400 years of history is difficult to research, let alone document. In any case, this is what has been discovered of our family history.
The first Rivest to land on the shores of Quebec city was Maurice Rivet, son of Jacques Rivet from La Rochelle, France in about 1670. His son, also named Maurice moved on to Repentigny, just east of Montreal in 1718. Maurice had a son named Jean-Baptiste who moved across the St. Lawrence river from his father, to Varennes around 1750, and his son, Francois-Xavier moved to north of Joliette around 1810. Here his descendants and another branch of Rivets populated the area. Today there are considered to be two branches of Rivest families in that area, but they are all descendants of the original Maurice Rivet.
Francois-Xavier's son, Joseph Rivet lived in St. Alphonse de Rodrique. The area in St. Alphonse is picturesque, to say the least, with rolling mountains and scattered lakes. It is a lumberjack's dream, but not a place for farming since it is very rocky and steep. Three of Joseph's sons left to find work. Today his descendants still refer to them as "the ones who left" as in "Oh, you are from the ones that left!".
Two of the brothers went to Ontario, and one to Michigan. The branch that settled in Essex County was Alfred Rivest's father, Joseph Rivet, son of Joseph Rivet from St. Alphonse. He moved to St. Joachim, on French Line. (Ask anyone who lives there and they will tell you where French Line is). How he could stand to leave the beautiful, mountainous region of the Laurentians for the flatness of Essex County is beyond me, but I think if he were aspiring to farm some land, he must have thought it to be a perfect place to settle. I suppose another reason to come to Essex County would be that there was also a large population of French speaking settlers.
Joseph married a Tremblay girl, which in Quebec folklore means one thing: lots of children. They did farm and had a large family, one of which was notre grand-pere, Alfred Rivest. The other brother that went to Ontario settled in Timmins.
At about the same time that Maurice Rivet arrived in Canada, there were some of Florina Desmarais ancestors arriving. Jacques Demarest arrived from Paris in 1650. Nicolas Godet who was eventually killed by Iroquois', Jean Leduc and Pierre Trotier arrived from St Martin d'Ige, France in 1650. Joseph Chevalier, a carpenter from Normandy arrived in 1670. Louis Delauney (a physician), Sir Charles Alavoine and Francois Meloche arrived from La Rochelle, France in 1700. One of the first settlers of Essex County, Sir Jacques Parent settled in Sandwich (now Windsor) from Paris in 1770. And Sir Pierre Maillou, son of a shoemaker and Captain of the militia, arrived from Bourg, Brittany, France to Quebec in 1790.
There were four of her ancestors that were Captains of the Militia: Pierre Maillou, Jacques Parent, Charles Alavoine, and Jean-Baptiste Cullierier. The Parent and Mailloux families are still in Essex County, but who knows where the Cullieriers went. Charles Alavoine stayed in Montreal and never moved south to Ontario.
Jacques Demarest arrived in Quebec in 1650. His grandson, Michel Desmarest moved to Montreal in 1710. His son Louis moved to Repentigny, east of Montreal in 1750, and Louis' son Michel moved to L'Assomption, Quebec. His son Francois moved west, married an indian woman, and had children. When she died, he left his (grown) children, moved to Terrebonne and married Marie Collard who was 25 years younger than he. He then moved to Goderich, Ontario and had a second family. His son, Paul Desmarest moved to Stoney Point and was a prominent businessman, selling fencing and lumber, which was shipped to Detroit by barges that were pulled by horses or cattle along the shores of Lake St. Clair. He was also pound keeper for Tilbury Township. His son, Clovis opened a store in Staples, Ontario. He was the father of notre grand-mere, Florina Desmarais.
Of the ancestors we have traced, we find the names Mailloux, Parent, Reaume, St. Louis, Gauthier, Janisse, Pilette, Morin, Gervais, Meloche, Chevalier, Tetrault, Laforest, Trottier, Laporte, Granger, Tremblay, Dupuis, and Chauvin, all names found in Essex County today.
So how did we get here? Well, these French settlers came to Quebec with incentives of land and cattle, then were lured further southwest to the Huron settlement (now Detroit and Windsor) starting in 1702 by offering more land and cattle. The first settlers in Essex County numbered less than 20 families. Other families migrated after that, but it was slow to grow in numbers. It wasn't long before it was impossible to not marry your cousin, and this trend continued for about the next 100 years. For this reason, and to build the colony, the church at that time gave dispensation to persons wanting to marry their 2nd or 3rd cousin.
The French language can still be found in places like Stoney Point, St. Joachim, Belle River, Tecumseh, LaSalle and surrounding areas.
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We are always on the look-out for people with more information on our family's history. If you would like to contact us please do not hesitate to email: rivest@rivestfamily.com
