Seeking Couturiers in Quebec

We recently made a trip to Quebec to look for Kay’s ancestors, the Couturiers. Two brothers had moved to Michigan from Yamaska, Quebec in the 1860s. Yamaska is a village of perhaps 600-800, located in lush farmland midway between Montreal and Quebec City and south of the St. Lawrence. The village is picturesque and overlooks the Yamaska River.

The first photo is a view of the river, facing upstream, taken from the front yard of the church. The second photo shows the view of the village and church steeples from across the river, with cows in the foreground.

Our primary stop was St Michel’s Catholic Church in Yamaska. We found two elderly gentlemen there, the church clerk and the custodian, who spoke almost no English, but who were willing to help. Together they were like an Abbott and Costello routine conducted in French: one tall and disheveled, one short and very neat, both excitable and prone to arm waving and speaking loudly and rapidly to one another. We were enthralled. We learned that the old cemetery and church had been flooded many times and were relocated to the present spot in 1844. No buried Couturiers could be located, and they assured us that no living Couturiers existed in Yamaska. A big disappointment. They were able to produce a death record of Kay’s great-great-grandfather, from 1835.

The photo of the house is included to show the clothesline on pulleys. Almost every house in town had a similar system on the back porch. They were mounted high on the porch with the opposite end high on a tree or telephone pole. This way the back yard could still be used because the clothes were up and out of the way. The user could put the clothes out to dry without getting their feet wet on the lawn. The one in the photo is for the upstairs tenant.