Robert Millot to Robert Mylott: Québec to New York

When Robert Millot emigrated from Québec to Whitehall sometime in the 1840s he was a very young man.  He was born on June 2, 1832 and baptized the same day in Saint Francois Xavier de Verchères, Québec.

The translation is close to this...

The second day of June one thousand eight hundred thirty two, we the undersigned baptized Robert Millot born the same day of the legitimate marriage of Jean Millot, shoemaker, of this parish and of Adéle Robert. The godfather was Bruno Robert and the godmother Pelágie Robert who was declared unable to sign.....

?.?. Bruneau (Priest) and Bruno Robert.

Robert Millot was the son of Jean Millot and Adélaid Robert who were married in the same church on September 25. 1830.  Jean was a "cordonnier" - a shoemaker.  Jean Millot was the son of Joseph Marie Millot and Catherine Wilcott.  The story of Robert Mylott's grandparents is here.

Cordonnier

Vercheres Windmill

Jean Millot and Adelaid Robert did not emigrate to Whitehall with their son - at least not permanently, but they did leave Vercheres.  Their death records can be found in the church records of St Jacques le Mineur, south of Montreal and a few miles north of the US - Canadian border in the high Richelieu River Valley in.  

Sign at the entrance to St Jacques le Mineur, Québec

Death record of Jean Millot, father of Robert Mylott October 1881

Church of St Jacques le Mineur

 Pretty houses in St Jacques

Garage doors in St Jacques le Mineur

Death record of Adélaid Robert, mother of Robert Mylott

A stone house in St Jacques

When did Jean Millot and Adélaid leave Vercheres? When did they arrive in St Jacques?  Did Robert Millot, their son, spend his early years in Vercheres or St Jacques? These are questions still to find answers. 

At this point in my research, it would appear Robert Millot came without parents to Whitehall.  How did he travel in the 1840s to Whitehall?  We will never know with certainly but there was a steamboat, the Redbird Line, that regularly made the trip from St John on the Richelieu (present day St Jean sur Richelieu) to Whitehall.   Could he have arrived on the Red Line or was he a crew member on a canal boat that made its way down Lake Champlain?

Robert Millot-Mylott can be find in the 1850 United States census in Whitehall, New York.

Robert is listed as Robert "Maloy" on line 38.  He could probably not read or write and the English pronunciation of Millot is close to how we would pronounce "Maloy".  He was living and working on the Anthony Rathbune Farm which perhaps still exists as Rathbun's Maple Sugar House Restaurant on the Hatch Hill Road in North Granville.

However, the most interesting item to note in the 1850 census is the proximity of the twenty five year old Anne McNall living with her three children, Massilea, Charles and Edwin,  next to the Rathbun Farm.  She was widowed and within the year would marry Robert Millot/Maloy, later to be known as Robert Mylott. Robert would be stepfather to Massilea, Charles and Edwin and the couple would go on to have at least five more children: John, George Leslie, Malinda, Cora and Carrie. 

It was Robert Milottt who made the transition to Robert Mylott, from Québec to Whitehall, from a French speaking world to an English one.  Whitehall was a busy port on the Champlain canal and a center of manufacturing, agriculture and trade.  It is not surprising the young man could find a job, a wife, instant family and a farm to call his own in Whitehall, New York

Canaling in Whitehall