The Origins of Here to Stay

In 1995, tracing my ancestry to the first of the Canadian colonists who bore my patronym intrigued me. Who were these of my people who came to North America four centuries ago? I knew the names of my first progenitors on this continent, but I didn’t know much more about them ,and so I decided to learn more about my Franco-North American history.

Following the history of early Canada

Actually, it was easy to follow my genealogy back to the first of my ancestors to cross the Atlantic.

Because New France was a royal colony (after 1663), reports were filed every year in Québec and Paris of births, marriages, deaths, contracts, court proceedings, and more. In addition, the Jesuits laboring among Indian populations or among the colonists sent yearly reports (the Jesuit Relations) to their superiors in Québec who then redacted these reports and sent copies to Paris. What the official records missed of Franco-North American history is often picked up in these Relations. Then, there was the superior of the Ursulines, Marie de l’Incarnation, who wrote 13,000 letters back to France. These letters recorded the weather, the illnesses, the harvest bounty—or lack thereof—as well as the docking of ships bearing settlers to the colony and the latest gossip and scandal.

My first evening of research at the Maine Franco-American Genealogical Society resulted in ascending the line of Ledouxs to the eleventh generation with Louis Doux who was present in May 1668 on a Confirmation list of people who received the sacrament from Bishop Laval. Louis figures at the sixteenth line of that document. (The first mention of Louis with his surname being Ledoux doesn’t appear until about seven years later—as I was to learn in the following months!)

Based on the success of my first evening, I thought, “This genealogy is easy. Why not follow my matronym—Verreault—to the first ancestor in North America?”

So the following week, I returned to the Maine Franco-American Genealogical Society to explore the history of early Canada and, that evening, I became acquainted with the indentured Barthélémy Verreault who arrived in Québec on November 5, 1662, before sailing on to Montréal later in the month. He married Marthe Quittel in September 1665. When had she come? So…

Why not learn about her?

I had to admit: I was clearly smitten!

After three years of following the history of early Canada

Eventually, I had identified 6,000 of the 8,000 ancestor possibilities one has at the thirteenth generation. (Obviously, in a small population one finds many duplicates.) I now knew the majority of those who comprise the earliest ancestors in my Franco-North-American history.

What was missing, and was soon to follow, was a deep dive into the history of the first generation: struggles with turning forests into arable and pasture lands, Indian wars, birthing, community organization, and even some everyday life.

Thus, insights into their lives resulted from reading dozens of histories, both in French and English.

I even discovered a relationship that had to be of best friends! That one is a guess, of course, but it is supported by documents that record the two men in each other’s lives (weddings, baptisms, employment, land ownership) for over two decades.

In conclusion

In my book, Here to Stay / Lives in 17th Century Canada, I offer my findings of my Franco-North-American history. I consider it an essential read for a person searching for the history of early Canada. To read excerpts, click here.

I will send a review e-copy to anyone who promises to write a review of the book on Amazon. To do so, you must have purchased at least $5o on Amazon in the last year. (If you have not spent $50, you can ask someone who has to post your review.