Hi, everyone. I recently started researching my father's family.His maternal grandmother was Celina Beauvais (also Bovais, Bova. The family was originally from Quebec Province, Canada. She had two brothers, Celem and Napoleon, and two sisters, Cordelia and Mathilde (May). The family moved to Cohoes, NY when she was 6 years old. She married Joseph Bissonnette approximately 1869 and had six children, one was Elizabeth, born in 1880 in Cohoes, NY. Elizabeth married John A. Wills in 1903. She was my paternal grandmother.
Somewhere I read that Beauvais means something like "people who live near small bushes". Would like to hear from other Beauvais (Bova).