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This genealogical summary was prepared starting
with the book of Mrs Françoise Michaud-Dufresne,
Les Michaud
Poitevin au Canada : les quatre premières générations,
published
in 1990 by the Association of the Michaud Families.
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During more than twenty years, Mrs Michaud-Dufresne examined a hundred and fifty years of files and handwritten datas. She sometimes encountered some important obstacles. Thus, she uses the expression " of unknown destiny" when a baptized child does not reappear any more in the registers. At Rivière-Ouelle, before 1685, the baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded either in the registers of Notre-Dame de Québec, or of l'Islet. After 1685, the years between 1705 and 1715 are nor indexed. At La Pocatière, the registers only open in 1685. At Kamouraska, the first priest, Philippe Rageot, inducts in 1709. Normally, one should find registers there; unfortunately, the acts were destroyed by fire in the summer of 1727. No trace of the years 1749 and 1750. After the month of February of 1759, it misses one or more sheets when the English troops passed along the south coast.
Throughout this descent, one will notice the death
of several infants. Hard winters, the absence of doctors in place
especially during childbirths and epidemics are as many causes explaining
these deaths. Thus, an epidemic of "petite vérole"
(smallpox) or "picote" in 1755-56 which prevailed in the area of Kamouraska
made quintuple the number of burials and has affected a great number of
the descendants of the Michaud family. One will also notice the repetition
with excess of the same first names : Pierre, Jean, Joseph, François,
Madeleine, Marie, Geneviève... Parents, especially fathers, were
often accustomed to giving their own first name to one of their children
; back to the fourth generation, Alexandre Michaud, married to Brigitte
Délorier, even gave the first name of Alexandre to four of his children.
The second generation includes the ten children of Pierre and Marie among those only one died infant;
The third generation consists of the 78 grandchildren of Pierre and Marie of which 13 died and 2 of unknown destiny;
The fourth generation includes the 459 great-grandchildren of Pierre and Marie of which 109 died and 48 of unknown destiny.