By Sandra McHugh
Aren’t birthday parties fun? I was thinking this recently when we celebrated my daughter’s 30th birthday at the Auberge Saint-Gabriel in Montreal. I was also thinking how a birthdate is such an important indicator in genealogy research.
A birthdate and a place of birth places a family member in a period of time and in a location that can tell us a lot about the social context in which the person lived. Buildings and their uses can also tell us a lot about a place.
The Auberge Saint-Gabriel in Montreal is one of the oldest buildings in the city. It was built by Etienne Truteau, a French soldier in 1688. 1 In 1754, it was the first inn in North America to be issued a liquor license. 2 Over the centuries it has had many vocations, including the Beauchemin printing press operation founded in 1860 and that printed the newspaper Le Patriote.3
And who doesn’t love a good ghost? It is said that the Auberge Saint-Gabriel is haunted by a little girl who lost her life when a fire raged through the ground floor, trapping her and her grandfather upstairs while her grandfather was teaching her to play the piano.4
Today, the Auberge Saint Gabriel is a trendy restaurant and reception centre right in the middle of Old Montreal. If you go inside, you can see that the owners continue to maintain the building as much as they can in the style that it was built. You can appreciate the thick brick walls, stained glass windows, and the many antiques that grace its rooms. If you like, you can go down to the basement to visit the place where there was a fur trading post. Today, this fur trading post is a speakeasy, called The Velvet.5
I am quite confident that almost all of my ancestors who lived in Montreal would have at least walked by or had business in or around the Auberge Saint Gabriel. And who knows? Maybe our descendants would be pleased to know that we dropped off our car at the door of the Auberge Saint Gabriel for a fun-filled night at the speakeasy.
What buildings are important to your family’s history?
- L’Auberge Saint-Gabriel web site. <http://aubergesaint-gabriel.com/historique/>, accessed June 12, 2017.
- Wikipedia article on Auberge Saint-Gabriel. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auberge_Le_Saint-Gabriel>, accessed June 12, 2017.
- Wikipedia article on Auberge Saint-Gabriel, accessed June 12, 2017.
- Benoit Franquebalme, “Garou : Propriétaire d’une auberge hantée !”, France Dimanche, January 1, 2016, <http://www.francedimanche.fr/infos-people/musique/garou-proprietaire-dune-auberge-hantee/>, accessed June 12, 2017.
- L’Auberge Saint-Gabriel web site, accessed June 12, 2017.
Genealogy Ensemble 
What a cool ancestor you have! On the Auberge Saint-Gabriel web site under “About Us” and “History” it explains that it was built by a French soldier. In the article on Garou, Garou being one of the current owners, (see reference number 4 below the story), Garou names the soldier as Etienne Truteau and says that he fought the Iroquois – just like your Etienne. I reread the history section on the Auberge Saint-Gabriel web site and they mention Ludger Truteau who owned the inn in 1914. Is Ludger also an ancestor?
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Ah, I see. I didn’t read far enough to catch the reference. No Ludger is not a relative. I mentioned Etienne in my blog post at https://hoguegirardin.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/gilbert-barbier-dit-minime/
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You have a very cool blog. I enjoyed reading some of the postings.
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I can’t find any proof that he is, but it is highly likely. Etienne who married Adrienne was the only one of the six Truteau boys who came to New France. When the Auberge was built, this Etienne would have been 29 and was a carpenter by trade. He was also living in Ville Marie at the time. And he fought the Iroquois, which would have made him a solder. So many coincidences, but no proof as yet.
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Is this the same Etienne Truteau/Trudeau who married Adrienne Barbier?
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Etienne is my 8Xgreat grandfather. Do you have a reference for his having worked on the building?
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