Jean-Baptiste Durand (1739-), the son of Jean-Baptiste Durand (1694-1755) and Marguerite Cloutier (1715-) married Marie-Joseph Marcheteau in 1768.
What's interesting about that is that they got married in St. Louis (Missouri).
Wait! How is that possible 8 years before the American Revolution?
Well, the French colonies spread all the way from Québec to Louisiana (which I knew), and the "Ville-de-Saint-Louis" was established in 1764 by Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau who named it after Louis IX.
It was transferred to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
I've always thought of the westward expansion of the US as being a push through complete frontier - at least as far as the Midwest was concerned. It didn't occur to me until now that there were significant habitations "out there"; I suppose I knew about New Orleans (obviously), and I knew that Detroit was originally a French colony... I was unaware of St. Louis, though.
