The Storyline
Real families. Real discoveries. Real stories.
Finding the Filles du Roi in Colonial Records
The Filles du Roi left no personal diaries, but their lives are documented across colonial New France's archives. From marriage contracts to baptismal records, here's where to find the paper trail of the King's Daughters—and what those records can and cannot tell us.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: From marriage contracts to baptismal records—the documentary trail of the King's Daughters.
The Aversion: A Family War Over a Fille du Roi's Estate
Louise Senécal crossed from Rouen to New France, married Pierre Guilbault in 1667, and died before April 1693. Four years later her three heirs took their father before the seigneurial court of Notre-Dame-des-Anges — seven weeks after his second wedding — and the judge wrote a single word into his order: aversion. Part 3 of The Louise Senécal Story, told from the court file itself.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Uncovering the extraordinary stories hidden in ordinary family histories, one ancestor at a time.
Crossing the Atlantic
Louise Senécal was baptised at Saint-Éloi in Rouen in 1637 and lost her mother at eight. Thirty years later she stood in a Québec notary's study beside Pierre Guilbault, a habitant of Charlesbourg who had twice contracted to marry before — and neither of them could sign. Part 1 of The Louise Senécal Story follows the records from Rouen to the wedding at Notre-Dame-de-Québec, and says plainly where they stop.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Uncovering the extraordinary stories hidden in ordinary family histories, one ancestor at a time.
The Hidden Years
Pierre Guilbault appeared before a notary on April 13, 1693, to sign a marriage contract with 20-year-old Jeanne Morin. It was the same day his wife Louise died. The shocking timing—documented in colonial records—reveals the tensions that had been building in a marriage that survived separation, reconciliation, and 26 years of frontier life, only to end in a family war over Louise's estate.
Part of the Storyline Genealogy series: Uncovering the extraordinary stories hidden in ordinary family histories, one ancestor at a time.