The Gobeil family came from Niort, in Poitou about 35 miles west of La Rochelle. Michel Gobeil and his wife Vincente Benoist or Benoît lived in St-Liguaire, the site of an ancient abbey (see website) and attended the church of Ste-Marie-Madeleine (photo above). Both were dead by 1623, when their son married - on February 18 - Catherine Chaigneau (daughter of Samuel Chaigneau and Jeanne or Jehanne Audier, who also loved in St-Liguaire). Pierre worked as a ploughman and sharecropper on lands belonging to the abbey. We know of three children: Jeanne (1623), René (1627) and his twin Jean, the immigrant.

Jean Gobeil was born at St-Liguaire and baptized on October 14, 1627. He married Jeanne Guyet or Guiet on April 14, 1654 at St-Liguaire. She was the daughter of Pierre Guiet and Gabrielle Rocquier, and was baptized November 15, 1632 at Échiré. She died at St-Laurent in the Île d'Orleans in April 1689. The couple had at least six children before they emigrated to Nouvelle-France in 1665: Barthélemy (married Anne Dionne in 1697); Marie-Françoise (1656-1716, married Philippe Pacquet); Jeanne Angélique (1663, married Louis Prat); Marguérite (married Guillaume Montminy); Marie (married Robert Vaillancourt); and Marie-Jeanne (April 6, 1659-November 25, 1736, married Pierre Hudon dit Bealieu on July 13, 1676 at Nôtre-Dame de Québec).

Pierre Hudon and Marie-Jeanne Gobeil had eleven children, including our ancestor Marie-Gertrude; see Hudon.