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The Durham Band of Abenaki
Last updated 4/4/99
How To Read the Tables
& Other Important Information
The information presented in the Durham Land Grantee tables has been compiled from "Lower Canada Land Papers; RG 1 L # Vol. 172" and the Ne-Do-Ba Abenaki genealogy data base by our dedicated volunteers. Our data base currently contains information on over 1700 people identified in documents with the Abenaki at Odanak, Wolinak, and Durham.
It is important for our visitors to understand that this is our interpretation of what various documents tell us about these families
- Other interpretations are possible -
The Land Papers contain four lists of the original grantees and their heirs. Other documents with these papers concern the grant, land leases, and disputes which occurred between the Abenaki families and their white neighbors. The documents we worked with are photocopies of the microfilm of the original handwritten documents. Most of the documents are in English.
The tables are based on the original list of grantees and the make up of the household at the time of their petition in 1803. This document gives the grantees name and the given names of the people in the petitioners household as well as their relationship to the petitioner. You will find this information on the left hand side of the table.
There is one exception - occasionally you will find a person on the left side with an "X" in the fourth column. This person does not appear on the original list, but is placed on the left to assist in showing relationships while keeping the tables compact. Family names of descendants found on the left side of the table are the family names used by those persons in other documents.
The Otondosonne & Lazare families are particularly interesting to study, as they demonstrate how some early families used a variety of family names.
All other heirs mentioned in the lists appear on the right hand side of the tables, with notes at the far right. Some of these people are adults who were not living in the household in 1803, children of the grantee born after 1803, spouses of children, grandchildren, and a few which we have no clue about. Where ever possible, we have drawn information from our Abenaki data base to fill in the names and relationships of people that are not specifically described in the Land Grant lists.
The left & right middle columns with # in the header, tells how many times that person appeared in the lists. The middle column contains a "D" if the person was living in Durham from 1845 to 1852 which comes from the census lists for those years.
Below the main table, you will find the names of people living at Durham between 1845 and 1852 which are not mentioned in the Grant papers but may have received the land as heir of that petitioner.
Only the original list of petitioners is dated. The other lists were made sometime between 1803 and 1830, as far as we can tell. The lists do not appear to be in any order that will assist genealogists in determining birth, death, or marriage dates for most individuals. They do, however, give us insight into the make up of the families and help to confirm suspected relationships which appear in other documents.
If anyone has information which should be added, or which will confirm or refute our interpretation of the data
Further research is needed to confirm many relationships. A search for additional land records, court documents, and wills would be very helpful. Ne-Do-Ba would welcome the opportunity to share our resources with anyone that has access to potential resources and an interest in following up on our initial research.
