Ancestor # 3 – Dominique Bray, the Party Animal

My ancestor, Dominique Bray, was a party animal!!!

That’s what I thought about him at first glance, when I first started writing this post. Now I still think he is a party animal, but with a little bit of a different twist!

Dominique Bray was born about 1806, in Vaudreuil County in the Montreal area of Quebec, Canada, to Dominique Bray and Amable Noiret. He was baptized at Paroisse Saint Michel in Vaudreuil.

As a young man, Dominique worked as a voyageur for the American Fur Trading Company. Voyaguers  traveled long distances, in rough conditions, to deliver goods. It  was a rugged, adventurous lifestyle. (Those interested in learning more about voyageurs can watch the Youtube video at the bottom of this post.)

The next trace I find of Dominique is in Vermillion County, Illinois in 1831.  His oldest child, Ellen Marion Bray was baptized there that year. Apparently, Dominique and his wife, Almira Vansickle, had two children before they married in 1833.  A son, Dominick Bray, followed the daughter, Ellen Marion, in 1832, and then Dominique and Almira married on 31 March, 1833 in Danville in Vermillion County. I know that the first two children were Almira’s because Ellen Marion was named for Ellen Marion Kinzie Wolcott, the woman who raised Almira after her mother bound her out. The Brays had at least eleven children:  Ellen Marion, Dominick, Andrew, John Gurdon, Joseph Russell, Thomas, Henry Agustus, Mary, Clarissa, Susannah, and William. John Gurdon was probably named for Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, an American fur trader who lived in Kankakee, Illinois and had connections in Danville.

Dominique and Almira eventually settled in Kankakee County in the “Little Canada” community.  Burt E. Burroughs wrote a very detailed character sketch of Dominique in the book “Legends and Tales of Homeland on the Kankakee.” Burroughs shared that during the Bray family’s first season in their new home on the Kankakee, they hosted a “bouquet party.” The party was a three day celebration of “Nouvelle Annee,” the French Canadian version of a New Year bash. The Bray’s event offered games, dancing, singing, drinking, and plenty of food.

Dominque was portrayed in Burrough’s book as the life of the party! Evidently, some of the young people asked for him to share stories of his early years in the midwest as a voyageur for the American Fur Company . Soon he broke out into some of the songs he learned as a voyageur. Dominique would sing the verses and the young people responded in the chorus. According to Burrough, one of the songs went like this:

“Dominick.–Michaud est monte dans un prunier,
Pour trellier des prunes.
La branche a casse–
Chorus– -Michaud a tombe?
Dominick.–Ou est-ce qu’il est?
Chorus.–Il est en bas.
Dominick.–Oh! reveille, reveille, reveille,
Oh! Reveille, Michaud est en haut!”

In my mind, I have elaborated on the experience.  I can picture Dominique climbing to the top of a cleared table, a mug of ale in his hands, bellowing out the verses, and then conducting the crowd in the chorus. As he swings his arms to conduct, the ale is spilling from his mug. There is much laughing and dancing.

After looking up the song quoted above, I changed my opinion of Dominique, the party animal, a little bit. It seems that this song is like a French nursery rhyme or lullaby. I found a Youtube video of a man singing it to some children. It is about a man named Michaud who climbs a plum tree and falls down. The chorus is a command for Michaud to wake up. He finally gets back up again.

 

Now, instead of seeing Dominique as a drunken party animal, I see him as a fun-loving party animal, whom children loved.  As they gathered around him to hear his stories, perhaps Dominique was having so much fun that he started hamming it up and singing  old songs he knew, including some he might have learned in his own childhood.

Death came to Dominique Bray on 9 October, 1871, when he was in his 60s, but his descendants can still read about the colorful, passionate life he seemed to live to the fullest.  Dominique Bray, the French Canadian voyageur, the party-animal, and the tender-hearted is one of my favorite ancestors!

To learn more about the life Dominique led as a voyageur, see this Youtube video:

 

Songs of the Voyageurs and French Canadians:

 

If you have French Canadian ancestry, this Youtube video will give you some guidance about researching them:

SOURCE INFORMATION

Ancestry.com. 1840 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.

Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

Ancestry.com. Illinois, State Census Collection, 1825-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Ancestry.com. Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Ancestry.com. U.S. General Land Office Records, 1796-1907 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

Dodd, Jordan. Illinois Marriages to 1850 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1997.

“Mrs. Elmira Bray,” obituary, Fennimore [WI] The Times Review, 24 March 1897, newspaper clipping; online digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 January, 2016).

State of Illinois. Illinois, Public Land Purchase Records, 1813-1909 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.