I might have had a break through in a long standing brick wall. From the time I started hunting down my ancestors I've had a brick wall at Octave Debo. He just wouldn't budge. He and his family were surrounded by various leads and none of them lead to productive records. Let me lay out his timeline for you and we'll see if my brick wall just came tumbling down.
- In the 1870 census Mr. Octage (yes, it lists him as Octage) Debo is living in Townsend Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. His age is recorded as 54 and he is living with his wife, Jane; and his children, Edward, William, Ella, Leon & E. Albert. He lists his birth place as Canada.
- In the 1880 census Mr. O. Debo is living in Townsend Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. He lists his age as 69 and he is living with his wife, Jane; and sons, William, Leon and Albert.
- In the 1900 census Mr. Octave Debo is living in Townsend Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. He lists his date of birth as July, 1823 and his age at 76. He is living with Jane, his wife of 48 years and he claims to have been born in Canada while both parents are listed as born in France.
- In his obituary in 1904 it says he was 79 years of age and all other useful clues are left out as it was a short obituary with little to no useful genealogical significance.
This gives us a birth year for Octave as 1816, 1811, and July 1823/1824. I say July 1823/1824 as his age says 1824 but the document says July, 1823. The 1904 obituary puts his birth year about 1825 so I'm going to say 1823-1825 is a good guess. Now, let's take a little visit to the cemetery. Tew Cemetery to be exact.
This says Octave Debo was born July 6, 1824. His obituary has the same date of death and mentions him dying at his daughters house, my direct ancestor, so I know this to be the correct man. He is buried beside Geneva and they have matching headstones but we will get to her some other time. Finally things are starting to come together. After banging around on this brick wall and taking breaks and coming back to it a couple of different times I more or less gave up. Family lore says they lived in the Saint Lawrence River Region. There were mentions of reservations and I'd found Debo's in the register for the Mohawks but I haven't been able to get anywhere. So on a whim I posted on a Facebook group, Genealogy Addicts Anonymous, just to see if anybody there could lend any insight to search in the area (New York is notoriously hard to get anything out of and this could also be in Canada, especially with the French name). Enter Dawn Duncan. She replied almost instantly with this....
The cited source is Institut Genealogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection, Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. However, neither Dawn nor I speak French. So off to another Facebook group, Genealogical Translations, where Barbara Poniewierski and Jocelyn Cote jumped in with a translation for us. This is a baptism record for Michel Octave DuBeau. "6 July 1824, we baptized at Quebec Michel Octave Dueau, born today of the legitimate marriage of Francois Dubeau, day laborer, and Marie Gingras of this town. Godfather Michel Tessier, esquire, godmother Miss Henriette Viller, signed below, the father having declared that he did not know how." Michel Octave DuBeau was born and baptized te same day as Octave Debo. In the same region. Could this possibly be my mystery man?! All the trees I've attempted to cross reference with Francois DeBeau & Marie Gingras have no son Michel nor Octave listed. I can find no death record for the baby, which is rare since they usually are baptized on the same day of birth only if there is a belief that the baby will soon pass. It is very possible that Michel Octave DuBeau and Octave Debo are one and the same. IF Michel & Octave are the same person than Dawn also supplied me with another three or four generations. Mercy! So do you think Octave and Michel are the same man? Let me know in the comments or zap me a message. I'm curious for any advice that can be offered. I'll keep you posted as I find new documentation.
