Narcisse, Our Ancestor.

Our ancestor Narcisse was born Wednesday, October 2, 1822. He was the fifth child born to Joseph Pétel, a cultivateur [farmer], and Charlotte Pinsonneau. His godparents, Noel Charbonneau and Louise Allain, treated the honor with respect as they stood at his baptism the next day at the church in Saint-Constant. In keeping with tradition, they presented gifts to the child, his mother and to the church sexton. The name he received was that of an older brother who died the year before at the age of four, though the name itself may have been chosen in honor of St. Narcissus whose feast day is in October. Later family correspondence refers to him as Narcisse Rocque, but the middle name does not appear in any records.

Until the age of four or five, both boys and girls wore dresses. From an early age they were taught what they needed to know to manage a farm. Perhaps his father bounced him on his knee chanting the different gaits of the horse (walk, trot, canter and gallop) Le pas, le pas; Le trot, le trot; Le gallop, le gallop, GROS GALOP! GROS GALOP! Children had few, if any, toys. They played outside with wagons, or games, like la cachette or le saut-mouton.

Families were close knit and they could recite the names of their relations out to distant cousins and back for several generations. Often the oldest son would leave the home and establish his own farm. Middle sons learned a trade, with the youngest staying on to help aging parents and eventually take over the homestead.

Once Narcisse began to work with his father and older brother by age 12, he would be treated as a man, even carrying leaf tobacco in a pouch made from pig bladder to smoke in his wooden pipe.

In all, ten children were found for Joseph and Charlotte, a common family size for a Catholic family. Charlotte was 43 when the last, Denise, was born in 1835. Schooling was not highly valued and often did not extend beyond a few years. The children missed many days when it was time to harvest the crops. This would explain in part why Narcisse never learned to read or write.