Francois Savoie Oral Tradition discusion

So how did the tradition begin? Well in addition tot he above, we believe that Francois Savoie was born around 1620, possibly France. Although There is no known birth record or baptism record for Francois Savoie we do no that Thomas Francis of Savoy, prince of Carignano was in France just before Francois Savoie was born.

"Agli anni della prima guerra del Monferrato seguì un periodo di formazione diplomatica. Tommaso accompagnò il fratello maggiore in Francia in occasione delle sue nozze con Cristina di Borbone (1619)."

Translation: "A period of diplomatic training followed the years of the first Monferrato war. Tommaso accompanied his elder brother to France on the occasion of his wedding with Christina of Bourbon (1619)."

Here is the link to the source, about half way down. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/savoia-carignano-tommaso-franc...

So how would that Oral Tradition begin. Here is how I envision it:

I think the story of Francois Joseph Savoie and the Oral Tradition is straight forward and here is my version with as few speculations as possible:

Francois Joseph Savoie is the illegitimate son of Tomaso. Growing up he had some contact with his relatives with the House of Savoy because the Oral Tradition contains details that he had a "Spanish princess for a grandmother"

When he was a young man it was determined that he had no future within the House of Savoy and his other options as an illegitimate son where limited. He was given a modest sum of money to travel to Normandy to join a group of colonists heading to New France.

Once in New France, he found himself living in a beautiful country with no infrastructure as Europeans understood it. Survival took immense individual and communal effort. Francois did what was excepted of him, he farmed to live, he was a respected member of the community and did he part without any fuss and lived out his life. Why didn't he say anything of his heritage as the son of Tomaso? Probably because it didn't contribute to his or anyone else's survival. His neighbors aren't going to ask for details of his life in the House of Savoy. They will ask: "What did you do today so we as a community can survive another winter?"

And the end of his life on his deathbed, Francois felt he owed his children the truth of where he came from and so he told them. Francois wasn't creating a genealogical record, he didn't envision that he was going to have a million descendants across a vast continent and he certainly wasn't creating a record for 21st century scholars to argue about. He just cared that his children knew. And since Francois wasn't known as a "teller of tall tales" or known to be dishonest, they believed him.

The Oral Tradition was passed on from there. In many lines it died out, especially as the connection to Savoie family became remote. But, remarkedly, it did survive in many others, especially lines like mine where the connection to the Savoie family is more recent.

So there it is, simple and direct and I think far more plausible then saying the Oral Tradition is a complete fabrication. I would also point out that up until recently the story was widely accepted as true and it wasn't until recently in the internet age that there has been pushback by professional genealogists. Some of these same French Canadian genealogists who say that Francois Savoie's story is a myth are also the ones who say that no French settler married a Native (False!!) or that all of them were hearty Norman farmers (false!).

My Aunt Rita in her story to me told me that we Savoies came from Royalty, that the first Savoie in Canada was forced to leave Europe and that his grandmother was a Spanish Princes. None us knew it at the time but Thomas Francis of Savoy, prince of Carignano mother is Catherine Michelle of Savoy, princess of Spain That would mean that Francois's grandmother was a Spanish Princess.

Here are other Oral Tradition stories from around North America:

"From an email from Ms. Lori R from New Brunswick: "My family is from New Brunswick. I have an aunt who just passed away last week who was 90 and was the one who led me down this rabbit hole and I've been hooked since. I've looked up everything I could get to find proof of Francis savoie being royal , but was told this is not the real story. But my aunt who has Lejeune family that is mikmaq, and that's how I found him....this story has so much history, I have become sure from her stories that she left me with all our family history that this one she believed with all her heart. She loved the saints.... She was very devout. Thanks for anything about this. I was just interested in maybe seeing the family chart you mentioned in your responses . By Louis Savoie. My aunt passed knowing I was going to continue this for her. "

"Here is another oral tradition record from Richard Adrien G from Manitoba: "But I do remember the stories that my great aunt Marie-Jeanne Baril (1903-1984) use to tell us that we were descendants of a prince thru the Savoie line and that we have some Italian blood in us. She said that it is a story that has been carried down thru the ages. My mom thought that it was BS, but I was very interested in listening to the story. And also one of my other cousins Roger Levasseur had done some work on it and had even gone to Italy to check it out. We have discussed it with other cousins and we all agree that it must be true."

"I am Erica Howton. I first became aware of an oral tradition that Francois Savoie, the colonist, confessed on his death bed to his children that he was the son of Tomasso Savoie from a post on geni.com in 2009 by a descendant, Gregory, who was asking about the validity of the story."

"I'm not exactly sure on the exact date, but I believe it may have been thanksgiving day 1983 when I heard about the oral tradition. I remember my father Joseph Luke Despres, and my grandfather John Albert Despres, discussing it at the family dinner table at the home of my grandparents John Albert and Mary Anna Despres (her maiden name is Fortin) in National City, California. I was very young at the time so my memory of the details is a bit foggy, but I do distinctly remember the part about a distant great grandfather's deathbed confession that he was a prince of Savoy.

From https://www.geni.com/discussions/186267?msg=1527223"

The story is also mentioned in Louis Savoy's book on the history of the Savoy family in North America as given to him by his brother.