♂Marin Thuné

Marin Thuné was the father of Félix Dufresne, a surgeon in New France. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Félix Dufresne (about 1633–1683).

His name in the records

No date ofhis own life is known, and nothing of his trade. What survives is his name, set down when his 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.

The names

Fournier writes his name Marin Thuné; the index writes Tune. His wife appears as Anne Levasseur in the index, Aline Levasseur in Fournier and Anne Levavasseur in Jetté’s dictionary of 1983. The transcription of Roy’s inventory gives “fils de Marin Thuné et de Anne Levanasseur, de Bretagne”.

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.