The Guilbault Line
Seven generations of a French-Canadian family, from a 17th-century immigrant to a 19th-century journalier—the last of the line. From voyageurs who married Ojibwe women to the sons who inherited an identity but not a trade. Their story, recovered from the records they left behind.
The Journey
In 1657, a young man named Pierre Guilbault left La Rochelle, France, for the unknown shores of New France. A decade later, he married Louise Senécal—a Fille du Roi, one of the King's Daughters sent to populate the colony. Together they built one of Charlesbourg's most prosperous farms, raised children, and then—in a dramatic court case recorded as "l'aversion"—watched their family tear itself apart over an estate.
This series traces their descendants through seven generations: from the stone foundations of Charlesbourg to the canoe routes of the Great Lakes, from the parish registers of Quebec to the pays d'en haut where voyageurs paddled furs and traded with Indigenous nations—and finally to the last generation, when the voyageur's grandson became a journalier and died at thirty-eight.
The middle generations married across cultures. Gabriel Guilbault père, recorded as "voyageur et agriculture" in the census, wed Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe—an Ojibwe woman whose name was preserved in a single marriage record, invisible for two hundred years until systematic research recovered it. Their son Gabriel fils was born in the wilderness and conditionally baptized at eight. And his son Evangeliste—the last of the line documented here—inherited an identity but not a trade.
The Guilbault Lineage
The Episodes
Each episode documents one generation, from the records that survive to tell their story.
Pierre Guilbault Live
From La Rochelle to New France. He married a Fille du Roi, built a prosperous farm, and left behind a family so divided that a judge used the word "aversion" to describe them.
Joseph Olivier Guilbault Live
Born in New France to parents who crossed an ocean. Two marriages, eighteen children, and the tragedy of 1733 when four children died within weeks.
Charles François Guilbault Live
A Quebec habitant who died June 1760 as New France collapsed.
Charles Gabriel Guilbault Live
The Quebec patriarch who married twice, raised four sons to adulthood, and established the family in L'Assomption that would eventually bridge French and Indigenous worlds. His son would paddle canoes into the pays d'en haut and marry across cultures.
Gabriel Guilbault Live
A voyageur who paddled canoes to Lake Superior, he married an Ojibwe woman whose name—Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe—would be preserved in parish records for over a century. His 71-year journey left behind documented proof of Métis heritage for generations of descendants.
Gabriel Guilbault fils Live
Born in the pays d'en haut to a voyageur and an Ojibwe woman. Conditionally baptized at age eight, legitimated at ten. Father of sixteen children, still claiming the paddle at sixty years old—the last of the wilderness-born.
Evangeliste Guilbault Live
His father was a voyageur. He was a journalier. The primary sources tell a story that family narratives overlooked—of a man caught between eras, who died at 38 leaving three children under four and a widow who would live to ninety-one.
Every Ancestor Deserves to Be Remembered
Documentary biographies like these transform traditional genealogical research into compelling family narratives—designed to be read, shared, and treasured for generations.