The family has been traced back to the beginning of the sixteenth century in Cyril Bernier's "Les Bernier en Nouvelle-France 1650-1750" [published in 1991]. However, these data have been questioned by many genealogists, noting that Bernier provides no solid documentation, and that the parish records of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois in Paris were long ago destroyed. Here is the line claimed by Bernier:

1. François Bernier married Jeanne de la Cour in the 1520s

2. Pierre Bernier (born c1530) married Suzanne Dupont

3. Pierre Bernier (born c1558) married Marie Tillier about 1582

4. Christophe Bernier (born c1585) married Marie Baret about 1605

The first well-documented ancestor is the supposed son of Christophe: Yves Bernier, who married Michelle Treuillet or Trevillet in 1631 at St-Germain-l'Auxerrois. We know of only one child, Jacques (born November 1633), who emigated to Québec. He must have had some schooling in Paris, because he was able to write and sign his name later in life. He was in Canada by 1652, and in March 1653 was witness to the signing of a marriage contract between our ancestors Nicolas Gaudry and Agnès Morin. He was apparently working for the Morin family on their farm at Côté Saint-Jean. On July 23, 1656 at Québec city he married Antoinette Grenier, daughter of Claude and Catherine (whose last name is not recorded; they were recent immigrants from the parish of St-Laurent in Paris). Antoinette was about sixteen at the time and was probably a servant in the household of the governor, Jean de Lauzon, who was present at the wedding.

Jacques and Antoinette purchased a farm on the Île d'Orléans, for which they made a down payment of 100 livres to Éléonore de Grandmaison. Over the next few years they acquired several more parcels of land in the area. There is an interesting mention in the records of the church of St-Anne in 1665: the priest there was a highly regarded faith healer; Jacques and Antoinette brought their baby son Charles, who was suffering from a hernia; the records say the cure was a complete success. In 1670, for reasons unknown, Jacques sold all his properties and moved his family farther west, to Cap-Saint-Ignace (photo above); in 1674, they were back on the Île d'Orléans - one assumes that they were having serious financial problems. In October 1674, Jacques bought a boat, which he used to haul logs to Québec city. The 1681 census finds them again at Cap-Saint-Ignace with ten children (one other had died), one gun, eight farm animals and ten arpents under cultivation. In 1683 Jacques helped with the building of a church at Cap-Saint-Ignace, on land donated by our ancestor Nicolas Gamache. Jacques died in July 1713, and Antoinette had died just five months earlier.

The eleven children: Noëlle (1657-1666), Pierre (1659, see below), Marie-Michelle (1660, married Pierre Caron, brother of our ancestor Joseph Caron), Charles (1672-1731, married Marie-Anne Lemieux), Jacques (1664-1702), Jean-Baptiste (1666-1715, married Geneviève Caron), Élisabeth (1663-1744, married Joseph Caron), Geneviève (1670-1716), Philippe (1673-1750, married Ursule Caron), Ignace (1675-1678), Antoinette (1678-p1681). We are descended from two of these children.

Pierre Bernier (1659-1741) married Françoise Boulet (1674-1741, daughter of Robert Boulet and Françoise Grenier) at Montmagny on February 21, 1689. In 1691, his father gave or sold him ten arpents at Pointe-aux-Foins. He was known in the neighborhood as "Bernier dit de Paris," and some records call him a seigneur, suggesting that he was a respected landowner and magistrate. They had sixteen children: Geneviève (1690-a1716, married Jean-Baptiste Gaudreau); Marie-Madeleine (1692, married Joseph Caron, brother of our ancestor Louis Caron); Marie-Angélique (1695, married François Morneau); Jacques (1697-p1738); Pierre (1699-1704); Charlotte-Françoise (1701, died young?); Joseph (1703-1743); Pierre-Basile (1705, married Marie-Josèphte Fortin ); another Pierre (1706-1711); Louis (1708); Jean-Baptiste (1710-1741); Claire (1712); another Claire (1713); and another Joseph (1715). Pierre died in September 1741 at Cap-St-Ignace, and his wife died a week later. Their son Jean-Baptiste died the same day as his mother; it sounds like an epidemic, perhaps cholera.

Marie-Angélique and François Morneau were the parents of another Marie-Angélique, who was maternal grandmother of Claire Dupont, who married Geneviève and Jean-Baptiste Gaudreau's grandson Jean-Baptiste Gaudreau in 1804; they in turn were great-great-grandparents of Marie Eva Jean Martin.

see this biography of Jacques Bernier (in French).