The following table contains a manifest of my ancestors who emigrated from Europe to settle in North America, specifically, Nouvelle-France. Church names are in (). Current-day names are in []. Names in the list which appear as spouses or in the notes sections are in bold.

My primary source for this compilation is wikitree.com. There is a feature on the site called “Family List” which will give you a list of ancestors going as far back as 15 generations. As of this writing, there are ~4600 of my ancestors cataloged going back 15 generations. To compile this post, I scanned the Wikitree Family List in (nearly) alphabetical order and looked at the birth and death locations given in the list and looked for European birth locations and North American death locations. Each of these entries were then visited in order and the data transcribed by hand. Any errors or omissions of fact are either my transcription errors or errors within the Wikitree entries. As Wikitree is a community-driven site, and while the amateur and professional genealogists who use it do their best, some errors may have crept in.

While the method used above captured most of my colonial ancestors, historical events and anomalies do creep in. On at least two occasions, I found situations where French parents who arrived in North America, and then had children here, returned home and left their children in the hands of relatives. In these two situations, the parents died while in France through illness or were prevented from returning to North America due to political considerations. In these situations, you will find entries in the Family List where the parents have entries showing that they were born and died in France while their child(ren) were born in Canada. In the registry below, I may have either listed the Canadian-born children or their parents. It was not a situation that I expected and, given the size of the registry, I may have changed horses mid-race.

Note: it’s a large amount of data and the registry is still in flux as I double- and triple-check some of it. This post is as much a collection point for me as anything else. While you probably won’t care about the minutia of its contents, I hope you find some of the history interesting.

Nouvelle-France

Nouvelle-France, or New France, was the territory colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cessation of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris.

Nouvelle-France was a viceroyalty and consisted of the following colonies within that territory:

• Canada, with sub-districts of:
  • Québec
  • Trois-Rivières
  • Montréal
• Hudson Baie
• Acadie
• Terre-Neuve
• Pays-d’en-Haut
• Louisiana

Note that the modern-day province of Québec was called Canada when it was part of Nouvelle-France. As such, all references to Québec, Canada in the locations below refer to the city of Québec in the province of Canada in the colony of Nouvelle-France.

Province de Québec

After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the former French colony of Canada became known within the British colonial system as the Province of Québec, or Province de Québec in French. While the vast majority of my ancestors arrived in North America in the 1600s and had passed away prior to 1763, some arrived much later and the referenced locations of their life event reflect this.

Bas-Canada

In 1792, the British-governed Province of Québec became legally known as Lower Canada, or Bas-Canada, while the future province of Ontario became known as Upper Canada, or Haut-Canada. Only a very few late immigrant ancestors arrived in Canada at a time when the province was referred to by this name.

Notable Groups

• Les Filles à Marier
• Les Filles de Roi
• Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières
• Les Compagnie Franche de la Marine
• Pioneers of Acadia
• La Grande Récru de 1653
• Percheron Migration
• The Census of 1666
• The Census of 1671

Les Filles à Marier

Who were Les Filles à Marier, or, in English, the “girls to marry” or “marriageable girls”?

They were courageous pioneers …, coming to the new world for one purpose alone: the possibility of a better life. This is especially true considering the reputation of Canada at the time as a wild and savage land.

The Filles à marier were recruited by individuals, such as merchants or seigneurs, or religious societies such as the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal or the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. They signed a contract in France, normally to work as a servant. It was understood, however, that their primary objective once the contract was over was marriage and settlement. The contracts did not include return passage to France. Once the contract was signed, the Fille à marier would board a ship for Québec, from La Rochelle or Dieppe. She normally travelled alone, not as part of a larger, organized group.

A total of 262 Filles à Marier came to New France between 1634 and 1662, representing a quarter of all single women who arrived in Canada under the French Regime.

According to Wikitree, 87 of these women are my ancestors, roughly 1/3 of them.

Les Filles du Roi

Who were Les Filles du Roi, or, in English, the King’s Daughters?

… the Filles du Roi were a group of some 700 unmarried women who were sent to New France between 1663 and 1673 by King Louis XIV to solve a gender imbalance problem, and ultimately help populate the new colony. They were called “daughters of the king” because Louis XIV paid for their recruitment, clothing and passage to the new world and offered dowries to the women when they married. They are also referred to as the “King’s Wards.”

The Filles du Roi account for half of the female immigrants to New France during the early years of the colony, underscoring their significant historical impact. Although they were not the sole group of French women to settle in the region, their contributions are unparalleled. The fact that a large portion of French Canadians can trace their lineage back to at least one Fille du Roi justifies their designation as “founding mothers.” This term aptly reflects their role in shaping the demographic and cultural fabric of early Canadian society.

Experts and historians define a Fille du Roi as an immigrant, single or widowed, having come to Canada between 1663 and 1673 and having received royal financial support for her transport or establishment in New France. Based on that definition, the PRDH (Programme Recherche du Histoire) lists 711 migrants as Filles du Roi, although debate continues to this day regarding some small number of them.

According to Wikitree, 143 of these women are my ancestors, roughly 20%.

Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières

What as Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières?

… during the summer and fall of 1665, about 1,200 to 1,300 soldiers and 80 officers from the Carignan-Salières Regiment arrived at Québec City tasked with protecting the inhabitants and eliminating the Iroquois threat to the south. The regiment included 20 companies that sailed from France and an additional four that sailed from the West Indies with 62-year-old Lieutenant General Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy.

When the initial campaign against the Iroquois was concluded in 1666, the king decided that it would be cheaper to give land and supplies to soldiers to allow them to stay in Canada as an alternative to shipping everyone home. Approximately 400 of the Carignan-Salières soldiers remained behind in Canada. Of these soldiers, 60 are my ancestors, including Louis Robert dit Lafontaine, my mother’s paternal line ancestor.

Les Compagnies Franches de la Marine

What were Les Compagnies Franches de la Marine?

Tracing their history back to 1622, the predecessors of the Compagnies franches de la Marine were groups of soldiers stationed on the ships of the French navy, called “compagnies ordinaires de la mer.” In 1674, Secretary of State of the Navy Jean-Baptiste Colbert renamed them “Troupes de la Marine.” In 1690, they were called “Compagnies franches de la Marine.” Despite their name and association with the Ministry of the Navy, the companies sent overseas were not navy troops, but colonial army troops. The term “franches” (independent) refers to the fact that the troops were not organized in regiments.

The 1670s and early 1680s saw a resurgence in Iroquois hostilities and attacks on French colonists. Governor General Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre sent an urgent message to France, asking for reinforcements. In November of 1683, the ship La Tempête arrived in New France carrying 130 soldiers from three companies of the Compagnies franches de la Marine. (Of the 150 men who departed France, only 130 arrived in Canada, the rest succumbing to scurvy during the voyage.) Their primary objectives were defending the colony from the Iroquois and protecting her interests in the lucrative fur trade.

From 1683 to 1688, 35 companies were sent to Canada. For a young colony with a population of about 10,300, there were 1,418 soldiers stationed there to protect them. As the soldiers’ numbers decreased due to death and permanent settlement in New France, the number of companies was reduced to 28 in 1689. This number remained in place until the Seven Years War. These troops essentially became the colony’s permanent “Canadian” forces.

Like the Carignan-Salières soldiers, many of these French troops married and became settlers in this new land. Of these, according to Wikitree, I can count 37 as my ancestors, including Claude Guérin dit Lafontaine, my direct paternal line ancestor.

The Pioneers of Acadia

Where were the Pioneers of Acadia?

It is well known that there is very little original documentation that provides data regarding the places of origin of the earliest settlers of the French colony of Acadia. None of the colony’s parish registers for the seventeenth century survive, except one slim record book containing the sacramental entries for Beaubassin from 1679 to 1686. Additionally, there are but a couple of extant notarial records from the same period. And, unfortunately, the various Acadian censuses, beginning in 1671, make no mention of places of origin, unlike the detailed enumeration made in the small neighbouring colony of Plaisance in Newfoundland in 1698.

Until quite recently Acadian genealogical research was focused rather narrowly on trying to trace the precise places of origin of the early colonists. Of late, however, questions have been raised with increasing frequency regarding the racial origins of certain members of those colonists’ families. In particular, there has been an upsurge in interest in trying to establish genealogical ties between those families and the Amerindian tribes who had inhabited the area for untold centuries before the arrival of the first Europeans. In this context, the lack of precision is of little import, as all that is really desired is a basis for determining who among the members of the pioneer families came from France or other European countries, and who might have been born in Acadia of mixed parentage.

On the level of racial origins, there is a source that provides a considerable amount of information. This is the series of fifty-eight depositions of the heads of the Acadian families that were taken down on Belle-Île-en-Mer between February 15th and March 12th, 1767, pursuant to an order from the parliament of Brittany at Vannes. The deponents were required to provide under oath, in the presence of witnesses including other Acadians, the local parish priests, and the Abbé Jean-Louis LeLoutre, former Vicar General of the diocese of Québec and “director” of the Acadian families settled on Belle-Île, all the details they could regarding their own civil status and that of their immediate families, plus their direct-line genealogies back to their first ancestors who came from Europe, “with indication of the places and dates as much as they can remember.” The depositions were intended to take the place of the registers of the parishes in Acadia that had been lost “during the persecution by the British.” In practical terms, they would also furnish the French authorities a means of identifying those who, as refugees from said persecution, were entitled to the King’s bounty and protection.

Essentially, with little to no remaining record of the French settlers of Acadie, it was left to oral history to stand in the place of the destroyed written word. As you’ll see in the Registry below, the information attached to my colonial ancestors who settled in Acadie is very vague when compared to the more detailed information for Québecois settlers.

Twenty four of these early settlers to Acadie are my ancestors.

La Grande Récru de 1653

What was La Grande Récru de 1653?

In 1651, the need to defend the newly created town of Montréal (Ville-Marie) from the attacking Iroquois became apparent. M. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve went to France to enlist one hundred men to protect the perimeter of the town and, two years later, he returned with these brave men.

The men came from Picardie, Champagne, Île-de-France, Normandie, Anjou and Maine (especially LaFleche) area. In the spring of 1653, approximately 150 men signed contracts before notaries with the Company of Montréal. For various reasons, only 102 arrived in Ville-Marie. The original departure from Nantes (Loire-Atlantique Department, Pays-de-la-Loire Region) was scheduled for the spring of 1653 but, after multiple delays, the vessel ‘Saint-Nicolas-de-Nantes’ set sail for New France on June 20th under the command of Captain Pierre le Besson.

The ‘Saint-Nicolas-de-Nantes’ was apparently in very poor shape and constantly took on water. Despite the best efforts of the crew and enlistees, it became necessary to sail back to Nantes after 350 miles at sea. Interestly, Mr. de Maisonneuve, realizing that many of the enlistees might desire to stay in France after their recent ‘adventure’, put his soldiers on an island from which they could not escape! On July 20th, the replacement ship set sail for the New World.

On September 22, 1653, the ship landed at Québec after 64 days aboard ship. When they arrived, Governor de Lauzon refused to let them have the necessary boats to complete their journey to Ville-Marie as they were sorely needed to defend Québec. The group finally arrived at Ville-Marie on November 16th.

According to various sources, 102 men and 14 women arrived in Canada as part of La Grande Récru de 1653. Of these, I can count 23 ancestors.

The Percheron Migration

What was the Percheron Migration?

In the early 17th century, Perche (France) was the point of departure for many French emigrants, and a number of major families in Quebec – such as the Pelletiers, Gagnons, Tremblays, Rivards, Fortins, Bouchards and Drouins – can trace their roots back to this particular region.

Perche is located 100 miles West of Paris. Today, it is not an official administrative subdivision of France, but a beautiful region with a rich history.

The County of Perche was created in 1115 when the County of Mortagne was combined with the seigneuries of Nogent-le-Rotrou and Belleme. Before the French Revolution, it was part of the Province of Normandy. In 1792, when the 34 provinces of France were changed to 96 departements, Perche was included mostly within the Departments of Orne and Eure-et-Loir but small parts of Perche lie within the current departements of Sarthe, Eure and Loir-et-Cher. In 1998, the Parc Naturel Regional du Perche (Natural Park of Perche) was created.

Perche is a pastoral area consisting mainly of gently rolling farmland but, unlike much of France, it is blessed with some beautiful forests. It also benefits from a number of rivers and streams. The main cities are Nogent-le-Rotrou, Mortagne-au-Perche and Belleme.

Of the many Percherons who migrated to Canada to help build and settle the colony, 94 are ancestors.

The Census of 1666: The First Census of Québec and New France

Intendant Jean Talon began his administrative appointment by taking stock of the colony. This included two census documents, the first in the winter of 1665-66, and another census in 1667. He conducted both census on the de jure principle – that is, counting people where they normally reside.

Under the de jure method an individual is enumerated as belonging to the locality that they normally reside in, even if on the census date they are elsewhere.

The 1666 census was actually ordered by the king’s minister Colbert. It was haphazardly done and missed a quarter of the population. Very unhappy that the census showed only around 3,000 people in the colony, Colbert ordered another one. The 1667 census was the result. It is missing a sixth of the population.

Source: Wikitree

The Census of 1671: The First Census of Acadie

The Census of Acadie in 1671 was the first census of that French colony.

Source: Wikitree

The Registry of Colonial Ancestors