Corrèze to Chambly to Holyoke

Their son, Joseph Philorum Oligny, is where this line arrives — he married Marie-Anna Saurette at Holyoke in 1912. Read his own page for what happened after, or Philorum's own page for the household his son grew up leaving.

Julien signed his own marriage act in 1848 — but not first, and not alone. Four Olignys had signed his sister Clothilde's act four years earlier, his father Isaac among them. Read his own page, including a second marriage that lasted thirteen days.

Isaac's own baptismal act corrected a family record that had carried his age at death two years too old since the burial register was first read. Read his own page for the rest, including a War of 1812 service record this site was able to confirm directly.

Both fathers stood in the room for this wedding. Only one of them could sign his own name.

The immigrant. His dit-name — "the man from the Auvergne" — was the parish's best guess at an accent from a neighboring region; it stuck for six generations before it dropped away. Marie-Françoise was born at Fort Saint-Fréderic and bound there as an indentured servant at thirteen — not, as an old family account had it, betrothed to an officer. Their marriage contract survives because no notary was within reach of the fort; the chaplain drew it himself, and only a PRDH abstract of that contract has been sighted, not the document itself. A daughter's 1771 baptism at Chambly, sighted directly, does independently confirm the couple as married parents, twelve years on — just not the date or place of the wedding itself. Read his own page for the full correction.

The French wall. Named as Jean-Baptiste's parents on his own 1759 marriage contract — proven as to identity. The French parish record itself has never been sighted, so their own dates remain unconfirmed. Read their own page for the full account of why this generation stays graded Probable.