The Guilbault Line: Charles Gabriel Guilbault
Charles Gabriel Guilbault
Father of the Voyageur
Before Gabriel Guilbault paddled canoes into the pays d'en haut and married an Ojibwe woman whose name would echo through centuries, there was his father—another Gabriel, born Charles Gabriel Guilbault in the shadow of Quebec City's great cathedral.
This earlier Gabriel lived a more settled life than his adventurous son would choose. Born in New France's capital during the prosperous years before the British Conquest, he moved to the farming communities northeast of Montreal, married twice, and raised the family that would eventually connect two worlds—French and Indigenous, colonial and frontier.
Origins: Quebec City, 1731
On August 6, 1731, in the parish of Notre-Dame-de-Québec, a boy was baptized Charles Gabriel. His parents were Charles Guilbault and Marie Catherine Antoinette Deguise Flamand—respectable members of Quebec City's colonial society.
The godparents recorded that day reflected the family's social standing: Sr. Charles Larcheveque and Dame Marie Magdeleine de Buire, both described as "établis" (established) in the community. This was a family with roots, connections, and a future in New France.
"Le sixieme aoust mil sept cent trente et un par nous Curé de Québec a été baptisé Charles Gabriel né ce jour du légitime mariage de Charles Guilbault et de Catherine de Guise..."
— Notre-Dame-de-Québec Parish Register, August 6, 1731Though baptized "Charles Gabriel," he would come to be known simply as Gabriel—the name that would pass to his son, the voyageur, creating a lineage of Gabriels stretching across generations and across the continent.
First Marriage: Marie Charlotte Morin
By 1757, Gabriel had left Quebec City for the growing communities around Montreal. On September 26, 1757, at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montreal, he married Marie Charlotte Morin, daughter of Joseph Morin and Marie Charlotte Charles Croquelois Laviolette.
Marie Charlotte was nineteen years old, born in Montreal on August 4, 1738. Gabriel was twenty-six. A notarial marriage contract—a sign of property and planning—preceded their church wedding, documenting the union in both civil and religious records.
The Marriage Contract
The existence of a notarial marriage contract tells us this was not a hasty union. Such contracts were standard among families with property to protect and futures to plan. The contract, recorded by notary Jean Baptiste Decotte on September 25, 1757—the day before the church wedding—established the legal framework for their married life.
A Decade of Family Life
Between 1758 and 1766, Gabriel and Marie Charlotte had seven children. The family settled in L'Assomption, northeast of Montreal—the same parish where their son Gabriel would later be baptized and from which he would set out on his voyageur adventures.
The children arrived regularly, but not all survived. This was the reality of 18th-century life: infant mortality claimed three of the seven children before they reached their second birthday.
Documentary Evidence: The Children
Each child left traces in the parish registers—baptisms that document births, sometimes burials that document early deaths. These records allow us to reconstruct the rhythm of family life in colonial Quebec.
Notice how the surname spelling varies across records: Guilbault, Guilbot, Gilbeau, Gelbeau. Standardized spelling was not yet a feature of colonial record-keeping—names were recorded as they sounded to the priest or notary.
Loss: November 3, 1767
Marie Charlotte Morin died on November 3, 1767, at L'Assomption. She was only twenty-nine years old. She left behind four young sons: Paul (6), Gabriel (5), Joseph (4), and Louis (1).
Gabriel was now a widower with four children under seven years of age. The youngest, Louis, was barely a year old and would have no memory of his mother. The practical challenges of raising four young boys alone in colonial Quebec would have been considerable.
Within eight months, Gabriel would remarry—a practical necessity as much as an emotional choice.
Second Marriage: Marie Catherine Beaudoin
On July 18, 1768, Gabriel married Marie Catherine Beaudoin at L'Assomption. She was twenty-five years old, daughter of Jacques Beaudoin and Marie Josephe Renaud Blanchard Rainaud. The marriage record identifies Gabriel as "veuf de Marie Charlotte Morin"—widower of Marie Charlotte Morin.
Marie Catherine would prove to be a long-lived woman. While Gabriel died in 1784, she survived until March 25, 1827—outliving her husband by forty-three years. She was buried at St-Eustache at the age of eighty-four.
Children of the Second Marriage
At least one child is documented from Gabriel's second marriage:
First Marriage: Marie Charlotte Morin
- Married: September 26, 1757
- Wife's dates: 1738-1767
- 7 children (4 survived)
- 10 years of marriage
- Included Gabriel the voyageur
Second Marriage: Marie Catherine Beaudoin
- Married: July 18, 1768
- Wife's dates: 1742-1827
- At least 1 documented child
- 16 years of marriage
- Wife survived 43 years after Gabriel
August 22, 1784: Burial at L'Assomption
Gabriel Guilbault died on August 21, 1784, and was buried the following day in the parish cemetery of L'Assomption. The register records his age as approximately fifty-two years—he was actually fifty-three.
"Le vingt deux aoust mil sept cent quatre vingt quatre par nous soussigné a été inhumé dans le Cimetière de cette paroisse le Corps de Gabriel Guilbeau décédé hier agé de cinquante deux ans ou environ muni des Sacrements de l'Église..."
— L'Assomption Parish Register, August 22, 1784He had received the sacraments of the Church—"muni des Sacrements de l'Église"—and witnesses present at the burial included Pierre Nolan dit Laville and Joseph Panneton.
At the time of his death, his son Gabriel—the future voyageur—was twenty-two years old. Within a few years, this younger Gabriel would paddle west into the pays d'en haut, meet an Ojibwe woman named Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe, and begin the family line that would connect French Canada to the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes.
The Burial Record
The Legacy: Four Sons
Charles Gabriel Guilbault left behind four sons from his first marriage, each of whom established their own families in the parishes of Quebec:
| Son | Life Dates | Marriage | Spouse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul | 1761-1831 | 1783, Varennes | Marie Genevieve Olivier Milot |
| Gabriel | 1762-1833 | 1801, Oka | Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe |
| Joseph | 1763-1848 | 1798, St-Paul-de-Lavaltrie | Charlotte Jette Beaurivage |
| Louis | 1766-1813 | 1788, St-Roch-de-l'Achigan | Josephe Deziel Labreche |
Of these four sons, it was Gabriel—the second-born—who would forge the connection to Indigenous heritage that makes this family line remarkable. While his brothers married French-Canadian women and stayed in the settled parishes, Gabriel ventured into the fur trade, formed a family "à la façon du pays," and preserved for his descendants a documented Métis heritage.
Connecting the Generations
Charles Gabriel Guilbault's life bridged two eras in Quebec history. Born under French rule in 1731, he witnessed the British Conquest, lived through the transition to British colonial administration, and died in 1784—the year after the Treaty of Paris ended the American Revolution and reshaped North America once again.
He could not have known that his son Gabriel would venture into the pays d'en haut, marry an Ojibwe woman, and create a family that would bridge French and Indigenous worlds. He could not have imagined that two centuries later, his descendants would search through parish registers to reconstruct the family story.
The documentary trail that leads from Charles Gabriel Guilbault in 1731 Quebec to Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe in 1801 Oka spans seventy years and crosses cultural boundaries that seemed impassable. Yet the records survived—baptisms, marriages, burials, notarial contracts—each one a thread in a story that connects us to ancestors we never knew.
Document Gallery
Continue the Journey
Charles Gabriel Guilbault's story is one generation in a longer narrative. His son Gabriel—the voyageur—would carry the family name into new territory, both geographic and cultural. The marriage to Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe created a bridge between the French-Canadian world of parish records and the Indigenous world of the pays d'en haut.
To understand how a Quebec City family came to have Métis descendants, we must trace these connections generation by generation, document by document. Each parish register entry is a thread; together, they weave a story of movement, adaptation, and survival across two centuries.
Research Note: Episode 5 will continue back another generation, exploring the origins of the Guilbault family in New France. Episode 3 follows Charles Gabriel's son forward into the fur trade and his marriage to Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe.
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