Olivier Charbonneau (France,

Aunis Aunis () is a historical province of France, situated in the north-west of the department of Charente-Maritime. Its historic capital is La Rochelle, which took over from Castrum Allionis (Châtelaillon) the historic capital which gives its name ...

1613

Île de Montréal The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...

20 November 1687) was a

frontiersman A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a Border, boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that ...

who lived in

Old Montreal Old Montreal (French: ''Vieux-Montréal'') is a historic neighbourhood within the municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is bordered on the west by McGill Street, on th ...

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

. Charbonneau started his working life as a sewer cleaner in

Marans, Charente-Maritime Marans () is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department, administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine (before 2015: Poitou-Charentes), southwestern France. It is connected to La Rochelle by the Canal de Marans à La Rochelle. The inhabita ...

. Widowed twice, by Ozanne Lussaud, and Roy in Marans (m. 13 April 1646), he then married Marie-Marguerite Garnier 1656. It is recorded that at that time his wife Marie-Marguerite was niece to

Marguerite Bourgeoys Marguerite Bourgeoys (17 April 162012 January 1700), was a French nun and founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal in the colony of New France, now part of Québec, Canada. Born in Troyes, she became part of a sodality, ministering ...

. He was one of the first settlers of the

Île Jésus Île Jésus (, ''Jesus Island'') is a river island in southwestern Quebec, separated from the mainland to the north by the Rivière des Mille Îles, and from the Island of Montreal to the south by the Rivière des Prairies. It is the second-larg ...

(today,

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

). He is the ancestor of 35,000 living North Americans, and ancestor of the entire population of families with the surname Labelle, through his daughter Anne. There are only two surviving records for the family name of Charbonneau: one for Olivier and his wife, landing in 1659, and another for an unrelated man, Jean and his wife, around 1675. Nothing in the record suggests that the two were closely related. It has been estimated that 97% of the Charbonneau families in North America are descended from Olivier Charbonneau and his wife. Descendants of Jean are fewer in number and in New France have tended to cluster in the Vaudreuil and Soulanges area of Quebec near the Ottawa river. (quoted by

Migration

In search of a better future, with his wife and their two-year-old daughter Anne, he sailed for New France on the ship "''Saint-André''" from

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. With ...

on 2 July 1659. In La Rochelle, less than a month earlier (as notarised by Demontreau on 5 June 1659), he was hired as "manual labourer", that is to say, to do spade work on farms, not having his own plough, for

Ville-Marie, Montreal Ville-Marie is the name of a borough (''arrondissement'') in the centre of Montreal, Quebec. The borough is named after Fort Ville-Marie, the French settlement that would later become Montreal (now Old Montreal), which was located within the prese ...

by the Society of Our Lady of Montreal; he was recruited by Jeanne Mance. This two-year contract earned Charbonneau enough money for his passage to

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

(175

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

and 31 livres 12 sols 6 deniers) plus accommodation costs at La Rochelle and buying a travel trunk "at home in this city of the Grace of God for their expenses and for acquiring a chest to put their clothes". Ten years later, on 10 October 1669 in Ville-Marie, the notary Bénigne Basset signed an amnesty of debtors in the hope of encouraging people to live in Ville-Marie. Their debts were enormous, each family's larger than an annual wage. The debt was wiped out by

Jeanne Mance Jeanne Mance (November 12, 1606 – June 18, 1673) was a French nurse and settler of New France. She arrived in New France two years after the Ursuline nuns came to Quebec. Among the founders of Montreal in 1642, she established its first hospit ...

and her generous donors. Charbonneau's family thus is one of the eight founding families of Aunis, and under that amnesty they were bound by contract to migrate to New France.

Island of Montreal

Charbonneau and his wife raised a family at Ville-Marie: Anne (born 1657), Joseph (1660), Jean (1662), Élisabeth (1664), and Michel (1666). After some years they moved from Ville-Marie to

Pointe-aux-Trembles Pointe-aux-Trembles was a municipality, founded in 1674, that was annexed by Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1982. This was the last city to be merged into Montreal until the 2002 municipal reorganization. On January 1, 2002 this neighbourhood at ...

(on the eastern tip of

), and there he built a

windmill A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...

, with his son and, their partner Pierre Dagenets (Dagenais).

On the île Jésus

His daughter Anne married Guillaume Labelle in 1671. Olivier Charbonneau settled in the region which today constitutes the parish of St. Francis de Sales in

, where he became the first permanent resident with his son-in-law. He is considered as the first citizen of the city of Laval, on the island north of Montreal. On 29 October 1675 Olivier Charbonneau received the first land grant in this area.

Pierre Boucher Pierre Boucher de Boucherville (born Pierre Boucher; 1 August 162219 April 1717) was a French settler, soldier, officer, naturalist, official, governor, and ennobled aristocrat in Nouvelle-France or New France (in what is now Canada). Early life P ...

, formerly governor of

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

became Procurator of the Prelate of Quebec

François de Laval Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, commonly referred to as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), was a French prelate of the Catholic Church. Consecrated a bishop in 1658, he led the Apostolic Vicariate of New France from 1658 to ...

,Monseigneur de Laval est seigneur de l'île, au nom du Séminaire de Québec. who signed the deed of sale. Olivier has left his ''mark'' there, because, like most others of his time, he was

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

Death

Charbonneau died in

on 20 November 1687, aged 74 years. and his burial took place the same day at Rivière-des-Prairies, close by.

Notable descendants

Antoine Labelle François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle (November 24, 1833 – January 4, 1891) was a Roman Catholic priest and the person principally responsible for the settlement (or "colonization") of the Laurentians. He is also referred to as "Curé Labelle" an ...

, curate of the

Laurentides The Laurentides () is a region of Quebec. While it is often called the Laurentians in English, the region includes only part of the Laurentian mountains. It has a total land area of and its population was 589,400 inhabitants as of the 2016 Cens ...

* ,

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

, and co-founder of the Quebec Programme de recherche en demographie historique-PRDH (Research program in historical demography) *

Toussaint Charbonneau Toussaint Charbonneau (March 20, 1767 – August 12, 1843) was a French-Canadian explorer, trader and a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He is also known as the husband of Sacagawea. Early years Charbonneau was born in Boucherv ...

, who went on the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

, was married to

Sacagawea Sacagawea ( or ; also spelled Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May – December 20, 1812 or April 9, 1884)Sacagawea
...

; their son

Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (February 11, 1805 – May 16, 1866) was a Native American-French Canadian explorer, guide, fur trapper, trader, military scout during the Mexican–American War, '' alcalde'' (mayor) of Mission San Luis Rey de Fran ...

was born on the Expedition, the start to his exceptional life *

Joseph Charbonneau Joseph Charbonneau, (July 31, 1892 – November 19, 1959) was a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, who served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1940 to 1950. Born in Lefaivre, Alfred and Plantagenet, he was ordained to the priesthood ...

, Bishop of Hearst and later Archbishop of Montreal * Yvon Charbonneau, politician * Joseph Thomas Hay, Radio/Television Broadcaster, Actor

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

son of Mary Melina Charbonneau.

Legend

* The ''Avenue Olivier-Charbonneau'' in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. * A statue in his image in

. * The Olivier-Charbonneau ''berge'' (or ''parc'') in Laval, in remembrance of the first population of île Jésus. * Both in France and in Quebec (until 2010) there are two "Charbonneau associations", the descendants of whom meet regularly. The last meeting of record was in 2007 at St-Joseph-du-Lac, Quebec for the group in Canada. * The

Olivier-Charbonneau Bridge The Olivier Charbonneau Bridge is a toll bridge over the Rivière des Prairies, between Laval's St. François district and Montreal's Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough. Along with the Serge-Marcil Bridge, it is one of two ...

into

, and

Quebec Autoroute 25 Autoroute 25 (or A-25, also called Autoroute Louis-H.-La Fontaine in Montreal) is an Autoroute in the Lanaudière region of Quebec. It is currently long and services the direct north of Montreal's Metropolitan Area. A-25 has one toll bridge, whi ...

References

External links

Biography at ''Projet de création à Marans d’un Lieu de Mémoire en souvenir d’Olivier Charbonneau (1611 – 1687) émigrant vers la Nouvelle-France en 1659''

at web.archive.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Charbonneau, Olivier 1613 births 1687 deaths People from Charente-Maritime People of New France