Nicolas Gamache and his wife Jacqueline Cadotte or Cadot lived in the village of St-Iliers-la-Ville, just outside Paris, in the early seventeenth century. They were married July 9, 1629 in the church of St-Laurent in nearby Bréval (postcard, above). Their son Nicolas was born in St-Iliers probably in 1636 (as he was reported to be 63 when he died at Cap-St-Ignace on October 30, 1699), but the census records of Québec also suggest that his sister was born in 1636. This family of four emigrated in 1652, and both children were married in Château-Richer - Nicolas in 1662 to Élisabeth-Ursule Cloutier (niece of our ancestor Jean Cloutier), and Geneviève on November 11, 1652 to Julien Fortin.

The Gamache family acquired a large seigneurie at Cap-St-Ignace, and Nicolas junior had a large family which dominated the town for the next three or four generations.

Julien and Geneviève Fortin were great-great-great-great-great-grandparents of Marie Eva Jean Martin through two of their children; see Fortin. They were also ancestors of Madonna, Céline Dion and the Duchess of Cornwall.