Marie-Anne Dumas

Biography

Marie-Anne Dumas's family became linked to the same woman through two generations. Her son Pierre Monet married the widow Élisabeth Casse, originally Elizabeth Corse of Deerfield. Another son, François, later married Élisabeth's daughter by her first husband, Élisabeth Dumontet. The two marriages made the Casse and Dumontet households close relatives of the Monets in different ways.

Marie-Anne was a daughter of René Dumas and Marie Lelong. Her own marriage to François Monet dit Laverdure had taken place before September 1700. Their children included Marie-Judith, Pierre, François, Marie-Angélique, and sons named Jean-Baptiste. The repeated names require care, but the family record consistently connects her to the household at La Prairie, across the St. Lawrence from Montréal in present-day Québec, Canada.

Her birth is less secure. A published PRDH-based account identifies her with the Marie-Anne born at La Prairie in March 1682. Another researched reconstruction assigns François Monet's wife to an older daughter, Marie, and lists the 1682 child separately. Those are competing identifications, not merely different spellings of one date.

Her husband died in October 1746. Marie-Anne survived him until February 17, 1753 and was buried at La Prairie the next day. These later records are more consistent than the proposed accounts of her childhood.