Johann Becker dit Blondin died in Percé, Québec on May 25, 1817, at the age of 88.1 That places his birth about 1729.
The September 1, 1766 marriage record for Johann Becker and Marie Jeanne David in the parish register of Nôtre Dame de Québec2 tells us a number of things.
First, Johann was from "Wislock en allemagne" (now, Wiesloch, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) and Marie was a native of Gaspé.
Second, at the time of their marriage, both were residents of Québec City.
Third, Johann's father is Matthias (Mathieu) Becker, deceased, and his mother is Franziska (Françoise) Vichetin. Marie's parents are Jean David and Françoise Michel-dit-Olivier.
Fourth, the witnesses were Johann's friends, Jean Boucher and Salomon Petit, and Marie's friends, Charles Auclair and Joseph Harnois.
Finally, his signature provides us with the correct spelling of his family's name.
Among these data are both clues for further research and some unlikely elements which have to be explained.
First, consider Johann's origins.
Undoubtedly, he was from Germany, but probably he was not born in Wiesloch.3 However, it was from Wiesloch that he left Germany to join the French army, most likely the Régiment d'infanterie de la Reine. Aldo Brochet's review of the witnesses for the Becker-David wedding: "reveals a deep military connection to the regiments serving at Quebec in the Seven Years War. These regiments were Béarn, Berry, La Sarre (Saarland), La Reine, and Languedoc, many officers of which returned to France in September 1760."4
It is not clear whether Johann was in the army as a soldier, or practising his trade, tailoring5. Certainly, the Régiment de la Reine's muster lists, from 1746 to 1789, include several tailors (none of whom is named).6
Second, consider his residency in Québec City.
Becker had been living in this city prior to his marriage (September 1766) and continued to live there, for over fourteen more years, until after December 1780. His presence is attested to by the register of Nôtre Dame de Québec, which includes (besides the record of his marriage) the records of the baptisms of the first eight children and the records of the burials of two of these children.7 Moreover, Becker signed the records of the marriage and the eight baptisms.
Third, consider his name.
With the exception of the signature in the marriage record, he consistently signs "Johannes Becker".8 The marriage record signature looks more like "Johannes Pecker". Leaving aside the possibility of a groom's nervousness, this might be explained by the fact that, in Gothic handwriting, the capital "B" and "P" are very similar.
In a parish register, in the left margin beside the record, there is an entry stating the kind of record ("B" for baptism; "M" for marriage; and "S" [sépulture] for burial). Often there will be a number which indicates the count from the beginning of the year. Finally there will be the name of the child who was baptized, the bride and groom who were married, or the person who was buried.
Father Mennard, the priest who wrote the marriage record, spelled the name "Beckre", in the margin, and "Peckre", for the groom and for his father, in the record, itself. In each case, the "P" seems to be superimposed on a "B". My conjecture is that Father Mennard, after seeing Becker's signature, "corrected" his own spelling of the initial letter of the surname, in the record, but he did not change the spelling in the margin. Why he used the "re" ending is unknown.
However, that "re" ending seems to have spawned a further error. The PRDH on-line report of the data for the record of the Becker-David marriage has the groom's surname as "Peckve". A close examination of the actual record shows that nowhere does the letter "v" appear in anyone's spelling. Why has PRDH changed "r" to "v"? Such an error is egregious.9
And what are we to make of the fact that, often, in parish registers,10 Johann and his family are called "Becker dit Blondin". Perhaps, during his military career (maybe because he had pale hair), Becker was given "Blondin" as a sobriquet, typical of, and much favoured by, soldiers of that era. In any case, the nickname stuck and continued to be used for a number of generations.11
Finally, we must address the variant spellings of "Becker". Apart from "Beckre/Peckre", discussed above, two other variations appear in the register of Nôtre Dame de Québec. First, Father Lefebvre wrote "Pecker" for Baptism 2, "Becker" for Burial 2, and "Pecker," again, for Baptism 8. Second, Father Pouget wrote "Beicker" for Burial 1 and "Becker" for Baptism 4. And that's it. In eleven records, written by eight different priests, there are four records which use a variant; the remaining seven records use "Becker". As well, both Father Lefebvre and Father Pouget, after using a variant, change to "Becker" for the next record which they wrote (although, Lefebvre does revert to his variation). The trend is toward using Becker's preferred spelling of his name.
Becker moved his family to Percé between 1780 (the last record in the register of Nôtre Dame de Québec) and 1787 (the first record in the Gaspésie).12 During that time, several more children were born: François, about June 1783 and Joseph, about 1785.13 However we have not been able to locate the baptismal records of these later children and so we do not know where the family was between 1780 and 1787.
In the Gaspésie, Becker's name went through several changes.14 While "Becker" can be found in the register of St. Michel de Percé until at least 1822,15 the more usual spelling became "Beaker". Then, about 1837, curé William Dunn, changed the spelling from "Beaker” to "Baker”.16 This was the final change. Some of the family use only "Blondin", but the rest seem to have accepted the change, and the "Baker" spelling has persisted to this day.17
Fourth, consider some other problematic names in the marriage record.
Father Mennard provides the only known instance of Marie David being called "Jeanne". There are times, later in her life, when she and her sister, Anne, seem to exchange names, to the confusion of genealogists. But "Jeanne" has not been found again.
Where might "Jeanne" have come from? The groom, Johann, would have been called "Jean". His father-in-law, Marie's father, was Jean David. As well, there was the witness, Jean Bauché. Perhaps Father Mennard intended to write "Anne", but with so many "Jeans" present in his mind, he wrote "Jeanne," instead. Whatever the reason, we have yet to find support for this name anywhere else in the record for Marie David.
The bride's mother was definitely Françoise Michel-dit-Olivier.18 However, with the "Beckre/Peckre" variant and the "Jeanne" anomaly, are we to trust Mennard in recording the coincidence that "Françoise" was also the groom's mother's name?
And what of her family name, "Vichetin"? This is most likely the phonetic version of what Mennard heard Becker say. In that case, a lot would depend on Becker's accent, when speaking French, and the accuracy of Mennard's hearing!19
Finally, let us conclude with a final comment on Johann Becker.
Like his future son-in-law, William Molony, and at about the same age, Becker left his native land to join the army of another country, be part of its wars in North America, and arrive in Québec City. Perhaps they met there. After he left the army in 1784, Moloney settled in Percé and, within three years, Becker's family was living there, as well. They certainly met there.
William Moloney married Johann Becker's daughter, Johanna, at Percé, on August 21, 1787 and permanently linked the Maloneys to the Beckers.
Last Updated: 2006-03-30
Webmaster
© copyright 2006: Maloney Family Association