Having exhausted over five years of research focused on Guillaume Regnault and his world, my attention moves now to the next generation and my seven times great grandfather Louis. As the first born of Guillaume and Marie, Louis is the first French-Canadien of the paternal lineage.
With the birth of Louis, we enter a period marked by some level of stability as the settlement of Québec entered a period of relative peace with the Iroquois (though with exception) allowing for a growth of population and the increased viability of the colony.
In this next phase of my research, I will explore the world of La Nouvelle France through the life of Louis and his family. I hope to explore a bit of Louis' early years through understanding what childhood was like in Canada at the time. My early research has uncovered the suggestion that Louis may have been apprenticed at a young age to Louis Gilbert as a nail smith. According to Peter Moogk, nails and other iron products were rare and isolated in their use to specific aspects of construction such as roofing. Gilbert was the husband of the fille du roi, Marie-Thérèse Galien, and is known to have been a "master slate roofer." As such I hope to explore themes of construction and apprenticeship in future posts.
I will also trace the family origins of Louis' spouse Marie Madeleine Bedard which can be traced back to La Rochelle, France as well as the associated maternal lines of the Doucinet and Girard families. I plan on paying some attention to Louis' many siblings as well his own children.
Previously I have benefitted from a bevy of documentation on the founding of the colony and the research on some well-documented groups such as the Carignan-Salières Regiment and Les Filles du Roi. I do not expect to find similarly focused resources to assist my efforts in understanding Louis' life. However, there is some level of online documentation to serve as clues. In addition to the parish records documenting births, marriages and deaths, Louis appears in the Notarial Records of Québec with some frequency. Though only the indices are currently available online, they may provide some hints as to the nature and detail of Louis' life.
I cannot anticipate when I will have completed enough new research to post a new entry on Louis but I am hoping it will occur before the end of the calendar year.