FRANCE: Robineau

[Ray148ca]

I am Roger Robineau in Oakville, Ontario Canada.

The first ancestor of my Robineau line arrived in Canada (Nouvelle France/Quebec) around 1700.  His name was Michel Robineau dit Desmoulins.  He was born around 1683.  The Desmoulins add-on is apparently a nom-de-guerre.  Finding out more about that nickname is the subject of research at a later date.

Michel Robineau"s parents on his marriage certificate are shown as Simon Robineau and Anne Robineau (Larche).  They are from the St. Roch parish in Paris.
Simon and Anne are my primary "brick wall" at the moment.  Geneanet has a whole bunch of family trees that end at those two names.

My initial question is what records can i consult to find out how Michel got to Canada?  I have found several ship manifests from that era, but no sign of Michel as a passenger yet.

Any guidance would be appreciated.
 
Roger Robineau

[quisontils]

Hello, Roger,
I am looking some french links about your question.I think it would be difficult to find immediately a record on line. You have a lot of questions and hypotheses to have before. Maybe, your ancestor was a soldiers who combated for the king of France against the king of England. You know in this period there was a lot of wars in America between french and brittain. They combated from north of St Laurent to Gulf of Mexico.(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_militaire_du_Canada)
Then, your ancestor can be a military, can arrived not at Canada but other parts of America.
Maybe, you can have an idea if you find where he was married, in France before his travel in or America and if yes, where. If he was married in France, probably he wasn't a soldiers but you know,in this period it was not usually to migrate with the family.(http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonisation_fran%C3%A7aise_des_Am%C3%A9riques)
The name Robineau dit Desmoulins is not a name of war. It was usually in the past to have this sort of surname in France. With this system, we can often do the difference beetween two brother's descendances. ( Maybe the Robineau, son of Robineau was named Desmoulins because they lived near of a mill). Name of war was only during the WII. So you can search yours ancestors before Michel's parents with the names of Robineau or Robineau dit desmoulins or Desmoulins.
I think it would be interesting for you to know the job of Michel or his parents. I'll look if it's possible to find anythink about this. If you want.
Good luck.

[Ray148ca]

Hi

Thank You for the response. 

I have a few more details that i probably should have included in my original post.  Michel Robineau dit Desmoulins was married in Montreal in 1710.The records i have say he was baptized at the St. Roch Parish in Paris around 1683.  His mariage record specifically says his father's name was Simon Robineau.  He would have arrived in Nouvelle France in the early 1700's but have found no trace of his arrival yet.  After his mariage in Canada in 1710 he had several children and as you indicated some did keep the Robineau name and others kept the Desmoulins name.

According to records at Archives Canada "Dit names" were quite common in Nouvelle France in the early days of the colony.  I do have several theories as to where the "dit Desmoulins" name comes from one of which involves a hill that was called "coline Des Moulins".  This hill was in central Paris (adjacent to St. Roch church) and was apparently "removed" in the 1650's.  This makes for an interesting theory. I have a few more theories on my blog at www.robineau.ca.  The 'Dit " names were more common in Nouvelle France until the mid-1800's when the practice of using "dit" names seemed to almost disappear.  Their are also theories about why this happened as well.

My brick wall at the moment are Michel's parents  who were Simon Robineau and Anne Robineau (Larche).  They would have been living somewhere around the St. Roch church in central Paris in the late 1600's.   I am hoping that a Robineau in France eventually does their tree and they come up to the same ancestor.  That would be exciting.   

I look forward to any further comments you may have.

Merci

Roger Robineau

[quisontils]

Hello!
I can see you have many informations!
It seems the hill of St Roch had only one mill but, near of St Roch, at 6 km of this church of saint Roch, it  was the "butte des moulins" with severals mills.
It's a very nice place in Paris and so very ol!
Good luck for your research!
Isabelle

[Ray148ca]

Thank you for your guidance.  Yes, Paris is very nice.  We were there last summer and i visited St. Roch.  There is still a lot of information to find, but this will take time.  Some of my questions may never have answers but it will be fun to come up with theories. 

Roger Robineau.

[wjrobin64]

help I have just read the name robineau is translated to Robinett is there anything to this. my ancestors the Robinett's were goldsmiths in Ireland circa 1660. they were among some of the prominent Huguenot craftsmen. can you help me on this ??

bill

[Ray148ca]

No i have never heard that the name translated to Robinett. Do You have any information on your Robinett's and where they came from?

My quest for Robineau ancestors is currently "blocked" in about 1683 in Paris.  I do need to go to the Archives in Paris.  Having said that it is possible that they were Huguenots who fled to Ireland and may have changed their name to Robinett.  But the Robinett theory is new to me.

The other theory i have heard is that the Robineau name was originally Robinovitch and Jewish ancestors sometime in the 1500's changed it to Robineau to avoid persecution.

My first French ancestor is Michel Robineau.  He says he comes from St. Roch parish in Paris and that his parents were Simon and Anne Robineau.  I have no "proof" that this is the case. Further muddying the water is that my Ancestry DNS test results puts my genes as 30% Irish.  The mystery deepens!

If you want to exchange e-mail addresses, we can continue our contact in case we find anything new.  I do have a blog at www.robineau.ca.

Roger Robineau