♀Anne Le Vavasseur

Anne Le Vavasseur was the mother of Félix Dufresne, a surgeon in New France. She was the tenth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through her son Félix Dufresne (about 1633–1683).

Her name in the records

No date ofher own life is known. What survives is her name, set down when her son married. In December 1665 Félix made a marriage contract with Elisabeth Lefebvre before a notary, and the contract, as transcribed, names Marin Thuné as his father and Anne Le Vavasseur as his mother. Félix’s family name was Thuné, or Tune, with Dufresne as a by-name; he practised as a surgeon in the colony and was buried at Batiscan in 1683. The family probably came from Brittany.

Notes

The record

The parent link rests on the index of the Québec parish and notarial records, whose entry for the 1665 contract lists “TUNE, Marin” as the father and “LEVASSEUR, Anne” as the mother of the groom. The wording of the contract on the parents is quoted under Origin. Fournier’s biographical dictionary of Bretons in New France (1981) gives Félix as the son “du mariage de Marin Thuné et d’Aline Levasseur”. Fournier dates the contract 21 December 1665; an online transcription of Roy’s inventory of the notarial records dates it 28 December.

Her name

The index writes her name Anne Levasseur. Fournier calls her Aline Levasseur, and Jetté’s dictionary of 1983 has Anne Levavasseur. The transcription of Roy’s inventory gives “fils de Marin Thuné et de Anne Levanasseur, de Bretagne”. The marriage contract, as a FamilySearch source note transcribes it, gives her as “Dame Anne Le Vavasseur”, the spelling this bio uses.

Origin

The marriage contract, as a FamilySearch source note transcribes it, describes Félix as “fils d’honorable homme Marin Thuné et de Dame Anne Le Vavasseur, de la paroisse St-Lohier, vicomté d’argentan, province de Bretagne”. Argentan was a Norman vicomté, and Saint-Loyer-des-Champs in the Orne lies within it; family trees place the family at Argenton in Landunvez, Brittany, which fits “de Bretagne” alone. Fournier gives Félix’s birthplace as the bourg of Saint-Lohier, “Argontan” (Bretagne). The place is not resolved, and no record of either parent’s own origin is known.