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Welcome to the Black River Sova Homepage.Louis Sauve was born in 1819 in French Canada and died April 15,1906 in Traverse City. He married Catherine Knauf sometime prior to 1851. They settled in Rainham Township, Haldimand County, Ontario, Canada on September 6, 1845. Louis and Catherine's father (Michael Knauff) both purchased 50 acres of property from a William Glendower White on that day. The properties were adjacent to each other and were located in the SE and SW 1/4 of Lot N 12 in the 3rd Concession of Rainham Township. The 1851 Census for Rainham shows Louis and Catherine with four children: (Charles, age 10; Antoine, age 9; William, age 3 and Mary, age 1) and two others: (Mary Lalonde, age 16 and Boswell De Buer, age 24). It has been suggested that Catherine Knauf may not be the mother of Charles and Antoine, because of the length of time between Antoine and William. Did Catherine marry Louis prior to arriving in Rainham or after? It is very possible that they met at their prior residence and moved together to Rainham. In either case, they both arrived their at the same time. Louis and Catherine had two more children while in Rainham. John was born in 1854 and Louis Jr. was born in 1856. The family picked up and moved to Saginaw sometime between 1856 and 1860. It is reported that Louis and Catherine lived in Spaulding Township, Saginaw County until they settled in Cheboygan sometime between 1861 and 1870. A Sova descendent from Saginaw believes that Louis had at least two brothers who also settled in Saginaw Co., named Alex and Antoine. Antoine Sova (alias Antoine Sovay) at age 19 joined Co. A of the 14th regiment of Michigan Volunteers on December 11, 1861 in East Saginaw. It is possible that a Charles Welch (alias Charles Sovay) who served in the Civil War with Co. A of the 2nd regiment of Michigan Calvary was his older brother. He enlisted on September 16, 1861 and was listed as living at 13 Hastings St., Detroit, Michigan and in good health according to the 1890 Michigan Veterans Census Index. In any event we cannot provide any information on what happened to Charles and Mary after the 1860 census. As far as the rest of the family they all settled in the Cheboygan area. Antoine lived out the last year of his life in Flint, Michigan. The family name eventually changed to Sova and they became known as the "Black River Sovas", since many of them settled in Alverno along the Black River southeast of Cheboygan. It should be noted that the dates of birth for Louis and Catherine's children may not be accurate. Civil records and obituaries often have conflicted with census records. In fact, some records have suggested that the children were not even born at the time that they were shown in a census. Antoine's birth date was established in an affidavit on May 7, 1914 in which he stated that he has no means of finding out when his birth was. He said that the Bible was burned and that there are no church records. He claimed that he has always celebrated his birthday on June 22. His birth year was established as 1842, which is consistent with previous records. It is possible that as more records are accumulated for each of the children that a reasonable estimate can be drawn as to their ages at the time of their death. More on this web site:
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