A - Z Challenge 2018 - I

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2018 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is...
My Family Tree Places.

ILE AUX REAUX, QC

Île au Reaux is a small island in the St Lawrence River within easy access to Quebec City and Île d'Orléans. 

My 2x great grandfather Alex Mavor came with his wife Margaret and daughter Agnes to Canada sometime between 1854 and 1859, and he worked as a farm servant on Île au Reaux. My guess is he was working off passage, but I have found no proof of that yet. The Island at that time was owned by Doctor George Mellis Douglas, who worked with the sick at the quarantine station on near-by Grosse Île.

How I discovered where Alex and his family lived was in baptism records for his children, from St Andrew's Church in Quebec City. 

"Alexander Mavor of Isle de Rats...  Isle de Rats"??? 

I had no idea where that was.  Finally I found that that was one of the names of Île au Reaux, also called Isle des Ruaux, Île au Ruau, and others.   

Alex and Margaret had seven more children born at Île au Reaux. Two of them died on the island sometime, but I found no death records for them.

Doctor George M Douglas died by suicide in 1864, still grieving over the death of his wife. It is not until about 1871 that my Mavor ancestor was given land in Waterville, Quebec. (This is the father of the John Mavor that moved west to Daysland). In Waterville they had one more son.

The Island was up for sale a few times over the years. Here, in 1870 the property was put on the auction block with no reserve. 

In later years Île au Reaux was sold again and made into a hunting resort. Guests were brought to the Island by boat or airplane. 

It is now for sale again for $4M US.