The Canadian — How the Research Was Done

Establish the Quebec Silence as a Research Finding

The starting point was a systematic search of the PRDH-IGD database for Paul Guilbault, son of François Guilbault and Marie Archange Larivière, born January 21, 1798. The baptism record is clear and well-preserved. What the PRDH search revealed beyond the baptism is equally informative: no marriage record, no death record, and no child’s baptism or burial listing Paul as father anywhere in the Quebec parish system.

This absence is not treated as a gap to paper over. It is documented as a positive research finding: Paul Guilbault entered the Quebec record system on January 22, 1798, and did not re-enter it. That is the foundation on which every subsequent step rests. The absence of Quebec records after 1798 is not a problem with the research — it is the research.

For comparison: his father François (b. 1760) appears in the PRDH family record (PRDH #190780) with sixteen children documented across his working life, his marriage, and his death in 1843 at Joliette. The Quebec record system worked exactly as expected for the generation above Paul. It simply did not record Paul again because Paul did not remain in Quebec.

Confirm Identity and Five-Generation Pedigree Through PRDH

Confirming that the Paul in subsequent records is the correct individual required establishing his pedigree with enough specificity to distinguish him from other Guilbault men in the same era. The PRDH chain was built from the baptism entry upward through five generations, with each link confirmed in the PRDH-IGD database.

The chain runs: Paul (b. 1798) → François × Larivière (1786, L’Assomption; PRDH #190780) → Charles × Jourdain Bellerose (1750, Québec; PRDH #144133; PRDH Family #27985) → Charles × Deguise Flamand (1727, Québec; PRDH Family #15831) → Joseph × Anne Pageau (1694, Charlesbourg) → Pierre Guilbault of Aunis × Louise Sénécal (1667, Québec). Each link was confirmed against PRDH records; the Gauthier document independently confirms the same chain with marriage dates and locations consistent across both sources.

Critically, PRDH Family #15831 (Charles × Deguise Flamand) also documents Gabriel Guilbault (b. 1731-08-06) — the brother of Charles (b. 1727) and ancestor of the researcher’s direct line. PRDH Family #34045 (Gabriel b.1731 × Marie Charlotte Morin) confirms Gabriel’s son Gabriel père (b. 1762-06-13), the voyageur who married Abitakijikokwe at Oka in 1801. These records establish the exact relationship between Paul (b. 1798) and the researcher’s direct line: Paul is second cousin once removed of Gabriel Guilbault père (b. 1762) — sharing a common ancestor in Charles Guilbault × Catherine-Antoinette Deguise Flamand (married 1727).

Locate Paul in the Gauthier Compiled Ancestry

Raymonde Gauthier’s “Ancestry of French Canadians to Oregon Prior to 1842” (2013, oregonpioneers.com) is a compiled secondary source, but it is a carefully documented one. Gauthier, who held a Ph.D. in History from Laval University, compiled pedigree chains for French-Canadian men who served in the fur trade and subsequently appeared in Oregon records, working from HBC servant records, Quebec parish registers, and published genealogical sources.

Entry #57 identifies: GUILBAULT, Paul; HBC 1821–1840; born January 21, 1798, baptized next day in Lavaltrie; linked to Hilaire Guilbault. The pedigree chain Gauthier provides is independently confirmable in the PRDH — each marriage date and location she cites matches the PRDH record. This cross-verification upgrades the Gauthier entry from secondary source to secondary source with primary support.

The phrase “linked to Hilaire Guilbault” was the key to the Oregon research thread. Gauthier’s document covers French Canadians who went to Oregon. Her inclusion of Paul and her explicit linkage to Hilaire — who is documented in Oregon — indicates she found evidence connecting these two men in a western context. The nature of that linkage (family, post assignment, shared community) is not specified and requires further research in the HBCA servant records.

Read the McDonald Journal: Three Entries, Nine Days

The published primary source that names Paul Guilbault in the interior of New Caledonia is Archibald McDonald’s journal, published as Peace River: A Canoe Voyage from Hudson’s Bay to Pacific (Ottawa: J. Durie & Son, 1872). McDonald was Chief Factor and the actual journal-keeper for Governor George Simpson’s 1828 canoe voyage. The journal is contemporaneous — written during the journey, not reconstructed afterward.

Three entries across nine days name Paul Guilbault. September 14: “Met a Canadian [Paul Guilbault] and four Indians about five” on the portage between McLeod Lake and Fort St. James. September 15: the party gave Guilbault 25 pounds of pemmican cached for his return, as fort provisions were insufficient for the journey. September 22: “Late last night, Guilbault, and the four carriers that accompanied him, arrived with their loads.”

These entries establish geographic location (McLeod Lake–Fort St. James portage, New Caledonia), role (independent transport leader with Indigenous packers), and a complete documented action (outward journey, load pickup at McLeod Lake, return with all loads). Paul was approximately thirty years old and seven years into his HBC service. The fact that McDonald identifies him by name without introduction — simply as “a Canadian” before naming him — suggests he was a known and established figure in the department. McDonald did not explain who Guilbault was because his readers in the New Caledonia fur trade community already knew.

The Nancy Marguerite Anderson blog post (nancymargueriteanderson.com, October 21, 2017) identified and contextualized this journal entry in a modern analysis of the Simpson-McDonald voyage. Anderson’s post is a secondary source, but it directed attention to the specific pages (23 and 29) in the original published journal, which is the citable primary document.

Establish the Hilaire Connection and the Oregon Research Thread

The Oregon research thread begins with Gauthier’s linkage of Paul to Hilaire Guilbault and is developed through the Early Oregonian Database (Oregon State Archives) and the findagrave records for the Saint Paul Roman Catholic Mission Cemetery, Marion County, Oregon.

Hilaire Guilbault (b. June 23, 1818, Verchères; PRDH #2462814) is confirmed as Paul’s second cousin once removed through PRDH Family #116841 (Joseph Guilbault × Rosalie Lescault — Hilaire’s parents). Joseph (b. December 15, 1786, St-Paul-de-Lavaltrie; PRDH #611757) is Paul’s first cousin — son of Paul père (b. 1761) by Marie Geneviève Olivier Milot. The relationship is thus: Paul b.1798 and Joseph b.1787 are first cousins (fathers were brothers); Hilaire b.1818 is Joseph’s son; therefore Paul b.1798 and Hilaire b.1818 are first cousins once removed — confirmed across three interlocking PRDH family records.

The Gauthier document entry for Hilaire (#56) records HBC service 1838–1848. The Early Oregonian Database confirms his Oregon records: married Vancouver County, April 21, 1842 (spouse Louise, surname unknown); provisional land grant, Lewis County, March 8, 1847 (Vol. 4, Pg. 205); died St. Paul, Marion County, June 24–26, 1849; buried Saint Paul Roman Catholic Mission Cemetery. His son François Gilbeau (b. 1847, d. November 8, 1851) is memorialized at the same cemetery on the community plaque. The Gauthier document’s scope — “to Oregon prior to 1842” — and its explicit linkage of Paul to Hilaire together suggest Gauthier found evidence placing Paul in the same Oregon community.

Apply Negative Evidence Standards — and Then Keep Searching

The BCG Genealogical Proof Standard requires that negative evidence be documented with the same care as positive evidence. The initial negative inventory for this case was: no Quebec marriage record; no Quebec death record; no child’s baptism listing Paul as father; no Oregon land claim yet located; no Catholic register entry yet identified. Each absence was documented as a specific finding rather than a gap.

The case study was initially published with the Oregon destination as probable but not confirmed, with the Gauthier linkage and the Hilaire documentation as supporting circumstantial evidence. The open investigation framing named specific next search targets: HBCA B.188 series, Oregon Donation Land Claims, St. Paul Mission registers, and the Early Oregonians Database. That framing proved to be exactly right — and the Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest delivered.

Search the Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest

The Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest, transcribed and annotated by Harriet Duncan Munnick (French Prairie Press, 1972), cover the Fort Vancouver and French Prairie Catholic mission registers from the late 1830s onward. Vancouver Volume I, the same volume consulted in parallel research on the Laurent Quintal and Marie Anne Nipissing case study, was searched for Guilbault entries.

The Munnick index for Vancouver Vol. I returned Paul Guilbault [I] on more than fifteen separate pages, spanning 1838 to 1843. The first entry, M-18, is his marriage on December 29, 1838 at Fort Vancouver to Caty Sakaïan, Walla Walla by nation — with James Douglas and William Fraser Tolmie as witnesses and three pre-nuptial children recognized. The baptisms of five children followed across five years. Paul appeared as godfather, as witness at burials, and as community presence throughout this period.

The Munnick annotation A-34 provided the biographical summary that confirmed identity and filled the gap between New Caledonia and Fort Vancouver: Paul Guilbault was a boatman for HBC, from L’Assomption, Québec. In 1831 he was sent from Fort Walla Walla to join John Work’s Snake Country brigade. He took as wife Caty Walla Walla, who bore him six children and died in 1848. He was a particular friend of Thomas Tawakon, Iroquois — and married Tawakon’s widow Françoise Cayuse in November 1848. He died within a year, possibly in the gold fields, unrecorded. His widow married Laurent Sauvé the following year.

The Early Oregonians Database confirmed the same record: Guilbeau, Paul; born ca. 1800; died ca. 1849; arrived Oregon 1833; married Walla Walla Catherine December 29, 1838 and Walla Walla Française November 5, 1848; provisional land grant Champoeg September 7, 1846. The convergence of the Catholic registers, the Munnick annotation, and the Early Oregonians Database across three independent record systems established Paul’s Oregon life beyond reasonable doubt.