Gignard
or Guignard, Ginard
Laurent Gignard and his first wife Élisabeth (sometimes Isabelle) Sorin arrived from La Rochelle in 1657; we know that they were married in that city in October 1653, but the names of their parents are not given in any records. If they had any children before they emigrated, these are not recorded either. We know of five children born in Canada: the first in Québec city, the rest in Château-Richer: Françoise-Marie (1659, married three times: Jean Compairon, Simon Touchette and Nicolas Rotureau); Marie-Madeleine (1662); Anne (1664); Marie-Suzanne (1667, see below); François (1669-1681). Élisabeth died in December 1669, on the same day François was born.
Laurent Gignard then married a second wife, Marie Morin, a "fille du roi" (we also do not know her birth date or her parents' names, but she came from a village called Langres in the Champagne). The marriage took place in September 1673 at Notre-Dame-de-Québec, but they seem to have moved from Château-Richer to L'Ange-Gardien, which is far to the west, on the Ottawa River. The parish church is pictured above. They had: Angélique (1675-1681); Laurent (1677-1702); Marie (1679, married Pierre Gatien); Geneviève (1681); Denis (1683); Antoine (born and died 1684); and Marguérite (1685).
Marie-Suzanne Gignard was married to René Dauphin in April 1686. The marriage took place in Beauport, where the Dauphin family lived; this is four hundred miles east of L'Ange-Gardien, so it is not clear how they met - unless her stepmother Marie Morin is somehow related to the other Marie Morin who was René's mother; but they were not from the same part of France. Another source places the family at Beaupé, which is much closer to Beauport; perhaps they moved back there after the children were born in L'Ange-Gardien. In any case all four parents were at the wedding (the bride and groom were illiterate and unable to sign the certificate).
René Dauphin and Suzanne were the parents of Geneviève, who married Jean-François Alard in 1711; see Alard for descendants.
