My French Canadien Ancestors History Timeline & etc...

Please note the internet is chuck full of usefull information for Family History.  Explore for your self see what you can find to help you better understand your ancestors.

My attempt at accumulating useful family history

1530s-1580s

This section of the Timeline of New France history concerns the events between Jacques Cartier's first voyage and the foundation of the Quebec settlement by Samuel de Champlain.

• 1534 - On July 24, Jacques Cartier plants a cross on Gaspé peninsula and claims it for France.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier's expedition sails along the St. Lawrence River in and stops in a little bay he names baie Saint-Laurent on August 10.
• 1535 - On September 6, Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the île aux Coudres.
• 1535 - Jacques Cartier continues to sail down the St. Lawrence River to the village of Hochelaga on October 2.
• 1537 - On June 9, Pope Paul III proclaims that since the Sauvages (Indians) are real humans, they must receive the Roman Catholic faith.
• 1541 - Jacques Cartier builds the Charlesbourg-Royal fort, the first permanent European settlement in North America, near the Cap-Rouge River and the St. Lawrence River.

1590s

• 1598 - Following the 1521 landing on Sable Island in southeast of present-day Nova Scotia by the Portuguese, the French establish a settlement.

1600s

• 1600 - Pierre de Chauvin, Sieur de Tonnetuit founds a trading post at Tadoussac.
• 1603 - Samuel de Champlain takes possession of lands he calls (Newfoundland) and Acadie (Acadia).
• 1604 - Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain establish an ill-fated settlement on the lands of the Passamaquoddy Nation that they give the religious name of Île-Saint-Croix.
• 1605 - Dugua and Champlain move the settlement to the Mi'kmaq Nation lands the French called Habitation at Port-Royal, near Annapolis Royal in present-day Nova Scotia. See Acadia.
• 1606 - Marc Lescarbot put on the first European theatrical production in North America. It was called Le Théâtre de Neptune.
• 1607 - On May 14, Captain Christopher Newport founds the first English colony on lands of the Paspahegh Indians in what they called America: Jamestown, Virginia.

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Taken from Wikipedia.org

Map of New France by Samuel de Champlain
"Carte geographique de la Nouvelle France" c. 1612/13 

Found at Wikipedia.org

The Colonization of New France- Canada History 1534

New World interest was stated in France when Giovanni da Verrazzano an explorer requested that Francis I of France sponsor him on an exploration of Newfoundland to Florida to find a Pacific passage. This was in 1524.

Next “In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of Francis I.” 

The weather was very hard on the suburban French men.  Without lots of buildings to keep away all the elements it was a serious fight against nature.   Not that they were used to central heating, just the protection from wind, cold & other devastating elements did not exist for them.  In the nest paragraph you can see what I mean.

“Despite initial French attempts at settling the region having ended in failure, French fishing fleets began to sail to the Atlantic coast and into the St. Lawrence River, trading and making alliances with First Nations.  In 1600, a trading post was established at Tadoussac by François Gravé Du Pont, a merchant, and Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit‎, a captain of the French Royal Navy.^[52] However, only five of the sixteen settlers (all male) survived the first winter and returned to France.^” 

Mortality rate was very high for many years for the French expansionist.  

“In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Dugua Sieur de Monts.^[53] Dugua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near to the mouth of the St. Croix River. Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, who promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States.^[53] In the spring of 1605, under Samuel de Champlain, the new St. Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal (today's Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) then abandoned in 1607.”

At this point it was all about making money not bringing families to settle the land.   New France was still just an outpost.  No formal settlements were yet considered.

So at this point French men are alone in the wilderness with?  You ask why is this a concern?

We have been spoon fed that these French men had French women/young women as  their wives.  How can this be so ? Not a single French woman has stepped foot on the New World soil.

please note this picture shows a nun teaching Native American girls, no french girls.  This will be significant to your DNA. [of course if your French Canadien]

Another note of interest that only Catholics were allowed to go to New France.  You will not find non-Catholics in New France.  You will find the Hugenots in the English Colonies.