Picture of Dennis Prue

Dennis Prue

Dennis has been researching family trees for more than 30 years. His expertise has been invaluable in helping to break through brick walls.

Share

This Old Tree, March 2019

This is the rest of the story on Charles Tray and Catherine Bishop. Part 3

I was able to know who the oldest two Children in the Family, Emma and Philip were Catherine’s children from her first marriage to a Louis Proulx. Since Prue/Proulx is my last name I have done a lot of research on the family. I do have information on Louis Proulx married to Catherine Bishop aka Alexandrina Levesque. Catherine real name was Alexandrina Levesque. She only used Catherine in Old Town Area. She went back to her real first name once she and her second husband moved to Waterville, Maine.

Alexandrina was the daughter of Felix Levesque and Marie Lebel. She married Louis Cyriaque Calixtes Proulx son of Charles Francois Proulx and Marie Angelique Theriault on June 6, 1854 in Sainte Modeste, Quebec.

Louis and Alexandrina had four children: Clement born in 1855, Urbain born in 1858, Emma Valentine born in 1862 and Philomen aka Philip born in 1865. Tragedy would hit this family on July 6 1864. Five days after his ninth birthday Clement would die. The marriage of Louis and Alexandrina fall apart.

I do not know if Louis and Alexandrina moved to Old Town or if Alexandrina had meet Moise Charltrey in Ste. Modeste area. In any event Louis and the second child Urbain either return to Ste. Modeste or never left the area. Louis’s elder unmarried sister Henriette moved in with him to run the household.

Alexandrina and Moise settle in Old Town as Catherine Bishop (English translation of her maiden name of Levesque) and Moise split his last name Charltrey into two words Charles, Trade/Tray. They married in Old Town under the assumed names in April of 1870. There was no such thing as a divorce in Quebec. So only way to marry Moise, was run away to a different country and start a new life.

In Dec of 1879 Louis Proulx died. Once Alexandrina knew this she and Moise had their marriage blessed in Catholic Church in Waterville in Feb. 1880.

Moise Charltrey was the oldest of eight children of Pierre Charltrey and Marie Olive Deshaie dit St. Cyr. Moise was born in Drummondville, Quebec in July 18, 1841.

Moise’s parents and most of his brothers and sisters moved to Sheldon and Orleans areas of Vermont. I do not if the scandal of Moise running away with Alexandrina was reason the whole family moved to Vermont. Some people believe that Moise Charles Tray was brother to Louis Proulx. This not the case Louis born in 1820 was the next to the youngest child of Charles Francois Proulx and Angelique Theriault. The youngest was Jean Matthias Proulx born in 1822 who moved to Van Buren, Maine and he is my second great grandfather.

Angelique Theriault mother of Louis and Matthias Proulx was born in 1780 she would be too old to have had Moise aka Charles Tray born in 1841. She would be 61 years old. I wonder if Clement Proulx, Louis and Alexndrina eldest child had lived would their marriage would last or still fail. Even today a death of a child can cause a couple to break up. Grief can be terrible emotion to handle.

I would not known about Moise Charltrey and Alexandrina Levesque life and marriage if I not done the family genealogy. I found Louis Proulx in 1871 Canadian census without Alexandrina as his wife and his sister as house keeper. I looked at church records for a death record for Alexandrina in Ste. Modeste and St. Alexandre area. The marriages of Emma and her brother Philip in Waterville lead to Moise Charltrey and failure of Louis and Alexandrina marriage.

Creative Commons License
This Old Tree, March 2019 by Dennis Prue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at ac-gs.org.