Our great-grandparents Joseph Arthur Martin and Marie Eva Jean may not have known it, but both were descended from the immigrant Marin Boucher.

The earliest known ancestor is Jehan Boucher, who was probably born in Paris about 1479. He had a son also named Jehan or Jean, born in Paris but later lived in St-Langis, a village in the Mortagne. Its parish church is pictured above. This town is on a hillside overlooking the forest of Bellême, a short distance west of Chartres and south of Normandy. This second Jean married (about 1520) Jeanne Bournier, daughter of Guillaume Bournier and Cathérine Huot or Huaut of Paris. The family seems to have moved to Geneva (perhaps because they were Huguenots?), where Jean died in August 1569, and Jeanne died there also, date unknown. But their son, a third Jean Boucher, lived once again in St-Langis. Perhaps the parents converted to Protestantism (this was the period of the French religious wars) but the son did not, and remained in the Mortagne when they emigrated. Jean married Françoise Roussin, daughter of Martin Roussin (c 1474-1553) and Michelle Morreau (c 1480-1553; this couple lived in St-Aubin de Tourouvre, near St-Langis); Jean and Françoise were the parents of a daughter, Marie-Madeleine, and a son, Jacques-Jean Boucher (born c 1560 or 1562, died 1611), lived in St-Langis, where he married Françoise Paigne (died before 1611, in St-Langis) on July 4, 1582. They had at least eight children: Gaspard (see below); our ancestor Marin; Nicole (1590); Étienne (1592); Charles (1594); Jean (1598); Jeanne, who married Thomas Hayot; and Antoinette, who married Guillaume Lecourt.

Their son Marin Boucher (April 15, 1589-March 25, 1671) was the immigrant ancestor. He married Julienne Du Baril (born about 1590 in St-Langis, daughter of Jean Baril or Du Baril and Raoulline Creste or Crete) in February 1610 at St-Langis. They reportedly had seven children, only one of whom lived. (Known children: Nicole (1611), Jean (1613), Louis (1615), François (1617), Thienette (1620), Charlotte (1622), and Marie (1625).) Julienne died in December 1627, and Marin remarried, having seven further children with his wife Pérrine Mallet. (Louis-Marin, 1630-1700; Jean-Galéran, 1633-1707; Françoise [Plante], 1636-1711; Pierre, 1639-1707 (see below); Madeleine [Houde], 1641-1709; Marie, 1644-1712, who married Charles Gaudin); and Gillaume, 1647-1729). They voyaged (with François, and their two infant sons Louis-Marin and Jean-Galéran) to New France on the ship St-Jehan in June 1634, along with about forty other emigrants who had been recruited from the same region. Marin's cousin (or brother) Gaspard Boucher and his wife Nicole Lemaine were also on the ship. When Samuel de Champlain died in 1635, one of the bequests in his will left Marin Boucher "the suit of clothes which I had made (for me) from the cloth I bought at the store." Marin died at Chateau-Richier in 1671, aged 81.

Marin and Julienne's only surving son was François Boucher (born November 22, 1617 in St-Langis, and thus 16 when he arrived in Québec; died May 2, 1678 in Sillery). He married Florence Gareman on September 3, 1641 at Nôtre-Dame de Québec; she was the daughter of Pierre Gareman and Madeleine Charlot, and was born about 1620 in Bagneux in Picardy. Their children were Denis, Marie-Françoise and Jean.

Denis Boucher, dit Desrosiers, was born in April 1660 at Québec City, and married Marie-Jeanne Miville dit Deschenes on November 21, 1689. He died in November 1723 at Lotbinière and was buried in the churchyard of St-Antoine de Tilly. There were ten children: Nicolas (1702-1758); Marie-Thérèse (died an infant); Etienne; Marie-Angélique; Marie-Charlotte; Marie-Anne; André (1696-1767), Jean-François (1693-1757), another Marie-Thérèse (married Joseph Demers), and Denis-Joseph (born 1699).

Nicolas Boucher (born May 1702 at Tilly, died May 1758 at St-Nicolas in Lévis County, where he is buried in the churchyard of St-Nicolas) married Marie-Josèphte Lambert at the same church in September 1726. We know of only two sons: Louis and François. Louis Boucher's birth and death dates are unknown, but he married Marie-Charlotte Bourgoin in April 1758 at St-Nicolas. We know of only one son, Louis, who in November 1796 married Louise Bourré in St-Charles-sur-Richelieu. They were the parents of Marcel Boucher, birth and death dates also unknown, who married Louise Roy in 1820 at St-Charles-sur-Richelieu. We know of two children: Louise (1832-1919, married Maxime Martin, parents of our great-grandfather Joseph Arthur Martin) and Marcel Boucher, married Louise Bazinet in 1851; two children.

Louise Boucher Martin reportedly ran a boarding house in Providence after her husband's death. In the 1880 census of the village of Harris, Coventry, Kent County, Rhode Island, there is a Martha Martin, age 49. Living with her were her daughter, Ida, age 15; son, Joseph, age 19 (a machinist); daughter-in-law Aggie, age 20, and; granddaughter Mary, age 1. If this is the same family, then it would appear that Joseph Martin had been married previously, before marrying Marie Eva Jean. At the time of the 1900 Census, she was living at 376 Richmond Street, Providence, Rhode Island (Roll 1507, Book 1, Page 2a). At the time of the 1910 census, she was living on 276 Richmond Street, Providence. Living with her were son Maxim (age 56, widowed); son-in-law David Plante (age 47, widowed); her grandson David Plante, Jr. (age 24), and; her granddaughter Antoinette Plante (age 13). The census indicates that she emigrated in 1867. In the records of the Potvin Funeral Home, West Warwick, Rhode Island, her residence at the time of her death is given as Fiskeville.

Marin's younger son Pierre Boucher is also our ancestor. He was born in Québec city and baptised on February 13, 1639. He married Marie St-Denis on April 4, 1663 (he was 24, she was 13). They had twelve known children: Marie-Barbe (1663, married René Maheu and then Georges Cadoret, and finally Louis Jourdain); Pierre (born and died 1666); Jacques (born and died 1667); Marie-Sainte (1668-1717, married Jean-Baptiste Migneault); Jean (1671-a1716, married Marie-Angélique Guay); Pierre (1673-a1716, married Marie-Madeleine Dancosse, sister of our ancestor Geneviève Dancosse Bérubé); Marie-Angélique (1676-1717, married Louis Dubé, brother of our ancestor Laurent Dubé); Charles (1679-1709, married Marie-Anne Ouellet); Marie Thérèse (1683-1743, married Pierre Dubé, another brother); Marie-Geneviève (see below); Prisque (1689-1768, married Marie-Françoise Miville, whose half-sister Marie-Jeanne married our ancestor Denis Boucher); and Marguérite (1692-1747; she gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, also named Marguérite, in 1724).

Marie-Geneviève Boucher was born September 12, 1685 in Château-Richer, and baptized the same day in the La Visitation church. She married Laurent Dubé on January 7, 1706 at Nôtre-Dame-de-Liesse-de-la-Rivière-Ouelle, and they had ten children; see Dubé. Marie-Geneviève died at La Pocatière on June 23, 1769.

Gaspard Boucher (c1599-1662), Marin's brother, is also the ancestor of a very large progeny in Canada. He married Nicole LeMaire (1600-1652), who was the daughter of Joseph (?) or Nicolas and Marie Castrie. They had eight children; the eldest surviving son was Pierre Boucher (1622-1717), sieur de Boucherville. He married a Huron woman named Marie-Madeleine Ouébadinoukoué and had one son, Jacques; his second wife Jeanne Crevier gave him fifteen children. Gaspard also has descendants through his children Madeleine, Marguérite, and Marie.