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The sole Canadian Besner ancestor generated many children. Nine of his offsprings reached adult-hood; eight daughters and but one son. His name was Jacques. He was born and baptized in Vaudreuil, on July 9th 1768. Being the only boy of the family, he inherited the family land and the nickname "Prêt à boire" tied to his father's name during his military life. He also married in Vaudreuil on January 19th 1792 His spouse, Angélique Poirier, was the daughter of Michel Poirier and Marie-Louise Génus. Jacques Besner died on December 12th 1827 at the age of 59 and was Buried in the church, on the right-hand side.
Jacques-II Besner achieved an incredible turn of events, cradle-wise: of the many children born from this union , only one daughter but nine sons reached adult-hood.
All the North American Besners of French origin are descendants of one or the other of Jacques' sons of the third generation.
Michel , the seventh one, inherited the ancestral estate and was the only one who lived in Vaudreuil. Seven of his brothers were identified as Coteau-du-Lac dwellers between the years 1815 and 1850 and the other one, Jacques the third one, died at the age of 19 of a disease he encountered while working at the Fort. Six of the Besners of this third generation cleared the land and farmed, and five of them generated descendants. Of the following generation, two of Michel-III's sons from Vaudreuil rejoined their cousins(Jean-Baptiste-IV and Michel-IV) . All deserve the common nickname "Prêt à boire". But, because those seven pioneers from Coteau-du-Lac, founded in 1832 and from St-Clet founded in 1850, had all settled in a confined territory and that they all generated large families and also because amongst the fourth generation cousins we find 5 Jean-Baptiste, 5 Joseph, 3 Antoine, 3 Michel 2 Benjamin, more specific surnames sprung up to differentiate the offsprings of this great family.
Chronologically, we have no idea when these surnames were invented. All of them originate from Coteau-du-Lac and St-Clet. They are never or rarely mentioned in official notarial deeds or in civic status. They rather emanate from a century old oral tradition.
Their primitiveness suggest that each of these sub-surnames deserve to survive, be it only to clarify the ordinance of a repertory of the name which became too voluminous.
This repertory now comprises six lineages, each one returning to as many aforementioned pioneers.
The surname "Prêt à boire" evolved to "Pot-à-boire" and only Benjamin descendants of the third generation bear it, to differentiate them from those of his brothers, Paul's being "Paulais" and "Pascal's" being named after their father's name, like those issued from "Michel" and "Antoine".
There is the sub-surname of Jean-Baptiste's descendants of the third generation which is not as easily justifiable. They are called "Benjamins" This Jean-Baptiste-III, the eldest of Jacques-II's sons, also settled in Coteau-du-Lac in his brothers' neighbourhood. However, his first six children did not have Besner descendants. Now, at the time when Benjamin-IV (1830-1918) settled next to his uncle Benjamin-III(1827-1892) less than 500 metres away, they were about the same age and both lived to be quit old. They were therefore identified by designating the eldest as Benjamin-Pot-à-boire(he was the son of Jacques-II known as Prêt à boire) and Benjamin-IV as Benjamin-Baptiste (son of Jean-Baptiste-III); but only the surname "Benjamin" in short prevailed.
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