The First French-Canadian Settlers I: Louis Gaston Hébert

The city of Québec was founded in 1608, the second permanent French settlement in Canada.  It took several years for these colonies to take hold; in fact, for the first few years, the majority of the population died each winter.   Despite a continual trickle of immigrants, the population was extremely low until the mid-17th century (for example, even as late as 1667, Québec’s entire population was only in the 3,000’s), compared to the English colonies which — although they started later (1620 in Plymouth) — had spread to all over New England by the 1640s.  While (so far) there's absolutely NO representation in my family tree on the English colony side, in Québec, there are several ancestors who actually were among the first colonists!

For this, one needs to start with 10th great-grandfather Louis Gaston Hébert (1572/5 – 1627).  He was born in Paris (near the Louvre), and arugably the first "true" settler of Québec.   I say that because he actually lived off of the land by creating a small farm for sustenance, and traded with the indigenous population, whereas other "colonists" relied entirely on trade ships from France for supplies.  Not "going entirely native" was actually encouraged by the French government through the sponsors of the fur and cod trade in Canada.

Rue Saint Honore in Paris where Louis Hébert had an
apothecary shop.

He wasn't a farmer by trade — he was actually an apothecary (which was the family business[1,2]) — who first came to the Arcadian settlement in Port Royal (the first French settlement established in 1604 until 1607) in the summer of 1606 traveling along the coast as south as what's now Gloucester, MA, with Champlain scouting for potential future settlement locations.    He returned in 1610, again in the role of healer to both the French and the Indians, including the Mi'kmaq leader Membertou (who is also a 13th great-grandfather), and attempts to start a settlement on Mt. Desert Island in 1613, but is captured by the British who proceed to destroy Port Royal in November of that year.

Louis Hébert, gathering plants

The third time is the charm.   In 1616-1617 Champlain is once again in Paris, advocating creating a permanent settlement in Québec and obtains the promise of a fairly lucrative contract with the "Compagnie de Canada" (200 crowns per year plus support for he and his family in return for his apothecary services).   Perhaps too optimistically, he sells his house and garden in Paris and gets ready to leave with his wife Marie-Anne (Rolet/Rollet, 1580-1649) and their three children[3].   Arriving at Honfleur (where the ship will leave for Canada) he learns that the company in fact has no intention to honor this contract; the new "offer" is far less favorable, and basically puts his entire family at the mercy of the company.   Having no choice now that he's liquidated his assets for the trip, they agree to the new terms, and leave France on March 11, 1617, arriving in Tadoussac (a trading post) four months later on July 15, 1617, and from there on to Québec.[4]

His presence (and his small 10-acre farm) were instrumental to the nascent Québec colony.  Because of his background in (17h century) medicine, one of the primary roles of the farm was to grow medicinal herbs and plants as well as a variety of vegetables.   This is despite interference from the the controlling company, first in requiring as much of their time as possible, but also in their trying to maintain control of all economic activity (requiring colonists to rely completely on the company for all supplies);  in fact, it wasn't until 1627 that Québec received a ox-driven plow!

Champlain went back and forth from Canada to Québec, trying to promote colonization.  In 1620 he was given full control of the Québec colony, and placed Hébert as the prosecutor of justice for the colony (whose population was only 60, of which only six were women, including Louis' wife and daughter!).   He finally received a plot of land of his own in 1623; his house and that of his son-in-law, Guillaume Couillard, are the first two private homes in Québec (and remain so until 1634).[5]  Everyone else lived in "L'Habitation".

He had realized his fondest dream, but it wasn't to last: after a fall on the ice at the very end of 1626, he died on January 23, 1627.

Monument in Québec honoring Louis Hébert
and Guillaume Couillard.

[1] His father, Nicolas Hébert (1539–1600) was also an apothecary, serving in the court of Queen Marie de Medici (1573-1642) who herself is the wife of King Henry IV of France (1553–1610, and who is also a 5th cousin 15x removed).

[2] Nicolas Hébert is an 11th great-grandfather.  Louis' younger brother Jacques (1576-1662) is also a 10th great-grandfather.  He settled in Port Royal several years after Louis had settled in Québec (apparently in the 1640s).

[3] Anne (1603–1619) died shortly being married (at age 15!) to Joseph-Marie-Etienne Jonquest — this was the first marriage performed in New France;  Guillaume (1604–1639) is a 9th great-grandfather, the husband of Hélène Desportes (1620–1675) the first French child born in Québec;  Joseph (1605–1608) died before the family left France; and Marie-Guillemette (1606–1684) marries Sieur Guillaume Couillard (dit de Lespinay), a carpenter and one of the original colonists to Québec (arriving in 1613, even before the Hébert family) who takes over most of the Hébert land after Louis' death.   He's also the first Canadian to be knighted in 1654 by Louis XIV.

[4] Today one can't really imagine what this "voyage" must have been like.   These were not "cruise liners" — there were no "passenger" accommodations; those traveling were essentially treated like cargo, crammed into makeshift dark areas below decks, surviving off of what provisions they had (that hadn't spoiled or were eaten by rats, etc.).   The semi-rotten food, combined with the rolling of the ship tortured the passengers with sea sickness.  

[5] It's things like this that fascinate me, especially when comparing the Québec colony to the Plymouth colony.   The first Hébert house was nothing more than a shack; it was soon replaced with a one-story stone house, 38'x19' (722 sq. ft.).

One year in! 20,000 people!

This weekend is the end of the first year I've gotten into genealogy.

Coincidentally, I added my 20,000th person to the tree yesterday.  (I suspect that there are duplicates, and a lot are "in law" relations, so its not 20,000 actual relatives - probably more like 12,000 of them.

Things I've learned:

1. Québec history - especially the 17th century - is far more interesting than what I learned about the Pilgrims!   I still maintain that one could create a RIVETING HBO/Showtime drama series in this time period.
2. I now know more about Québec names ("dit names", hyphenated names, sets of children with re-used names, etc.) than I thought ever possible!
3. I appear to be related to the entire "who's who" of French Canadian colonists - especially in Québec.   I have a FEW Arcadian ancestors, and ought to follow up on those lines when possible.
4. On the other side of the tree, I've found it VERY difficult to make inroads on the Irish side of the family.   It appears that the best way to rectify that would be to make a trip to Ireland.   But - since I've never been there, it probably means multiple trips since it would be hard to go there and NOT try to be a tourist!  (Of course the same is true for Québec - I went there on a school trip when I was 17, and it's ironic that so many of the places we visited have ties to my ancestors (not knowing it at the time).  
5. It's frustrating that even local records are hard to obtain.   For example, my hometown newspaper STILL uses microfiche and have digitized ANYTHING, even birth/marriage/death notices.  The local churches require you go into Boston to see their records (by appointment only).
6. It's easier to get information on people who lived 150 years ago than people who are alive today.   The U.S. Census is embargoed for 72 years, so it won't be until ~2022 before we can peek at the 1950 Census data!   
7. Ancestry.com is - despite the heavy funding from the LDS - not a particularly good service.   The web design is very "2008" the database structure and portal is abysmal, and to do any actual statistical research you have to export your tree and write an entire platform to re-ingest the data in a way that's unseful.   THAT is a project for the next year.
8. My long-atrophied French skills are getting a work out!

Things I want to do:

1. Write a GEDCOM ingestor to MySQL.
2. Find a way to have data visualization for large sets of family tree relationships.
3. Find a way to have geographic mapping of that data.   FTM3 does have this, but you can't filter by time.   It would be great to get a sense of who is where for a particular when.
4. VISIT QUEBEC!
5. Get to the Massachusetts archive to fill in some of the holes.
6. Make better inroads into my dad's side of the tree.
7. Start contacting my living relatives to collect stories, etc.
8. Get access to the church records for Lawrence parishes in the 1880-1960 time period.
9. Get access to the Eagle Tribune's archive even if I have to go through the microfiche one day at a time! 
10. Reach 40,000 people by this date in 2015?

Update: What I've been up to...

I made myself the silly challenge to have 20,000 people on my family tree by the 1-year anniversary of starting it on ancestry.com.


I've been doing it by concentrating on the fundamental Québecois family lines and following them through Tanguay - particularly Volume I (marriages between 1608 and 1700).  That's been good because I've been finding errors in the tree, and many situations where there are duplicates - fixing them has really stitched the relationships between these families together.  

As of today I'm up to 19,277 people with 14 days to go.

I'm now very curious to know an estimate for what percentage of the Québec population is on the tree as a function of time;  that and how many of the first-generationers (people who came over in the 1608-1650 time frame) are on the tree.   Hopefully I'll get to some of those projects within the second year of undertaking this!


Coming up:  why I wish I were adopted, and why Louis Guimond must be spinning in his grave, and the single factoid responsible for both!

The First Immigrants to New France - Introduction

For the past several weeks, I've been delving into the topic of relationships to the first French settlers.   This is especially FUN because SO much emphasis is placed in America on who can trace their ancestors back to voyagers on the Mayflower.   As it turns out, while the Pilgrims might make an interesting TV Movie, their French cousins (who had already been in the New World for 15 years before the Pilgrims arrived) I think would make for an entire Dramatic Series!   (Anyone know anyone at HBO or Showtime?  Now's your chance!)

While the first excursions to Canada by the French go all the way back to John Cabot, who like Columbus was trying to find passage to the exotic Asian lands in order to set up trade routes that were (hopefully) faster than the ones established (and largely controlled by others: Spain, Venice, etc.).   His initial expedition in 1497 brought him to (probably) Cape Breton in Nova Scotia; from there he sailed down the coast all the way to Chesapeake Bay by 1498.   To this end it's Cabot who REALLY discovered America since Columbus' journeys took him into the Caribbean and not to the North American mainland!

The discovery of vast tracts of land and resources sparked widespread reconnaissance, not for colonization but for fishing.   It wasn't until the Jacques Cartier, who in 1534 on an official expedition sponsored by the French government, made the initial mapping of Newfoundland, with the subsequent discovery of the St. Lawrence River in 1535.   On that latter voyage, he traveled upriver as far as the location of modern Montréal.  


While there's lots of intervening history of additional discoveries in northern Canada, we can skip to the beginning of the 17th century and Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635) "The Father of New France".   While he's not on the family tree (as least not yet) he is absolutely integral to the lives of several people who are.  It was his settlement established in 1608 where the founding families of Québec lived for several years. 

The Quebec Settlement : A.—The Warehouse. B.—Pigeon-loft. C.—Detached Buildings where we keep our arms and for Lodging our Workmen. D.—Another Detached Building for the Workmen. E.—Sun-dial. F.—Another Detached Building where is the Smithy and where the Workmen are Lodged. G.—Galleries all around the Lodgings. H.—The Sieur de Champlain's Lodgings. I.—The door of the Settlement with a Draw-bridge. L. — Promenade around the Settlement ten feet in width to the edge of the Moat. M.—Moat the whole way around the Settlement. O.—The Sieur de Champlain's Garden. P.—The Kitchen. Q.—Space in front of the Settlement on the Shore of the River. R.—The great River St. Lawrence.

A model of the (second?) Champlain habitation.   The first building was
constructed in1608 and was replaced with a stone building in 1627.

Champlain set up the first habitation for 28 people staying through the winter, but in that first winter 20 of them died.   Actual colonization happened slowly;  most of the people coming to New France were in the fur trapping or cod fishing industries and weren't interested in putting down roots although a few primitive outposts (e.g., Tadoussac) had been established.   Four Recollect missionaries arrived in 1615 with the intent of converting the ingeneous population.   The first woman to come to New France from Europe, Marguerite Vienne, arrived with her husband, Michel Colin in 1616, but they both died within a year.

So, when the apocathery Louis Hébert[1], his wife, and their three children came to live in Québec in 1617 they were something of a novelty.   Unlike everyone else, Louis established a farm and built the first home in Québec outside the settlement.

A few other families soon followed:  Pierre Desportes[2] arrived with his wife in 1619, and Abraham Martin dit L'Ecossais[3] settled with his wife in 1620.   Both Martin and Hébert had been to New France on earlier voyages as a river pilot and apocathery, respectively.  At this time 60 people were living at the colony, but only six women.

The population reached 100 people in 1627 — almost 20 years later — forty-five of which were colonists (including four Jesuits) — including four families (Hébert, Martin, Desportes, and Couillard[4]).

Meager beginnings...

I'll go into detail about each of these people (and their families) in later posts.

Footnotes:

1. 11th great-grandfather and father-in-law of 10th great-grandmother Hélène Desportes - said to be the first child born of French settlers in Québec;
2. 11th great-grandfather;
3. 10th great-grandfather;
4. As near as I can tell, these would be the four families mentioned in the records.  Guillaume Couillard is a husband to my 10th great-grand aunt (Marie-Guillemette Hébert, 1606–1684).

My favorite Christmas Present in 2013: A Book on Hélène Desportes!

My #1 item on my Christmas Wish List this year was a book on Hélène Desportes, by Susan McNelley:  Hélène's World.

The book doesn't chronicle Hélène's life (since there are very few source of stories about her life), but basically tells the story of the founding of Québec and the overall lives of the original settlers using Hélène as a point of reference wherever possible.   In doing so, one gets an incredibly detailed picture of both life in the early 17th century, and life in a remote frontier land far from home.

Reading this book completely changed my mental image of early Québec.   I knew that the colony was very slow to grow at first, but I now better understand why this was the case; the political and economic influences from Europe, the complete remoteness of the colony and the difficulty of getting supplies from France, piracy, troubles with England, and so on.

One particular aspect of the colony that had a great impact on Hélène and the other families in Québec was its smallness - roughly sixty people lived within the one compound for several years before there was any expansion.   This contrasts greatly with the New England colonies, which spread all over eastern Massachusetts (and beyond) over the same period of time (albeit starting over ten years later).   Ms. McNelley's book does a remarkable job of accomplishing so much.

The book is also heavily sourced and footnoted.   For anyone with an interest in Québec history, or who wants to get a clear perspective of that time period outside of the Pilgrims, etc., this is definitely a resource worth having!

Canada Needs Women: Love in the 17th Century II: The Filles du Roi

"The Arrival of the French Girls at Québec" (1667).  Watercolor painting by C.W. Jeffreys.

 By the mid-17th century, the colony of New France was established, albeit small with only a population in 1663 of 3,200 people.   In the previous 28 years, over 200 women - the "Filles à Marier" - had been sent from France to provide colonists with suitable brides.   Yet the ratio of single men to available women remained high (about 16 to 1; Jean Talon's estimate in the first census of New France was 719 single men and 45 single women, respectively).   This was in part because of an influx of soldiers sent to New France to fight the Iroquois; even after a peace treaty was signed in 1667 and the regiments returned to France, several hundred soldiers "went native" and now directly competed with the fur trappers and farmers for wives.

In 1663, just when the Filles à Marier immigration stopped, a new program - this time sponsored by Louis XIV - began:  the "Filles du Roi".   The aims were the same - promote colonization by providing suitable brides for New France immigrants with the expectation of promoting marriage and family formation.  Additionally, the success of other New World colonies - particularly those of the English - were a concern; basically France wanted to keep up lest they find themselves penned in from competing interests.

The program was suggested by Jean Talon, the Intendant of New France with the goal of sponsored passage of at least 500 women.   Women between the ages of 12 and 25 were recruited, in collaboration with the Church who would provide references.   At first, most were French "city girls" mostly from Paris - this would be problematic since they would not be well-prepared for frontier life, and as the program progressed, more girls from farming communities were recruited since they were fundamentally a better match for the lives they were to have.

Those in the program were rewarded handsomely by the government.   Not only was their passage paid for, but they also received a dowry (between 50 and 400 livres[1,2] or payment in-kind[3]) and a trousseau.   So, for many of these women, the incentives in terms of potentially improving their station in life definitely competed against the more somber hardships of life in New France, especially since many were orphans.    Nor were most of the recruits from well-to-do families; so like many of the Filles à Marier, their options were they to remain in France were limited: an arranged marriage or life in a convent.   If they weren't one of the eldest daughters, the prospects were likely even more restricted.   Thus, emigration sometimes might've been worth the risks.  

One particular risk was surviving the (approximately two month) journey itself.  In 1663 - the first year of emigration - sixty out of 300 women traveling from La Rochelle to New France died en route!

Some have argued that the Filles du Roi was a way of ridding France (and especially Paris) of "problem women" (read: prostitutes).   This is almost certainly not the case;  in fact, those chosen were held to extremely high moral standards as well as physical standards (life on a farm and more importantly the ability to successfully bear children).  In fact, a few were sent back to France because they were deemed to not meet the necessary standards.   A Madame Bourdon was responsible for overseeing ~150 girls across the Atlantic whose letters mention the difficulty of keeping some of the girls in line!   Only one girl - Catherine Gulchelin - was charged with prostitution in Canada in 1675.  She was found guilty, her two children were adopted by friends, and she was banished from Québec City.  Her husband, Nicolas Bateau, abandoned the family and returned to France.   Catherine apparently was guilty - she had many additional children out of wedlock (although she appears to have been married twice more and in addition cancelled two other marriage contracts).

So, over the next 10 years, approximately 800 women emigrated to New France, on average about 100-150 each year (except in 1666 and 1672 where there were apparently no arrivals).

In terms of marriage contracts, I find conflicting information.   The evidence for the Filles à Marier suggests that they entered marriage contracts before they left France.   However - at least for most of the Filles du Roi - they arrived in New France without prearranged marriages, because the church records show the marriage contracts being signed at the local parish.   (Or could it be that they had unsigned contracts when they left which were formalized upon arrival?)   In any case, it appears that "opting out" of the contract seems to have occurred with greater frequency later in the program (particularly between 1669 and 1671 - the three most active years of immigration).   This might be due to their "financial attractiveness" in terms of their dowry; they'd have considerable power and could decide after arrival and meeting their financé that they could "do better" with someone else.

Marguerite Bourgeoys with Filles du Roi
in Montréal.

In New France, they disembarked at either Montréal, Trois-Rivieres, or Québec.   In Montréal (Ville-Marie) they were taken in by Marguerite Bourgeoys who purchased a large farmhouse in 1668 for lodging the arrivals until they found husbands and moved on.   By 1672, the population of New France had more than doubled to 6,700, and the program was ended, presumably since by this time the population was self-sustaining.   The last 60 immigrants arrived in September 1673.

There are seven Filles du Roi in the family tree:

1. Jeanne Godequin (1649-1727, 8ggm) - arrived 1669 (age: 20), born in Amiens to Jacques Godequin and Jeanne Dupuis.   She entered a marriage contract with Vincent Croteau (1647-1709) on 22 Sep 1669 and married him the same day.   Her dowry was 350 livres (including 50 from the King).  They settled in Saint-Antoine-de-Tille and had 11 children (7 boys, 4 girls).   Vincent was a shoemaker from Dieppe who had arrived in New France in 1665.
    
2. Marguerite Lamain (1656-1714, 8ggm) - arrived 1670 (age: 14), born in Rouen, Normandy. to Jacques Lamain and Marguerite des Haies.  She married 31 year-old Michel Rognon dit Laroche (1639-1684) in Québec on 14 Sep 1670.  They had 7 children starting in 1673 (by which time Marguerite was 17 years old!).  Michel died in 1684; two months later Marguerite remarried Pierre Mercier (1653-1712) who had arrived from the Loire region in France in 1679.  They also had 7 children although most (all?) died in infancy.  
    
3. Marie-Jeanne Gilles (1644-1708) see footnote [4].
   
   
4. Marie-Madeleine Phillippe (1651-1724, 8ggm) - was born in Paris to Nicolas Phillippe and Marie Cirier.   She arrived in Québec on 3 Jul 1668 (age: 17) and quickly married Pierre Tousignant dit Lapointe (1641-1714) a soldier turned farmer.   Over the next 40 years, they lived in various locations owning land, eventually settling in Lotbinière.   She was friends with Michelle Ouinville, also a Fille du Roi (they traveled together), and her eldest daughter Marguerite-Michelle married Ouinville's eldest son (Noël Barabé, a 7th great-grandfather) in Lotbinière in 1687.
   
5. Michelle Ouinville (1640-1700, 8ggm) - born in Paris and arrived in Québec in July 1668 with Marie-Madeleine Phillippe.  She married Nicolas Barabé (1647-1676) on 21 Oct 1668, settled in Lotbinière, and had 6 children (two boys, four girls).  Nicolas died about 1676.  As with many of the Filles du Roi, she quickly remarried, to Michel Lemay dit Poudrier (1631-1685). 
   
   Here the family tree gets a little entangled:  Michel is ALSO a 9th great grandfather from his (first) marriage to Marie Dutost (who herself was a Fille à Marier).   Two of THEIR sons are also great grandparents:  5th son Charles (1669-1733) is an 8th great grandfather, but his older brother (3rd son Ignace) is a 7th great grandfather![5].  (So between the three marriages, there are seven great-grandparents.)
   
6. Marie-Madeleine Normand (1651-1690) - arrived in 1669 (age: 18) and married Alphonse Morin dit Valours (10th great grand uncle), the son of Noél Morin and Hélène des Portes (the first child born in Canada to European settlers), in Feb 1670.   They had 10 children; it appears she died in childbirth (or from complications).
   
7. Catherine de Belleau (1639-1706) - arrived in 1667 (age: 28) and married Jean-Baptiste Morin dit Rochebelle (brother of the husband to Marie-Madeleine Normand listed above).     The circumstances were fortunate - for Catherine.   Jean-Baptiste had been under a marriage contract with another Fille du Roi - Marie-Anne Fermin - but she backed out.  It's unlikely that she didn't think that Jean-Baptiste was a good match; he was - after all - one of the premier families in New France at the time.   More likely, she just didn't like Canada - according to a footnote on the contract dated 17 Nov 1667, she's listed as a passenger on the ship Le Prophète Hosée returning to France.   Catherine's cousin, Marie-Charlotte Depoitiers had arrived in Québec earlier (1659) as a "Fille à Marier" and had married Jean-Baptiste's half brother Joseph Hébert in 1660.

Footnotes:

[1] - There's no direct equivalent between French livres and US dollars.   A very rough estimate would be about $5-10 to the livre.

[2] - Those from more upper-class backgrounds (about 40 women, also called the Filles de Qualité) received larger dowries from their familes - closer to 2,000 livres).

[3] - Usually, the women didn't receive cash and instead got merchandise intended to help them establish themselves in their new household.   One typical example reads as follows:

1. 1 chest
2. 1 taffeta kerchief
3. 1 ribbon for shoes
4. 100 needles
5. 1 comb
6. 1 spool of white thread
7. 1 pair of stockings
8. 1 pair of gloves
9. 1 pair of scissors
10. 2 knives
11. approximately 1000 pins
12. 1 bonnet
13. 4 laces
14. 2 silver livres.

In addition some might receive livestock (chickens, pigs, etc.).

[4] Ancestry.com has her calculated as my 10th ggm through her daughter Anne Fleury (born 1630) which is obviously impossible.   Marie-Jeanne DOES have a daughter Anne (1683-1719) but there's no descendant tree established.   The Anne Fluery born in 1630 is Marie-Jeanne's sister-in-law and is a 9th great grandmother but lived and died in France.   So at best Marie-Jeanne is the wife of a 9th great grand-uncle.

[5] How is that possible?  Basically, the different lines between the two Lemay brothers differ in the number of generations to "get to" me.   If in one line people marry earlier, have children earlier, etc. then over time you can have extra generations within the same time frame compared to a different line who tends to marry later and have children later.   Specifically:

we end up with the common ancestor Alexandre Guimond at one end (a great-great-great grandfather), but in the case of Charles Lemay we take a detour through the Sévigny and Choret family to get to the Lemays back to the common ancestor of Michel Lemay (father to Charles and Ignace).

Poor François Fréchet (1655-1722, 8th great grandfather)

One of the problems of being an early colonist in New France is that the dating pool was rather meager.  In the mid-1600s, the ratio of men to women in the Québec colony was about 4:1 and almost none of them were eligible bachelorettes;  they were usually already married having immigrated with their husbands and families from France, or were scooped up almost as soon as they stepped off the boat.

Fortunately, there was a "mail-order bride" service in the Filles à Marier - the "marriageable girls" who were enticed to come to New France mostly because their families couldn't provide a decent dowry to attract French husbands in (usually) arranged marriages.  (One can imagine that even some of these pairings were probably ghastly since the girls weren't given a choice on their mate.)   So, for many, the options were either to marry below their station or to someone they weren't attracted to, or to become a nun.  So, despite the horrors of a two-month trans-Atlantic journey, and the dangers of living in the wilderness on another continent (complete with disease and wars with the native tribes), about 250 girls bravely made their way to New Canada.

One of the other challenges of being a Fille à Marier was that of course you left France under a pre-arranged marriage contract, never having met your intended spouse.   The bright side of this is that once you did arrive, you weren't completely bound to that contract and if you weren't happy with your prospective husband, you could opt out of the marriage and pick from one of many other colonists.

In 1662, one of the last Filles à Marier to arrive in Québec was Catherine Méliot (1645-1699).  She was under contract to marry Jean Routhier (1642-1677) who had arrived in Québec a few years earlier.   They were married on 20 Nov 1662 in Sillery, and together had six children, two boys and four girls.  Alas, Jean did on 26 Sep 1677 leaving Catherine a widow of 32 with children from 11 years old down to an infant, in a strange country.

But even widows with dependent children were still in demand as wives.   The children had labor potential for the family, and the widow might - if she were still young enough - be able to produce more children.   So, less than two weeks after burying her husband, Catherine is married to the 21-year old François Fréchet, a farmer and ship's carpenter who had also arrived in 1677 from Ile de Ré (the same region from which Catherine came).

For reasons unknown, the marriage is immediately annulled.

But wait - it gets better.

One month later, Catherine marries AGAIN, this time to an edge-tool maker and farmer named Pierre Bouvier, himself a a 47-year old widower with five children (aged two to nine).   At least this time it stuck - they were married for 21 years and had three boys together.   (And that's the way they call became the Bouvier bunch!   Sorry I couldn't resist.)

François was completely distraught; accounts state that for the next three years, he became a hermit refusing to talk to anyone about the incident.   I can only imagine that this was quite the scandal at the time - the community in which they lived was so small there would be no hope of anonymity, everyone knew everyone (and quite a lot of them were related to one another in some way).   One can guess from the ages of those involved that there must have been some very interesting relationship dynamics:  Catherine is ten years older than François;  Pierre was 15 years older than Catherine.   I expect that she quickly realized that François was not able to meet the necessary responsibilities of being a father to her children (especially since he's only 5 years older than his oldest step-daughter), not to mention that she's only been a widow for less than a month.   Given that they all had to have known each other beforehand, one is tempted to imagine a sort of sexual intrigue that would befit an HBO Dramatic series!

But, in the end things work out.   François comes out of hiding and in 1680, marries the 14-year old Anne L'Heureux (L'Heros), the second-oldest surviving daughter of Simon Lereau (already deceased in 1670) and Suzanne Jaroussel - herself a Fille à Marier.  From there, he continues as a very successful ship-repairman (for a time) and farmer on L'Île-d'Orléans, and has 15 children.   He purchased land on the island bordering his brother-in-law Jean, and then went on an expedition to Hudson Bay to drive out English fur traders, who captured them and exiled them to an island off shore from Charleston, presuming that the elements and wolves would take care of them.   Instead, they made a canoe/raft out of birch bark, escaped and made their way back to Montréal.   At this point he ran into legal problems with the land he had purchased (the litigation lasted for 14 years), so the family moved to Québec City in the autumn of 1690.

From here, he appears to have had several unsuccessful business ventures first in cod fishing, where he and partners purchased a boat, but by October 1694 that had been abandoned.   The family left Québec at the beginning of 1696 (leaving behind two sons at the Seminary of Québec [1]) back to Saint-Nicolas to care for Anne's mother who died in 1700.   He rented and then purchased and sold land several times; in Matane in 1701-1702, in Québec in 1704, and then in 1708 embarked on a somewhat significant move.

The governor of Newfoundland (then a French colony), Philippe Pastour de Costebelle was looking for an ambitious family to administer a farm in Plaisance (then the chief town of Newfoundland, now Placentia).  In 1708, a contract was drawn up placing the Fréchet(te)'s under the governor's employ, and François, Anne and four children (Pierre-Victor aged 18, eight-year old Jean-Baptiste, six-year old Elisabeth-Agnès, and the three-year old Michel [2]) left Québec to sail downriver to Plaisance.   But this too didn't last long and the family packed up and returned to Québec a year later.

Anne died in 1715, three days after the youngest son Michel died at age 10.

In his final years, he marries Suzanne Métayer (1655?-1742), twice-widowed and the mother of seven children early in 1717.    They were together for 5 years;  François passed away May 2, 1722 in Lévis, across the river from Québec.

Locations in this post:
A) Québec City;  B) Lévis;  C) Saint Nicolas; D) L'Île d'Orléans

Notes:

[1] - Presumably the sons were Simon (1691-1708) and Joseph (1693-1722) since Etienne (1684-1749) subsequently marries in 1710, and Pierre-Victor goes with the family to Newfoundland, but that would suggest that they were basically abandoned at 5 and 3, respectively.   There's no indication either married, it's possible they were (or training to be) priests, although neither lived long lives (dying at 17 and 28, respectively).  Simon is buried at Saint-Nicolas.  Joseph died in Verchéres.

[2] - There were other children born to Anne, but only those four listed are mentioned as having gone to Newfoundland.   Jacques (born 1705) probably died in infancy, but assuming that Simon and Joseph were at the Seminary du Québec, there's no accounting of where girls Geneviève (1696-1775), Marie-Marguerite (1695-1787) and Marie-Ursule (1703-1735) were.  Presumably they remained with family at Saint-Nicolas; Marie-Ursule is buried there, as is her older sister Geneviève, while there's no indication that the long-lived Marie-Marguerite (who was 92 at her death) ever married.  Perhaps she became a nun?

Canada Needs Women! Love in 17th Cenury New France I: The Filles à Marier

The attraction to New France for most of the initial immigrants was the possibility to obtain great wealth.   At first, many of the people who came to Québec hadn't planned to stay; in particular, the fur traders were migrants and the companies that hired them actually strongly discouraged setting up farms (instead they would get goods from the companies).   As such, the population of Québec only numbered in the hundreds for quite some time.

While some settlers came from France with their entire families, intending to put down roots, most were single men seeking adventure with some sort of potential "career track".   This created a wee problem:  who were they to marry?   Intermarrying with the native tribes (although it did happen) was frowned upon by both sides.   The sex ratio of men to women was about 4:1.

Enter the "Filles à Marier" and the "Filles du Roi"; two programs of what essentially were the 17th century equivalent of "mail-order brides".  In most cases, contracts of marriage would be drawn up, and the women would be shipped to their prospective husbands.

The Filles à Marier

This was the first, smaller (only 262 women), and less-well-known program.  (In my research, I've found that most of the Filles à Marier in my family tree have been mistakenly tagged as "Filles du Roi".)   They emigrated, a few at a time, from France to Québec between 1635 and 1663.   They were in VERY high demand; while the population of Québec was still small, the rate of immigration of Filles à Marier averaged under 10 women per year!

The girls had to be of marriageable age (12 to 45), and not yet married (i.e., they couldn't be traveling to join a husband who had previously emigrated).   Their passage was usually paid by religious groups, merchants with an interest in New France, or private individuals who had to ensure their good conduct.   Other than passage, they received nothing for their enrollment.  (The long-standing rumor has been that they were prostitutes exiled from France; this really wasn't the case.  Most were from farming families, a few were daughters of minor nobles, some had relatives that were already in Québec).

It's not surprising that there wasn't a rush to the docks to go to New France.   At best conditions were harsh: there was little community support - most of the families in New France were subsistence farmers, attacks from the Iroquois were not uncommon, and the climate in winter was harsh.   Outbreaks of smallpox and other diseases occurred, and of course mortality from childbirth was frequent - frightening considering that increasing the local population to support the farming communities was the chief reason for the need of female immigrants!   Add to that, that even the crossing itself was perilous; as many as 10% of the passengers died on trans-Atlantic voyages, where passengers were lumped in with cargo, in particular, livestock destined for New France or to be eaten en route.   Considering that the transit time was on the order of two months, this would NOT have been a pleasant journey!

Why did they come?  Despite the grim circumstances that awaited them in New France, plus the hardship of just getting there, for these girls it was generally a preferred option to the alternatives; being shipped off to a convent, or marrying below their class.     Even in 17th-century France, arranged marriages were still common; here, although they were under contract to be married upon arrival (and not having met their husband-to-be), it wasn't absolutely binding, so if things didn't work out (and sometimes they didn't) they could shop themselves around for a different husband or even make the return trip to France.

Most where success stories:  they married, raised families, and formed the roots of many French-Canadians familes.

In my family tree, I have (so far) identified ten Filles à Marier, eight of whom are blood relatives:

1. Jeanne Roy (1626-1674, 9th great-grand aunt) - married to Jean Milloir in 1651;
2. Madeleine Duteau (1649-1704, 8th great-grand aunt) - younger sister of Marie-Michelle Duteau (also a Fille à Marier), married to Nicolas Leblanc in 1664;
3. Marie-Michelle Duteau (1639-1705, 8th great grandmother) - older sister of Madeleine Duteau, married Michel Lemay (both an 8th and 9th great grandfather, whose second wife was Michelle Ouinville, herself a Filles du Roi, and the widow of Nicolas Barabé also an 8th great grandfather!);
4. Geneviève Gamache (1635-1709, 9th great grandmother) - married to Julien Fortin II in 1652 who was a butcher;
5. Jeanne Bitouset (1636-1707, 9th great grandmother) - married Louis Guimond in 1653, who started the cult of miracles at Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, and was murdered by the Iroquois;
6. Jacquette Tourault  (1612-1670, 10th great grandmother) - who was the widow of Pierre Jaroussel in France, and was a Fille à Marier along with her daughter, Suzanne.   In New France she married Jacques Previrault in 1653, but was widowed again a month later.  She then married Maurice Arrive;
7. Suzanne Jaroussel (1641-1694, 9th great grandmother) - daughter of Jacquette Jaroussel née Tourault (also a Fille à Marier), she married Pierre Joinault in 1654.   Like her mother's first New France husband, he died shortly after the wedding, and like her mother, remarried, this time to Simon Lereau in 1655;
8. Catherine Méliot  (1645-1699, "non"-wife of 8th great grandfather) - she's not a direct ancestor but has an interesting connection to the family tree.   Upon arrival in New France, she was contracted to marry Jean Routhier, and did in 1662.  He later died in 1677, leaving her with six children.  She then married 21-year old François Fréchet (an 8th great grandfather), but in the space of a month, had the marriage annulled and had married Pierre Bouvier.   (More on the annulment in a later post!)
9. Anne Émard (1627-1700, 9th great grand aunt).  Her sister Madeleine was the wife of Zacharie Cloutier, whose brother Jean is my 9th great grandfather.   (Her sister isn't a Fille à Marier because her marriage took place in France and they emigrated to New France as a couple.)   Her case is interesting because of her husband, Guillaume Cousture who she married in 1649.   Prior to this, Guillaume had been a Jesuit priest for nine years and a carpenter at the Mission of Saint-Marie.   In 1642, he, two other priests and 19 men from the Huron Mission were attacked by the Iroquois.  Cousture shot and killed an Iroquois chief, and was subsequently tortured.
   
   However, because of Iroquois tradition, he was sent to another village and offered to the widow of the warrior he had killed.  She adopted him into the tribe and nursed him back to health.  He used this opportunity to learn the language, culture and beliefs.   Three years later, he returned to Trois-Rivières to negotiate a peace (which lasted only a year), and Fr. Cousture asked to be relieved of his vows in order to marry an Iroquois woman (although it is not clear whether this actually occurred).   He continued - after his marriage to Anne - to work as a diplomat between the French-Canadians and the Iroquois.
10. Marie-Charlotte de Poitiers (1640-1718, wife of 10th great-grand uncle) - she married Joseph Hébert in 1660 after arriving in 1659 (age 19).   Her marriage wasn't a happy one;  after giving birth to a son Joseph in 1661, her husband was killed in an Iroquois attack.   Her cousin Catherine de Belleau was a Fille du Roi and married Joseph's half-brother Alphonse Morin.

After 1663, a more-ambitious program of porting women to New France for the purposes of marriage began, this time with the direct support of the French government:  the Filles du Roi.

Louis Guimont (c 1625 - 1661, 9ggf)

Probably the most famous of my direct ancestors is Louis Guimont (c 1625-1661), son of François Guimont (c 1595-1630) and Jeanne Delauney (c 1595-1629).   He was born near Champs, in the Orne region of Lower Normandy in France, and according to some accounts worked as a domestic under the employ of Mathurin Mauduit at his estate (Mulotière) located a few miles from Tourouve.

Location of Champs in Lower Normandy.
Paris is about 100 km to the east.

He became interested in emigrating to New France after meeting recruiters for colonization, in particular, Nicolas Juchereau, the brother of Jean Juchereau who was the general clerk of the storehouse in New France, having settled there in 1634 with his wife and family.   On February 17, 1647, he signed a six-year contract to work as a laborer for Juchereau in New France.   The contract provided Guimont with passage to Québec City, a sum of 40 livres each year, a pair of shoes and a wool suit (for the entire term of the contract).

He left France from New Rochelle on June 6, 1647 for the 60-day journey to New France.   The ship also carried Jean Malefant (also under a 5-year contract with Juchereau) and Pierre Tremblay, himself the ancestor of what would become the largest French-Canadian family.  They arrived at Québec on August 6th of that year.

Shortly before his contract ended, he married Jeanne Bitouset (1636-1707) a "Filles à Marier" (not to be confused with the "Filles du Roi") who had arrived in Québec herself in 1652, at the chapel of Saint-Jean at the Coast of Sainte-Geneviève in Québec on Feb. 11, 1653.

There, for the next three years, he rents a plot of land from Martin Grouvel, clearing the land (for 120 livres for each acre cleared) and planting crops (shared with his landlord).    During this period, his first three children are born:  Jacques (born 26 Sep 1653, and dies a week later),  Joseph (born 19 Oct 1654), and Louise (born 28 Aug 1658).  His youngest son, Claude, was born in 1660 - and is my 8th great-grandfather.   In October 1657, he purchases five acres of nearby land from Louis Brouchard.

Wax figures showing the construction of the church at Beaupré.  Louis Guimont is the figure at right.

Drawing of Chapelle des Maleots

Meanwhile in Beaupré, construction of a log-cabin chapel, called Chapelle des Maleots (Seamen's Chapel)  dedicated to Saint Anne had begun.   The land was gifted by Etienne Lessart, himself a resident for seven years with the express purpose that a church be built.   On the 13th of March 1658, Monsieur Vignal blessed the site of the church and the local governor, d'Ailleboust, placed the first stone for the foundation.

Basilica of Saint Anne de Beaupré today.

The different accounts vary as to whether Louis Guimont was one of the construction workers of the chapel.   I suppose that given how small the community was, he must have played some role.  Shortly after construction begins, Louis Guimont is the recipient of the first miracle associated with Beaupré.   At this time, he is apparently afflicted with some crippling ailment;  different accounts have it being "a severe back ailment", "rheumatism", "an affliction of the kidneys".   Over time, this has been exaggerated to Guimont being described as a "poor invalid" and even the depiction of the miracle in the altar panel of the present Basilica shows Guimont leaning with crutches.    In any case, out of devotion to Saint Anne, he places three stones within the foundation of the chapel, and is instantly cured of his afflictions, commencing an over 350-year tradition of pilgrimage to the site.    The church was expanded or replaced on several occasions to accommodate the pilgrims.   In 1887 it was raised by Pope Leo XIII to the rank of a minor basilica.   Construction of the current basilica was begun in 1926 and completed in 1946.



However, the story of Louis Guimont doesn't end here.    On the morning of June 8, 1661, fourteen people from Beaupré and L'Île d'Orléans, including Louis Guimont, were captured by the Agniers tribe of the Iroquois, who had recently raided Tadoussac (about 100km down river).     From there,  they traveled 15 hours south to Lake Champlain where they were tortured and eventually killed.   One account (written on birch bark by François Hertel, signed by Fr. Jérôme Lallement that made its way back to his mother) says that Guimont was scalped after infuriating his captors by refusing to cease praying aloud.