French names in the
1850 US Census of Aroostook County, Maine

Another complication is that the pronunciation of French in northern Aroostook county (as well as in neighboring parts of Québec and New Brunswick) has its own specificities; thus, Eloi is pronounced roughly like Elway, rather than the Parisian French Elwah. So imagine an English-speaker hearing a French name, in the accent not of Paris but of Madawaska, and trying to figure out how to write it. That's what we're seeing in the 1850 census. Needless to say, many of the names are very difficult to recognize.

Another thing to keep in mind is that in 1850 there was no single, standardized way to spell many names, so even if people could read and write they may have spelled their name differently from others with the same name. This explains much of the variation.

This is only a guide to deciphering the names. For those names for which I have definite information, I have included the correct spellings of the names in the "Remarks" section on the census transcription pages. This page is meant to be a guide, that is, to suggest possible ways that some common names were spelled; and to suggest possible correct spellings for some of the more common names found in the census to help point you in a direction for further research. Before you assume that the equivalents given here are correct for a specific individual, you should find other evidence for that spelling of his/her name.

If you have any other examples, or know specific names in the census, please Thanks.

• Here's a link to the American-French Genealogical Society's "Surname Variations" site; lots of spelling variations for French Canadian Surnames.
• See also Québec GenWeb's list of Anglicized French Canadian surnames

Please note: This is only a guide. You should always check other sources to confirm the actual spelling of names.

First Names

First or given names, if they were common ones, were put down in their English equivalents. Thus Jean became John (and the common name Jean-Baptiste was usually written down as John B.), Edouard - Edward, François - Francis, Michel - Michael, Antoine - Anthony, Henry - Henri, Marie - Mary, etc. Others were written down phonetically according to how the census taker heard them. They were rarely consistent in spelling.

Male names ending in French in -ent were written -a, or -ah, which to English speakers creates an apparently confusing situation of what seem to be female names for people who are marked down as males (sometimes it was written as -o). Thus Flora is Fleurent; Laura, Laurent, etc.

Please note: This is only a guide. You should always check other sources to confirm the actual spelling of names.

"Real names"---> 1850 census version Amable = Ama, Amat, Marble Anastasie = Stausee or Stausie Basile = Bozeel Béloni = William Clement = Clemo Damase = Daumause Donat = Dana Eloi = Elway Fleurent = Flora Gregoire = Gregway Jean-Baptiste = John B. Laurent = Lora Hortense = Octan or Octans Henri = Onry Michel = Mitchell, Mishal, Marshall Nathalie = Tellie, Tallie Narcisse = Nercis Priscille = Presel Prudent = Pruda, Prida, Predan Raphael = Raffel, Roffel Renaud = Runno Simon = Semo Théophile = Tuffer Xavier = Savia, Xavia

1850 census version ---> "real names" Ama, Amat = Amable Bozeel = Basile Clemo = Clement Dana = Donat Elway = Eloi Flora = Florent Gregway = Gregoire John B. = Jean-Baptiste Lora = Laurent Marble = Amable Marshall = Michel Mitchell = Michel Nercis = Narcisse Octan or Octans = Hortense Onry = Henri Presel = Priscille Pruda, Prida, Predan = Prudent Raffel, Roffel = Raphael Runno = Renaud Savia = Xavier Semo = Simon Stausee or Stausie = short for Anastasie Tellie, Tallie = short for Nathalie  Tuffer = Théophile William = Béloni Xavia = Xavier

Last or Family names

As with first names, last names or family names also suffered. Some were written phonetically, a few were "translated" into their English equivalent (Roi into King; Levesque into Bishop).

Here are a few that have stumped me:

Crock mystery solved: This is one of the most common names listed in the French-speaking parts of Aroostook in the 1850 census, but I couldn't figure out what name it was... To find out, click on the link.

In addition to the problem of spelling French names, there is also the challenge of what are known as "dit names"; that is, in some families two different last names were used either together or separately. Thus, someone with the last name of Roy may have been listed under Roy, or under Voisine, or under both. Following the list of misspelled names is a list of dit name equivalents. For more information on dit names see FrancoGêne's page on Dit Names and Linda Jones's page on dit names.

Please note: This is only a guide. You should always check other sources to confirm the actual spelling of names.

"Real names" ---> 1850 census version Albert = LBare, LBaire Ayotte = Yott Beaulieu = Boulzier Bouchard = Bushu, Busheaud, Bushore, Bushur Bourgoin = Bengen, Bergorane, Burguine Chassé = Shossa Chorette = Shaurette Corbain, Corbin = Carbah, Curbey Cormier = Cormea, Cormie Corneau = Corno Cyr = Crock (How do you get Crock from Cyr?) Deschênes = Dushane Dionne = Yohn, Sionre Dubé = Dubay Dubois = Dubeau Duperé = Duprey Émond = Emmo Gagnon = Gormeo or Gorneo Gaudreau = Gudrow Guérette = Gerist, Gonit, Gaist Hébert = Albert Jalbert = LBaire, LBare Labbé = Libbie Laferrière-Charron = Laffere Langlais = Longley Langlais-Wabore = Webber Lapointe = Sharp Lavoie = Loveway Marquis = Makee Massé = Mossey Mercure = Marcus Michaud = Mishoe, Mishauld, Misheaud, Misheau Nadeau = Neddo Parent = Parrow, Parrah Pelletier = Pelka Picard = Pecor Plourde = Pleward, Pluard Proulx = Prew Raymond = Remmo Roy = King Saucier = Sosee St.Pierre = Stone Tardif = Tardy Thériault = Tarrio, Terrio Vaillancourt = Veancoeur, Veancoe Ouellette = Willet, Willett, Willot

1850 census version ---> "real names" Albert = Albert, Hébert Bengen = Bourgoin Bergorane = Bourgoin Boulzer = Beaulieu Bushu, Busheaud, Bushore, Bushur = Bouchard Carbah = Corbain, Corbin Cormea, Cormie = Cormier Corno = Corneau Crock = Cyr (How do you get Crock from Cyr?) Curbey = Corbin Dubay = Dubé Dubeau = Dubois Duprey = Duperé Dushane = Deschênes Emmo = Émond Gaist = Guérette Gerist = Guérette Gonit = Guérette Gormeo or Gorneo = Gagnon Gudrow = Gaudreau King = Roy Laffere = Laferrière-Charron LBare, LBaire = Albert, Jalbert Libbie = Labbé Longley = Langlais Loveway = Lavoie Makee = Marquis Marcus = Mercure Mishoe, Mishauld, Misheaud, Misheau = Michaud Mossey = Massé Neddo = Nadeau Parrow, Parrah = Parent Pecor = Picard Pelka = Pelletier Pleward, Pluard = Plourde Prew = Proulx Remmo = Raymond Robishaw = Robichaud Shaurette = Chorette Sharp = Lapointe Shossa = Chassé Sionre = Dionne Sosee = Saucier Stone = St.Pierre Tardy = Tardif Tarrio, Terrio = Thériault Veancoeur, Veancoe = Vaillancourt Webber = Langlais-Wabore Willet, Willett, Willot = Ouellette Yohn = Dionne Yott = Ayotte

Dit names

Beaulieu-Hudon Bélanger-Lafèbvre Deschênes-Miville Dessain-St.Pierre Faucas-Raymond Grace/Grasse-Dick Grivois-Guédry

Guérette-Dumont Labrie-Migneault Laferrière-Charron Laplante-Madore Leclerc-Francoeur Martin-Beaulieu Massé-Gravel Migneau-Labrie

Talbot-Gervais Roy-Voisine Roy-Desjardins Roy-Voisine-Desjardins Roy-Lauzier Sansfaçon-Consigny Sirois-Duplessis St-Germain-Cureux

Cyr and Crock

One of the most common names among the French-speakers in the 1850 US Census of Aroostook was written "Crock". I was very confused by this, since I had never seen that name among the French names of the region, and while the census taker did invent spellings for some names, it didn't remotely sound like any of the names of the region. Separately, I noticed that there were very few families with the name Cyr in the 1850 census, which was strange given how common that name is. I didn't put the two together though.

Then, I found this in an article on early settlers of the Madawaska region:

"...members of the Cyr family [were living in 1783] . . . just above the Keswick stream, on the opposite side of the St. John at a place known as Crock's Point. Tradition says that the older Cyr used to manufacture large quantities of maple sugar in the disposal of which he used smilingly to ask his patrons -- 'Vout-ils en avoir de quoi à croquer?' But whether the name of Croque, or Crock, really originated in this way is hard to tell. It is at least certain that for a considerable while the sobriquet largely supplanted the name of Cyr, but in later years has gradually fallen into disuse." Raymond, p.345

Here's an alternative explanation (thanks to Ken Roy for forwarding this to me):

This Jean Cyr is also known as Jean-Baptiste "Crock". He earned this nickname either from his habit of always carring a pitch fork or of saying that he would chew his enemies.  (Translators note: from "croc" meaning hook or a form of pitchfork and "croquer" meaning to crunch or devour). (From Father Thomas Albert's The History of Madawaska, An English Translation by Sister Therese Doucette and Dr. Francis Doucette, Madawaska historical Society Second Edition, 1990, pp.35-36)

Mystery solved. If you are looking for Cyr in the census, check under the name Crock.

Return to the 1850 US Census of Aroostook County Page
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Last revised 9 Jan 2007
© 2003-2007 by C. Gagnon