Mary Luneau has been one the largest stumbling blocks that I encountered in this genealogy. First, I headed down the wrong track for her daughter Philomene, based on marriage records for a "different" Philomene Lambert who apparently married a "different" Joseph Marcotte! Apprently both Philomenes also had brothers named Theophile who married Marcottes! Later, my cousin, Brother Michael Marcotte, O.S.B., provided me with a photocopy of Philomene's death certificate, witnessed by my great grandmother Caroline "Carrie" Marcotte, which clearly specified Caroline's mother to be "Mary Luneau." None of the normal resources (Jette, Tanguay, PRDH, Drouin, or LDS and other online contributed genealogies contained a record for a Mary or Marie Luneau married to a Joseph Lambert.

Then, I discovered that a 17 November 1834 marriage record existed for Mary Luneau and Joseph Lambert in the repetoire of marriages for St. Leon le Grand parish in Maskinonge, Quebec. That record shows Mary's name to be Marie, as would be expected in Quebec, so "Mary" was the an anglicized version of her name, by which her children knew her.

After failing to find any other information whatsoever for this couple, I obtained a copy of the St. Leon le Grand marriages repetoire, which shows parish marriages for the period between 1803 and 1963. Several new pieces of information came to light. First, the transcription of the original handwritten ledgers shows Marie as: Marie Luneau ??, suggesting that the spelling of her last name on the original handwritten ledgers was not clearly discernible to the transcriber, and Luneau was his/her best guess. Second, a notation appears under her name stating "Veuve de Francois Ducros-Laterreur." This translates that she was the widow of Francois Ducros-Laterreur means that her marriage to Joseph Lambert was her second marriage. Third, Marie is the only Luneau listed in the 1803-1963 marriages for St. Leon le Grand. Noticeably absent are surnames for Louineau or Leneau or Le Naud or any other spelling variation for Luneau, other than the single entry for Marie. There are several entries for individuals named Juineau or Juneau, but none who could be Marie, due to marriage dates post-1834. There are also several entries for individuals named Ducros-Laterreur, but none for Francois or any male Ducros-Laterreur variation marrying any female whose name bears a possible resemblance to Marie Luneau, suggesting that the previous marriage might have occurred in another parish. Then, in late February 2004, I received more information about Marie's first marraige to Ducros-Laterreur. Francois was born in 1803, and married Marie in 1827 in Louiseville. He died in 1830. The 1827 records researched by Claire Lambert revealed that Marie Luneau's parents were Joseph Luneau and Marguerite Bruneau. I contacted Claire and after searching for Joseph "Luneau" as Joseph "Juneau," we found a record for Joseph Juneau married to a Marguerite Bruno\Petit-Bruno\Bruneau. This Joseph Juneau was the widower of a Marie-Marthe Giguere, whom he had married in 1794 at St-Cuthbert. Claire found the 1807 marriage record to Marguerite Bruneau in the archives for St-Joseph de Maskinonge parish.
Claire Lambert lives in Montréal, and is a member of the Société de généalogie canadienne française de Montréal. Through archives collected by the Société, we were able to determine that Joseph Luneau and Marguerite Bruneau also appears in various civil acts as Joseph Juneau or Juineau, and the Bruneau surname appears elsewhere as Bruno, Petit-Bruno and Petit-Bruneau. From this point onward the lineage for the Luneau side became clearer via archives at the University of Montreal's Programme de Recherche en Démographie Historique (PRDH), the genenealogical dictionaries of Tanguay and Jetté, and other research sources.
The Bruneau lineage remained obscure, because the marriage record at St. Joseph de Maskinongé listed Marguerite Bruneau's parents as "omis," i.e. - omitted. This could mean she did not know the names of her parents (but this seem highly unlikely, given that her father is listed as godfather on the baptism record for Marguerites' first child (Mary Luneau). According to some Canadian researchers, such a notation is sometimes an indication that the individual was a "enfant naurelle" meaning illegitimate. This theory is also supported by the presumed birthdate of Marguerite (ca 1777-1780). The dicovery (many thanks to Suzette Leclair of Rawdon, Quebec) of several of this (Joseph and Marguerite) couple's children's baptism records, including our Marie Luneau (1801, St. Curthbert as Marie-Francoise Luineau) with their father listed as Joseph Luineau and their mother as Marguerite CARIFEL, CARIFELE or Marguerite CARUFEL, rather than the BRUNEAU name on her marriage certificate further confuses the lineage. The specific mention in the baptism records of various witnesses and/or godparents as grandfather Claude Luineau, grandfather Joseph Carufel, grandmother Francoise Berear-Lepine, uncle Claude Luineau, aunt Marie Luneau, etc., remove any doubt that Marguerite Bruneau in fact = Marguerite Sicard de Carufel. Marguerite's legal father was therefore Joseph Sicard de Carufel and her mother Louise-Charlotte Duchesny. The mystery of the name Bruneau on Marguerite's marriage record (at St. Joseph de Maskinonge, to Joseph Juneau/Luneau) remains unexplained, except that the Bruneau family is found marrying into other branches of the Sicard de Carufel family. The simplest explanation would be that Marguerite had been previous married to a Bruneau and that her married name was recorded, rather than her maiden name. I haven't found any evidence to support that, so it remains unclear whether Joseph Sicard is Marguerite's natural father and the birth mother might have been a Bruneau, rather than Louise-Charlotte Duchesnay, or if Louise-Charlotte was Marguerite's birth mother, and perhaps Marguerite's natural father was a Bruneau. Maybe Marguerite was indeed the natural child of Joseph Sicard and Louise-Charlotte, but prior to their marriage, in which case there are several historical examples where nobilty gave such offspring another surname, but later legitimized the child with the family name (the Bourbon dynasty provides several such examples). Perhaps there remains yet some other explanation. So far, the only substantiated documentation shows her to be the the legal daughter of Joseph Sicard de Carufel and Lousie-Charlotte Duchesny, and therefore that is the lineage reflected in my charts.

- Michael Marcotte