Profile of Jeanne Peirrin

This month’s profile is on my 8th great grandmother, Jeanne PEIRIN. She was a pioneer in Canada in the middle of the seventeenth century. She was the daughter of David PERRIN and Jeanne Daniel DANEAU dit DAVID. She was born 26 May 1615 in La Rochelle, Charente Martim, Santonge, France and was christened 31 May 1615 in the Calvinist Temple, La Rochelle, Aunis France. She married Pierre DUTEAU sometime before 1639 in France. The couple had five, possibly six, children. Marie-Michelle DUTEAU DUTOST born in 1639, Charles DUTEAU-GRANDPRE born in 1641, Nicolas DUTEAU born in 1646 and died in 1647. Madeleine DUTEAU born in 1649 and another Madeleine born in 1651.

Just so you know, I’m not entirely sure that the two Madeleines were not the same person. There are two different birth years for them and it was not unusual for people to lose a child and then name a younger child for the one who died. So that is possible. There could have been one Madeleine or two daughters named the same. So I keep them separate, until I know for sure.

Jeanne was forty-three years old when she emigrated to Canada with her children, Charles, Marie, and Madeleine in the spring of 1658. Why her husband didn’t come with the family will forever remain a mystery. He died and was buried in La Rochelle, France 12 December 1658. Perhaps he was simply too ill to make the trip with them. To go to Canada, Jeanne had to enlist in the service of Pierre DENIS. Why would she feel the need to leave her home, husband and everything she knew to travel to the wilds of Canada? We will never know. In any case, she and her nine-year-old daughter, Madeleine were basically indentured servants to Jacques LENEUF DE LA POTERIE for five years, receiving the sum of fifty livres a year (roughly fifty American dollars a year, had American dollars existed at that time) and room and board for the time they served. Her son Charles would receive thirty livres a years plus food, shelter and clothing. Marie-Michelle, (my 7th great grandmother) signed up for three years for forty livres a year, but did not serve as she married my 7th great grandfather the following spring. So the family boarded the 200 ton caravel Le Prince Guillaume and sailed away from everything they knew.

History doesn’t record much more than this, except that Madeleine married at fifteen to Nicolas LEBLANC dit LABRIE, attended by her brother Charles and brother in law, Michel LEMAY. I don’t know where or when Jeanne PEIRRIN died. It was likely in Trois Rivieres or Cap Madeleine as that is where her son finally settled, but, of course, I don’t know for certain. Most of what I know of Jeanne is gleaned from an account about her son, Charles in the book Our French-Canadian Ancestors vol. 7 by Thomas J. Laforest.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!