (1853-1926), Alexandre Gillaume (1855-1902, married Léocadie Parent, five children), Marguerite (1857-1922, married Jean-Baptiste Achez or Ashey, seven children), Emilie (c1860), Joseph Arthur Martin (1860-1934), Ida-Marie (1864-a1910, married David Plante, five children), and Louise (c1868-a1910). The family emigrated to the United States in 1868 or 1869 and settled in Coventry, Rhode Island, as did many other interrelated Québecois families. They may not have gone directly to Rhode Island, as they do not appear in the 1870 US census. They do appear in the 1875 state census, where the family names are spelled in the English way.
Joseph Arthur Martin married Marie Eva (or Oliva) Jean in 1882 in Providence. She appears to have been only 16 or 17. Their first child, our grandfather Alexander Arthur Martin, was born in 1883, and his sister Agatha or Aggie in 1884; Marie Eva died in childbirth in 1887. Aggie married Frank Engelman and had four children. Joseph then married Mary Jane Burrows and had further children: William (1892), Anna (1893-1976) and Irene (1896-1985; married Frederick Julyan).
Alexander Arthur Martin (1883-1960) was born in Providence
and later moved with his father and stepmother to Cleveland. The family lived
at 122 Whitney Avenue. He was the first person to enlist at the new Cleveland
recruiting station at 64 Public Square, enlisting in the Navy on December
28, 1898. He underwent introductory training at Coaster's Harbor Island, Rhode
Island. He served on the U.S.S. Essex, an old clipper used for training, then
on the U.S.S. Wabash, a stationary receiving ship at Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Next, he went to the receiving yard at Brooklyn, and then to San Francisco,
where he was assigned to the U.S.S. Wisconsin. While in San Francisco, he
met President McKinley at a ball. He visited many foreign ports during his
time in the Navy, and took part in naval exercises during the Boxer Rebellion
in China and the Philippine Insurrection. He was discharged from the Navy
in 1904. Click here for his memoir of his time in
the Navy.
After marrying, he lived for some time in Cleveland, and later moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, and Fostoria, Ohio. The family was living in Cleveland at the time of the 1910 census. William Duff, cousin of Jessie Duff Martin, was living with them. In 1920, they were living at 9001 Macomb Avenue, Cleveland. The family finally settled in Dayton, where Alexander went to work for the National Cash Register Company. He built numerous ship models (photo, above) as a hobby, and won several prizes for his models. He was a member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic Lodge, becoming a Prince of the Royal Secret, thirty-second degree, on November 11, 1944.
Alexander died at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. At the time
of his death, he was living at 210 Cambridge Avenue in Dayton.
index of surnames for Joseph Arthur Martin's ancestors
descendants of Joseph Arthur Martin
