Talk:Guillaume Sayer

Birth dates
According to the newly added material he signed with the HBC in "...1828, he stated that he was 27 years old." and this gives a birth date of 1801. However, he died August 7, 1868 at the age of 75. So if he was born in 1801 then he was 67 and not 75 when he died. On the other hand if he was 75 when he died then he must have been born about 1793 and not 1801. Enter CBW, waits for audience applause, not a sausage. 05:24, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Pierre Guillaume’s birth year varies between 1779 and 1807 in the original sources: the Manitoba censuses, the HBCo archives and the church registries at St. Francois Xavier and St. Laurent, MB. His voyageur contract is found in the Archives Nationales du Quebec.


 * -1779- appears in the census of 1834 and in the update of 1835. This seems to be a copyist error as the name above his is missing its date and this is given to Pierre instead. This error is corrected in the formal census of 1835.
 * -1793- is the date given in the registry of his death and burial.
 * -1796- is given on the census of 1849, the year that he was tried in court.
 * -1801- appears on the HBCo Servants List of 1828.
 * -1803- is found in the censuses of 1833 and 1838. Pierre’s grandson, Alexander Henry Sayer, also said that his grandfather was 14 years old when he enlisted as a voyager in 1818.
 * -1807- comes from two other censuses in 1835 and 1843.

In summary, family tradition, the oldest census and the HBCo servant’s list favor a date of birth around 1801 to 1803. With this date he would be in his early twenties and his wife sixteen when his eldest son, Edouard, was born in 1823. His wife was born in about 1807 according to her baptismal records. The 1807 date would make him too young to enlist as a voyageur in 1818 and the older dates do not seem to fit the events of his life. Alexprospect (talk) 23:42, 15 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I added * in front of the - to make them appear on different lines and easier to read. Hope you don't mind. The date of 1779 would seem an error as that would make him 89 when he died and it seems a little too old for someone who would have worked as hard as he must have. I didn't pay too much attention to his marriage date as it seems to have been more common for older men to marry much younger women in those days. If he was born in 1779 then he would have been 56 and if born in 1793 he was 42. Neither of which are too far out for a possible marriage but the 1779 seems a bit old for a first marriage but 28 for Josèphté Frobisher also seems a bit old.


 * I take it you have been able to see all the records. Do you recall where they are held? they can be used in the article to reference the various dates. One of the dates could be used in the opening along with the death date both referenced and a note at the bottom of the page explaining all the other dates. Enter CBW, waits for audience applause, not a sausage. 05:33, 16 June 2010 (UTC)