The DeMarsh descendants
We learned in January 2026 from 尚文哲 Stephen DeMarsh, Creative Direction & Design, who was then in China, that his Demarsh family were descendants of André but that their surname had been changed by his ancestor Benjamin around 1891. Indeed, Benjamin was baptised Demers, was listed as Demarsh in the 1891 census, Lemarsh in the 1901 census and on the birth certificate of his daughter Alice (Adess). He was also DeMarsh on his death certificate. Stephen believes that the spelling has been changed at this stage to make the surname appear more English because his great-great-grandfather Benjamin Demers married Mary Jane Croskery of Merrickville, Ontario.
List of his grandfathers:
- Stephen Grant Demarsh 1985 (me)
- Roy Grant Demarsh 1922 – 2005 (my grandfather
- Peter DeMarsh 1885-1967
- Benjamin Demers 1845 – 1930
- Jeremy Demers 1804 – 1878
- Pierre Demers 1769-1836
- Michel Demers 1726-1793
- André Demers 1688 – 1752
- André Demers 1659-1707
- André Demers 1628-1711
- Jean Dumais 1600 – 1669
- Adrien Dumays 1556
- Jehan Dumoys 1525 – 1575
Stephen was born in Charlottetown, IPE. His father John Gordon DeMarsh (son of Roy DeMarsh) worked there as a doctor. His father grew up in Toronto, but his grandfather grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan.
A letter (68 pages) by Cecelia DeMarsh, Benjamin Demers' oldest daughter,
signed on September 17, 1963
His uncle Peter Demarsh, was one of the 157 who died in Ethiopia in the famous Ethiopian Airlines (flight 302) accident in 2019 on a Boeing Max8.
Peter Grant Demarsh 1949-2019
Peter was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He kept his childhood roots in Taymouth and Salmon Beach throughout his life. Peter graduated as an Ontario scholar from the Jarvis Collegiate in Toronto and received a bachelor’s degree (economics and political science) from the University of Toronto. Peter helped organise the New Brunswick North Shore Forest Products Marketing Board. He was a central figure on the New Brunswick marketing boards that united to form the New Brunswick Wood Producers Federation (later the owners of Woodlots). Peter learned to speak French fluently to be part of the meeting of French and English forest landowners. He has held positions as Director of the YSC Forest Products Marketing Board and President of the NB Federation of Woodlots Owners. Peter took economics and forestry classes at St. Thomas University and UNB, followed by a master’s degree in international development at the Norman Patterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. He facilitated the creation of the Canadian Federation of Wood Owners (CFWO) and was Chairman of the Board of Directors until his death. Peter, as president of the CFWO, was one of the first members of the International Alliance of Family Forests and was chairman of the board of directors of IFFA from 2011 until his death. He was a member of the FAO (UN) Agricultural and Forestry Facility Steering Committee and represented smallholders in the United Nations Forum on Forestry. In addition to family forestry, Peter had many other passions, mainly his family, bird watching, organic gardening and reading philosophy. He was proud of his organic market garden and was very involved in the NB chapter of the Organic Crop Improvement Association. Peter was a founding member and first president of the Taymouth Community Association. He was an administrator of the United Church of Taymouth and a member of the Reverend Fran Brown Reiki Centre.
To learn more about this accident, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_302