The earliest well-attested ancestor, Robert Caron, was born in in Benouville (its parish church is pictured above), a village near Caen in Normandy (and the site of fierce fighting on D-Day 1944; there is an important bridge). Some sources record his parents as Jehan and Marguerite, but also claim that they lived in La Rochelle, which is hundreds of miles from Caen - so this is unlikely. The Québec census records suggest that he was born in 620, but if so, he was only 14 when he arrived, and the records of the ship - one of four belonging to the Compagnie Cheffault-Rozée, arriving June 4, 1634 - do not mention any other Carons who might have been his parents.

In any case, Robert may have come to Québec with his parents; also on these four ships were Zacharie Cloutier and Noël Langlois, and others who may have been his relatives or guardians. In 1636, from Pierre Le Gardeur de Repentigny, he obtained a concession at Longue-Pointe, near Sault Montmorency, which he started to clear immediately; this seems unlikely if he was only 16. He was married in Québec City (evidently at the age of 17, in October 1637) to Marie, daughter of Pierre and Marie-Cathérine Crevet (1621-1695). She also came from Benouville, so the marriage could have been arranged before departure; there is also no evidence that Marie's parents emigrated. After Robert died in 1656, she married again, to Noël Langlois. Robert and Marie had at least nine children: Marie (1639; captured by Huron Indian raiders - fate unknown); Jean-Baptiste (1641-1706); Robert (1647-1714, ancestor of the Dionne quintuplets); Cathérine (1649-1725); Joseph (1652-1711); Pierre (1654-1720); Aimée (1655-1685); and another Marie (1656-1660). Robert bought and sold several farms during his lifetime - he moved from Longue-Pointe to Côteau Sainte-Geneviève, and then to Beaupré. He died (age 36?) at the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec City - cause unrecorded.

Joseph Caron was born in Québec City in March 1652, and died at Cap St-Ignace in May 1711. His wife (married 1683) was Elisabeth-Marie Bernier, daughter of Jean Bernier (dit "de Paris," born there in the parish of St-Germain d'Auxerre) and his wife Antoinette Grenier, also a Paris native. She lived until 1744. Their children: Joseph (1689-?); Marie-Cathérine (1695-?); Louis (1699-?); Charles (1702-?); and Elisabeth (1706-1749). Louis Caron married Marie-Geneviève Lemieux in February 1727 at Cap St-Ignace; they were the parents of Pierre-Laurent Caron (married January 1764 to Marie-Louise Chouinard), the father of Marie-Louise Caron, who married Augustin Jean-Pierre Jean in September 1796. This couple were the great-grandparents of our great-grandmother Marie-Eva Jean Martin.

There is a Caron family association.