Planning A Trip To Quebec

I will be heading to Quebec on August 13. I will be staying in Quebec City so I'm trying to plot out ancestors who lived around Quebec City. Doing this I realized that most my ancestors never lived in any city, because of course, most were farmers, or had a trade, and practiced subsistence farming. Most of my ancestors lived in and around the Trois-Rivieres area of Quebec. Some lived closer to Montreal also. My ancestor Peter Mason/Masson came to Illinois from Saint-Léon-le-Grand in the 1850's, and his ancestors had lived in the Trois-Rivieres (Louiseville) area for several generations.

Map of my ancestral locations

The great record keeping and the survival of many records in Canada means I've be able to add hundreds of French Canadian ancestors to my tree. That much information can be overwhelming to make sense of. With that many lines to follow I've never really plotted all of their locations on a map. As in the United States families migrated from place to place.

I'm not sure how many places I'll have time for on this trip? I'm not sure if I will go to Trois-Rivieres on this trip? The Masson family also lived in the Neuville and Sainte-Augustin-Desmaures before settling around Trois-Rivieres. That area is a little closer to the center of Quebec where I'm staying.  I might just explore around Quebec City, depending how much there is to see, or venture farther away?

I do know that Abraham Martin was my first ancestor to voyage to the New World. The ship he sailed on was “Le Sallemandie”. He arrived on 30 April 1620. He definitely spent time in Quebec City. I won't have to venture far to walk in his foot steps. I will definitely visit the plains of Abraham A description of the Plains of Abraham from "Historical Narratives of Early Canada".

"The land had belonged to Abraham Martin, a navigator known as the king's pilot who knew the river waters well for he had frequently fished there and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1635 in return for his services, Martin had been granted 12 acres on the outskirts of Quebec and ten years later received an additional 20 acres as a gift. In 1667 Abraham sold the land to the Ursulines religious order. Chance had chosen this rustic spot, this peaceful patch of a farmer's field which became that day a giant stage on which the fortunes of war would decide the fate of two nations."

His daughter Marguerite Martin was born in Quebec on 4 January 1624. She married Etienne Racine on the 22nd of May 1638 in the church of Notre Dame Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Quebec. The couple later settled in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré around 1650. I will definitely visit St-Anne-de-Beaupré. A newer chapel now sits on the foundations of the original church. The chapel has a plaque dedicated to the memory of this couple. Their house is said to still be standing. I will try to find it?

My ancestors Robert Pare and his wife Francoise Lehoux were also early settlers of St-Anne-de-Beaupré. According to what I've been reading the on internet the couple married in the Chapel of the Huron in 1653. I wanted to verify this so I looked up their marriage record. I wasn't seeing Chapel of the Huron? Then I realized it says Chapel of the Savages. I may check out the area where that was located?

I also have ancestors in the neighboring area of Chateau-Richer. My ancestor Joseph Masse Gravel and his wife Marguerite Tavernier lived in Chateau-Richer. They had married in 1644 in the Chapel of the Angeles in Quebec City.

Marin Boucher and Perinne Mallet were other early settlers of Chateau-Richer.  Their daughter Madeleine, and my ancestor, married Louis Houde Houle in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Quebec in 1655.

Ancestors Robert Giguère dit Despins and Aymée Miville were married at Notre-Dame-de-Quebec in 1652. They lived in Beaupre after their marriage.

Louis Houde Houle is said to have come to the New World in 1647 aboard a ship called the La Marquerite. He owned land in Chateau Richer and Ste. Famille, Île d'Orléans. They apparently lived there for a number of years. This family migrates south to Sainte-Croix (Lotbinière), which is how they meet up with, and marry into, the Mason family which later settles in Illinois

Here is what Wikipedia says about the family in an article about Sainte-Croix, Quebec:

"The first settlers arrived around 1680, including the family of Louis Houde, February 13, 1682, then living on the island of Orleans. He acquires Ursulines of Quebec a land of nine arpents front on a plateau, along the river. A first chapel was built in 1694 near the river on a piece of land donated by Louis Houde."

Another ancestral couple Pierre Blais and Anne Perrault lived in Ste. Famille, Île d'Orléans. They married there in 1669.

Heading back a little closer to Quebec about 10 miles north of Quebec City where my ancestors Louis Fafard and Marie Ursule Jacob lived. They lived in L'Ange Gardien. They married were married there in 1696. Marie Ursule was born there in 1684. Etienne Jacob and Jeanne Fressel were her parents.

Moving 6 miles south of Quebec City to Sillery where my ancestors François Garnier and Jacqueline Freslon settled. They married in Sillery in 1663. They later migrated to Neuville where the Masson family lived.

Ancestors Aubin Lambert and Elizabeth Aubert were also early residents of Chateau Richer. They married at Notre-Dame-de-Quebec in 1670. They also lived near the Masson family in  today's Sainte-Augustin-de Desmures.

Another ancestral couple Michel Thibault and Jeanne Soyer originally listed in Sillery, also had ties to Sainte-Augustin-de-Desmaures and Neuville, Their daughter Lousie Thibault married Rene Alarie in Neuville, Quebec in 1681. Here again we see where these families merged with the Masson family. Rene and Louise's granddaughter Marie Charlotte Alarie married our Pierre Masson in 1762 in Ste. Augustin, Quebec.

Jacques Greslon, occupation weaver, married Jeanne Vigneault in Notre-Dame-de-Quebec in 1657. They were listed as living in Beaupre on the 1666 Census. They were apparently living in the L'Ange Gardien. Their daughter Anne Greslon married Jean Masson in 1699 in Neuville, Quebec.

I now have a greater understanding of my French Canadian ancestors migrations through plotting their locations. There are 3 churches in Quebec I need to visit. Several of my ancestral couples are married in Notre-Dame-de-Quebec, one couple was married in Notre-Dame-de-Victoires, and another at Notre-Dame-des-Anges. I'll definitely visit all of the sites in Quebec City. I will also definitely visit the church and chapel in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. I also plan on doing some general sightseeing. I will sees how much I can cram into a few days?

 Below is a listed of places associated with my family: