Talk:Alexis Godey
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The current Biography section for Alexis Godey is very weak with no specific data. I have the background information on Alexis' birth and baptism, as well as historical information on the family in New France and the USA. He is my wife's 2C3R.
Alexis Godey was born on 28 January 1819 as Alexis Goder in Missouri or Illinois along the Mississippi River near the French-heritage village of Prairie du Rocher in Randolph County, Illinois. He was baptized two days later at St. Anne Church at Fort de Chartres in Randolph County, Illinois, USA (1). He was the son of New-France descendants Jean-Marie Goder (1785-1845) and Celeste Belcour (1799-1839) who were both born in Prairie du Rocher. Alexis later took an Americanized spelling of his last name and Goder became Godey (2).
The original patriarch in North America of the Goder family was Antoine Emery dit Coderre (1643-1715), who landed in Quebec in the mid 1660s as a soldier of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, a private army paid for by the French king. They were sent to Quebec to protect Montreal from Iroquois Indian raiders. After a peace treaty with the Iroquois was signed a few years later, Antoine decided to stay in New France and helped found the town of Contrecoeur, Quebec, Canada. His son Francois Emery Goder (~1700-~1754) was the first known family member to enter what is now the USA circa 1720 as a voyager. Francois became a trapper and trader, married Agnes Richard at Poste Ouiatenon circa 1734 and they lived at Poste Ouiatenon, Poste Miama, and Poste Vincennes in present day Indiana during their lifetimes. A part of the Goder family moved from Fort Vincennes to Fort de Chartres and the town of Prairie du Rocher along the Mississippi River in the 1790s. This group included Alexis' grandparents and their children.
Footnotes:
(1) <ref>Birth & Baptism – 28 & 30 Jan 1819 - Illinois, Diocese of Belleville Parish Records, 1729-1956 > Randolph > Fort de Chartres > St. Anne (transferred to St. Joseph) > 1721-1840 Baptisms, Marriages, Communions, Confirmations, Image 349 of 603.( https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6WS7-PX2?i=348&cc=1388122 ). (2) As few people could spell then, the family name as written mutated significantly over the decades.