Rita Perreault was born on June 15, 1924, in Churubusco, NY.   After more than 250 years in Québec, she was the first in her family to be born in the United States.   One of the early families in the province of Québec, the Perreault branch is perhaps the most famous branch in our family tree.

Nicolas Perrot, sixth-great-grandfather of Rita, was our immigrant ancestor.   Born around 1642 in the Burgundy region of France, Nicolas was the son of François Perrot, the Lieutenant of Justice of Darcey.   In 1660, Nicolas left France for the province of Québec, known at the time as Nouvelle-France, or New France.   He entered the service of the Jesuit missionaries as an interpreter, and became involved in the fur trade to support himself.   By 1665 Nicolas had fulfilled his obligation to the Jesuits, and was working for the governor of New France.   He was fluent in at least five languages spoken by the natives, and as such played a major role as interpreter and negotiator on behalf of the French Crown.   Much of his time was spent in the region of Baie des Puants, present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin.  

On November 11, 1671, Nicolas Perrot married Madeleine Raclos in the town of Cap-de-la-Madeleine.   Madeleine had come to New France as one of the Filles du Roi, or King’s Daughters.   When the French first settled in New France, the vast majority of its inhabitants were men.   In the interest of maintaining a permanent settlement, King Louis XIV sent entire ships full of women to the colony, with the hopes that they’d marry and have children.   Their voyage was paid for, and most were sent with a dowry from the king himself.   In all, 770 Filles du Roi arrived in New France, between the years of 1663 and 1673.  

What distinguishes Madeleine Raclos from the others is that when she left Paris for New France in 1671, she came with her father, Idebon, and two sisters, Françoise and Marie.   This is the only documented case of a parent joining his Fille du Roi daughters in coming to the American colony.   Idebon Raclos also added a 1,000 livre dowry to the 50 livres offered by the king.   He stayed to see two of his daughters’ marriages, those of Marie and Madeleine, before returning to Paris.  

Nicolas and Madeleine had 11 children, all raised by Madeleine while Nicolas spent the majority of his time on the frontier.   An educated man, Nicolas wrote several books to describe the customs of the natives to the governors of New France.   One of these books, Memoire sur les moeurs, coutumes et religion des sauvages de l'Amerique septentrionale( Memoire on the manners, habits and religion of the savages of 17 th Century America), has survived and was printed in 1864 in Paris.   In 1911 it was translated and included in the four work book, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes.  

Nicolas Perrot died in 1717, poverty-stricken as a result of the betrayal of the French government.   Over the next 200 years, our line of the Perrot family stayed in Québec.   The family name underwent several spelling changes, as was common in those days.   Since very few people were literate, the spelling of a name was at the mercy of the person keeping the records.   The name has appeared as Perrot, Perault, Perot, Parrot, and Perreault, among others.   By 1905, when Henri Perreault married Cecilia Guerin in Ormstown, PQ, it had permanently become ‘Perreault.’  

In 1923, Henri and Cecilia, along with their 11 children, moved the family from Howick, PQ, to Churubusco, NY.   They lived in several different places before finally settling into their home on the Poupore Road.   It was there that the final three Perreault children were born, making 14 in all.

Henry Perreault	Rita Perreault	Henry Perreault, Jr.

 

Perreault Family Tree
Finding the Perreault Family Home in Howick, PQ