[This review of my latest book was posted on
Substack on October 20, 2025, by Jean Edouard Pouliot. Thank you profusely, Jean, for your support in publishing Book recommendation: “Here to Stay”.]
[Jean’s text] I wanted to mention a wonderful new book by my friend, Denis Ledoux, who has been writing for years about the Franco-American experience. His new book, Here to Stay, describes the settling of Canada in the 17th century — not from the point of view of lords and cardinals, but from that of the settlers themselves.
Book recommendation: “Here to Stay” Offers Missing Information
The story of Canada’s colonization is not well known, even among us Franco-Americans. Ledoux’s Here to Stay plugs that historical gap in a way that brings the period to life. From a personal perspective, this book covers the period my Pouliot ancestor arrived in New France in 1655, married and farmed his landholding. I learned so much from Ledoux’s book about the extreme difficulties he faced.
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Here’s where to purchase the book: https://thememoirnetwork.com/here-to-stay/
Jean Pouliot’s Amazon review of Here to Stay
What Denis Ledoux has pulled off with Here to Stay is nothing short of a miracle: bringing life and context to the nearly unknown early history of French Canadians in North America. The story of our ancestors (I am a fourth-generation Franco American) is mostly a mystery to those of my age bracket. In the 1960s, our parochial school teachers tried valiantly, and almost single-handedly, to transmit bits and pieces of our culture.
We learned the French version of “O Canada,” sketchy details about Champlain, Cartier, the Jesuit martyrs, and Indian fighter Dollard des Ormeaux. But these lessons were overwhelmed by their lack of historical knowledge and the juggernaut of American culture. Those of us who have done genealogical research often only come up with names and birthplaces and (if we are lucky) a few details about the personal lives of our first North American forebears.
But in comes Here to Stay, and the dark curtain has been pulled aside. While being a fleshed-out story of Ledoux’s own ancestors, Here to Stay tells a much broader story about life in early Canada, from the 1630s through 1690s, the period when settlement really took off.
His family story tells that of my own. Ledoux tells of the men and women who traveled to Quebec from France to get rich from the lucrative beaver trade, to bring the Catholic God to the natives, or to own their own little bit of land and advance in society. He tells of their struggles against the brutal Canadian winters and the equally brutal Iroquois, always poised at the edge of the forest to kill or kidnap (and then torture) settlers.
He tells of the engagés, workers who came to New France for three years, often to leave when their terms of service were complete. He tells of the desperate measures taken to persuade Louis XIV to send more soldiers to protect the colonists, and to send more Filles du Roi (King’s Daughters, often orphans) to marry (and propagate with) the mostly male French settlers.
His family story tells that of my own. Ledoux tells of the men and women who traveled to Quebec from France to get rich from the lucrative beaver trade, to bring the Catholic God to the natives, or to own their own little bit of land and advance in society. He tells of their struggles against the brutal Canadian winters and the equally brutal Iroquois, always poised at the edge of the forest to kill or kidnap (and then torture) settlers.
He tells of the engagés, workers who came to New France for three years, often to leave when their terms of service were complete. He tells of the desperate measures taken to persuade Louis XIV to send more soldiers to protect the colonists, and to send more Filles du Roi (King’s Daughters, often orphans) to marry (and propagate with) the mostly male French settlers.
A narrative that speaks for the colonists
Here to Stay has several great advantages for Franco Americans, and for anyone else fascinated by the early to mid 17th century. It is written in English. Its narrative, which is written from the point of a few of the colonists, humanizes what can often seem like cold history. And it is incredibly evenhanded. This is why I have written Book Recommendation: Here to Stay.
The early French colonists, with their grab-bag of motivations encountered an equally broad spectrum of Indigenous People. Some, like the Hurons, lived mostly peaceably with the new French arrivals, mingling and trading with them in their tiny towns. Others, like the Iroquois, were relentlessly hostile, mounting attacks on the French multiple times every year, or picking them off one by one as they tried to clear and farm their land.
The distance from the mother country — both in physical distance and in the time it took to communicate (a round trip to France could take a year to complete) — meant that the French settlers, like their American counterparts further south, had to develop new modes of living and semi-self-governing than the old country model could not provide.
A unique Canadian identity
Even speech between the many distinct regional French dialects the settlers brought with them required developing a common speaking style. What emerges from these pages is the development of unique French-Canadian identity that is FROM France while not being completely OF France.
The good sisters who taught me about my culture would have done well to have Here to Stay in their teacher’s toolkit. How much richer would their lessons have been! How much prouder would I have been of my people’s achievements! How much easier it would have been to fend off insults about my French heritage!
Here to Stay is filled with tiny details that illustrate a time and its people. That the Indigenous people thought horses were a species of tame moose. That women and men kept their own money and property when they entered marriage. That men were often required to be interviewed by nuns before being matched with newly-arrived women. That at least some French men decide to go native once they had been exposed to Indigenous culture. And on and on.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough to everyone with an interest in the historical meshing of cultures. And especially to all the Franco-Americans in the US who have no idea what it took to establish their ancestors’ foothold on this continent.
In conclusion to “Book recommendation: ‘Here to Stay’ “
[Denis’s text]
I want to thank Jean again for his support. His thoughts reflect my own about this book.
Here to Stay fills a gap. It is available without S/H charges until October 31.
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