Sources

Where an archive offers a direct link to the page, it is given. Most French departmental archives do not, so what is given instead is the shelfmark and the view number, which is exactly what you type into the archive's own viewer to reach the same image.

Nothing on this site is asserted without something behind it. Where a link is still unproven the page says so, and anything that could not be corroborated has been left out. These are the records, with their archive references, so that anyone in the family can go and read them.

Images: Archives departementales de la Sarthe, with Archives d'Indre-et-Loire, Archives de Paris and the United States National Archives, reproduced here for non-commercial family history. Commercial reuse of the Sarthe images requires the archive's permission and a fee.

France

Coulonge, Sarce and Tours

1. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, burial of Marguerite Courteau, wife of Vincent Trouillet, 22 February 1695. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R1 (BMS 1598-1695 suite), image 197, third entry on the right page. Examined here. "Le vingt et deuxiesme febvrier 1695 j'ay prestre soubsigne inhume dans le cimetiere de ceans Marguerite Courteau femme de Vincent Trouillet aagee de quarante ans." Forty in 1695 puts her birth about 1655. She is the mother of the twins baptised in 1688, and her son Etienne is called cousin to the groom at the marriage of 1706, which is what makes her very likely a sister of Rene the elder. The act does not say so.
2. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, two baptisms to Adrien Cou[rte]au and Marie Chauvin: Magdelaine, 17 April 1692, and Adrien, 25 March 1695. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R1, images 183 and 197. The surname is genuinely hard in both, and has also been read Courtray and Coustean. If Adrien is a Courteau he may be another brother of Rene the elder, but no act says so and he is not placed in the tree.
3. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Rene Courteau and Marie Metaireau, 4 May 1706. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 87. Examined here. "Rene Courteau fils de Rene Courteau et de deffuncte Marthe Hunot age de vingt cinq ans, assiste de sondit pere, de Jacques Courteau son frere, Etienne Trouillet son cousin"; and "Marie Metaireau fille de deffunct Jean Metaireau et de Marie Regnard agee de dix neuf ans", attended by her mother, her uncle and her brother Guy Metaireau. He signed his own name. The mother-in-law's surname reads Hunot here, though the hand is awkward and it has also been read Hanot. Etienne Trouillet being called Rene's cousin is what makes Marguerite Courteau, Etienne's mother, very likely a sister of Rene the elder.

   Used on Rene Courteau, Jacques Courteau

4. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, baptism of Jean, son of Rene Courteau and Marie Metaireau, 8 February 1710. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 126.

   Used on Francois Courteau

5. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Joseph Courteau and Jeanne Martineau, 1711. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 137. Not known to be related to this family. It is here because the priest wrote Courteau and the groom, aged over sixty, signed "joseph courtien". A Coulonge Courteau was writing his own name Courtien thirty years before Jean appears at Sarce.
6. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, baptism of Pierre, son of Rene Courteau and Marie Metaireau, 17 December 1712. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 155. Jean's younger brother. Gives the father's trade: "rene courteau vigneron".
7. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, baptism of Charles, son of Rene Courteau and Marie Metaireau, November 1715. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 192. A younger brother of Jean, and the Charle named as present at the Aubigne marriage of 1738.

   Used on Charles Courteau

8. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, baptism and burial of Marie, daughter of Rene Courteau and Marie Metaireau, 30 January and 6 May 1718. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, images 227 and 229. She lived three months. The baptism is partly covered by an archive stamp; the burial is clear.

   Used on Marie Courteau

9. Coulonge (Sarthe), parish register, burial of Joseph Courteau, marchand, aged seventy-three, 17 June 1720. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1026 R2, image 244. Almost certainly the Joseph who married in 1711 and signed himself courtien. His relationship to Rene is still unknown.
10. Sarce (Sarthe), parish register 1700-1750, marriage of Jean Courtien and Madeleine Martineau, February 1741. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1029 R2, image 319. Read in full. The MARGIN reads "jean courtien" plainly. The body does not: the surname there is hard to resolve, and reads something closer to "Jean Couti[ai] ... fils de Rene Couti[an] present et de deffunte Marie Meterreau". An earlier reading of ours gave the body as "Courtien" and that was wrong. The act also gives him as thirty or thereabouts, of the parish of Aubigne, with a certificate from that cure, and the bride as "Madelenne Martineau agee de 20 ans ou environ, fille de Jacques Martineau et de Madelenne Royer". The banns were read at Sarce and, on a likely but not certain reading, at Coulonge.

    Used on Jean Courtien

11. Sarce (Sarthe), parish register 1751-1792, burial of Magdelaine Royer, widow of Jacques Martineau, 7 October 1754. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1029 R2, image 32. THE ACT THAT SHOWS ONE MAN UNDER BOTH NAMES. The priest lists her sons-in-law and writes "jean courteau de Sarce"; Jean signs the act himself, "jean courtien". It also gives Madeleine Martineau's parents.
12. Sarce (Sarthe), parish register 1751-1792, burial of Marie Courtien, daughter of Jean and Magdelaine Martineau, 14 March 1755. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1029 R2, image 35. Written Courteau by the priest, signed Courtien by her father, who was present.

    Used on Marie Courtien

13. Sarce (Sarthe), parish register 1751-1792, baptism of Michel Courtien, 9 September 1763. Archives departementales de la Sarthe, 1MI 1029 R2, view 110. Reads "a ete baptise Michel Courtien fils legitime de Jean et de Madelaine Martineau".

    Used on Michel Courtien

14. Mayet (Sarthe), etat civil, mariages, act no. 14, Michel Courtien and Anne Fontenay, 30 May 1800. Archives de la Sarthe, 5Mi 201_12, view 370. He thirty-seven, son of the late Jean Courtien and Madelaine Martineau; she twenty-seven, born at Sarce 13 March 1773, daughter of Julien Fontenay and Catherine Dufour. Witnessed by his brothers Jean and Charles.

    Used on Jean Courtien, Charles Courtien, Marie Courtien

15. Sarce (Sarthe), etat civil, deces, act no. 8, death of Michel Courtien, registered 30 April 1841. Archives departementales de la Sarthe, 5Mi 362_8-9, views 241 and 242. Gives him as about seventy-nine, husband of Anne Fontenay, son of the late Charle Courtien and Magdelaine Martineau. The death was reported by his son Michel, thirty-three. The father's name here is wrong: the two acts above give Jean, and Charles was Michel's brother.

    Used on Michel Courtien, Auguste Ferdinand Courtien

16. Sarce (Sarthe), etat civil, naissances, act no. 15, birth of Michel Courtien, registered 8 September 1807. Archives departementales de la Sarthe, 5Mi 362_4-5, view 122. Names his father Michel Courtien, farmer, and his mother Anne Fontenay.
17. Sarce (Sarthe), etat civil, mariages, act no. 4, Michel Courtien and Marie Tertrain, 10 May 1839. Archives de la Sarthe, 5Mi 362_8-9, views 52 and 53. Gives his trade as weaver, his first wife as Adelaide Louise Le Roy who died at Sarce in April 1838, and her parents as Michel Tertrain and Marie Desnos.
18. Sarce (Sarthe), etat civil, naissances, act no. 14, birth of Paul Ambroise Courtien, born 4 April 1847 and registered the next day. Archives de la Sarthe, 5Mi 362_7, view 95.

    Used on Paul Ambroise Courtien

19. Sarce (Sarthe), etat civil, naissances, act no. 5, birth of Justine Courtien, 1 September 1850. Archives de la Sarthe, 5Mi 362_7, view 115. Witnessed by her uncles Louis and Alexis Tertrain.
20. Paris, 8th arrondissement, etat civil, deces, act no. 1356, death of Ariste Jean-Baptiste Courtien, 3 July 1908. Archives de Paris, 8D 129, image 12. Sixty, a concierge, born at Sarce, living in the faubourg Saint-Honore and died in the rue Pollet. Names his parents as Michel Courtien and Marie Tertrain, both of whom had died by then, which is a third independent record of that couple's children.

    Used on Ariste Jean Baptiste Courtien

21. Tours (Indre-et-Loire), etat civil, mariages, act no. 55, Theodore Sorin and Justine Courtien, 8 February 1869. Archives departementales d'Indre-et-Loire, 6NUM8/261/244, view 42. archives.touraine.fr The act that first placed the family at Sarce.

    Used on Justine Courtien

Pages that cite these records Anne Courtien, Marie Magdelaine Courtien, Francoise Courtien, Magdelaine Courtien, Michel Courtien

France

Aubigne, the intervening parish

Jean came to Sarce from the parish of Aubigne, and his elder brother settled there. These are the acts that tie the Courteaus of Coulonge to the Courtiens of Sarce.

1. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Rene Courteau and Anne Hurteloup, 3 June 1738. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3 (BMS 1717-1739), images 313-314. THE ACT THAT JOINS THE TWO PARISHES. "Rene Courteau fils de Rene Courteau et de deffunte Marie Metaireau" marries "Anne Hurteloup fille de deffunt Pierre Hurteloup et de Anne Hardouin". Present: "Rene Courteau son pere", and "Pierre et Charle les Courteaus ses freres". The father signs "R courtien" while the priest writes Courteau. The parents are the same pair named at Jean's baptism in 1710 and at Jean's marriage in 1741. Something written after "ses freres" is struck through and cannot be read.

   Used on Rene Courteau

2. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, baptism of Rene Charles Magdelon, son of Rene Courteau and Anne Hurteloup, 8 March 1739. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3, image 329. The father is given as "bordager des Chaussees". This son is very likely the Rene Courteau who stood godfather at Sarce in 1758, described there as a young man, cousin paternel, of the parish of Aubigne.

   Used on Rene Charles Magdelon Courteau

3. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, burial of Pierre Courteau, aged about twenty-five, 25 July 1739. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3, image 334. He died on the 24th. Present: "Rene Courteau pere, Rene Courteau fils". This is the Pierre baptised at Coulonge in December 1712, whose stated age here runs a little low.

   Used on Pierre Courteau

4. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Michel Fouquere and Magdelaine Hurteloup, 2 June 1750. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3 (BMS 1740-1756), image 211. The priest writes "Rene Courtien son beau-frere et Rene Courtien son neveu", and a witness, "Jean Courtien", signs the act himself. Here the Aubigne priest writes Courtien outright, with no Courteau anywhere in it.
5. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Mathieu Chauvigne and Magdelaine Courtien, 19 July 1746. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3 (BMS 1740-1756), image 118. She forty-five, so born about 1701, "fille de deffunct Noel Courtien et de deffuncte Marie Brunau", widow of Pierre Maudet. The mother's surname is hard to read: it has also been read Bourreau. A Noel Courteau stood godfather at Coulonge in 1688; whether he is this Noel is not known.
6. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Etienne Le Houx and Catherine Courtien, 1 August 1746. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3, image 118. "Catherine Courtien agee de trente ans fille de deffunct Francois Courtien et de Perrine Robin, assistee de Perrine Robin sa mere, de Jacque Courtien son frere, d'Anne Courtien sa soeur, de Rene Courtien son oncle." The priest writes Courtien throughout the body of the act. A Rene Courtien is therefore uncle to the children of a Francois Courtien, which puts the two men in one family. Catherine being thirty, her father was born before about 1695, so he cannot be the Francois baptised at Coulonge in 1708 who lived six days.
7. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, marriage of Francois Mahieu and Anne Courtien, 30 January 1753. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3, image 269. "Anne Courtien fille majeure de deffunct Francois Courtien et de Perrine Robin", with "Jacque Courtien son frere" and, among her brothers-in-law, Etienne Le Houx. Le Houx had married her sister Catherine in 1746, which ties the two acts to one household.
8. Aubigne (Sarthe), parish register, burial of Rene Courtien, 27 September 1754. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R3 (BMS 1740-1756), image 303, fourth entry on the left page. Indexed at 1MI 1025 R1, Tables BMS 1580-1790, image 143. THE ACT THAT SETTLES THE DESCENT. "Le vingt sept septembre mil sept cent cinquante quatre le corps de Rene Courtien decede d'hyer age d'environ soixante douze ans a ete par nous ptre habitue soussigne inhume dans le grand cimetiere de cette paroisse en presence de Rene, Charles, et Jean les Courtiens ses fils, et de Marie, et Francoise Courtien ses filles, autres parents et amis qui ne signent fors le soussigne." The one person at the graveside who could write signed it: "jean courtien". This names Jean as a son of Rene and a brother of Rene and Charles. About seventy-two in 1754 puts Rene's birth about 1682, against the twenty-five he was given at his marriage in 1706.

   Used on Rene Courteau, Francoise Courteau, Marie Courteau

9. Aubigne (Sarthe), Tables BMS 1580-1790. Archives de la Sarthe, 1MI 1025 R1, images 130, 131 and 143. The indexes for 1738, 1739 and the burials of 1754, which is how the acts above were found.

From 1746 the Aubigne priest writes Courtien in the body of his acts, not only in the signatures, and at least three Courtien households appear in the parish: Rene, who married Marie Metaireau; Noel, who married a Marie Brunau or Bourreau; and Francois, who married Perrine Robin. The same three first names, Rene, Noel and Francois, appear at Coulonge under Courteau. The 1746 act makes a Rene Courtien uncle to Francois's children, so those households were kin to one another. How Noel and Francois join the line in this tree has not been shown, and they are not placed in it.

Not yet opened: the Aubigne baptism index for 1719, 1MI 1025 R1 image 113, carries an Etienne and a Jacques whose surname reads as Court[in]. A Jacques Courtien is named in 1746 and 1753 as the brother of Catherine and Anne, the children of Francois Courtien and Perrine Robin, and this may be his baptism.

Searched without result: Coulonge 1719-1725, no further Courteau baptisms, so the family had left for Aubigne by then. Rene's own baptism, about 1682, is not in the Coulonge film, which has gaps from 1682 to 1685 and in 1691. Eliminated as similar names but not this family: a Rene Caveau buried at Aubigne in 1748, aged fourteen, and a Francoise Couliard on the same page.

Quebec

Montreal

1. Notre-Dame-de-Montreal, registre des mariages, entry 619, Paul Courtien and Philomene Larocque, 11 October 1871. Drouin Collection, indexed in LaFrance, GenealogyQuebec.com. Names Michel Courtien and Marie Tertrais at Tours, and Napoleon Larocque and Marie Leblanc Robillard at Saint-Michel-de-Vaudreuil.
2. Census of Canada, 1901, Montreal (Cite), Saint-Louis quarter, page 9, lines 43 and 45. Drouin Genealogical Institute index, GenealogyQuebec.com. Hypolite Courtien as head of family; Paul Courtien, his father, in the household.

   Used on Hippolyte Ariste Courtien

3. Cimetiere Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, Montreal, burial register. Paul Ambroise Courtien, died July 1901, plot M00772; and the Courtien burials in plot M03513.
4. Nos Origines, compiled Quebec genealogy, profiles 1544617 and 1544680. Compiled, not a register. Used only where it is corroborated, and flagged where it is not.

Pages that cite these records Reginald Courtien, Jeanne Courtien, Irene Courtien, Cecile Courtien, Francoise Courtien, Lucienne Courtien, Justine Philomene Marie Courtien, Louis George Courtien, Andrea Courtien

United States

New York

1. Obituary of Thomas M. Courtien Sr., The Journal News, White Plains, New York, 7 January 2010. legacy.com The source for his parents, his schooling, his war service, his marriage and his thirteen children.
2. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, New York County, New York. NARA microfilm T627, roll 2676, images 115 and 116. The whole household on one page.
3. United States Census of 1950: Kings County, ED 24-3778, sheet 7; Westchester County, ED 74-60, sheet 19; New York County, ED 31-1690, sheet 75. 1950census.archives.gov The New York County sheet records Victor Courtien, seventy-five, a widower, birthplace Canada.
4. New York City birth index, Manhattan: certificate 2458 of 1905, 22464 of 1906, 43341 of 1909. New York City death index: certificate 6233, Ellen Courtien, 12 March 1943. Free and open through NYC Open Data.

   Used on Victor P. Courtien

5. Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938 to 1946, National Archives Access to Archival Databases. Serials 32171326 (Francis), 32345600 (John), 32515217 (Victor). aad.archives.gov

   Used on Francis J. Courtien, John H. Courtien

6. Nationwide Gravesite Locator, US Department of Veterans Affairs. gravelocator.cem.va.gov Ranks, services and plot numbers at Calverton, Long Island National and Saint Charles.

   Used on Helen B. Courtien, Arthur James Courtien

7. Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, New York, interment register, Section 48, Lot 114, Grave 13. Victor is entered there as Courtier.

Pages that cite these records Victor Paul Courtien, Teresa Courtien, Margaret K. Courtien, Mary Courtien

Obituaries and death notices

What the family published at the time

An obituary is written by people who knew the person, usually within a day or two of the death, and it names relatives no register ever will. It is also unverified: it records what the family said, and families misremember. Each one is given here in full so its claims can be weighed.

1. Obituary of Thomas M. Courtien Sr., The Journal News, White Plains, New York, 7 January 2010. legacy.com The single richest document on this family. It gives his parents as Victor Courtien and Ellen Whyte Courtien; his birth at New York on 21 December 1921; DeWitt Clinton High School; the US Merchant Marine Academy and service on troop transports in the Atlantic convoys and the Pacific, with an honourable discharge from the US Coast Guard; his career with Moore McCormick Shipping and then the Department of the Navy, latterly as Director of Materials for the Military Sealift Command, retiring in 1981; his marriage to Agnes Lightbody of Pelham at St Catharine's on 7 July 1946, having met at the Catholic summer camp at Cliff Haven; his death at Mount Vernon on 6 January 2010 at eighty-eight; and burial at Beechwoods Cemetery, New Rochelle. It names all thirteen children in order: Ellen, JoAnne, Thomas, Paul, Denise, Patricia, Robert, Chris, Teresa, Katherine, John, Mark and Peter, with twenty-five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Two statements in it do work elsewhere on this site: "Agnes predeceased him on July 6, 1992", and "Mr. Courtien is predeceased by 8 brothers and sisters", which is how we know his eight brothers and sisters had all died by January 2010 and that there were nine children, not ten.

   Used on Thomas Martin Courtien Sr., Michael Courtien

2. Find a Grave memorials under the surname Courtien, nineteen in all. Find a Grave. Consulted in September 2026. They supply exact dates for Agnes Anne Lightbody Courtien (2 October 1923 to 7 July 1992, at Mount Vernon), for Mary Theresa Courtien, wife of Arthur (15 February 1926 to 29 November 1997), and for Michael Courtien (1951 to 2017). The same search turned up no memorial for any of Thomas's thirteen children, which is some reassurance that the site is not describing as living anyone who has died, though it is not proof of it.

Not found: any obituary for Mary, Teresa or Margaret Courtien, the three eldest daughters, whose deaths are known only from their brother's obituary saying they had died before him. Not read here: the Montreal death notices behind the Quebec burials, which are cited from the burial registers rather than from the notices themselves.

Standard of evidence

Examined directly, or reported

These are handwritten registers, some of them three hundred years old, and a single misread word can create a person who never existed. It therefore matters which acts have been examined directly and which rest on a transcription supplied to us.

Twenty-eight acts are published here as images, in the documents gallery, running from 1687 to 1850, across Coulonge, Aubigne and Sarce. Anyone may compare the wording on this site with the page it came from.

Fifteen of them have been examined here, and what this site says about the people in those acts comes from the image rather than from a transcription: the nine Sarce acts running from 1763 to 1850, and from the older registers the Coulonge burial of 1695, the Coulonge marriage of 1706, the Aubigne marriage of 1738, the two Aubigne marriages of 1746, the Aubigne marriage of 1753 and the Aubigne burial of 1754. The remaining thirteen carry a reading made in the archive viewer by the researcher working on this line, with the image published beside it.

One further image records a search that found nothing, and is published for the same reason as the rest.

The remainder rest on transcriptions supplied to us. The Coulonge acts of 1710, 1711, 1712, 1715, 1718 and 1720, the Sarce marriage of 1741, the Mayet marriage of 1800, the Tours marriage of 1869, the Montreal marriage of 1871 and the Paris death of 1908 have all been transcribed by a researcher working in the archives, and the wording quoted here is theirs. It is careful work and it has been right every time it could be checked against something independent, but it is not the same as examining the act.

Four readings are uncertain in the act itself, and are marked that way wherever they appear: the surname as written in the body of the 1741 marriage, which does not resolve cleanly; the second parish the banns of 1741 were read in, which looks like Coulonge but cannot be insisted on; the exact day of Henri-Paul's Paris entry in 1911; and whether Ariste's Paris act of 1908 calls him a widower or a husband.

One correction belongs here rather than buried in a footnote. This page once quoted the body of the 1741 marriage as reading "Jean Courtien fils de Rene Courtien". On a full re-reading it does not. The margin reads jean courtien plainly; the body does not, and the surname there is hard to make out. The quotation has been corrected and the act is treated as weaker on the spelling than it first appeared.

The join between the Jean Courteau baptised at Coulonge in 1710 and the Jean Courtien married at Sarce in 1741 was for most of this research an identification rather than a fact, and this page said so at length. It is now settled, by the burial of their father at Aubigne on 27 September 1754. That act was written in the presence of "Rene, Charles, et Jean les Courtiens ses fils", and Jean signed it. It names him as a son of Rene and a brother of the Rene whose own marriage of 1738 gives the same parents, Rene Courteau and the late Marie Metaireau, as Jean's baptism of 1710 and Jean's marriage of 1741. The ages agree: about seventy-two at the graveside in 1754, against about twenty-five at Coulonge in 1706.

What is still open no longer touches Jean. Rene's own baptism, about 1682, has not been found; the Coulonge film has gaps from 1682 to 1685 and in 1691. The two other Courtien households at Aubigne, Noel's and Francois's, may be his brothers' and are not placed in the tree because nothing read so far shows it. The baptisms of Marie and Francoise, named as his daughters in 1754, have not been found. And the surname in the body of the 1741 marriage still does not resolve cleanly, though that act no longer carries any weight on its own.

Family records

Records held within the family

Two things here rest on a relative's word rather than on a document, and are marked that way on the pages they touch.

1. Arthur's nine children. Reported by a member of the family, 2026. Arthur James Courtien, called Jimmy, and Mary Theresa had nine children, seven sons and two daughters. Three of the sons have since died and are named here at the family's word: Michael, James and John. The other six are living and are not named. No document has been read for any of it, and no dates are known here for James or John. Before this was reported, the site showed Arthur with one child, because only Michael had a record.

   Used on James Courtien, John Courtien

2. Ellen White's Irish birth and baptism. Held by a member of the family and not read here. Born at Mount Bellew, County Galway, on 10 July 1880 and baptised on the 12th, a daughter of Patrick White and Mary Quinn. This supersedes the 20 July 1882 given by a compiled record.

Some of what is here comes from a relative's own research rather than from a register read directly: Irish birth and baptism records, Ellis Island passenger manifests, and New York State census entries, reported by the family member who holds them. That is not the same as an act, and it is marked as such on the people it touches.

It is treated as good evidence for three reasons. It is attributable, not an anonymous online tree. It names specific documents with specific dates, ships and certificate details, all of which are checkable. And where it overlaps with something established independently here, it has agreed every time: Ellen's parents, her birthplace, her age at death, Victor's trade, the size and shape of the household, and the dates of Agnes's parents.

One item of it resolved a problem rather than merely matching one. The census indexes carry a James in the Manhattan household and no Arthur, which had looked like a tenth child. The family knew Arthur as Jimmy. That explains an anomaly found here separately, which is the kind of agreement that is hard to fake.

Still unread by anyone here: the passenger manifests themselves, the Irish parish records, and the 1915 New York State census sheets.

Reference

The surname and the war records

1. United States Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2000 and 2010. Lists every surname reaching a hundred bearers. Courtien is in neither file.
2. French birth registrations compiled from INSEE. Eighty-one Courtien births between 1890 and 1990.
3. American Merchant Marine at War. usmm.org One mariner in twenty-six killed, against one Marine in thirty-four. Figures for the merchant service vary between sources and between the periods they measure; this is the one most commonly cited.
4. United States Merchant Marine Academy, on the Cadet Corps battle standard and the 142 cadet-midshipmen killed. usmma.edu
5. Patrimoine et lavoirs en Sarthe, transcription of the war memorial at Coulonge. lavoirs-en-sarthe.fr A single photographic transcription. The French ministry database that would corroborate it could not be searched.

Open questions

Questions that remain open

1. Settled: Jean of Sarce was Jean of Coulonge. This site carried the join as probable, then as about ninety-five per cent, for as long as it rested on matching names and ages. The burial of their father at Aubigne on 27 September 1754 names "Rene, Charles, et Jean les Courtiens ses fils" and Jean signed it. The earlier hedging is left in the record above rather than quietly removed, because it was the honest position at the time.
2. Roger Courtien, who died at Dachau. A memorial records a Roger Courtien, born 17 December 1910 and died 17 March 1945, buried at Konzentrationslager Dachau, six weeks before the camp was liberated. Find a Grave, memorial 250037908, consulted September 2026. Nothing has been found connecting him to this family, and the surname is rare enough that the question is worth asking and not rare enough to answer it. His parentage, his nationality and the reason he was held there are all unknown here. He is recorded on this page rather than in the family tree because no act places him in it.
3. Paul's age. The Sarce register has him born 4 April 1847. His Montreal burial makes him fifty-eight in 1901 and that year's census has him born in 1837. The register is followed: both parents' names match it exactly, and Michel did not marry Marie until 1839, so a son born to her in 1837 is impossible.
4. Philomene's parents. The 1871 register names Napoleon Larocque and Marie Leblanc Robillard. A compiled Quebec record gives Simeon Larocquebrune and Marie-Louise Robillard. The register is followed.
5. Settled: nine children, not ten. A compiled list separated a James, born about 1920, from Arthur James, which would have made ten. The family knew Arthur as Jimmy, which is why the census indexes carry a James in this household and no Arthur. Seven children by 1915, then Arthur in 1920 and Thomas in 1921, which is nine and agrees with the obituary's eight brothers and sisters.
6. Victor's arrival cannot be found, and there is a reason. The United States did not record Canadians crossing the land border until 1895. He came about 1890, the census suggesting between 1890 and 1892, most likely by train from Montreal. Twelve years of searching in the family has turned up nothing, and probably nothing exists.
7. Arthur's war. All five of Victor and Ellen's sons have a service record. Four of them are documented in the Second World War by an enlistment date or, for Thomas, by his obituary. Arthur's Marine Corps service is on his headstone, but the war is not, and the Marine Corps records are not in the Army enlistment file the others appear in. He was twenty-one at Pearl Harbor. His service record from the National Personnel Records Center would settle it.
8. Henri-Paul's marriage act is missing, and the reason is instructive. The Paris 17th arrondissement decennial table lists him under 1 December 1911, but the register for that day holds one act and it is a divorce between other people. The table entry is marked as a TRANSCRIPTION, which in French practice means a marriage celebrated abroad and copied into the French register at the couple's address here. The wedding was most likely in Montreal. The Paris archives' remote search service could trace the copy from the table entry.

   Used on Henri-Paul Joseph Courtien

9. Ariste's birth year. His Paris death act of 1908 gives his age as sixty, which puts his birth about 1848. An index gives 24 June 1842. His brother Paul was born in April 1847, so 1848 would be tight. His birth act in the Sarce register would settle it.
10. Settled: the father was Jean, not Charle. The 1841 death act names Michel's father as Charle Courtien. His 1763 baptism and his 1800 marriage both name Jean, and the marriage shows why the slip happened: CHARLES WAS HIS BROTHER, and stood as a witness at the wedding. The earlier acts are followed.
11. Settled: the uncle and aunt. A widely copied tree makes the Michel born in 1807 a son of Jean Courtien and Anne Jeanne Fontenay. That Jean was his uncle, a brother of the Michel born in 1763, and the 1800 marriage act names him as a witness at forty-two. His wife was buried in 1836 as his widow, which is why she cannot be the mother who consented to a marriage in 1839.
12. Anne or Jeanne Fontenay. The 1807 birth act writes Anne, the 1839 marriage act writes Jeanne. An ordinary variation of the same name.
13. Agnes's death. Her husband's obituary gives 6 July 1992; her own memorial and the cemetery record give 7 July 1992. The second of those would be their forty-sixth wedding anniversary to the day, which is either a remarkable thing or a clerk copying the marriage date. No obituary for her has been found; the Journal News of 1992 predates the online archives.
14. Ellen Whyte's birth at Mountbellow, County Galway, on 20 July 1882. From a compiled record. No register has been read.