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| 1797 Certification of Jonas Larroway's Service in Butler's Rangers |
There is a lot of discussion about immigration in America right now.
Tempers have flared, and different groups hold various strong opinions.
There is also
Brexit, where immigration was a large focus of the recent vote which resulted in the U.K. leaving the E.U.
I've been following this for several months and it
occurs to me that those of us in Canada, America, and Australia have
immigrant ancestors. Have you researched yours? Do you know who they
were, why they came to your country and when? Do you know how they fared
once settled in their new land? Were they welcomed? Were they shunned?
Was their discrimination based on their religion or ethnic origin? These
are all questions that are important, and interesting to discover. With
that in mind, I'm the dedicating Saturdays (as many as needed) as the
day to join me in discussing your immigrant ancestors.
You
will be able to read any you are interested in by using the keyword
Immigrant Ancestors. I'm going to share each week what I know of my
immigrant ancestors to North America (whether that is USA or Canada)
Jonas Larroway,
United Empire Loyalist, born 1731 Schoharie Co. New York, was descended from the
LeRoy dit Audy
family who settled in New France (now Quebec) from France in 1668. His great-grandfather, Simeon LeRoy dit Audy was born in Creances Normandy. Simeon settled first in
Quebec, Canada in October 1668 where he married a
Filles du Roi named Claude (Blandina) Deschalets, an orphan who was sent to New France with her two sisters to be married to a suitable French settler.
The
LeRoy surname underwent great changes, becoming LeRoy dit Audy or Ody in
New France, and Laraway or LeRoy in the United States. Jonas was my 5th
great-grandfather and he married in 1754 in Schoharie New York, Elizabeth
(Betsy) Muller, daughter of Johannes Nicholas Muller and Maria Dorothea
Wuest, a
Palatine line.
Jonas fought in
Butler's Rangers during the
American Revolution and settled at Niagara,
Ontario in 1783.
Jonas, along with other Loyalists, suffered greatly for what he believed in. He had to flee his home in New York to remain loyal to the King of England.
