Chouinard

(also Chuisnard)

The Chouinard family originated in Beaumont-La-Ronce, parish of St-Martin, near Tours (the chateau is pictured above), where Gatien Chouinard (1595-1650) married Catherine Venier about 1615. He was buried at St-André, Nouzilly. Their son Charles Chouinard was born in St-André parish on September 26, 1616, and married Elisabeth Valin on September 15, 1655 in the same parish church. They must have moved to the metropolis of Tours, because Charles died there (buried at the basilica of St-Martin) on June 21, 1691. At least four children are known: Jacques, born January 6, 1663 at Beaumont-la-Ronce; François (born 1657), Ysabelle (born 1659), and Pierre (born 1661). Apparently only Jacques emigrated to Canada.

Jacques Chouinard was in Québec by June 1692, when he married Louise Jean (daughter of Pierre and Marie-Françoise Faverel) at the church of Nôtre-Dame in Québec city. (He died in October 1721.) They produced an astounding eighteen children: Pierre (1701-1767, married Madeleine Morin and Ursule Martin); Jacques (born and died 1697); Joseph (1698-1699); Jacques-Eustache (1700-1760, married Marie-Madeleine Bérubé); Louise (1703, married Charles Pelletier); another Pierre (1695, married Geneviève Lizot and Marie-Anne Pelletier); Jean-Baptiste (1705-1707); Marguerite (1707, married Pierre Fortin); Marie-Ursule (1710, married Henri Parent); Marie-Anne (1708, married Alexandre St-Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Mignot); François (1712, married Marguerite Hurette); Elisabeth (born and died 1714); another Jacques (1714, evidently died young); Charles (1720, married Marie-Dorothée Fortin); Julien (1716, see below); Marie (1728, married Alexandre Dessaint); and an unnamed child born and died in December 1718.

Julien Chouinard was born at L'Islet Sur Mer, Québec, on November 21, 1716. he married Reine-Felicité Fortin, daughter of Pierre Fortin and Gertrude Hudon, on January 16, 1741 at L'Islet Sur Mer. We know of three children: Marie-Reine (1743, married 1759 to François Morin); Louise (1744, married Pierre-Laurent Caron) and Joseph (1750-1751).

Louise Chouinard Caron (also recorded as Elisabeth) was a great-great-grandmother of Marie Eva Jean Martin.