André-Pierre Vignola, the young mayor of St-Marcellin, is a descendant from Jean Prou de Montmagny

André-Pierre Vignola, the young mayor of St-Marcellin, is a descendant from Jean Prou de Montmagny

4 September 2016 0 By Jean-Pierre Proulx

André-Pierre Vignola partage son temps entre ses études en développement régional et la mairie de Saint-Marcellin. | Source : TC Media – Thérèse Martin

My wife and I had a great story this summer.

In early August, we went to the centre d’interprétation des Opérations Dignité in Esprit-Saint, a village in the Rimouski backcountry. Opérations Dignité refers to the struggle of the people of several municipalities at the turn of the 1970s to conserve their village. And they succeeded. The government wanted to close nearly 100 on the grounds that they had no future. Citizens have managed to save more than 80.

The guide-interpreter of this center was a very young man: André-Pierre Vignola. He introduced himself as a master’s student in regional development at UQAR where he completed a degree in history. It was his summer job.

The conversation was so interesting that we invited him to continue at our chalet in St-Simon when it suited him. He actually came to see us last Friday: we talked about development and regional history always with the same interest.

Shortly before, I learned that there was a 23-year-old mayor in the Rimouski area. I asked him if he knew him. “It’s me,” he replied, adding that there was no need to talk about that!

He is now 23 years old. He was elected at 21 years old. Not commonplace! He is the mayor of St-Marcellin, this high place of the Feste médiévale du Québec. The municipality, which has fewer than 400 inhabitants, welcomed 10,000 people three weeks ago!

Then the conversation deviated to the history of his surname Vignola. It seemed to me Italian, even Portuguese. ” But no! He was a Hungarian immigrant, “says André-Pierre. “It was Fiola.” And the name has turned into Vignola. Nice example of the importance of oral in the ultimate setting of a surname.

Then it was the bouquet! His ancestor, he added, married a Proulx! We rushed to check everything at the PRDH database. In fact, Joseph Fiola married Madeleine Proulx, daughter of Guillaume and Marie Landois. The latter are the father and mother of all Proulx in the Rimouski region, where they settled around 1750. Born in Montmagny, Guillaume was the grandson of Jean Prou and Jacquette Fournier.

 

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