It was not until the Early 1600’s before the Dumont name was incorporated in the Gueret name. This occurred through the marriage of one ancestor by the name of Jean Guerey.  Jean Guerey married Francoise de Meherenc, who was the Seigneur du MontMirel. MontMirel was the manor estate in the village of Chantey, Normandy. Jean de Meherenc was known lately by the people as "Seigneur Dumont", rather than "Seignuer du MontMirel". The name du MontMirel may be visited today. Later the children and grandchildren of Jean Guerey were given the extra surname of Dumont in honor of their prominent maternal grandfather, a custom found in the those days. To this day, the Guerets of Canada and the United States are still doing honor to their long forgotten ancestors in Canada. During the period of New France and Canada in Quebec, many of our generation would completely forget the use of the "Dumont" in their name, only to have their children or their children’s children revert to its use. This is particularly true of the second and third generation in the New World.

In the early 1900’s two more changes were to occur with our family name. First the "Gueret" part of our name has completely fallen to disuse, and secondly, especially in the United States, even the name of Dumont has been changed. Now many of the Gueret Dumonts’ carry the name of ‘Dumond’. It is curious if  time will again change our family name.

Jacques Gueret dit Dumont
and Marie-Anne Tardif

(Two surnames separated by "dit" means that a person has acquired a second surname for some reason, honoring some by taking their name, or an orphan taking the name of a guardian. In this case the Dumont name was added to honor an ancestor in France who carried the title of nobility Du Mont Mirel. For many descendants the Gueret name was dropped leaving the name Dumont.

Jacques Gueret was born in the tiny village of Geurre, Parish of Canchy, Normandy, France; very close to Omaha Beach of World War II fame. In 1691, at the age of 25, his parents deceased. Jacques immigrated to the New France by the way of the Port Of La Rochelle. He was indentured to the landowner Jacques Tardif of Beauport, Quebec for three years. Here he fell in love with and married one of the landowners daughters, Marie-Anne Tardif, in 1694. Marie-Anne had been born in New France. Her father was from Normandy and her mother was a :Kings Daughter: . Jacques and Marie-Anne were given land by her parents fronting on the St. Lawrence River three arpents in width (about 586 feet). Her parents also gave them room and board for one year, one milk cow, two sows, a bedspread, a cooking pot, some utensils, and some milled grain. Jacques helped his father-in-law sow the new year’s crop. Over the next 15 years, Jacques and Marie-Anne had seven children, three sets of them were triplets, all of whom survived.

In the spring of 1711, Jacques and Marie-Anne Gueret dit Dumont and five children made the journey to Mont-Louis. Marie-Anne was pregnant; our ancestor Jean-Baptiste was born en route. The family tried for two years to establish themselves at Mont-Louis, but the growing season was short, markets were far away, stores were poorly stocked, and the area had no priest. By 1714 the family was again living in Beauport.

In 1716 the Gueret dit Dumont family moved to Riviere-du-Loup, toward the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. There is a record of Jacques renting a farm for five years. Later the family moved to Isle-Verte, where in 1736 Jacques and Marie-Anne placed their land and possessions in the hands of son Jean-Baptiste and his wife Madeleine (our ancestors). The parents lived their final years in Kamouraska where most of their 12 children lived. The Dumont land at Isle-Verte has remained in the ownership of descendants down through the generations, even into 1995.

( SOURCE: LaForest, Vol. III pp. 103-111 )