Jean Baptiste Michaud
and his Family

Jean Baptiste Michaud, the second child of Pierre and Marie Michaud, was born on January 3, 1674, on Ile-aux-Grues. His godfather was Pierre Bécard, Sieur de Granville, Seigneur of l'Ile-aux-Oies, and his godmother was Genevieve Couillard, the young sister of Jeanne Dupuis, the wife of Seigneur Paul Dupuis. Jean worked the land of his uncle, Pierre Fournier, the Sieur de Belleval, and the husband of the second Marie Ancelin (the half-sister of his mother, Marie Ancelin). His maternal grandfather, Réne Ancelin, died around November 21, 1695, and his property on Isle d'Orleans was divided among his heirs: Marie Ancelin -- wife of Pierre Michaud; her half sister Marie; and her half brother, Philippe Ancelin. By agreement between uncle and nephew, Jean became owner of Pierre Fournier's land and Pierre Fournier took possession of Réne Ancelin's property. While living on Isle d'Orleans, Jean married the daughter of one of the island's earliest settlers, Marie VAILLANCOURT, on June 3rd, 1697 in St. Pierre, Isle d'Orleans. Marie was born on September 5, 1674 in the town of Saint Famille, Isle d'Orleans, and was the daughter of Robert VAILLANCOURT, who arrived from St-Nicholas d'Aliermont, Normandy, around 1665, and his wife, Marie GOBEIL, from Niort, Poitou. When his parents took possession of their property at Kamouraska in 1695, he moved his family to the area, by 1697 at the latest. We know this because their first child, Marie Jeanne, was born on April 2, 1698, in Kamouraska. Another daughter, Helene, was born and died in the winter of 1699; a son, Jean Baptiste (II), was born at the family home in Riviere Ouelle, Kamouraska, on July 2, 1701. The family lived on three arpents of frontage along the St. Lawrence River, with their land extending back to a depth of 45 arpents. On one side lived his father, Pierre Michaud and on the other, Pierre Beaulieu. Their small wooden house measured about seventeen feet square, and their barn housed three cows, three pigs, a pair of horses, and a pair of oxen. The Church at Rivière-Ouelle The Municipalité de Rivière-Ouelle was founded in 1672, 10 miles to the west of Kamouraska on the St. Lawrence River. It was and still is an agricultural community and it grew quickly in its early years, when Jean Baptiste arrived. But life on the frontier was hard. In 1702, Jean Baptiste's father died of cancer. In the summer of 1706, disaster struck again. On June 2nd, Marie and her newborn daughter both died from the complications of childbirth. With small children to care for and a farm to run, Jean Baptiste remarried on February 28th, 1707, to 16-year-old Marie Francoise DUPIL. They were married at Riviere Ouelle. Their first child would be named Marie, after his first wife. They would have five more children. Jean Baptiste died in Kamouraska in 1720. Francoise Dupille, his young widow, remarried to Jean Lajoye dit Normandin and together, they continued to raise the Michaud children at the family homestead. Jean's son, Jean Baptiste (II), was a five-year-old child when his mother died, and when he lost his father, he was only 18. He was a hard worker though. By 1723, in Kamouraska, Jean had possession of three arpents of riverfront by thirty-two arpents of depth. There were not yet any buildings on the land and only six arpents of it were considered arable land, with another two arpents of meadow, but it was a start. This land was located between François Autin and Pierre Desjardins. On April 10, 1724, Seigneur Joseph Morel, impressed with the young man's diligence, grants to Jean Michaud the title to his land. On May 8th, Jean Michaud marries a local girl, Cecile OUELLET, daughter of Mathurin Rene OUELLET and Angelique LEBEL, in Riviere Ouelle. Cecile was born on June 13, 1706 in that same town, and her father may have know the Michauds from even earlier, as he was from Isle d'Orleans. The family could be traced back to Cecile's grandfather, Rene, who came to New France from Paris before 1665. In 1690, Riviere Ouelle was the scene of a battle in which 40 local "Habitants" turned back British General Phipps and his army. Rene Ouellet and all five of his sons, including Cecile's father, Mathurin, took part in this famous battle and are numbered among the "Heroes of Riviere Ouelle". On June 25, 1725, Cecile's mother, now a widow, presents herself to the notary to donate the Ouellet lands to Jean in exchange for his providing her with lodging and food for the remainder of her life. Jean Baptiste and Cecile's first child, Jean Francois, was born in Kamouraska on May 13, 1729. They would have 11 other children in Kamouraska. Their son, Jean François , married Marie Anne Côté, daughter of Jean Baptiste Côté and Genevieve BERNIER, on October 27, 1752, in Trois Pistoles. They had at least three children, including Pierre. Pierre was born February 14, 1760, in Kamouraska. He married twice: first, to Genevieve BOUCHER, on November 13, 1780 in Riviere Ouelle. In 1786, Pierre remarried, to Marie Francoise LAMARRE, the daughter of Claude LAMARRE and Louise Bonav. TARDIF, on November 13, 1786, in Riviere Ouelle. Marie was born 29 July 29, 1761, in Rimouski. They had five children, including one, Romaine Jean, who would cross the Maine woods to the Madawaska....