Fur Trade Families of Quebec Jean Nicolet Volume 2

The second in the series of Fur Trade Families of Quebec is ancestor Jean Nicolet. He was probably born about 1598 in Normandie and arrived in Quebec in 1618. Jean was employed as a clerk and trained as an interpreter by the Company of Merchants, the fur trading monopoly owned by French noblemen. He operated a Company store and traded with the Lake Nipissing (Ontario) people for several years. He lived with the local native people and learned their customs and explored the area. During 1635-1636, the priests wrote about Jean Nicolet's assistance in converting the Natives. References to Jean and found in the Jesuit's Relations Volume 8-9 and 11-12. Jean Nicolet returned to the Company in Quebec in 1633 with his daughter Madeleine or Euphrosine.

In 1637 in Quebec, Jean Nicolet married Marguerite Couilard, daughter of a Guillaume Couillard and Guillemette Hebert and granddaughter of Canada's first farmer Louis Hebert. Jean's formal marriage to Marguerite Couillard lasted until his death from drowning five years later. Two children were born of this marriage. His son Ignace died at age one. The daughter of this marriage was named Marguerite Nicolet. She was baptized in 1642 and married Jean-Baptiste LeGardeur sieur de Repentigny in 1656. Marguerite and Jean-Baptiste had twenty children. The descendants from this non-native daughter are not included in this book.

Jean's native daughter Madeleine or Euphrosine Nicolet, was born about 1628 of an informal or country marriage to an unnamed Nipissing woman. Madeleine married Jean Leblanc in 1643. Jean Leblanc was killed by the Iroquois in 1662. Her second marriage was with Elie Dussault dit Lafleur in 1663. Both marriages resulted in generations of descendants in Canada and the United States.

In this volume, seven generations of Madeleine or Euphrosine Nicolet's Quebec descendants are followed. Her most notable descendant is Andre Carriere, born 30 March 1779 and baptized the next day at Boucherville. Andre arrived in the early West about 1802-1805. His marriage to Angelique Dion or Lyon resulted in eleven children. Many of his descendants remained in Western Canada, but they are also found on the rolls of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa of North Dakota and the Little Shell Band of Indians in Montana. Included in this revision will be witnessed events and notes for baptisms, marriages, burials, employment history, scrip applications, censuses, treaties, annuity payments, participation in the Riel Rebellion, etc.

This series is a revision of the series "First Metis Families of Quebec". After over a decade of searching, this researcher can find no distinct Metis community among these families. There is evidence the majority of the descendants married French Canadians and became laborers, farmers or craftsmen in the Province of Quebec.