Category: Fille a Marier

Marthe Arnu (1632–1700)

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Marthe Arnu was baptized on 28 March 1632 in the parish of Sainte-Marguerite at La Rochelle, Aunis, the daughter of Marc Arnu and Louise Brodeur, who had married there about 1630. After Marc’s death, Louise Brodeur married Jean Sauviot in 1640, leaving Marthe part of a blended household in one of the principal Atlantic ports connected to the Canadian trade.¹

In 1658 Marthe crossed the Atlantic to Montréal in the company of her mother and her half-sister Marguerite Sauviot. Both young women were among the filles à marier — marriageable women who emigrated before the royal sponsorship program began in 1663.² Their arrival formed part of the continuing migration from La Rochelle that supplied the colony with wives and families during its earliest decades.

On 2 September 1658 a marriage contract was drawn before the notary Basset for Marthe and Pierre Richaume dit Petrus. Marthe could not sign the document, though her husband could — a detail recorded in the act itself and repeated in the biographical literature.³ Pierre, born about 1634 at Hiers-Brouage in Saintonge, had come to Canada as a child with his widowed father. In the 1666 census his surname appears in the form “Richomme,” possibly derived from riche homme.⁴

The couple established their family in Montréal. Their first children, the twins Gabriel and Barbe, were baptized on 22 June 1659; Gabriel was buried that December. Jacques followed in 1661, Marie-Madeleine in 1662, Marie-Marthe in 1665, Élisabeth in 1666, Jeanne in 1668, a daughter Marie who died in 1671, and Madeleine in 1672.⁵ These baptisms and burials are preserved in the parish registers of Notre-Dame de Montréal and in the compiled genealogies of the colony.

Pierre Richaume died at Repentigny between 8 May 1688 and 1 March 1689.⁶ Marthe survived him by more than a decade. On 26 August 1700 she died at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and was buried the same day, her death occurring during the epidemic that swept the town that year.⁷

Marthe’s life reflects the early La Rochelle migration to Montréal: the remarriage of widowed parents, the movement of half-siblings to the colony together, the use of notarial contracts to establish marriages and property, and the steady growth of families that transformed a fragile settlement into a permanent community.

Sources

  1. Baptism of Marthe Arnu, 28 March 1632, parish of Sainte-Marguerite, La Rochelle (Aunis), France.
  2. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à Marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2002), 50–51.
  3. Marriage contract of Pierre Richaume dit Petrus and Marthe Arnu, 2 September 1658, notary Basset, Montréal; Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935.
  4. Census of 1666, Montréal, entry for Pierre Richaume (“Richomme”).
  5. Registers of Notre-Dame de Montréal, baptisms and burials of the children of Pierre Richaume and Marthe Arnu; Québec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes (Montréal, 1871–1890).
  6. Burial of Pierre Richaume dit Petrus, Repentigny, 1688/1689; parish registers; Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique.
  7. Burial of Marthe Arnu, 26 August 1700, Montréal; parish registers; Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters, 51.

Catherine Forestier

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Catherine Forestier was born in 1637 at La Rochelle in the old province of Aunis, a port city whose departures fed the population of New France throughout the seventeenth century. She was the daughter of Jean Forestier and Julienne Coifée. Her mother died there on 20 April 1650, a loss that occurred while Catherine was still in her early teens.¹

By 19 November 1657 she was in the colony, where she married Jacques Ménard dit Lafontaine at Trois-Rivières.² The timing of the marriage and the origin at La Rochelle place her among the early marriageable women who came before the King’s Daughters program, part of the movement of young women whose arrival helped stabilize family life in the small river settlements.³ Jacques Ménard was already established in the colony, and their marriage is recorded in the parish register that documents the earliest generation of families in that region.²

The first years of their married life were spent at Trois-Rivières, where their earliest children were born. The parish registers record the burial of their daughter Marguerite, born in 1658 and deceased before 1666.⁴ By 1671 the family had moved to Boucherville, part of the seigneurial expansion along the south shore of the St. Lawrence. There Catherine gave birth to the younger children who would grow up in that seigneurial community.⁴

The baptisms at Trois-Rivières and Boucherville trace the growth of the household over nearly two decades:

Marie (1659), Jean-Baptiste (1660), Louis (1662), Maurice (1664), Jean (1666), Marguerite (1668), Jeanne-Françoise (1669), Anne (1671), Catherine (27 September 1673), Marie-Madeleine (1675, buried the same month), Thérèse (1676), and Jacques (1678).⁴

These entries show the familiar rhythm of seventeenth-century colonial life — repeated pregnancies, the loss of small children, and the gradual establishment of a large family that would remain in the Boucherville area.

René Jetté’s reconstruction of the family and the parish records confirm that Catherine spent the rest of her life in that community.⁴ The genealogical notice preserved by Gagné identifies her La Rochelle origin and situates her among the women whose arrival in the 1650s contributed to the permanent settlement of the colony.³

Catherine died at Boucherville on 31 March 1694 and was buried there the same day.⁵ Her husband survived her by more than a decade, dying in 1707.⁴

Her life follows the arc seen in so many of the earliest immigrant women of Canada: departure from a French Atlantic port, marriage soon after arrival, years marked by the cycle of baptisms and burials in the parish register, and permanence in a seigneurial river community that was still new when she first saw it.

Sources

  1. Parish registers of La Rochelle (Aunis), burial of Julienne Coifée, 20 April 1650.
  2. Trois-Rivières parish register, marriage of Jacques Ménard dit Lafontaine and Catherine Forestier, 19 November 1657.
  3. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Quintin Publications, 2002), entry for Catherine Forestier.
  4. René Jetté, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730 (Montréal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1983), 823–824; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes (Montréal, 1871–1890), sub Ménard; PRDH, family file of Jacques Ménard and Catherine Forestier; parish registers of Trois-Rivières and Boucherville (Drouin Collection), baptisms and burials of the Ménard children, 1658–1678.
  5. Boucherville parish register, burial of Catherine Forestier, 31 March 1694.

Catherine Charles (c. 1637–1691)

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Catherine Charles was born about 1637 at Charenton-le-Pont near Paris, the daughter of Samuel Charles and Françoise Gauchet. She was orphaned before leaving France for Canada.¹ Her departure came in 1659, when she sailed for Montréal aboard the Saint-André, one of the recruitment voyages that brought marriageable women to the colony.

She arrived in Montréal on 29 September 1659 and, less than a month later, on 26 October 1659, married Urbain Jetté dit Durivage.¹ The marriage contract had been drawn earlier that month before notary Basset. Present at the ceremony were several leading figures of the settlement, including the Sulpician Gabriel Souart and the garrison commander Zacharie Dupuis, illustrating how closely these early marriages were tied to the survival of Ville-Marie.

Urbain Jetté, a maisonnier and scieur de long (longsawyer), had come to Canada with the Grande Recrue of 1653 and was established on land at Pied-du-Courant in the Sainte-Marie sector of Montréal.¹

The parish registers of Notre-Dame de Montréal record the baptisms of the children born to this couple between 1661 and 1680: Catherine, Marie-Barbe, Nicolas, Urbain, Élisabeth, Pierre-Nicolas, Anne, Paul, Madeleine, Louis-Charles, Pierre, François, and Françoise.² One son died in infancy.²

The family was living at Pied-du-Courant at the time of the Iroquois attack of 6 May 1662 and escaped unharmed.¹ In the following years several of their children married into the Demers family, creating close ties between the two households.

After Urbain Jetté’s burial at Montréal on 13 May 1684, Catherine remained a widow.¹ André Demers, husband of their daughter Anne, was appointed guardian of the minor children.¹ Notarial records drawn up at the time of Catherine’s death show the settlement of her estate and the continuation of family obligations.³

Catherine Charles died on 2 December 1691. An inventory of her property was prepared on 14 December 1691 before notary Adhémar, bringing her life to its close in the documentary record of the colony.¹³

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 85–86.
  2. Québec (Province), Registres paroissiaux, Notre-Dame de Montréal, baptisms of the children of Urbain Jetté and Catherine Charles, 1661–1680.
  3. Québec (Province), Greffes de notaires, inventaire après décès de Catherine Charles, 14 décembre 1691, notaire Adhémar.
  4. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, vol. 4, s.v. “Jetté.”
  5. Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), fiche individuelle de Catherine Charles.
  6. Benjamin Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-Français, 1608–1880, household entry for Urbain Jetté.

Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt (c. 1632–1707)

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt was born about 1632 in the parish of Sainte-Marguerite at Beauvais in Picardy, the daughter of Philippe de Liercourt and Jeanne Patin.¹ She came to New France in 1650 and is recorded at Montréal as godmother to a child on 29 August 1651 under the name “Anna Juillet.”¹

In February 1651 she married Blaise Juillet dit Avignon, probably at Trois-Rivières. Notary Gatinau drew up the marriage contract there on 2 February 1651, and a copy was deposited with notary Ameau on 10 February.¹ Blaise, a peat worker from Avignon, had come to Canada under contract in 1644 for three years at seventy-five livres per year for the Compagnie de Notre-Dame de Montréal.¹

The couple settled at Montréal, where their children were baptized: Mathurine (1651), Marie (1653), Charles (1656), and Louis (1658).²

Blaise Juillet drowned on 19 April 1660 near Île Saint-Paul while fleeing the Iroquois with Dollard des Ormeaux. He was buried the following day at Montréal.¹

Two months later, on 11 June 1660, notary Basset drew up a marriage contract between Anne-Antoinette and Hugues Picard dit Lafortune. Neither could sign the document, although Governor Maisonneuve did. Hugues was appointed guardian of the children from her first marriage, and Lambert Closse was named trustee. The couple married at Montréal on 30 June 1660, and Hugues was confirmed by Bishop Laval on 24 August.¹

Hugues Picard, born about 1627 in Brittany, had enlisted for Canada in 1653 and arrived at Montréal on 16 November of that year with the Grande Recrue — the large recruitment organized by Maisonneuve to save the settlement. Before departure he acknowledged receiving 137 livres in advance wages. After completing his contract he returned to France and came back to Canada in 1659 as a woodworker for the Sulpicians of Montréal.¹

Anne-Antoinette and Hugues established their household at Montréal, most likely on the property that had belonged to Blaise Juillet. Hugues served as a soldier in the 12th squad of the Sainte-Famille militia in 1663. Together they had five children: Michelle (1661), Marie-Anne (1663–1697), Marguerite (1666–1727), Jean-Gabriel (1669), and Jacques (1672). The two sons later became engagés ouest, contracted workers in the western trade.¹

On 19 May 1702 Anne-Antoinette had her will drawn before notary Adhémar.¹

She died 29 September 1707 and was buried the following day at Montréal.² Hugues Picard dit Lafortune died later the same year and was buried at Montréal on 22 December 1707.¹

Her life is documented in the notarial marriage contracts of both her marriages, the early parish registers of Montréal, the militia record of the settlement, and her will.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 102–3, Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, baptisms of the Juillet and Picard children; burial of Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt, 30 Sept. 1707, Montréal; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Juillet” and “Picard.”
  3. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, marriage contracts of 1651 and 1660; will of Anne-Antoinette de Liercourt, 19 May 1702, notary Adhémar.
  4. Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s–1900s.
  5. Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current.
  6. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s.

Marguerite Charlot

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a Marier, Marriageable womenLeave a comment

Marguerite Charlot was born about 1632 in the parish of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in Paris, the daughter of François Charlot and Barbe Girardeau.¹ She came to Canada in 1647, most likely in the company of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve on his return to Montréal.¹

She married Louis Loisel at Montréal on 13 January 1648.² No marriage contract has been found for the couple. Marguerite was unable to sign her name, while her husband could.¹

Louis Loisel, a master locksmith, had been born about 1617 at Saint-Germain-le-Blanc-Herbe in Normandy, the son of Louis Loisel and Jeanne Le Terrier.¹

The parish registers of Montréal record the baptisms and burials of their children:

  • Jeanne, baptized 24 July 1649
  • Françoise, baptized 26 February 1652
  • Joseph, baptized 25 November 1654
  • Charles, baptized 2 June and buried 28 June 1658
  • Marie-Marthe, baptized and buried 15 August 1659
  • Charles, baptized 5 October and buried 7 November 1661
  • Barbe, baptized 30 August 1663
  • Louis, baptized 14 August and buried 5 September 1667²

Jeanne, their eldest child, is regarded as the first child born at Montréal to survive. In November 1653 Marguerite Bourgeoys wrote that Monsieur de Maisonneuve had given her Jeanne to raise, and both Jeanne and Françoise were among the first pupils in the school established by Bourgeoys in the stable at Montréal.¹

Louis Loisel was buried at Montréal on 4 September 1691.²

Marguerite Charlot died at Pointe-aux-Trembles and was buried there 3 October 1706.² The notarial records of the Montréal district place members of the extended Loiselle family in that seigneurial community in the last decades of the seventeenth century.³

Her life is documented in the earliest parish registers of Montréal from the foundation generation of the settlement through her burial at Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1706.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 86–87, Marguerite Charlot.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Marguerite Charlot and Louis Loisel, 13 Jan 1648, Montréal; baptisms and burials of their children; burial of Louis Loisel, 4 Sept 1691, Montréal; burial of Marguerite Charlot, 3 Oct 1706, Pointe-aux-Trembles; see also Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Loisel.”
  3. Montréal notarial records, inventory of the property of Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne and subsequent partition, 28 July 1690, demonstrating the presence of the Loiselle family network at Pointe-aux-Trembles.

Marie Lorgueil

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a Marier, Grande Recrue of 1653Leave a comment

Grande Recrue of 1653

Marie Lorgueil was born about 1638, identified as a native of the parish of Saint-Vivien at Rouen in Normandy, the daughter of Pierre Lorgueil and Marie Bruyère.¹

She came to Montréal on 16 November 1653 aboard the Saint-Nicolas as part of the Grande Recrue. This recruitment, organized in France by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, brought more than one hundred settlers to Ville-Marie at a moment when the colony was close to collapse from war and depopulation. Many of the men had signed five-year engagements as laborers and land clearers, and the women who came with them married soon after arrival, forming the first permanent farming households of the settlement.¹

She married Toussaint Hunault dit Deschamps at Montréal on 23 November 1654.² No marriage contract has been found for the couple, and neither spouse signed the parish register.¹

Toussaint Hunault, born about 1625 at Saint-Pierre-ès-Champs near Gournay in Picardy, was the son of Nicolas Hunault and Marie Benoist. He had been recruited for Canada in 1653, signing his engagement at La Flèche for five years as a plowman and land clearer at a wage of seventy-five livres per year with an advance of 120 livres. On 24 July 1654, four months before the marriage, he received a land grant from Maisonneuve.¹

The parish registers of Montréal record the baptisms of their children:

  • Thècle dite Thérèse, baptized 23 September 1655
  • André, baptized 3 August 1657
  • Jeanne, baptized 2 November 1658
  • Pierre, baptized 22 November 1660
  • Marie-Thérèse, baptized 12 February 1663
  • Mathurin, baptized 27 December 1664
  • Françoise, baptized 5 December 1667
  • Toussaint, baptized 25 August 1673
  • Charles, baptized 25 July 1676²

Several of the children died young.¹

In the census of 1667 the family appears at Montréal with cleared land and a growing household, part of the first generation of permanent agricultural settlers on the island.³

On 13 September 1690 Toussaint Hunault dit Deschamps was killed by Gabriel Dumont, Baron de Blaignac, a lieutenant of marines. Marie and her children brought suit against Dumont, ceding their rights in the case to the merchant Charles de Couagne in return for 520 livres and the cancellation of a debt owed by Toussaint.¹

As a widow she continued to act in her own name in the notarial records. On 10 November, before the notary Claude Maugue, she executed a transport and retrocession to Charles de Couagne with a cession to Jacques Talebot.⁴

Marie Lorgueil died 29 November 1700 on the Île Sainte-Thérèse and was buried the following day at Varennes.²

Her life is documented in the records of the Grande Recrue, the earliest parish registers of Montréal, the colonial censuses, and the notarial acts that record both her marriage and her activity as a widow.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 209, Marie Lorgueil.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Marie Lorgueil and Toussaint Hunault dit Deschamps, 23 Nov 1654, Montréal; baptisms of their children; burial of Marie Lorgueil, 30 Nov 1700, Varennes; see also Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Hunault.”
  3. Benjamin Sulte, Histoire des Canadiens-Français, 1608–1880, census extract for Montréal, household of Toussaint Hunault and Marie Lorgueil.
  4. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, repertory of notary Claude Maugue, 10 Nov., transport and retrocession by Marie Lorgueil, widow of Toussaint Hunault, to Charles de Couagne with cession to Jacques Talebot.

Suzanne Betfer

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Suzanne Betfer (Bedfer, Bedford, Botfaite) was born in England, probably at Gloucester, about 1629, the daughter of Gilbert Bedford and Anne Bonne.¹ She was the widow of the merchant Jean Serne when she came to New France.

She arrived at Québec in 1649 and married Mathieu Hubou dit Deslongschamps there on 28 September 1649.² Their marriage contract was executed 25 August 1649 before the notary Audouart; Suzanne did not sign the document.¹

Mathieu Hubou, a master armorer, had been baptized 5 March 1626 in the parish of Saint-André at Mesnil-Durand in Normandy, the son of Nicolas Hubou and Madeleine Moulin. He was in Canada by 1641, when he is recorded at Sillery.¹

The parish registers of Québec record the baptisms of their children:

  • Athanase, baptized 20 November 1650
  • Mathieu, baptized 11 August 1652
  • Jean, baptized 9 August 1654
  • Geneviève, baptized 18 April 1656
  • Anne, baptized 8 August 1658
  • Jacques, baptized 2 May 1660
  • Nicolas, baptized 22 July 1662
  • Charles, baptized 9 September 1664³

Suzanne Betfer was confirmed at Québec on 10 August 1659 at about thirty years of age.¹

After an interval of fourteen years, she gave birth to a daughter, Madeleine, baptized 16 January 1678 at Pointe-aux-Trembles and buried there on 8 February 1678.³ Her son Athanase died between the 1667 and 1681 censuses.¹

Mathieu Hubou dit Deslongschamps served as procureur fiscal for the seigneury of Montréal from 3 April 1677 until 23 February 1678. He died at Lachine on 31 October 1678 and was buried 2 November at Pointe-aux-Trembles.³

Suzanne Betfer died at Lachine between 25 November 1688 and 29 May 1694.¹

Her life in New France is documented in the parish registers and notarial records of Québec, Pointe-aux-Trembles, and Montréal from the time of her marriage in 1649 until her death in the last decade of the seventeenth century.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2002), 63, Suzanne Betfer.
  2. Québec, Canada, Notarial Records, 1637–1935, marriage contract of Suzanne Betfer and Mathieu Hubou dit Deslongschamps, 25 Aug 1649, notary Guillaume Audouart.
  3. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Suzanne Betfer and Mathieu Hubou dit Deslongschamps, 28 Sept 1649, Québec; baptisms and burials of their children; burial of Mathieu Hubou, 2 Nov 1678, Pointe-aux-Trembles.
  4. Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes depuis la fondation de la colonie jusqu’à nos jours, s.v. “Hubou.”

Marie Jeanne Oudin

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a MarierLeave a comment

Marie Jeanne Oudin was born in 1643 in the parish of Saint-Merri in Paris, the daughter of Antoine Oudin and Madeleine de La Rusière.¹

She came to New France in 1657 and married François Gariépy at Québec on 13 August 1657.² Her arrival, marriage, and the baptism of her first child the following year place her among the filles à marier — women who immigrated to the colony before the beginning of the royal program in 1663 and married soon after their arrival.

Peter J. Gagné identifies her as a native of Saint-Merri and states that she likely arrived on 27 May 1657 aboard La Vierge. On 22 June 1657 she entered the Ursuline boarding school at Québec at the request of François Gariépy, who arranged lodging and a pension for her prior to their marriage. Their marriage contract was executed before the notary Audouart on 15 July 1657. Gagné also notes that François Gariépy was a master woodworker from Montfort-en-Chalosse in Gascony and that Marie Jeanne Oudin appears in the records of the Hôtel-Dieu of Québec in 1692 and 1710.³

The couple settled on the Côte-de-Beaupré, and the parish registers of Québec, Château-Richer, and L’Ange-Gardien record the baptisms of their children over a period of nearly thirty years:

  • Marie-Ursule, baptized 8 July 1658 at Québec
  • Marguerite, baptized 22 March 1659 at Château-Richer
  • Charles, baptized 1661
  • Louise, baptized and buried in 1664
  • François, baptized 11 March 1665
  • Jacques, baptized 26 March 1667
  • Marie-Geneviève, baptized 13 July 1669
  • Marie-Madeleine, baptized 1672
  • Louis, baptized 19 November 1673
  • Catherine, baptized 1677
  • Jean, baptized 1679
  • Alexis, baptized 23 April 1681
  • Pierre, baptized 14 November 1685 at L’Ange-Gardien⁴

These records document the family’s presence in that section of the colony as settlement expanded along the St. Lawrence River during the seventeenth century.

François Gariépy died at Château-Richer on 25 April 1706.⁵ Marie Jeanne Oudin died on 29 March 1721 and was buried at Château-Richer.⁶

Her life in New France is traced through the parish registers from her marriage at Québec in 1657 to her burial on the Côte-de-Beaupré in 1721.

Sources

  1. Parish register of Saint-Merri, Paris, for the baptism of Marie Jeanne Oudin; parentage also given in Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Quintin Publications, 2002), 239.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of François Gariépy and Marie Jeanne Oudin, 13 Aug 1657.
  3. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters, 239.
  4. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), baptisms of the children of François Gariépy and Marie Jeanne Oudin, 1658–1685.
  5. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), burial of François Gariépy, 25 Apr 1706, Château-Richer.
  6. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), burial of Marie Jeanne Oudin, 29 Mar 1721, Château-Richer; see also Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Gariépy.”

Filles du Roi and filles à marier

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a Marier, Filles du Roi, King's Daughters, Marriageable womenLeave a comment

Filles du Roi and filles à marier

As the research moves back into the earliest French-Canadian generations, a number of the women in these families are identified in parish records and in modern compiled sources as either filles à marier or Filles du Roi. Those are historical terms, and they describe two different waves of female immigration to New France.

Understanding the difference helps place these marriages in their proper historical setting.

Filles à marier

The phrase fille à marier simply means “a marriageable woman.” In a genealogical context it is used for women who came to New France before 1663, prior to the royal immigration program.

These women were not sent by the Crown. Their passage might be paid by relatives already in the colony, by an employer, by a religious community, or through a private arrangement. What they have in common is that they arrived unmarried and married soon after their arrival.

They are found in the earliest parish registers of Québec and Montréal, at a time when the European population of the colony was still very small and the establishment of families was essential to permanent settlement.

When a woman in these early generations is described as a fille à marier, it is not a title that appears in the original parish record. It is a modern research designation based on her date of arrival, her marital status at that time, and the historical context in which the marriage took place.

Filles du Roi

The Filles du Roi — the “King’s Daughters” — came later, between 1663 and 1673.

By that time the French government had decided to actively promote population growth in the colony. The Crown paid for the passage of approximately 800 women and provided each of them with a dowry. In many cases they were also given a trousseau — a small outfit of clothing and household linens — so that they could establish a household after marriage.

Unlike the earlier filles à marier, these women are often documented as part of a specific immigration program. Their status can be confirmed through a combination of sources: parish registers, notarial marriage contracts, royal accounts, and later compiled studies that identify the participants in the program.

Most married within a short time of their arrival, and their marriages are concentrated in the parishes along the St. Lawrence River during that ten-year period.

Why these designations appear in this research

The population of early New France was small, and a large proportion of later French-Canadian families descend from these women — often multiple times.

As a result, it is not unusual to encounter both filles à marier and Filles du Roi in the same ancestral lines. Their identification in these posts is not a general historical label; it is based on the available documentation for each individual woman.

In practical terms, the designation tells us something important for the timeline:

  • a fille à marier indicates a marriage in the colony before 1663
  • a Fille du Roi places the arrival and marriage within the royal program of 1663–1673

That information helps explain when a particular couple first appears in the parish records and places the family in the early development of the colony.

I have a combined 17 ancestors who were either filles à marier or Filles du Roi. They are:

  • Marie Jeanne Oudin
  • Anne Talbot
  • Suzanne Betfer (Betford)
  • Jeanne Françoise Petit
  • Louise Bercier
  • Marguerite Charlot
  • Marie Lorgueil
  • Perrine Lapierre
  • Marie Madeleine Raclos
  • Antoinette DeLiercourt
  • Marie Marguerite Jourdain
  • Catherine Charles
  • Françoise Marthe Barton
  • Françoise Cure
  • Madeleine Chrétien
  • Catherine Forestier
  • Marthe Arnu