The article Evolution of a Name was submitted by Denis Charest.  For additional interesting tidbits and facts about the evolution of our family name, become part of our association.  Information on membership is available on the Membership page.

Our first ancestor Mathieu CHORET didn't have a « dit » name but over the centuries the spelling changed a lot. Brother Benoit, author of the CHARETTE family genealogy books in 1970-1973 titled it "Mathieu CHAURE" and here's why.

In most early written accounts, the spelling Choret was used. Mathieu was in Quebec in 1643. Father Lallement, a Jesuit, wrote a letter and spelled it Chaure. In French "ET" is pronounced "A". In English, with an accent over the last E, it's then the same pronunciation as Chauray, and Brother Benoit used the spelling from this letter.

In the 1666 Census, I found CHAURET. "AU" in French has the same pronunciation as "O". In 1721, in St-Laurent's parish in Montreal, one "CHORAY" is listed. Again no "T" pronunciation. St-Antoine de Tilly in 1726 one CHAURAIT is listed and in 1750 one CHOREST in another parish in Montreal.

This is the same pronunciation without the " T " at the end, pronounced Chaurais. And the spelling Chauret is then frequently seen. I found an English pronunciation example after many tries, the word "record"; "re" would be the ending for Chau or Cho, i.e., Chaure or Chore.

The first CHORETTE is found in Trois Rivieres in 1751 and Quebec in 1754 just over 100 years later. So for many of these families they then said their surname CHORET with a hard "T" final pronunciation. Most people, as well as the public Notary, were illiterate, but the priests were very well respected and educated. So no one argued as to how they wrote names and surnames, and the same happened with all other surnames.

1769 in Ste-Croix Lotbiniere, the first "CHAURETTE" is seen, and this spelling lasted for many decades all over the province. While the spelling Choret and Chorette completely disappeared early or before 1900, some families still wrote Chaurette, and others used Chauret and Chaurest mainly in Pierrefonds, the northern part of Montreal. Remember that before the year 1800 absolutely NO ONE is known under the surname "CHARETTE". As for the "CHAREST" spelling evolution of our same ancestor, this surname was already known before 1700 in Quebec, with different emigrants of this surname. So I figure that being known by some priest, our Choret then became Charest, and this, in the same area where the original Charest settled. An example is the south shore of Quebec City in the Lotbiniere area where Charettes are later in existence, and in the Kamouraska district, where many families turn out to be Charest. Again it takes years to change.

Simon Choret baptised 1763, settled with an Indian wife in Wisconsin in 1795, and in some books are written Chorette and Charette. His son Peter's tombstone is written Chaurette in 1884, amazing to note that even in another country, more than 700 miles away, we find the same evolution in spelling, and all Simon's descendancy is known as Charette. Jean-Baptiste Chauret, baptised 1775, settled in Manitoba in 1800 and married a metis woman, is also known as Charette in this province, and all his descendancy in the states Indian Reservations became known as Charette.

The brothers and cousins from the Kamouraska area who moved south to St-Jacques, New Brunswick and then Fort Kent, ME met with French priests and are known to be Charette in the early 1860 and 1880. Later some of them continued to move south to the Ashland and Presque Isle area where no French priests can be found. What spelling do we then find? "SHORETTE" Again, all is in the pronunciation of French people and English ears. CH in French should be translated in good English as TCH. In order to pronounce CH to sound like French, and keep it that way, you must write it SH. This is what happen in this area. The same happened to another family from Lotbiniere who settled in Isle Verte, QC. Two grandsons married in Cacouna, later settled in Old Town, ME and the surname is now mainly spread in CT, apart from Maine.

From south-west of Montreal, another Charette gang settled in the Brasher area of NY state, English country and they also turned out as SHORETTE, while east of them in Ellenburg, NY, with French priests, another line kept the Charette surname.

How about the Stevens Point, WI brothers from the Louiseville, QC area, known as Chaurette, who left about mid 1870. Only very few times is the spelling Chaurette found out there and one day they were all SHAURETTE with descendancy now all over the states, and the only known group under this spelling, still living.

Mid 1840 in Ste-Elisabeth, near Berthier, QC more than 40 families, including Charettes, migrated toward Lake Huron, Ontario, south of Goderich. Those who remained in ON kept the Charette surname. Over the decades they spread out west into Michigan and further. In these areas, the spelling "CHERETTE" or "CHERRETTE" appeared in the early 1900s. From this same group a few took SHARETTE. A few spellings with double "R" is also found in Michigan and Colorado in 2000, but not many.

Edouard Charette born 1841 Louiseville, QC, brother of the Shaurette line in Stevens Point, lived in Chippewa Falls, WI for a while and came back to found the city of Charette, QC. Being renowned, he changed his name to "DECHARETTE" and his line is still living under this surname.

A major change from the already known different spellings occurred in Keeseville, NY and the nearby town of Peru. Baptised Eugene CHAREST 1862 in Keeseville (from the Lotbiniere ancestors), he himself completely changed his name to Ferdinand CARTE, proof-in-hand. Descendants under the surname CARTE know that they are from Charest ancestors. A few are living in the northern NY area and Glens Falls NY. These families were found in different census reports under the spelling CORD-CARD-CART.

About the census, much can be said, but don't forget that it's all mainly phonetic writing, and many people really didn't spell their names like the census report. There are just too many different spellings seen over the decades from the USA 1860 to 1930 census to talk about. It's just incredible how we have to think and try different pronunciations in order to sort out them in the census. But it's the same for all researchers.

Illinois also had our family settler. Antoine CHAURET married 1830 in Montreal, moved to NY State about 1841 and around 1851 to Prophetstown, IL where he settled and became SHORETT or double R without the last "E". They kept moving west to Idaho and the Seattle, Washington area. They're now also in California, mainly all professionals or businessmen but we've never had or found any internet contact from this line.

Washington state received an early Charette settler, Antoine from Louiseville, QC, born 1824, working for the Hudson Bay Cie, married 1851 in St-Paul's Mission, WA. While his descendancy are mainly Charette, one of his sons is found as Mathieu, Mattie, Maddy and Madday and had a family under the spelling of SCHERETTE in Collville, Stevens's county WA.

How about CARTER some will ask. In genealogy researches, this one is a very very big problem. This surname, including African Americans, is so spread out in numbers all over the states, that it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, mainly if you don't have family contact. So let's say that a few are known in northern NY from the Ellenburg group, a family in MA who want to remained anonymous, (and I respect their request, whatever the reason) some others who were in Claremont, NH that I can't find their whereabouts, and a whole lot that I completely lost track of, what we called "hitting the brick wall", might have turned out to be CARTER. We only have about 75 of them in our file.

I'm not God, and it's too bad, cause otherwise I would find them all, but with a file of some 28,500 Charette names, all linked, I'm having fun with this hobby for 15 years now, for a total of just over 19,000 marriages, plus public notary contract, newspapers, archives, articles of all kind: accidents, crimes, new appointments, business advertisements, obituaries and so on to add to each individual, helping me to share with the very large family through the internet.

Recently we, my wife Lise and I, have found, and watch out for this one, a SURATT line in Syracuse, NY in the 1880 census, from French Canadian ancestors. We then find them as SCHURRETT in 1900, and later all the families in SCHARETT, living in the Rochester and Seneca Falls, NY area. We motorcycle drove to Rochester in early June 2006 for further research, but up to now are unable to link this line, after a nice trip which includes tombstone pictures and obituaries reading in Rochester library, still hitting the brick wall for a Joseph supposedly born 1825 in Canada. Even a son Timothy moved to Detroit, MI as SCHARETTE with a daughter Margaret living there and married in 1920. Maybe one day?

I really think I went over all the different spellings still living in different parts of America. Of course the CHARETTE and the CHAREST outnumber them all by far, and CHARRETTE also. New England was mainly the migration destination, but many also moved to Michigan and Wisconsin. Troy, NY also received some families. And early ones settled in Windsor, Ontario in 1834, with a large descendancy out there.

Hope you had fun reading this article, and I'm always willing to share any kind of information.

Denis Charest
Genealogist@charette-charest.com