THE  FIRST FOUR GENERATIONS OF MICHAUD


 





    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.
 
 
 

Mrs Françoise Michaud-Dufresne




    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.
 

For a more exhaustive description, we strongly recommend to you the book of Mrs Michaud-Dufresne.  It includes some notes on the historical context just as some anecdotes and notarial acts concerning our ancestors.
 
 

1