Filles du Roi: Marie Madeleine Normand

Les Filles du Roi

In an earlier post, The French Side: Marie Catherine Levesque, I mentioned several Filles du Roi (King's Daughters) in the direct paternal and maternal family lines (Levesque and Michaud) of my 3rd great-grandmother, Marie Catherine Levesque.

Filles du Roi were the more than 700 courageous female pioneers who, between the years of 1663 and 1673, left everything and everyone they knew in France:

• to sail on a dangerous ocean voyage on an uncomfortable ship with minimal amenities, complete with the risk of contracting a serious disease;
• to land in a war zone (the British and French were at war), where the risk of supply lines to France being cut off for years was a reality; and
• to marry a stranger within a short time after disembarking, have children together, and carve a life out of the wilderness. 

Who today would take on such a challenge, and the hard work and isolation that goes with it, with so few of the modern supports and comforts we are accustomed to? No one I know. 

But these fearless women did it, and became the progenitors of a vast number of Canadians possessing French heritage.

VIDEO: Family Line Founder - Marie Madeleine Normand (1646-1690)

Today, with the help of Lisa Elvin-Staltari and her YouTube channel, Have Roots, Will Travel, I pay tribute to Marie Madeleine Normand: Fille du Roi, Québec pioneer, family line founder, and Catherine Levesque's 5th great-grandmother (and my 9th great-grandmother).

Catherine and I are descended through Joseph, the fourth child of Marie Madeleine and her husband Alphonse Morin dit Valcourt (who was the son of First Québec Colonists Noël Morin and Hélène Desportes). 

Madeleine's son's family settled in Kamouraska, Montmagny region, northeast of Trois-Rivières and Québec City, on the south shore of Québec's St. Lawrence River (see Map 1 below). The family lived there for about 250 years until they started to disperse to Québec City, Montréal and the newly-created prairie provinces around the turn of the 20th century.

Click on the link to view Lisa Elvin-Staltari's well-researched video on my 9th great-grandmother and one of my family line founders, Marie Madeleine Normand: VIDEO: Have Roots, Will Travel: Les Filles du Roi Episode 207 Marie Madeline Normand.

Please enjoy!

Map 1: Kamouraska in Montmagny, Québec

Map credit: Snip from Google Maps search results for Kamouraska.