For a list of discussion questions for your book club, click here.

In Here to Stay, I have done my best to portray seventeenth-century colonists in New France as they most probably lived their lives. We may wish they had been different—as we may wish we were on occasion—but such is not the case and it is not how the story happened.

Here to Stay / Lives in 17th Century Canada

Here to Stay/Lives in 17th Century Canada introduces the reader to a few common folks who were among the original French settlers in Canada. Set against a background of hardships, constant warfare and raids, and government corruption, this non-fiction book brings an era of heroic struggle to life for the reader.

Denis Ledoux has conducted extensive research to write this book that transforms genealogical probing into a captivating story of individuals whose lives reveal so much of what hindered the development of a civil society in New France. Here to Stay wraps up in 1701 at a time when New France negotiates a treaty with thirty-eight First Nations to establish a peace that will last until the Conquest.

Here to Stay is more than an account of personal ancestors; it is the story of a generation that created a nation: the French Canadian people.

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…

—Jean Edouard Pouilot, Amazon reviewer

• The hardships of the voyage from metropolitan France to the shores of New France.
• Life lived amid an ongoing war between the Iroquois and their allies, the English and the Dutch, and the French and the  First Nations living in the St Lawrence basin.
• Daily life in the colony: the women giving birth in difficult conditions, farming in the midst of stumps and marauding snipers and military duty.
• The Catholic Church playing a major role in the establishment of a civil society.
• Government officials enriching themselves at the expense of the colonists.

With Here to Stay, Denis Ledoux has written a valuable history that fills the gaps left by books that focus on the contributions of political elites.

While I have used fiction techniques to enliven the story, I have not used fiction. Every detail is—to the best of my knowledge—true and verifiable. I have wanted to create an account people could trust.

Here To Stay sounds like my kind of book! How do I get a copy?

It’s easy: click here to be brought to our store to obtain your own copy.

While you’re there, check out We Were Not Spoiled / A Franco-American Memoir and French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. They are companion books to Here to Stay and will help you to appreciate the Franco-North American community.