By MICHAEL F. DWYER
Unfinished business from our last installment, Brooks had been included in the previous title along with Wideawake. In my final edit, I omitted the Brooks references because I thought there was enough name juggling for one article. Here’s the connection: Hattie Wideawake married Peter Brooks in East Dorset, Vermont, on September 4, 1883. Ten years earlier, Peter, a recent immigrant from Québec, married Virginia Bradbury with his original surname, Rousseau. Pierre Rousseau, son of Desire Rousseau and Henriette Rondau, came from St. Norbert, Québec. Once established in Vermont, he and his children maintained Brooks as their surname. Rousseau sounds like the French word ruisseau, which means “brook.”
In another instance of dual names as recorded in Brandon town records, Joseph Brooks married Mary Loesa Fosha on October 11, 1875. The marriage register of St. Mary’s Church, however, documents his name as Rousseau. Sometimes human error or mishearing names leads to confusion. Take a look at the state card file of the Brandon marriage of Napoleon LaBroad and Lena LaClare. [St. Mary’s Church correctly writes his name as Rousseau—no known connection to LaBroads who lived in Brandon at that time. He kept the name Rousseau but adopted Paul as his first name. taking that from the second syllable of Na Po leon. I couldn’t resist trying to figure out the name of his mother as written on the index card: Queen Tanka! His baptismal record from 1844 supplied the answer Reine Mercier. [A recurrent name among French Canadian women, Marie Reine, Mary, Queen, for the mother of Jesus. Reine Marie is the wife of Armand Gamache in Louise Penny’s novels.]
Now to the main event: Disorda. During my three decades at Otter Valley, I taught two generations of Disordas—their name one that I had never previously encountered. Initially, it looked like an easy family to document. Sudbury’s 1880 census has as head of household Joseph Disorder, age 60, wife Frances, 45, both born in Canada, and six children, all born in Vermont. Joseph Disordie became a United States citizen in 1870. His naturalization record had no further information other that he had been born in Canada in 1823. Disordie seemed like it would have been the original name, but my go-to reference resource for Québec surnames, Généalogie Québec, had no such name. With that door closing, I was even more stymied as to how Joseph’s family was recorded in Sudbury’s 1870 census.
Joseph Holsey, 39, Frances, 34, both born Canada, with Abram, 16, Lille, 11, Josephine, 7, Julia, 9, Henry, 5, Napoleon 2, all born in Vermont, and in the next household, Abram Parrant, 22, wife Filmena, 20, and daughter, Filmina, 2. Were it not for the names and ages of the children, I would have been hard pressed to conclude this was the same Disorda family. “Filmena’ [Philomene] was Joseph and Frances’s eldest daughter. Seeking answers, I turned once again to the published baptismal records of Brandon’s St. Mary’s Church, wherein more surprises unfolded. Expecting to find Disorda, the cross-referenced name led to Chevalier!
Joseph’s son Napoleon, progenitor of many area Disorda descendants today, was baptized as Napoleon Chevalier on March 14, 1869, son of Augustin Chevalier and Francoise Tremblay. Yes, Augustin Chevalier was the original name of Joseph Disorda. Augustin Chevalier, son of Augustin Chevalier and Marie Dounais/Denis was baptized at St. Hyacinthe on August 27, 1823. His parents moved between Contrecoeur and St. Hyacinthe, birth locations of many area families. Sifting through more Chevalier families, I discovered that Joseph aka Augustin Disorda had two brothers, Olivier and Bruno, who lived in Brandon in the 1860s and 1870s. Organizing these families into groups eventually made pieces fall into place.
Documenting Joseph/Augustin’s brothers proved challenging: Oliver Desourdy married Virginie Girard on June 10, 1850 at St. Joseph’s Church in Burlington. He gets recorded in the Brandon 1860 census as Oliver Dezude. One has to peel through several layers to find his brother, Oliver. His marriage as recorded by Brandon’s town clerk on February 16, 1857 reads, “De Jour de Chevelin Briens and Gordais Julia.” One finds them in Brandon’s 1870 census as John and Julia Dezordy.
Moving closer in time to remembered grandfathers, sons of Napoleon Disorda: Perley Disorda (1891–1963) married Lula Branch. At her death in 1980, she left 18 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. Perley’s brother, Ernest Disorda (1896–1981), married Della Atwood. At his death, 14 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren survived him.
And now for the relevation that pulls these disparate strands together. For generations in Québec, this family was known as Dejordy dit Chevalier. The latter, a dit name, truly reflected a knight in the family; the first part of the name Dejordy sounds a bit like Disordie/Disorda. Dejordy likely comes from a location in southwestern France. Their distinguished ancestor François de Jordy (1666—1726), from Carcassone, France, a distinguished soldier and administrator, was made a knight in the Order of St. Louis. His descendants may consider ancestral pilgrimage through locations once part of the Dejordy seigneurie, his vast grant of land. See a full biographical entry in the online Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
With thanks to Otter Valley alumnae Vicki Disorda and Ethel (Shackett) Disorda for sharing family photos.
