The first official mention of the presence of Pierre Micheau in Canada is found in the Register of Receipts and Expanditures of the church of Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap in the year 1661-1662 : "to Pierre Micheau (Michel) for two days three livres (pounds)".  Our ancestor seems to have done manual labor on the construction of the second church of Sainte-Anne.  In August 1663, in a sales contract, we learn that Pierre Micheau is a partner of Michel Marquiseau in the ownership of a grant of 3 arpents (acres) in the village of Beaupré, to the east coast of the Rivière Sainte-Anne.  Before notary Claude Auber, Pierre sold it on September 6, 1665 to François Daniaud from whom he receives 25 livres cash.
 

    After 1665, Pierre worked away from Sainte-Anne, probably as a hired farm hand.  Perhaps he also enjoyed, for a time, the adventurous life of a coureurs des bois (lumberjack);  or perhaps even the campaigns with the Régiment de Carignan, because, in the censuses of 1666 and 1667, no mention is made of his presence.  But by the end of the summer of 1667, on October 2, Pierre is present in the home of Claude Auber in order to amend the text of his marriage contract. The notary wrote:  "Pierre Michel, habitant of Sainte-Anne-du-Petit-Cap, coast and seigniory of Beaupré".  This contract was never signed.  For some unknown reason, the celebration of the marriage of Pierre was delayed for about 3 years.  His girl friend lived at Ange-Gardien with her father and stepmother.  She was Marie Ancelin, daughter of the thread-mill worker René Ancelin and the late Claire Rousselot.  Pierre and Marie remain then on the south shore of the Île d'Orléans, known today as the Parish of Saint-Jean, since this one had obtained from Monseigneur de Laval, in June 1667, a land grant of 3 arpents of river frontage which was registered by notary Paul Vachon.
 

    A troublesome incident probably moves him to go away.  On May 31, 1671, Pierre lodges a complaint with the attorney against a neighbour who behaved violently towards his wife.  She had to be in bed and have medical treatments from surgeon Lavimaudière.  After 1671, Pierre Micheau and Marie Ancelin lived then on the Île-aux-Oies.  The proof comes when their first child Pierre, born February 11, 1672, was baptized by Father Morel on March 8.  His godmother was Anne Macart, wife of the Sieur de Grandville, a resident of the island in question and whose family played an important role in the colony.  Moreover, on September 9, 1673, "Pierre Michel living on the Ile aux Oyes"  sold his land and house on the Ile d'Orléans, where he had cleared five arpents, to Jean Mourier  for the amount of 90 livres.  Pierre Micheau probably worked in the service of Sieur de Grandville for three years;  then he exercised his right to move over to the neighbouring Île-aux-Grues, just apposite Cap-Saint-Ignace on the St. Lawrence river.  His eldest daughter Marie-Anne, was born here on November 12, 1675.  In effect, on July 17, 1674, the seigneur of these two islands granted six arpents of frontage to a depth of the entire island to Pierre.  His neighbours would be Jean Soucy and Pierre Terrien.  By the winter of 1681, the Michaud family, with five children, was still living on their island farm, with six arpents of land under cultivation, 10 animals and a hunting rifle.
 

    We can place Pierre Micheau's departure from Ile aux Grues at the end of 1682.  Pierre, 44 years of age, and his family crossed over to the south shore of the St. Lawrence river, to a place called l'Islet (Rivière-des-Trois-Saumons).  The reasons for this move are unknown but we suspect that the hardship of living on the island with only his boat or the ice bridge as means of communication with the exterior world was a factor.  Here he remained for 11 years and it was here that his last five children were baptized.  In 1692, Dame Geneviève Couillard, widow of the deceased Sieur de Le Tarte, enticed Pierre to move to her fief at Saint-Jean-Port-Joli.  A concession (grant), privately granted, was made on October 19, 1695 by the Seigneuresse, but two years later was resold by the Michauds to Pierre Lessard.
 
 

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