Author: Francoamericangravy

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Navigating Family History along the Champlain Canal in Upstate New York

Welcome to stories of the Mylott Family that settled first in Quebec when their paternal ancestors, Pierre Nicolas Damien Milot dit Champagne came to North America to fight for France in the Seven Years War, also known in the United States as The French and Indian War. One hundred years after that war, some of his descendants crossed the border into northern New York and New England to make a living.  One of those was Robert Milot who can be found in the 1850 US cesus working as a farm hand in the town of Whitehall in Washington Couty.  

Robert Milot farmed but his sons became Champlain canal men and their  descendants still live in the towns and cities in upstate New York – Hudson Falls, Glens Falls, Fort Edward, Waterford, Troy, and their suburbs.

 

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Robert Mylott of Whitehall, Warren County, New York

Robert Millot, alternatively spelled  Mailot or  Maylotte and finally, Mylott can be found in the 1850 census of Whitehall, New York working as a farm laborer on the Rathburn farm on the outskirts of town. Exactly when he arrived from Québec, we do not know.  What attracted the young man to this town at the southern end of Lake Champlain? Looking around Whitehall today, it would be hard to tell.  What did Whitehall look like in 1850?  When Robert Millot came into Whitehall,  he found a town bursting with activity, jobs, commerce and crime but, at that time, only a few French Canadians.  For several decades the region was the farmland of New England descendants.  With the opening of the Champlain Canal, Whitehall quickly became the center of economic activity in the north county attracting many new immigrants because it offered many new opportunities.  It was so busy and bustling, it even became the center of a nonfictional account entitled Ship Fever Times. While Robert Mylott continued farming throughout his life, his sons became Champlain Canal boatmen.

Below are several stereoscopic views and a few panoramic scenes of Whitehall in the 19th century, helping us to imagine the Whitehall  Robert Millot saw when he arrived.