The Raymond Family
                      Pierre Ratier
 Born 1555, in Languedoc, Roussillon, France
                    (no known wife)
         
                      Pierre Ratier
 Born 1585 in Languedoc, Roussillon, France
                     (no known wife)

                   Jehan Raymond
 Born 1605 in Languedoc, Roussilon, France
 Wife : Catherine Rascacoune 1615 France

             Antoine Pierre Raymond
  10-14-1635 Languedoc, Roussillon, France
      Wife : Charlotte Petit 1639 France

            Francois Raymond Ratier
            1662 Roussillon, France
   Wife: Marie Mercadier 1666 Quebec       

       Antoine Francois Raymond Ratier
      8-28-1724, Trois Rivieres, Quebec   
 Wife: Josephete Coltret 4-3-1729 Canada

              Jean Baptiste Raymond
          4-13-1759 Quebec, Canada
         Wife :Marie Antoinette Dumas
          5-8-1766, Quebec, Canada
    
  NOTE  Marie Antoinette was the
 granddaughter of Marie Magdeleine Panis
 a Meskwaki tribal member. see Chauvette
 family info.


             Simon Ratier Raymond
            1796 in Lower Canada
      Wife : Issabelle Richard (no dob)

     Joseph Eusebe / Eusele Raymond
           1836 Quebec Canada
     Wife ; Elmire Provost 1836, Quebec
             
                Joseph Raymond
            1858 Quebec, Canada
         Wife : Mary (no last name)

               Lorenzo Raymond
           1900, Quebec, Canada
        Wife : Clarenne Bernaquez 
           Born Quebec, Canada 
            
         Roland Wilfred Raymond
    June 1, 1925 - january 14, 1982
      Born in Sprague Connecticut
   WIfe : Anita Depres,  born 1929
          in Hanover Connecticut

    Lorenzo "Lonnie" Rolland Raymond
 September 13, 1947 - November 1989
       Born in Norwich, Connecticut
   Wife :  Joan Bacak, born 1949 in 
                  Los Angeles Ca

               Steven Raymond
       1979 Norwich, Connecticut
            Wife : Danielle Lenn


Marie Magdeleine Panis Chauvette
Who is this woman that I have devoted a section to?  She was a member of the Meswaki nation
born in 1697 and was what the french called esclave(slave).  This was sort of shocking to hear when I first reseached her.  For one thing...My fathers family had always expressed their "French-ness" if you will.   In other words they were proud of their french heritage.  Proud to be 100% french.  Or so I thought.
How I found her was almost luck.  I decided to do some searching into some of my distant ancesters wifes.  Why not right?  They deserve acknowlegment too.  They are just as important as the men that carry the name. 
So I started with Jean Baptiste.  Born April 13, 1759 in Quebec, Canada.  He was married to a Marie Antoinette Dumas.  Born May 8, 1766.  Marie's parents were Jean Baptiste Dumas, Born in Nuevelle France(Quebec, Canada) on Febuary 13, 1733.  He was married to Ursele Chauvette. She was born
in Nicolet Quebec in March of 1732.  Ursele's parents were Pierre Chauvette, born May 25, 1689, and Marie Magdeleine Panis.  Born sometime in 1697 on the Meswaki nation in Wisconsin. 
Now this caught my eye for no other reason but for the fact someone in my family was born in the US before 1700.  Of course I later found out that Marie Magdeleine was a native american woman of the Meswaki tribe.  She was what the French called "esclave" Slave.  She lived with the Renarde family and as the story tells it she fell in love with a Pierre Chauvette.  They eventually ran away together and Pierre paid off the family for her freedom.  They had many children including my Ursele. 
I did some googling of the Meswaki tribe.  What I found amoung other things that they have a casino, much like the local natives of Connecticut.   I do not know their exact profitability, but I assume they are doing better than generations past.   I would hope this is the case.  I also found out that in order to be a recognized tribal member of the Meswaki tribe your father has to be a active tribal member.  So basically being part of the tribe is not in your blood line, but in your way of life.  Living native.  Being native.   I can respect that. 
   Languadoc, Roussillon France
The Despres Side
Anita's (my grandmother) grandfather's (Pierre Albert Despres)  world war 1 draft card.   It stated that he was born April 3, 1880 and was from Quebec Canada, living in Baltic Connectcut and his nearest relative was his mother Marie Ann Despres.
Marie Anns maiden name was "Beachier".   I found that Pierre was living in Jewett City Connecticut at the time of Rolland's (his son) arrival in the U.S.  So for a while I was just looking in the wrong area.  He obviously moved and was living in baltic.  Anita, my grandmother was born in Hanover.    eventually I found a link that took me all the way to France, but there are many people along the way for me to mention.  
The Despres pedigree line
To make this easier to understand I will start this family tree from the present back in time.  This will be easier to follow.
                               Anita Despres
                            Born April 2, 1929 
                        Sprague Connecticut

          Father                                          Mother
   Rolland Despres                        Albina Despres
July 1, 1900 Quebec              June 12, 1902 Ct U.S.
  April 28, 1969                               July 1, 1984
    Norwich, Ct                                   Hanover Ct

         Father                                          Mother
Pierre Albert Depres              (no known mother)
April 3, 1880 Quebec
  (no death listed)

         Father                                          Mother
Pierre Despres                        Marie Ann Beachier
1849 Quebec                          October 1856 Quebec
 April 12, 1910                         June 25, 1888. Maine

         Father                                          Mother
Pierre Despres                      Margurite Beauregard
 Aug 26, 1816                        1814, Bogat, Quebec
Wedon Quebec                         (no death listed)
 Nov 27, 1856

        Father                                           Mother
Pierre Emmanual                       Francoise Robichaud
Couillard/Despres                      1782, Lislet Quebec
1770, Lislet Quebec                         May 6, 1858
1853. St Hyacinthe                    St Hyacinthe Quebec
       Quebec
 
       Father                                           Mother
Emmanual Couilard                 Elisabeth Dupolo Duval
    Nov 3, 1738,                              June 16, 1749,
   Lislet Quebec                             Lislet Quebec
    Jan 7, 1819                              (no known death)
   Lislet Quebec

       Father                                           Mother
Jean Baptiste Couillard                Reine Caron
     Dec. 26, 1705                           Jan. 6, 1711
  Quebec, Canada                 Lislet, Quebec, Canada
     Feb. 25, 1797                         Sept. 7, 1782
Lislet Quebec, Canada       
 
      Father                                            Mother
Jacques Couillard                    Elisabeth Lemiex
   June 5, 1665                             Feb. 2, 1672
Quebec, Canada                      Quebec, Canada
 August 24, 1737                       August 29, 1739
 Quebec, Canada                     Quebec, Canada

     Father                                            Mother
Louis Couillard                        Genevieve Despres
May 18, 1629                                     1639
     Canada                                        France
Sept. 24, 1678                           May 11, 1706
    Canada                                        Canada

         Father                                       Mother
Guillaume Couillard                 Guillemette Hebert
       1591                                            1608
Bretagne France                             France
   May 4, 1663                             Oct. 20, 1684
     Canada                                       Canada










       Father                                        Mother
 Andre Couillard                      Jehanne Basset
      1560                                       Jan 19, 1591
St Malo, Normandie                Normandie France             
(no death date)                           (no death date)

         Father                                      Mother
Jean Guillaume Couillard       Heriette Boullain
       1530                                        Feb. 6, 1540
Normandie France                         France
    ( No death date)               (no death date, listed as in the 
                                                 Kingdom of France)

       Father                                        Mother
Jean Louis Collard                   Marie Joseph Gilot
    (no birth date)                    1500 Numar Belgium   
   1530 France                            1530 France     

      Father                                         Mother
Antonie Collard                       Marie Joseph Huet
      1440                                 1445, Numar Belgium   
                                                 May 7, 1448 Belgium


           
 







       
    






Footnote of Guillaume Couillard...
                         Guillaume Couillard was born in Fance in 1591 and was believed to be one of the original settlers of Quebec.  He was a personal friend of Samual Champlain and was willed land to him in Champlains will.  Before that, Couillard was also given 100 acres of land by King Louis XIV
He married Guillemette Herbert, daughter of Louis Hebert, and Marie Rollet.  Louis also willed land to Guillaume.   There is a statue of him on the land that Lious and Guillaume owned.  There is also a street in Quebec named after him.
French Noblility

           Rene Provost
Born  1652 in Saint Laurent Parish in Paris, France.  Rene Provost was the son of Nicolas
Provost and Ann St Amond.    He is noted in the page below as a French Nobleman.  This may explain his lengthy trail of travel. as stated he was born in Paris, traveled to Quebec and that is where he and his wife Ann Daudelin had their children, Marie Ann, Pierre( my 7X great grandfather), Marie Angelique, Francois, and Rene. 
Rene later traveled to the eastern coast of Africa to the island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean.  First colonized by the ducth, the french later took it over and established sugar plantations with the slave labor from Africa.  Rene Lived his last days on this island.

 Who Were the Raymonds of Languedoc?

(my 8th great grandfather)
In order to understand who the Raymonds  were, you have to look at where they came from.  Languedoc.  Occitania.  An area of land with so much history I don't know where to begin.  First off,  they have cave paintings in Occitania that date back 30,000 years.   600 bc the greeks established colonies and vineyards.  60 BC the Romans establish towns such as Nimes.  300 AD the Visigoths  invaded.  700 ad the Moors invaded.   One hundred years later the Franks invaded and took over the Languedoc.  During medieval times the land was ruled by the Counts of Toulouse known as the Raymondines. Establishing the Occitan language. This is where"Languedoc" comes from. "Language of the Oc".   These Counts, the Raymondines ruled since the first crusades of Jerusalem.  Ramon IV established the county of Tipoli just north of Jerusalem.  Before the crusades he fought in Spain pushing the Moors out of Europe where he
lost one of his eyes.   The county of Tripoli was passed down from Raymond to Raymond until the muslims took it over.  Raymond III was the Count at the time of the invasion of Tripoli by the muslims.  Raymod VI was the Count of Toulouse at the time of the crusades against the Cathars.  
 
                                                 Quote From :      http://www.cathar.info/1206_crusade.htm

"The Albigensian Crusade was a Crusade against the people of the Languedoc which began in 1208. It is also known as the Cathar Crusade. Like all crusades it was a war, declared by the Pope, ( Innocent III), backed by the Roman Church with promises of remission of sins and a guranteed place in heaven. Why is it called the Albigensian Crusade rather than the Cathar Crusade? In order to answer this, it is important to remember that Cathar is only of many names the Roman Church invented for members of this particular brand of Gnostic Dualism. Among many other names, they were called Albigensians, from the (probably erroneous) belief that they were concentrated in the town of Albi. The term Cathar has become the standard term for them only in recent times.

At Montsegur roughly 225 men, women and children were burned alive.  There are historical records that show 65 of the names that parished that day.  8 out of the 65 were Raymonds.  Though  Raymond VI was not a cathar, he sympothized with their plight, and was punished for doing so. was the fall of the Raymondines as well. 

My belief is that the Raymonds that I am related to may be related to the Counts of Toulouse, or related to the parished cathars of the Languedoc.  Or both....   I have tried to research where the surname Raymond comes from, but nothing seems to fit this particular line of Raymonds.  There are many versions of Raymond   Another quote from http://www.midi-france.info/

" the Counts were named Ramon, an Occitan name which is the same in modern Spanish, more familiar as Raymond in  English and Raimond in French".




Much of the following information is credited to the following website dedicated to languedoc
                                                         http://www.midi-france.info/
 I am the third generation of Raymonds born in the United States.  My great grandfather Lorenzo Raymond was born in Drummondville, Quebec in 1900.  He moved the to US in 1924 and had his first and only child, Roland Wilfred Raymond in 1925.  Lorenzo, his wife Clarenne(Bernaquez), and his son Roland lived on River street, and then on Main street in Baltic Connecticut.  Roland grew up in Baltic.
He was either born with, or developed polio as a child and had use of only one arm yet managed to get
his pilots license and then had it taken away for flying it under the Baltic bridge.  He married Anita Despres, also from Baltic, Connecticut.  Anita was born in 1929, daughter of Roland and Albina Despres.  Roland and Anita had three children.  Lorenzo Roland Raymond (my father) in 1947.  Also brother Gerard, and sister Darlene. 
From the port of Montreal immigration records of Joseph Raymond entering the US with
his son Lorenzo, his daughter Antoinette, and  two others. Leo, and Aleric Raymond.Possible
cousins of Lorenzo. 

Francois Raymond Ratier was the first Raymond (of my family) born in North America.  born in 1695 in Champlain, Quebec, and dying in 1778 in Nicolet, Quebec.  This will start a long line of Raymonds born in Nicolet.  Not exclusively,
but many Raymonds were born there.  Francois' father was also Francois, but he is not listed as a Raymond, how ever his father Pierre Antoine was a Raymond.  It seems to me that  Raymond and Ratier's are linked back and forth as the family tree below will show.

Raymond IV of Toulouse.  Leader of the first crusades of Jerusalem. 
The following video is a view of  Languedoc, France.  The origin of the Raymond Family
Raymond
surname, found in England and France, derives from the Old Norman/French personal name "Raimund", "Raimond" or the Old Germanic personal name "Raginmund", which is composed of the Germanic elements "ragin", counsel and "mund", protection. English variants of the surname include Raymont, Rayment and Raiment. The personal name is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Raimundus" in Essex and "Reimundus" circa 1121 - 1148, in Suffolk, according to the Feudal Documents from the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. The surname first appears in the late 11th Century (see below). One William Reimunt was recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Hampshire, in 1207, and the Pipe Rolls of Kent list an Ernald Reimund in 1208. Sir Thomas Raymond (1627 - 1683) became a judge on the exchequer bench in 1679 and later was knighted and transferred to the common pleas and King's bench. Robert Raymond (1673 - 1733) Lord Chief Justice of the King's bench was granted a Coat of Arms, which depicts a chevron between three gold eagles, with a rose between two red fleur-de-lis on a red chief, all on a black shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Giraldus Reimundus, which was dated 1086, in the "Domesday Book of Essex", during the reign of King William 1st, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Raymond paternal pedigree
Surname
__
  Lorenzo "Lonnie" Raymond
             
1947-1989

_
Royal "Gateway" Ancestor
A gateway ancestor is a link through your liniage that relates you to someone of interest.
Usually Royal ancestry.  In this case you could say this is the Raymonds Gateway to
Royalty. 
        First, Jean Baptiste Raymond Married Josephette Coltret, the daughter of Pierre Coltret and Marie Louise Therrien.  Marie Louise"s parents were Jean Baptiste Therrien,
and Marguerite Laspron.  Jean Baptiste was the son of one of the most contraversial
women in New France.  The daughter of Elie Rigaud and Suzan Gugast, Judith Rigaud
was born in 1633 in Saintonge, France.  One of the first few "Kings Daughters" to come to new france she was decendant of the Royal House of Rohan through her Mothers Gugast
side.  her mother died when Judith was just about 17 and she then went on to New France.  There is a great website and book "the musket and the cane" that documents
Judiths ups and downs in the colony. 
"There is some controversy as to whether this Jean Therrien (also spelled Terrien) carried the nickname of dit Duhaime (so that his full name would be Jean Therrien dit Duhaime).

Official city records of Dieppe, France describe him as both Jean Terrien and:

"DUHEMME ou Duhaime, Jean dit Terrien-Laplanche, né à Saint-Jacques de Dieppe, de Jean et de Marie Elie, épousa, le 26 janvier 1667 , aux Trois-Rivières, Judith Rigaud. 3 enfants."

Therrien was a native of Saint-Jacques de Dieppe in France (1644-1675) and twelve years Judith's junior.29 He agreed to live with, and support, the six surviving Lemaistre children. They were married at Trois-Rivières.

On November 6, 1667, they had a first child together, Dominique, but he died soon after birth. Records show that the infant was buried in December of the same year.

Retrieving the comfort and financial security of days past would be a long struggle for Judith. Trois-Rivieres court records show that in February 13, 1668, she was unable to pay an invoice for wheat received. Her financial distress culminated in the summer of 1668 when she was sued, again, before the court of the Conseil souverein in Trois-Rivieres (painting of the Conseil Souverain by C. Huot). Curiously, and again showing how personal and litigious relationships often overlapped in New France, one of the petitioners against her was La Rochelle merchant and husband of Charles' godmother, Arnault Péré.

According to court records, Judith argued that she had contracted the debts while totally unaware of her husband's death and fully expected to return to a prospering business. She told the court that she returned to Trois-Rivieres only to find that most of their property had been seized or stolen and that she had used what little was left to settle a number of the more pressing debts. At present, she said, she had barely enough left to support her children and was in a state of very great poverty.30

The petitioners were not impressed. They told the court that Rigaud still possessed a number of items of considerable value which she refused . to sell or part with, including a bed:

" ... evaluated at five hundred pounds and sumptuous clothes, and that she bartered merchandise with the Indians for which she has fine hides, which she hid so as to defraud them of their just due."

The court sympathized with Judith Rigaud and granted her a three year reprieve. Judith was pregnant even as the court judgment was being read. Jean Terrien (1669-1759) was born in Trois-Rivieres on March 17, 1669.

In the fall of 1670, Jean Therrien left on a trading expedition, leaving behind Judith, who was pregnant again. But Jean Therrien dit Duhaime never returned from his expedition. It is assumed he died accidentally during the trip.

And so, Judith Rigaud was a widow again and on April 5, 1671, she gave birth to her last child, Louis-Michel Duhaime dit Terrien. The Trois-Rivieres civil registry records the birth of Louis-Michel as illegitimate even though the father's name was included in the record of baptism as Jean Duhaime. One historian speculates that because the father Jean Duhaime was more commonly known in his lifetime as Jean Therrien, the newly arrived priest, Hilarion Guerin erroneously concluded the baby was illegitimate.31

Judith was absent when the baby was baptised. Otherwise, she might of set the record straight. Other historians speculate that another Jean Duhaime did live nearby and was in fact the father of the child.

Judith kept the family trading operation in business in spite of the burden of ten children at home. Business had begun to payoff for her, finally. According to the census of 1667, the household lived on a 30-acre farm, employed two servants and had five heads of cattle. It is surprising that she managed to stave off, under these circumstances, the legal suit of 1668.

This formidable women, at times wife, mother and fur trader, persevered and continued the trading businesses started with her two ex-husbands.

This is attested to by court documents of the jurisdiction of Cap-de- la-Madeleine where three times, between 1670 and 1671, reference is made to suits between her and local tradesmen. "

Judith Rigaud
Beziers and the invasion by the Crusaders
of the North.  The story of Raymond Roger.
Lorenzo Joseph Raymond
_ 
 _
Drouin records of Quebec are the life blood of geneology research for French Canadians.  These Drouin records documented all aspects of the colonists lives, such as birth, marriage, and death. The following are a collection I have gathered and pasted together to show the generations of Raymonds in Quebec.
Drouin records