How COOL is this?

[chinakay]

I just have to post this where it will be appreciated...

I'm doing a friend's family tree. Her grandparents came from Quebec, so I've been knee-deep in French PR pages for weeks.

Tonight I hit the motherlode.

Remember Zacharie Cloutier? When the Drouin index went on line there was a news story, still being used as advertising on Ancestry, about how Celine Dion, Madonna, Camilla, Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie all had a common ancestor, a humble carpenter who sailed from France in 1634 to Quebec where he, evidently, had a lot of children.

Well, I just hit Zacharie.

Even better, guess who Zacharie's daughter Anne married? Robert Drouin. Yup, Drouin

So, I'm kind of spinning in happy circles

I know coming to New France in the 1600s really narrows the gene pool. There just weren't that many Europeans in Quebec and they all married each other.

But I don't care right now

Cheers,
China

[nickgc]

Hi China - to see how really small this gene pool was, consider this (which I am sure you have seen) regarding Zach's dau Anne:

• Anne: baptized on January 19th, 1626 in Mortagne, she was only eleven and a half when she
married Robert Drouin on July 12th, 1637 in Québec city. They had signed a marriage
contract a year before on July 26th, 1636 in the house of the Seigneur Robert Giffard. Jean
Guyon acting as a private notary wrote the contract. Robert Drouin was 28 years old at the
time. Living together would be out of question for a while because of Anne’s young age.
However, eligible women were so rare that Drouin did not want to risk not finding a wife.
The contract stipulated that the spouses would spend the first three years of their married life
under Zacharie’s roof. On the other hand, Zacharie and Sainte agreed to feed them during
that time. This was the first notarized act in Canada. Anne carried child six times and gave
birth for the first time at age 15; three of her babies were stillborn. She died at age 22 on
February 4th, 1648 and was buried the next day in Québec city. Robert Drouin married again
with the widow Marie Chapelier on November 29th, 1649 in Québec city and they had eight
other children. He died in Château-Richer on June 1st, 1685.

Nick

[waiteohman]

Hello China

You might find this immigration of women, les Fille du Roi, interesting as I did. A result from such early marriages as Annes:
http://www.acadian-home.org/kings-daughters-1.html
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~agrandchildsheritage/fillesduroi.html

Linda

[forthefamily]

Amazing China....what a find.

I'm unfortunately a new Canadian so I won't get to have as much fun as you are having now 

mab

[geniecolgan]

Well found China!

Yeeee Haaaw 

[chinakay]

Hi China - to see how really small this gene pool was, consider this (which I am sure you have seen) regarding Zach's dau Anne:

• Anne: baptized on January 19th, 1626 in Mortagne, she was only eleven and a half when she
married Robert Drouin on July 12th, 1637 in Québec city. They had signed a marriage
contract a year before on July 26th, 1636 in the house of the Seigneur Robert Giffard. Jean
Guyon acting as a private notary wrote the contract. Robert Drouin was 28 years old at the
time. Living together would be out of question for a while because of Anne’s young age.
However, eligible women were so rare that Drouin did not want to risk not finding a wife.
The contract stipulated that the spouses would spend the first three years of their married life
under Zacharie’s roof. On the other hand, Zacharie and Sainte agreed to feed them during
that time. This was the first notarized act in Canada. Anne carried child six times and gave
birth for the first time at age 15; three of her babies were stillborn. She died at age 22 on
February 4th, 1648 and was buried the next day in Québec city. Robert Drouin married again
with the widow Marie Chapelier on November 29th, 1649 in Québec city and they had eight
other children. He died in Château-Richer on June 1st, 1685.

Nick

Hi Nick...I'd seen it but apparently an abridged version...thanks for this. It really points out part of the hardship of living in early New France. Of course marriage wasn't, in those days, merely a matter of sharing a bed. It was a partnership for survival. Women and men had different skill sets.

There was a CNN story just the other day about a girl in Yemen who died after being married at 12 years old and then not treated with care by her husband.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/04/09/yemen.child.bride.death/index.html?npt=NP1

Cheers,
China

[chinakay]

Amazing China....what a find.

I'm unfortunately a new Canadian so I won't get to have as much fun as you are having now 

mab

It's still your country now, mab...you can start having fun anytime

[chinakay]

Well found China!

Yeeee Haaaw 

Found another good one a couple of days ago. I remember learning in school of the Lachine Massacre in 1689...a large force of Iroquois snuck up on the little settlement at Lachine and killed or kidnapped most of them. My friend's gggggggwhatever-grandfather was captured and eaten by them

They probably don't even teach about the incident in school anymore...politically incorrect...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lachine_massacre

Cheers,
China

[chinakay]

Hello China

You might find this immigration of women, les Fille du Roi, interesting as I did. A result from such early marriages as Annes:
http://www.acadian-home.org/kings-daughters-1.html
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~agrandchildsheritage/fillesduroi.html

Linda

Hi Linda, thanks for these, I've been looking at quite a few sites. I have the second one bookmarked. Here's another good one, it's in French but pretty simple to read:
http://www.migrations.fr/700fillesroy.htm

Cheers,
China