Name variations

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One of the challenges of family research is the many variations for spelling of the surname. Recently I have been doing research on our earliest ancestor to come to North America. Here is a list of the name variations I found for him. And unbelievably, most of these were recorded at Ste Famille church in Boucherville, Canada.

Jacques Mete Ladouceur Forcier
Jacques Moitet
Jacques Moitet Munier
Jacques Methee
Jacques Methe
Jaques Mete
Jean Mete
Felix Forcier Metez

In addition to these spellings, I have also found later generations with spellings such as Metay,Mettay, Mettez, Metteze, Metta, Metha, Mettie, and present day Metty.

French archivists have informed me that Mete' (Metay) is probably an abbreviated form of the word "metayer" which translates to tenant farmer.

LaDouceur = La is an adverb meaning there, then, or that; Douceur is understood to mean softness, mildness, or gentleness

As for the term Forcier, I will leave that to someone else to define.

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