Éthier

also Ésthier

The marriage of Étienne Éthier and Marguérite Sabelle is recorded at the church of St-Martial (pictured above) in the village of Manot in the Limousin in December 1643; their son Léonard was also reportedly born in 1643, perhaps before they were married. Some sources have him born in 1641 or 1642. We do not know when he emigrated to Nouvelle-France, or why; but he was in Montréal by September 1670, when he was working as a shoemaker, and married a "fille du roi," Élisabeth Godillon. They lived in Montréal, where most of their children were born. Léonard also had a brother, François (born 1653?) who emigrated to Canada and married Jeanne Thérèse Pilette.

Léonard and Élisabeth had ten children: Jacques (born 1671, still living in 1689, but cannot be found after that); Élisabeth (1673, married Louis Forget dit Despatis); François (married Marguérite Millot and Marie-Thérèse Regeas); Anne (1676-1713, married Pierre-Bertrand Lalongé); André (1678-1708, married Anne Perron); Marguérite (1679, died young); René (1682, married Madeleine Regeas); Madeleine (born and died 1684); and Ursule (married Joseph Brunet).

Anne Éthier and Pierre-Bertrand Lalongé were married in June 1713 on the Île-Jésus, and were the parents of (among others) Marguérite, who married Jacques Roy and was a great-great-grandmother of Louise Boucher Martin.