This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first European settlers in New France, Louis Hébert and his wife Marie Rollet, and following a recent discovery of a marriage register, part of their history must be rewritten.
At a press conference held yesterday in Quebec City, historian Marcel Fournier held up a copy of a marriage register that shows Hébert and Rollet married February 19, 1601 at Saint-Sulpice church in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. The record also shows that Rollet was a widow.
Marriage register of Louis Hébert and Marie Rollet, 19 February 1601, St-Sulpice, Paris, France. Source: St-Sulpice, 1557-1604, Paris, LL958, Centre historique des Archives nationales de France à Paris. Downloaded from Geneanet : http://en.geneanet.org/archives/registres/view/5602/21
Until recently, historians have believed for hundreds of years that Quebec’s first settlers had married at Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois church in 1602 in the 1st arrondissement near the Louvre, and that the marriage record had been destroyed in a fire.
These are the words in the marriage register (with my English translation following):
Le 18 février (1601), Louis-Hébert, apothicaire fut fiancé avec Marie Roullet, veux de défunt François Dufeu vivant marchand demeurant à Compiègne, et mariés le 19e dudit mois, et les proclamations (des bans) commencées dès le 21 janvier
[February 18 (1601), Louis-Hébert, apothecary engaged to Marie Roullet, widow of the late François Dufeu merchant living in Compiègne, married the 19th of said month, banns read beginning January 21]
Louis Hébert Monument, Montmorency Park, Quebec. Photo: Guillaume Couillard, Wikimedia Commons.
The historic discovery was made by Gilles Brassard from Quebec while he was researching his ancestry in the Archives nationales de France in Paris. He was intrigued by a particular record, and experts decipher the ornate handwriting and confirmed it was the Hébert-Rollet marriage register.
Arrangements have now been made with the mayor of the 6th arrondissement to mount a commemorative plaque on the current Saint-Sulpice church that had replaced the original.
An online image of the marriage register can be seen at the bottom of the page on Geneanet.
A photo taken at the press conference appears in this Le Soleil newspaper article.
I realize this blog post is over a year old but I have had this information in my database for several years. How is it a new discovery and rewriting the history of the first settlers?
The historic discovery was that they had found the marriage record and learned that Hébert and Rollet were married a year earlier than thought and in a different church. I’m not sure how anyone would have known this years ago.
I had this in my database earlier than 2017. My notes says: married February 19, 1601 in St-Sulpice, contract on the 18th and banns started on January 21. That’s why I don’t understand why it was a “new” discovery. I haven’t worked on my Hebert line for awhile as I have been working on other family lines. Unless I did it in my sleep! I know originally the date was proposed as before 1602-07-24 but I have a note about the actual date and church. I will see if I can find my source, because in my list, I don’t have anything about Marcel Fournier. Also nothing you included says anything about the contract date. So I had that from somewhere. I have two notes about the sources so I will check where and when I found this.
My source is Gilles Brassard, Paris, 2016. So not years ago but earlier than 2017 and not Marcel Fournier. Guess it was news in Canada before 2017.