A Vallée Visits Home

Lynn Rose Terry and Leon Basler pose with Kevin Vallee during his late January visit from Canada to investigate family ties to Ste. Genevieve.

It wasn’t just a cold spell that had arrived from Canada that visited Ste. Genevieve on Jan, 30, but a young Canadian man who came to town exploring his family roots amidst the snow and ice.

Kevin M. Vallée from Montreal wanted to find out more about those Vallés here who had been the most prominent family of colonial Ste. Genevieve.

He had explored Ste. Genevieve a week before and met by chance Lynn Rose Terry (a Valle descendant) and Leon Basler. Kevin wanted to go to Louisiana to better understand the French impact and Lynn and Leon arranged for him to stay with mutual friends there.

On his way back north, he stopped in Ste. Genevieve and met up with Bob Mueller. They did a driving tour of the local area, visited the Church of Ste. Genevieve, Memorial Cemetery, and the Jacques Guibourd house.

During their conversation, they realized that Kevin’s ancestors were indeed related to the Ste. Genevieve Vallés. One of his ancestors was Joseph Vallée, a brother to our François Vallée, the patriarch of the local family.

Our local Valles originally spelled the name with the double “ée” but later dropped the second “é” and eventually dropped the accent over the “e.”  During lunch at Audubon’s, Kevin and Bob were joined by Lynn and Leon and was also able to chat with Jim Baker who lives in a Valle descendant house.