France: Smagge, Matton & Roseau

[Tati]

I'm adding the deaths of Xavier's parents.

9 Feb 1836 Bollezeele, p1060/1164
Death registration Marie Catherine Cécile Ryngaert. Died 8 Feb. aged 79, rentière (annuitant), born and residing Bollezeele. Parents François Ryngaert and Marie Catherine Charle, millers, who died Bollezeele. Widow of Michel Matton, hop merchant, who died Bollezeele.   
Informants:
Bertin Augustin Bazile Baert, 56, cloth merchant, son of the deceased
François Xavier Ryckelynck(?), 36, cultivateur (farmer), "son by marriage" of the deceased, both residing Bollezeele.

15 May 1811 Bollezeele,p575/1117
Death Michel François Bouduin Matton (died the previous day), married man, farmer, residing Bollezeele, born Zegerscappel, aged 61, son of Bouduin Matton and Micheline Baers who both died in Bollezeele.
Informants:
François Langaigne, ménager*, 61, residing Bollezeele, son-in-law of the deceased
Bertin Baert, iron merchant, 30, residing Bollezeele, stepson of the deceased

and the marriage of Catherine's parents:

Buysscheure p390/1334, 8 Nov 1822
Jean Constant Smagge, born in Ebblinghem on 11 Jan 1791, residing Ebblinnghem, thatcher. Parents Pierre Jean Smagge who died in Ebblinghem on 5 Jan 1791 and Rosalie ?Hébaut? who died in Ebblinghem on 6 Mar 1813.
Ruffine Françoise Debeusscher, born Buysscheure on 26 Mar 1782. Father Pierre Jean Debeusscher, aged 80 years and 6 months, occupation "ménager"*, attends the wedding. Mother Marie Antoinette Waets, died Buysscheure on 5 Jan 1822 (death p374 aged 69, born Lederzeele, parents Pierre Dominique Waets and Isabelle Samappel). Ruffine Françoise is widow of Pierre Constantin Dehorter who died 1st Oct 1809 in Buysscheure.
Among the witnesses : Pierre Jacques Debeusscher, 31, bride's brother, grocer, residing Buysscheure

*I'm finding several meanings for this occupation, probably small farmer

[jorose]

http://anom.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr
 - has one reference to Pierre Louis Roseau as a colonist in Algeria (Base nominative Personnes et Familles) and also it appears some records (not name searchable) under etat civil including for El Arrouch.  I did not see any death records for Roseau there but they might be registered elsewhere - or depending on the circumstances, not properly registered at all.  Not all years have indexes, there are no ten-year indexes, and some of the early 1850s records appear to have been damaged.

I'm guessing they went as colonists (colons/pied-noir), but perhaps Pierre (and some other children) died there and Catherine was left with Coralie (a babe in arms) trying to make her way home to France from Algeria.  As for the " 3 boys in france" - it doesn't seem that there's space for them between the marriage and Pierre's death in Algeria, but as Pierre was married before he married Caterine perhaps there were one or two boys from his first marriage? Previous wife of Pierre Louis Roseau was Delphine Fidelie Reine St. Jean who died 1846 in Buysscheure - she was  b. Rubrouck, aged 30 when she died. They married in 1841 in Rubrouck.

Info on where they were in Algeria:
http://fr.geneawiki.com/index.php/Alg%C3%A9rie_-_El-Arrouch

Note the name of the railway station. If you go back to the records and look for "Robertville" rather than El-Arrouch, there is one record for this family.

(page 11) Amelie Roseau b. 8 Sep 1843 at Niollet, Dunkerque, Nord, daughter of Pierre Louis Roseau, deceased and Delphine St. Jean, deceased, died at the home of her stepmother, 25 Oct 1850.

Nieurlet is probably the location of this girl's birth, but records for that commune don't seem to be online.  The timing/location seems to confirm Catherine's statement about the death of her first husband at the time of her second marriage, though.

[Tati]

Coralie's marriage (found the reference on a tree at geneanet) took place in Eringhem on 14 Sep 1869, p102/310.
Henri Félix Florimond Decoo - Eugénie Coralie Roseau
Henri born 27 May 1841 in Eringhem.
Eugénie Coralie Roseau, cabaretière (innkeeper), born in Buysscheure on 23 Aug 1849, daughter of Pierre Louis Roseau (died El Arrouch Algeria 30 Aug 1850) and Catherine Barbe Lucie Smagge, cabaretière, residing Dunkerque, attending.

Birth of a daughter in Dunkerque, 4 Oct 1869: Berthe Hélène Marie Decoo, p502/1070. Parents residing rue Saint-Bernard in Dunkerque.

[jorose]

Looking at both the El Arrouch and Robertville (http://fr.geneawiki.com/index.php/Alg%C3%A9rie_-_Robertville ) pages it seems that cholera and earthquakes were responsible for many deaths among the early French colonists in the area, but also the page on Robertville mentions that the location, close to the mountains, exposed the settlers to attacks.

Found the birth of the girl Amalie Roseau who died in Algeria, in Lederzeele in 1843 (p. 649/67).  Haven't spotted any more Roseau children (Eugenie's full or half siblings).

Her daughter Berthe that Tati found may have married in Saint-Pol-sur-Mer.
http://www.gennpdc.net/releves/tab_mari.php?args=Saint-Pol-sur-Mer,DECOO

http://crgfa.free.fr/jfichaux/DUNK0058.html#29-51
  - also in the 1906 census of Dunkerque.

More children for Henri and Eugenie are found in Petit-Synthe.
Virginie Alphonsie Decoo, 23 Apr 1871, Petit-Synthe, p. 348/98
Albert Eugene Decoo, 8 Nov 1872, Petit-Synthe. p.509/157
Victor Benjamin Decoo, 19 Feb 1875, Petit-Synthe p. 837/32
Irenee Henri Decoo, 15 Dec 1877, Petit-Synthe p. 69/242

Irenee Henri's military records (matricules militaires - États signalétiques), no 1390, are in Dunkerque, class of 1897, volume 3 page 653.

[Chezza84]

wow, thank you guys so much, you are awesome.

[jorose]

It's an interesting story! I hope she was happy in her second marriage and with her children in Australia - she'd earned a comfortable old age.

It struck me that there was apparently a cholera epidemic in 1849 - the same year some of my Cornish relatives went through one, what was with 1849, anyway? - so they may have been among the families sent to repopulate the area.  Wherever you see a cholera epidemic that tells you that the conditions your ancestors were living in were not good - particularly their access to fresh, clean, water.

Probably the Roseaus were poor in France and hoped for - or had been promised - better things in Algeria, perhaps the opportunity to own their own land.  As was typical of 1800s colonisation schemes, the difficulties would have been downplayed when recruitment was taking place in France.

Among the issues mentioned here - reliance on the government for loans/equipment, swamps, brambles, continuous looting and night attacks, buildings promised but not delivered, lands promised that turned out to be already occupied, drought, cold, grasshoppers, dysentry, malaria...

Des petits colons : détenteurs de concession de 4 à 12 hectares, tributaires de l'administration pour l'octroi de prêts et de matériel, parfois assignés au rôle de métayers des grands concessionnaires. Les conditions souvent misérables dans lesquelles ils vivaient en faisait une proie désignée pour les maladies, dues à l'insalubrité du climat.

Ceux-là auront connu les marécages où l'on s'embourbe, les ronces impénétrables, l'hostilité des terres, les pillages incessants, les agressions nocturnes, les constructions promises jamais obtenues, les concessions qui n'en étaient pas, déjà occupées ou vendues en multipropriétés, la sécheresse, le froid et les sauterelles, la malaria, la dysenterie, et le paludisme enfin, qui en 1837 en feront périr plus d'un tiers.

[Chezza84]

It's an interesting story! I hope she was happy in her second marriage and with her children in Australia - she'd earned a comfortable old age.

Catherine 2nd husband Xavier Died in france in 1876, her and the Matton Children went to Australia in 1878. Tho she did end up marrying again in Australia in 1891. She lived to be 83 years of age. She was going to head back to Africa but ended up in Australia as she turned to the protestant church as she was getting no help from the catholic church and the minister told her why not australia as the the queen was offering free passage, and the church helped her with the cost of traverling to england.

[Chezza84]

The letter i have says that her husband and children died from a fever so the cholera epidemic would fit.

[Chezza84]

Could someone translate

Buysscheure 1825 births page 448/1334
Its for Laurent Ambroise Smagge (Catherine's brother as i can make out the fathers name, but cant read the rest)

Thanks