Tranchemontagne: Jean Bernardin fils – The Baby Who Survived

French-Canadian Research

Dec 9

Written By Mary Morales

Documentary Biographies › Tranchemontagne › Episode 3

Tranchemontagne: The Soulière Line

Episode 3

Jean Bernardin Suliere fils

The Baby Who Survived

1744 – 1820

His mother died giving him life. Against all odds in an era when infant mortality claimed one in four, this newborn not only survived—he thrived for seventy-six years, raised seven children to adulthood, and became the link between the founders and the future.

Birth: April 11, 1744, L'Assomption, Quebec

Baptism: April 11, 1744, L'Assomption-de-la-Sainte-Vierge

Death: August 6, 1820, Terrebonne, Quebec

Burial: August 8, 1820, St-Louis-de-Terrebonne

Father: Jean Bernard Suliere

Mother: Marguerite Payment dit Larivière (†1744)

Marriage: Marie Thérèse Migneron dit Rivière (1766)

Occupation: Journalier (day laborer)

Introduction

On April 11, 1744, in the parish of L'Assomption, a baby boy was baptized the same day he was born—a common practice when survival was uncertain. What made this baptism unusual was the absence of his mother. Marguerite Payment dit Larivière had died giving him life. The baby was named Jean Bernard, after his father, and against the grim statistics of colonial Quebec, he survived.

This is the story of Jean Bernardin Suliere fils—"the son"—distinguishing him from his father Jean Bernard Suliere who appears in Episode 2. His survival was improbable. His life would span seventy-six years, bridging the era of New France through the British Conquest, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and into an age when his grandchildren would begin migrating toward the factories of New England.

Against the Odds

In 18th-century Quebec, approximately 25% of children died before their first birthday. A motherless newborn faced even longer odds—without maternal milk, survival depended on finding a wet nurse or attempting the dangerous alternative of animal milk. That Jean Bernardin lived to age 76 represents not just luck, but the determination of a community and family who refused to let this child follow his mother to the grave.

PRDH Individual Record for Jean Bernardin Suliere

PRDH Individual Record #119031 for Jean Bernard Suliere, showing his birth and baptism on April 11, 1744, his death on August 6, 1820, and his 1766 marriage to Marie Thérèse Migneron. Source: Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH-IGD).

Birth and Baptism (1744)

April 11, 1744 Jean Bernard was baptized at L'Assomption-de-la-Sainte-Vierge on the day of his birth. The baptismal record identifies his parents as "Jean Bernard Suliere" and "Marguerite Payment dit Larivière"—though his mother was likely already dead or dying when the priest recorded these words.

The PRDH baptism record shows Jean Suliere (his grandfather, the founder of Episode 1) and Thérèse Godry Bourbonnière as godparents, with Jean Baptiste Lesage present. This suggests the grandfather took an active role in ensuring the survival of this precious child—the son of his own firstborn who had just lost his wife.

PRDH Baptism Record #128514 showing Jean Bernard Suliere baptized April 11, 1744, at L'Assomption. Note the godparents: Jean Suliere (his grandfather) and Thérèse Godry Bourbonnière. Source: PRDH-IGD.

Growing Up Motherless

Jean Bernardin's early years remain undocumented beyond his survival. His father remarried in 1748 to Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté, providing the boy with a stepmother when he was four years old. This second marriage would produce half-siblings, but Jean Bernardin—the child of tragedy—held a special place as the sole survivor of his father's first union.

By the time Jean Bernardin reached adulthood, his father had established the family firmly in L'Assomption. The lessons of loss and resilience would have been woven into his childhood: the knowledge that his mother had died bringing him into the world, the determination of his father to rebuild, and the support of an extended family that ensured his survival.

Marriage to Marie Thérèse Migneron (1766)

January 27, 1766 At age twenty-one, Jean Bernard Suliere married Marie Thérèse Migneron dit Rivière at the church of L'Assomption (The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). The bride was the daughter of Joseph Migneron and Marie Anne Dalpé Pariseau, a well-established local family.

The marriage took place just three years after the Treaty of Paris had ceded New France to Britain. Jean Bernardin was among the first generation to marry under British rule, though the Catholic Church continued to record life events in French, and daily life in the seigneuries changed little despite the transfer of sovereignty.

Marriage Record Jean Bernardin and Marie Therese Migneron 1766

Marriage record from L'Assomption parish register, January 27, 1766. Jean Bernard Suliere, son of Jean Bernard Suliere and the late Marguerite Payment, marries Marie Thérèse Migneron dit Rivière, daughter of Joseph Migneron and Marie Anne Dalpé Pariseau.

The Children of Jean Bernardin

Jean Bernardin and Marie Thérèse raised a large family. According to the PRDH union record, at least seven children survived to marry—a remarkable achievement in an era of high childhood mortality. Their children's marriages spread across the parishes north and west of Montreal, from Oka to Terrebonne, reflecting the expansion of French-Canadian settlement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Child	Marriage Date	Marriage Place	Spouse
Jean Bernard	February 10, 1794	Lachenaie (St-Charles)	Marie Josèphe Therrien
Jacques ★	January 7, 1799	Oka (The Annunciation)	Marie Elisabeth Poulin
Rock	February 21, 1803	Pointe-Claire (St-Joachim)	Catherine Trottier
Marie Angélique Alice	October 29, 1810	Terrebonne (St-Louis-de-France)	Joseph Riquet Laverdure
Marie Archange ★	January 7, 1799	Rivière-des-Prairies (St-Joseph)	Joseph Simard
Marie Luce	March 1, 1802	Rivière-des-Prairies (St-Joseph)	Michel Monarch
Daughter	January 11, 1808	Mascouche (St-Henri)	Basile Corbeil

The Double Wedding: January 7, 1799

On the same winter day, two of Jean Bernardin's children married in different parishes. Jacques wed Marie Elisabeth Poulin at the Mission of the Lake of Two Mountains (Oka), while his sister Marie Archange married Joseph Simard at Rivière-des-Prairies, some 40 kilometers to the east.

Whether this was coordinated or coincidental, we cannot know. But the image of a father with two children marrying on the same day—in an era before telephones or easy travel—speaks to the interconnected nature of these French-Canadian communities and the bonds that held families together across distance.

★ Highlighted rows indicate the double wedding

Jacques Souliere, who married at Oka that January day, is the subject of Episode 4 in this series. His son Janvier Souliere Sr. (Episode 5) would become the patriarch whose descendants eventually migrated to the United States. Through Jacques, Jean Bernardin's legacy flows directly to the present day.

PRDH Union Record showing Jean Bernardin's family

PRDH Union Record #43199 showing Jean Bernard Suliere Bernardin and Marie Thérèse Migneron Rivière with their seven married children. Note the second entry: Jacques, married 1799-01-07 to Marie Elisabeth Poulin—the subject of Episode 4. Source: PRDH-IGD.

A Long Life Through Turbulent Times (1744-1820)

Jean Bernardin lived seventy-six years—an extraordinary span that witnessed some of the most transformative events in North American history. Consider what this man born during the height of New France lived to see:

A Timeline of History

1744: Born during King George's War between France and Britain

1759: The fall of Quebec to British forces (age 15)

1763: Treaty of Paris cedes New France to Britain (age 19)

1766: Married under British rule (age 21)

1774: Quebec Act preserves French civil law and Catholic religion (age 30)

1775-1783: American Revolution—colonies to the south break from Britain (age 31-39)

1791: Constitutional Act creates Lower Canada with an elected assembly (age 47)

1799: Double wedding of Jacques and Marie Archange (age 54)

1812-1815: War of 1812—Americans invade Canada (age 68-71)

1820: Death at Terrebonne (age 76)

Throughout these upheavals, the rhythms of rural Quebec continued largely unchanged. Jean Bernardin worked as a journalier—a day laborer—likely hiring out for agricultural work, construction, or other tasks that sustained families in the seigneurial system. The parish registers recorded births, marriages, and deaths in French, the curé said Mass in Latin, and the habitants worked the long lots that stretched back from the rivers, just as their grandparents had done under the fleur-de-lis.

By the time Jean Bernardin died in 1820, his grandchildren were being born into a world he could scarcely have imagined as a motherless infant in 1744. Yet the continuity was there: the same parishes, the same families intermarrying, the same rhythms of planting and harvest that had sustained the Soulière family for four generations.

Death and Burial (1820)

August 6, 1820 Jean Bernardin Suliere died at Terrebonne at the age of seventy-six (the burial record lists his age as seventy-four, a common discrepancy in an era before birth certificates). He was buried two days later on August 8, 1820, at St-Louis-de-Terrebonne.

The burial record identifies him as "Jean Bernardin dit Souliere, Journalier de 74 ans" (day laborer, 74 years old). The witnesses were François Dubé and Baptiste Legris—neighbors who had known this man who had lived three-quarters of a century in their midst.

Burial record from St-Louis-de-Terrebonne parish register, August 8, 1820. "Le huit Aoust mil huit cent vingt... Jean Bernardin dit Souliere Journalier de 74 ans..." The witnesses were François Dubé and Baptiste Legris.

Seven Months Later

March 28, 1821 Marie Thérèse Migneron, his wife of fifty-five years, followed her husband to the grave. She died at Terrebonne and was buried on March 30, 1821, in the same parish cemetery where Jean Bernardin had been laid to rest seven months earlier.

After more than half a century of marriage—raising seven children to adulthood, watching them marry and have children of their own, surviving the British Conquest, the American Revolution, and countless winters in the seigneuries of Quebec—Marie Thérèse did not long outlive the man she had married when he was twenty-one and she was a young bride from L'Assomption.

Burial record for Marie Thérèse Migneron, March 30, 1821, St-Louis-de-Terrebonne. She survived her husband by only seven months.

The Legacy of Survival

Jean Bernardin Suliere fils entered the world under tragic circumstances—his mother's death giving him life. Yet this motherless infant not only survived but thrived: he married, raised seven children to adulthood, lived to see a double wedding on a single January day in 1799, and witnessed his grandchildren take their place in the world.

He lived seventy-six years as a journalier—a day laborer who worked the land and served his community. His wife of fifty-five years followed him to the grave within seven months, their bond unbroken even in death.

Through his son Jacques (Episode 4), his grandson Janvier Sr. (Episode 5), his great-granddaughter Marie Louise Souliere (Episode 6), and his great-great-granddaughter Elisabeth Emma Guilbault (Episode 7), Jean Bernardin's legacy flows directly to the present day.

He was the bridge—the baby who survived to carry the Soulière line into the future.