Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Marie Major

Female Bef 1637 - 1689  (> 52 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Marie Major 
    Birth Bef 26 Feb 1637  [1
    Baptism 26 Feb 1637  St-Thomas, Touques, Calvados, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Female 
    Death 8 Dec 1689  [1, 2
    Burial Hôtel-Dieu, Québec City, Québec Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Person ID I32079  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of WPF
    Last Modified 29 Jan 2023 

    Father Jean Major,   b. France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Marguerite Lepelé,   b. France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. France Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage Bef 1637  Touques, Calvados, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Family ID F19028  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Antoine Roy dit Desjardins,   b. Bef 23 Mar 1635   d. 10 Jul 1684, Lachine, Québec Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 49 years) 
    Marriage 11 Sep 1668  Québec City, Québec Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Children 
    +1. Pierre Roy,   b. Between 1669 and 1684   d. 29 Apr 1734 (Age ~ 65 years)
    Family ID F19026  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 29 Jan 2023 

  • Notes 
    • She was a fille du rois, a "daughter of the king." By 1660 or so it had become apparent that the fledgling North American colony of New France was badly short of marriageable women. To ameliorate this, between 1663 and 1673 the French government recruited respectable young women of limited prospects and, after vetting them for suitability, provided each of them with a small dowry, a chest of clothes, and one-way passage to Quebec. The approximately 800 women who made this journey became known as the "filles du roi", the "daughters of the King." Millions of modern French-Canadians can trace their descent from them, quite often from several.

  • Sources 
    1. [S6781] Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, "Antoine Roy dit Desjardins: A Notorious Ancestor with Many French-Canadian and American Descendants." Michigan's Habitant Heritage 37:153, July 2016.

    2. [S38] Genealogy of the French in North America, by Denis Beauregard. Complete version, 2024.