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COURNOYER/COURNEYA (AND RELATED SPELLINGS) OF TWEED, ONTARIO

Some Descendants of Paul and Catherine (Ethier) Cournoyer, of Sorel, Quebec and Tweed, Ontario

Catholic church records for the Tweed area are in the registers of St. Michael the Archangel, in Belleville, until 1851 (LDS film 1298739).  I haven't been able to find the records from 1851 to 1869.  From 1869, Tweed records are in the registers of Sacred Heart of Mary, in Madoc (LDS film 1298801).  The registers of St. Carthaghs in Tweed begin about 1884 (LDS film 1298805). Other local records appear on LDS film 2032030. The birth, marriage and death records quoted here come from these registers as well as those of St. Pierre-de-Sorel in Quebec (LDS films 1294706 through 1294711). The following lists are based on information found in the church registers noted above, supplemented by census information, and in some cases, World War I military records found at Library and Archives Canada. They certainly contain some mistakes in the names and dates, due to error on my part, or gaps or mistakes in the church and census records. After the families made the move to Tweed, the clergymen and enumerators were English-speaking men who often were not familiar with the French names and who may have attempted to anglicize them, and who certainly misspelled them at times. All of the family members who were born in what is now Quebec were baptized with the last name Cournoyer, but after the move to what is now Ontario, it was spelled in a variety of ways by the officials, and as most if not all of these Cournoyers could not read or write, it is difficult to say when the last name actually changed to Courneya and other variations as far as they were concerned. In short, the names listed here may not be exactly what these people called themselves.

I looked for each of these families in the 1881 Canadian census or 1880 US census, as posted on the LDS website, http://www.familysearch.org. As these names were so often misspelled, they aren't easy to find, so I have indicated the spelling of the names when I have been able to find them in those records.