When the popular video game Assasin’s Creed III was released this year, I couldn’t help being reminded of an ancestor of mine. Conner is the mixed-blood Native American Warrior & the main character in the game. Jean Janot, my ancestor, was a Native American warrior who fought in the American Revolution on the American side. The US National Archives show that Jean Janot served in Moses Hazen’s 2nd Canadian Regt. The archives spell his name several ways- Jean vs John, Janot vs Jeannotte, sometimes even on the same reference card!
In 1775, Ethan Allen appealed for volunteers to fight the British. He sent letters to the Caughnawaga Mohawk, the French settlers at Chambly, and the St Francis Abenaki at Odanak. His representatives to the Indians were John Hoit (a redeemed captive raised at Caughnawaga), and Abraham Nimham, the warrior son of Ethan Allen’s ally Wappinger Mohican sachem Daniel Nimham.
My mother was a Bombard, from Burlington, Vermont, born in 1915. Her mother was a Wilfore dit LeFort from Williamstown, Vermont, and Champlain and Chazy, New York in the Canadian & Nova Scotia Refugee Settlement Tract (bounty land for US Revolutionary War Soldiers in Livingston’s 1st & Hazen’s 2nd Canadian Regiments). The Leforts from Chambly were godparents to Deerfield captives’ children in the early 1700s.
My great grandmother was a Robidoux (Metis). Her mother was a Janot (Abenaki/ Metis). One of her relatives, Pannow Jeannotte, lies buried next to the Wilfores at the northern edge of St Josephs Cemetery at Corbeau-Coopersville- the place of the crows- the oldest French settlement in the Northern United States. The British burned Corbeau to the ground during the War of 1812, destroying priceless history. The Mission at Corbeau is said to date back to the 1600s, and lies a short walk across the ice from the Fort & shrine at Isle La Motte.
The Janotte family were Abenaki refugees from Wolinak, possibly descending from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Mic-Mac people who fled their homeland in Le Grande Derangement when Louisbourg fell in 1758. Some Janotte ended up at Three Rivers/ Nicolet/ Becancour/ Wolinak and intermarried Abenaki there. The name survived on census lists at Wolinak/ Trois Rivieres into the mid- 19th c. Janotte dit LaChapelle is an old mixed blood Quebec family. The Janotte were neighbors to the Quay (Guay) dit Dragon family, another mixed blood veteran family, near Scotia, NY in the Canadian & Nova Scotia Refugee Settlement tract. It’s amazing what a video game can trigger when it comes to our search for the stories of our family!
—
This story was written by member Linus Leavens of our free semi-annual member publication from the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society, LINKS. To receive more stories like this, as well as a wealth of information on genealogies, histories, documents, research, found photos, maps, and charts, join us!
Leave a Reply