The Guilbault Line: Evangeliste Guilbault
Evangeliste Guilbault
When Evangeliste Guilbault was five years old, a census taker recorded his father Gabriel's occupation: voyageur. That single word carried the weight of a century—the canoe brigades that had opened a continent, the fur trade routes stretching from Montreal to the pays d'en haut, the legendary paddlers who moved goods and people through a wilderness of lakes and rivers. By 1851, Gabriel Guilbault was 50 years old, still identified by the trade that had defined his generation.
Evangeliste would never become a voyageur. By the time he reached manhood, the fur trade era had ended. The canoe brigades that once launched from Lachine had given way to steamships and railways. The occupation that had shaped his father's identity existed only in memory.
The records tell a different story for the son. When Evangeliste married Marie Louise Souliere in 1879, the priest wrote journalier—day laborer. When his first son was baptized in 1880, he was again journalier. The 1881 census listed him simply as "laborer." When his daughter Emma was baptized in 1883, months before his death, the designation remained: journalier.
This is not the story of a voyageur. This is the story of a man born into the twilight of an era, who lived and died as a working man in rural Quebec, and who left behind three young children and a widow before his thirty-ninth birthday.
What the Records Actually Say
Family narratives often carry forward assumptions that primary sources do not support. The Guilbault family story has long identified Evangeliste as a voyageur—a natural inheritance from his father's documented occupation. But the evidence tells a more nuanced story.
Occupational Evidence
| Document | Year | Occupation Listed |
|---|---|---|
| Gabriel Guilbault, Canada Census | 1851 | Voyageur |
| Evangeliste's marriage record | 1879 | Journalier |
| Baptism of Isidore George | 1880 | Journalier |
| Canada Census | 1881 | Laborer |
| Baptism of Jean Baptiste Gabriel | 1881 | [illegible] |
| Baptism of Elisabeth Emma | 1883 | Journalier |
Out of five legible records documenting Evangeliste's occupation, four describe him as a journalier or laborer. The single "voyageur" designation appears in the 1851 census—describing his father, not Evangeliste himself.
This distinction matters. It tells us something true about the world Evangeliste inhabited: a world where the great canoe routes had fallen silent, where the skills that made his father's reputation had no market, where a man supported his family through whatever work he could find.
A Voyageur's Son
Evangeliste Guilbault was born November 15, 1845, in Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec. His parents were Gabriel Guilbault and Madeleine Rocbrune (also recorded as Larocque). The baptismal record names his godparents as André and Julie Guilbault—likely his older siblings.
Evangeliste was the fourteenth of fifteen children. The PRDH (Programme de recherche en démographie historique) records document his siblings: Gabriel, Marie Josephe, Marie Florence, André, Julie, Scholastique, Rosalie, Joseph, Jean Baptiste, Marie Claudimène, Philomène, Joseph (second), John, Evangeliste, and Marie. Several died in infancy; others would scatter across Quebec and beyond.
By 1851, when the census taker arrived at the Guilbault household in St-André-Est, Evangeliste was five years old—one of nine children still at home. His father Gabriel, then 50, was listed as a voyageur. His mother Madeleine was 45. The household included Florence (20), Julie (18), Scholastique (7), Rosalie (13), Gabrielle (12), Philomène (10), Baptiste (7), Evangeliste (5), and Marie (4).
This is the only document that places "voyageur" within Evangeliste's immediate family context—and it describes his father, not himself. By the time Evangeliste was old enough to work, the world his father knew had already disappeared.
The End of an Era
The voyageur era did not end with a single event. It faded gradually across the middle decades of the nineteenth century, as the fur trade that had sustained it collapsed. The Hudson's Bay Company's merger with the North West Company in 1821 had already consolidated the industry. By the 1840s, when Gabriel Guilbault was still paddling, the great canoe brigades from Montreal had largely ceased. Railways and steamships replaced the birchbark canoes. Silk hats replaced beaver felt in European fashion.
Gabriel Guilbault belonged to the last generation of working voyageurs. His son belonged to the first generation for whom the title meant nothing but memory.
The 1861 census captures this transition. Evangeliste, now 13, still lived in his father's household in St-André. But the census that year does not list Gabriel's occupation as voyageur—the enumerator recorded different information, and the family's circumstances had shifted. Evangeliste was approaching the age when he would need to find his own work, in an economy that no longer had use for paddlers.
We lose track of Evangeliste in the 1871 census—he does not appear with his parents, and no independent household has been located. He would have been 26 years old, a grown man finding his way in post-Confederation Quebec. Whether he was working away from home, enumerated under a variant spelling, or simply missed by the census taker, the records fall silent.
Marriage and Family
On May 20, 1879, Evangeliste Guilbault married Marie Louise Souliere at Saint-André-d'Argenteuil. He was 33 years old. She was 25.
The marriage record identifies Evangeliste as the son of Gabriel Guilbault, journalier, and "defunte Magdelaine Larocque"—his mother had died. His occupation is listed as journalier. Marie Louise was the daughter of Janvier Souliere, maçon (mason), and the late Elisabeth Gravel.
The couple received a dispensation from the publication of banns—granted by Monseigneur Hypolyte Moreau, vicar general. Such dispensations were common when circumstances required a quick marriage, though the records do not indicate why it was granted here.
Three children followed in rapid succession:
Children of Evangeliste and Marie Louise
The 1881 census shows the young family: Evangeliste, 29; Louise, 25; and George, 1. They were listed in St-André-Est, with Evangeliste's occupation recorded as laborer.
December 1883
On December 7, 1883, a burial was recorded at Saint-André-d'Argenteuil:
"Le sept Décembre mil huit cent quatre vingt trois, nous curé soussigné avons inhumé dans le cimetière de cette paroisse le corps d'Evangeliste Guilbault, époux de Louise Souliere, décédé l'avant veille, âgé d'environ trente huit ans."
— Parish register, St-André-d'Argenteuil, December 7, 1883
Evangeliste had died two days earlier—December 5, 1883. He was approximately thirty-eight years old. The record names no cause of death.
His daughter Emma had been born less than four months earlier. Whether she ever knew her father—whether she was held by him, whether he saw her baptized—we cannot say. By Christmas of 1883, Marie Louise Souliere was a widow with three children under four years old.
The witnesses to the burial were Joseph Ladouceur and Joseph St-Louis, both of the parish. Family members are not named. The priest recorded what he knew: a man's name, his wife's name, his approximate age. The rest—how he died, what illness or accident took him, what his last days were like—the records do not say.
He was buried in the parish cemetery at St-André-d'Argenteuil. No gravestone has been located.
What He Left Behind
Within three years of Evangeliste's death, Marie Louise made a decision that would reshape her children's futures. She left Quebec for Chicago, married Pierre Chrysologue Thebault in 1886, and built a new life in the industrial city on Lake Michigan.
Her children by Evangeliste grew up American:
Isidore George remained in Montreal as a young man. He does not appear on the 1900 Chicago census with Marie Louise and her family. He marries Marie Aimee Emma Parent in 1899, Montreal. He appears in later records as George Guilbault.
Jean Baptiste Gabriel became "John Gilbert Guilbault" in Chicago, adapting his name to an English-speaking world his father never knew.
Elisabeth Emma married Thomas Henry Hamall in Chicago on September 23, 1903—connecting the Guilbault line to the Hamall family. She was twenty years old, the daughter of a man she could not have remembered, carrying forward a voyageur heritage that had ended before her birth.
Evangeliste Guilbault left no letters, no photographs, no memoir. He left three children who would carry his name into the twentieth century, and a widow who would live to ninety-one. He left a baptismal record, a marriage record, census entries, his children's baptisms, and a burial entry that does not explain how or why he died at thirty-eight.
The records call him journalier—day laborer. They do not call him voyageur. His father earned that title through decades on the water; by the time Evangeliste came of age, there was no water left to paddle. He belonged to the generation caught between eras: too late for the fur trade, too early for the opportunities his children would find in Chicago.
He was a working man who died young. That is what the evidence supports. The rest is silence.
Primary Sources
Documents used in this episode — click to view larger
1845 — Baptism Record
Evangeliste Guilbault, St-André-d'Argenteuil
Baptism
1845 — Baptism Detail
Parents: Gabriel Guilbault & Madeleine Larocque (Rocbrune)
Baptism
1851 — Canada Census
Gabriel Guilbault household, St-André-Est
Census
1851 — Census Detail
Gabriel Guilbault, age 50, "Voyageur"
Census
PRDH Family Record
Gabriel Guilbault & Madeleine Rocbrune — 15 children
Family Record
1861 — Canada Census
Evangeliste age 13 in Gabriel's household
Census
1879 — Marriage Record
Evangeliste Guilbault & Marie Louise Souliere
Marriage
1879 — Marriage Detail
Evangeliste listed as "journalier"
Marriage
1880 — Baptism Record
Isidore George Guilbault, first child
Baptism
1880 — Baptism Detail
Father Evangeliste: "journalier"
Baptism
1881 — Canada Census
Evangeliste (29), Louise (25), George (1)
Census
1883 — Baptism Record
Elisabeth Emma Guilbault, third child
Baptism
1883 — Burial Record
Evangeliste Guilbault, St-André-d'Argenteuil
Death
1883 — Death Detail
"décédé l'avant veille, âgé d'environ trente huit ans"
DeathWant to Know When New Stories Are Published?
Subscribe to receive updates on new family history research—no spam, just meaningful stories when there's something worth sharing.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTEREvery Family Has a Story Worth Telling
Whether you're just beginning your research or ready to transform years of work into a narrative your family will treasure, I'd love to help.
LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY